Creating Your Own Campaigns

Instead of sending one-time messages manually, campaigns allow you to respond automatically to patient behavior — such as booking an appointment, completing a visit, or meeting certain conditions.

Step 1: Define the Purpose

Before building your campaign, decide:

• What should trigger the message?

• Who should receive it?

• What action do you want them to take?

Examples:

• Welcome new patients

• Reactivate inactive patients

• Send follow-up surveys

• Promote a service

Clear goals make setup easier.

Step 2: Choose a Trigger

Every campaign starts with a trigger. In Customer.io, this can include:

• A change to a patient attribute

• A segment (group of patients meeting certain criteria)

• A specific event (such as booking an appointment)

The trigger determines when someone enters your campaign.

Important: Once you select a trigger type, it cannot be changed. You can adjust the conditions, but not the trigger category itself.

Step 3: Configure Campaign Settings

Before building your messages, set up:

• Name and description so your team understands the campaign’s purpose

• Goal, if you want to measure success (for example, booking an appointment within 7 days)

• Subscription preferences, to ensure messages only go to opted-in patients

• Exit conditions, to remove people early if they meet certain criteria

These settings help control who receives messages and how success is tracked.

Step 4: Build Your Workflow

After the trigger, build the workflow patients will follow.

You can add:

• Message blocks (email or SMS)

• Delays between messages

• Conditional logic

• Data updates or actions

This workflow determines what happens over time after someone enters the campaign.

Step 5: Review Sending Behavior

By default, messages may be set to Queue Draft, meaning they must be manually approved.

If you want the campaign to run automatically, change messages to Send Automatically before starting the campaign.

Step 6: Start the Campaign

When everything is configured:

• Review your setup

• Confirm your audience settings

• Click Start Campaign

Once active, you can monitor performance metrics and see how patients move through the workflow.

When to Use a Campaign

Use campaigns when:

• You want automation based on patient behavior

• You need multiple messages over time

• You want to track conversions or outcomes

Campaigns are ideal for ongoing engagement workflows — not one-time announcements.