As an edrone user, you're certainly familiar with our ready-to-go scenarios. These scenarios were created to make it as easy as possible for online stores of all sizes to benefit from Marketing Automation without having to create everything from scratch.

However, there are some situations in which you might want more specific segmentations or longer sequences of messages.

With Custom Flows you can create any automation scenario you want!

Keep reading to see how it works and how to set up your first Custom Flow.

All Custom Flows are made of "building blocks", which we call elements: start, filter, wait, action and A/B test. Let's take a look at each of them.

Every new Custom Flow must start with – you guessed it – a start element. This element is the condition that will trigger the flow.

There are different customer actions or status changes that can be used as a start element:

With the Ready Flow stage start element, you can continue the communication in a Custom Flow after a customer reaches a selected stage of a Ready Flow.

How to set it up:

Each stage shows its number, channel, and a message preview (for example, "1. Email — subject").

Only Ready Flows and stages that have messages configured appear in the list.

Example: after the "Thank you for your purchase" message from the Loyalty Program is scheduled, the customer continues in the Custom Flow with an extra offer or a reminder.

To learn more about all the start elements, read Start elements in Custom Flows.

The Filter elements are responsible for the segmentation of the flow. They will always branch the path in two according to the conditions being matched or not matched.

Let's give an example. Several customers have just subscribed to your newsletter. Some confirmed their subscription after signing up, while others did not. At this point, the automation path splits. The first group receives a thank you message and a discount code from you, and the second group receives a reminder to confirm their subscription.

Filters can be related to a purchase, to interactions in your store, or to customer attributes.

The wait element can be added between any other flow elements. As the name suggests, this element determines the time between one block and the other – for example, the time between the first message and the second.

Using the example of a newsletter subscription, it could look like this: A customer completed the subscription form and received a message to confirm it but did not do so. Here you set the time, after which you will send them a reminder again.

There are two ways to set the waiting period:

The action element represents how you will engage the targeted audience at each step of the flow.

There are six possible actions:

On the flow canvas, action cards can show a preview of the message right on the card – for example, an email or a WhatsApp template preview.

The A/B test element randomly splits customers between two paths. This way you can compare, for example, two different messages or two wait times and see which one works better.

Great! Now that you know about all the elements, let's see how you can put them together to create your first Custom Flow.

To start, log into Mission Control and go to Automations → Custom flows in the main menu.

The page opens on a Dashboard with your results (interactions, orders, revenue, and performance over time) and tabs for email, SMS, pop-up, and WhatsApp templates. Further down is the list of your flows, with the Active and Drafts tabs.

To add a new custom flow, click on the New flow button on the top right corner of the screen. Then you can work from scratch or use a template, and click Create new flow.

Select the option you prefer and move on to the next step.

Now you are inside the Custom Flow builder. At the top of the screen, you will find the editor toolbar:

Below the toolbar is the flow canvas, where you build your flow:

As you build your flow, you will see the estimated audience under each element, and at the end of the flow. This is calculated based on the metrics from the previous 30 days and is updated in real time as you make changes to your flow. Once the flow is active, each card shows how many customers have passed through it (REACHED).

When you click "+", the Add a new element panel opens, where you choose what happens next: Action, Wait, Filter or A/B test.

Whenever you add or edit an element, edrone guides you through a two-step picker so the configuration is clear and consistent:

Once you're happy with the overall structure of your flow, there's just one step left: creating the emails, pop-ups, and other messages you will show to your audience as they move through the flow!

To create an email or pop-up for your Custom Flow, go to the email or pop-up template tabs on the Custom Flows page.

In the case of emails, you will see the Sender tab where you will be able to choose previously used sender information (from name, from email, reply to email), edit this information, or create a new sender.

The email creation process in Custom Flows is exactly the same as in any other engagement scenario. When in doubt, check the article about the Drag n' Drop editor.

In the case of pop-ups, the process is exactly the same as creating a Custom Pop-up.

For a tag action, simply select an existing tag to add or remove. For an SMS or WhatsApp action, select the message or template you want to send – its preview will show directly on the action card.

After creating your new email or pop-up, go back to your flow and, on the action element, select the message you want to show to your customers.

When creating an email for your custom flow, you might want to include coupons.

It can be challenging to keep track of all coupons across different messages and flows. We're here to make it easier for you!

You can access the coupon management section on the Resources menu in the sidebar - go to Resources → Coupons.

In a custom flow, any email that includes a coupon merge tag needs to be associated with a coupon pool, which is nothing more than a collection of dynamic or static coupons.

When creating a new coupon pool, you will need to decide whether you want static or dynamic coupons.

To create a coupon pool, go to Resources → Coupons and click the Create new button in the top right corner.

Your new coupon pool will be displayed on the coupon pools list, where you are able to change its name or delete it. For static coupons, you will also be able to change the coupon code. For dynamic coupons, you will be able to upload a CSV with the coupon codes.

Once you have created a coupon pool, you can go back to your email editor and select the desired coupon pool for each email.

If you ever need to check how many coupons you still have left in each coupon pool, or which emails are using it, this information is available on the coupon pools list.

To learn more about coupons in the edrone system, click here.

That's all! Now it's time to review your work and make sure everything is exactly how you want it. If that's the case, simply click the Launch button in the top toolbar.

After launching, the Launch button will be replaced by a Pause button and all elements will be locked. You can pause your flow at any time and edit all elements again.

Enjoy your new customized automation scenario, and keep up the good work!

Once your flow is running, you can track its performance and see how individual customers moved through it, right from the flow editor's top toolbar.

Click Report in the top toolbar to see how your flow is performing over a chosen date range.

Use the Overview, Email, SMS, WhatsApp and Popup tabs to switch what the report shows. For the selected channel, you'll see:

Further down, you'll find the Messages and revenue over time chart, the Channels section (with Revenue, Orders and Sent tabs showing the share of each channel) and Insights, which highlight, for example, which channel brings in the most revenue.

Click Customer path in the top toolbar to look up a specific customer and see how they moved through this flow – which branches and steps they went through.

No, you can create as many Custom Flows as you need.

No, your Custom Flows can be as small or as large as you need. Just make sure it makes sense! To help you evaluate that, check the estimated audience at the end of the flow.

No, you can create as many emails or pop-ups as you need.

Both will run at the same time and each customer will get multiple emails with the same goal. This is not recommended! Custom Flows are for cases in which the ready-to-go scenarios are not enough (e.g. you need more messages or more specific segmentation).

No, Custom Flows will run with or without a Product Feed. That said, we always recommend having a Product Feed set up.

Yes, in this case the pop-up will be displayed when the user visits the website for the next time, even if it's after the period set on the Custom Flow.

Need more help?

If you have any further questions about Custom Flows, please do not hesitate to contact us at hello@edrone.me