Sitecore tip 12: beware of your Marketing Automation rules

It has been quiet from my side for a couple of weeks due to my holiday and preperations for the Sitecore Symposium, where I will be speaking. Very honored about that by the way. But it is time pick up the weekly Sitecore tips series.

This tip has everything to do with configuring conditions in your marketing automation plans. There is a catch that can really break your users experience. Let’s say you want to check if a user has opened an email. You can use a default rule to do so. Sitecore Email Experience Manager will execute the check by downloading a measure pixel image. And this is were it can go wrong.

I have seen and tested scenario’s with several email clients, where you will see a preview of the email, but images are not downloaded. So potentially a user can read your email and can even go to your website without Sitecore being aware of it. And when your condition only checks if the email is opened it will return a no on the condition. When in your no path a reminder email is send, you can imagine how this can break your users experience.

A quick tip for using conditions to check opening emails is to add several other checks. For example:

  • Check 1: if the email X is opened.
  • Check 2: or, if email Y is clicked.
  • Check 3: or, if page Z is visited.

This combination is more secure and your users will not facing reminder emails when they actually read the email.

So, be critical and sharp when checking for certain actions to ensure a seamless experience for your customers.