The Ultimate Guide to Using Rules in Ontraport

 

INDEX

What can you accomplish with rules?

The Mechanics of Ontraport Rules

Types of Rules in Ontraport

Global vs Sequence Rules

Use Cases for Ontraport Rules

Making Rules Retroactive

Complete List of Rule Triggers, Conditions and Actions

Best Practices for Rules

The Logic of AND vs OR Conditions

Wrapping Up

INTRODUCTION

The heart of any automated marketing system is its rules engine. Rules set platforms like Ontraport, Infusionsoft and Active Campaign apart from the average Email Service Provider – they turn a normal autoresponder into an autonomous machine capable of replicating your wishes on thousands of contacts simultaneously. All with unique outcomes.

Rules are, at their core, an if/then statement -though in Ontraport it’s certainly possible to make them much more complex than that. Rules can be constantly on the lookout for one of any number of triggers that would cause them to spring into action and change the path of your contact’s experience. Think of them as the decision diamond of your system.

Did your contact do X? If yes, they take one path. If no, they take another.

If you’ve been using Ontraport for any length of time, you probably are already familiar with rules. But rules are a complex beast and can quickly get overwhelming. As you’ve probably experienced, it’s rarely a yes/no decision.

WHAT CAN YOU ACCOMPLISH WITH RULES?

In a word…ANYTHING!

Rules can take your most complex business process and automate it. In a “normal” ESP you would have to continually scan your list, manually creating groups of contacts to add them to a new list – for instance, a buyer’s list or someone who opened an email. But rules in Ontraport are always standing guard to do these tasks for you – 24/7.

The single biggest use of rules is contact segmentation. Moving contacts from one sequence to another and recording their actions is the largest and best use of rules.

Rules are also the engine behind product fulfillment, credit card recharges, memberships sites and more.

THE MECHANICS OF ONTRAPORT RULES

In Ontraport, rules are made up of three parts….

The Trigger – “When this happens”

The Condition – “If this is true”

The Action – “Then do this”

Later in this article we’ll discuss all the triggers, conditions and actions available. Needless to say, there are A LOT of them. Almost any action can kick off a rule and almost any action can be the result of the rule.

Any of the three rule sections can have multiple items listed….

Multiple triggers can be listed with an “OR” statement linking them. “AND” is not available in triggers since conditions are accomplished under the conditions (if this is true) section of the rule.

 

Multiple conditions can be linked by either an “OR” or an “AND” statement.

An important note about using “OR.” An “OR” command only considers the condition immediately before the “OR” and the condition immediately following the “OR.” An “OR” doesn’t create groups of conditions. In the example above, the “OR” only applies to the two fields immediately before and after. It won’t combine the fields with time condition or the tag condition. So the rule reads “If this is true… The contact has been on Any Sequence for 5 weeks AND they don’t have the tag OPEN AND they have either Content 3 or Content 4 checked.

Actions can also have multiple outcomes linked only by “AND.”

When creating rules, it helps to actually say out loud to yourself “When this happens, if this is true, then do this.” It may seem silly, but I still say this to myself every time I make a rule. It helps me to slow down and think about what I’m trying to accomplish.

You’ll notice that in many places rules are made of only two parts – The Condition and The Action. That’s because in those areas of Ontraport The Trigger isn’t necessary. Some pre-determined trigger is what is controlling when the rule fires. In fact, the only place you’ll find all three parts to a rule is in “Global” rules. More on Global rules vs other rules…

TYPES OF RULES IN ONTRAPORT

Rules can be found throughout Ontraport. Here are all the places it’s possible to enter a rule…

GLOBAL RULES – These are the only type of rule with all three parts (triggers, conditions and actions) because they aren’t tied to any trigger. They live outside the system and are constantly scanning for triggers anywhere in your Ontraport account. These are the most powerful rules in the system.

Other systems, such as Infusionsoft and Active Campaign, refer to them as goals.

STEP SEQUENCE RULES – These are the most commonly used rule type. These rules are triggered by the contact reaching a specified point in time in your sequence. Just like they would receive an email if they were on a sequence for X number of days, their record can also be manipulated by a rule based only on how long they have been in a sequence.

In the example above, every contact on this sequence will have three rules run. When they run is based on the day, just like an email would be. The first rule shown here fires immediately when someone is added to the sequence. The second rule fires on the 21st day as does the third rule. Steps in a sequence always fire in order, so the two rules set for the 21st day will fire consecutively with “tag complete” running first because it appears first in the sequence.

DATE SEQUENCE RULES – Just like a step sequence, date sequences also contain rules. Here the trigger is based on a calendar date or a relative date just like an email would be.

In the example above, the two rules are based on a relative date controlled by a custom date field (Reconnect Start Date). The first rule runs on the contact’s Reconnect Start Date at 5:30AM. The second rule runs 1 day after the contact’s Reconnect Start Date at 10:00AM. Be careful, items in a date sequence are controlled by a certain time, they don’t necessarily run in the order they appear.  I like to build my date sequences in order to make it easier to follow, but if you’re not careful, it’s easy to get them mixed up and have things fire out of the order you expect.

SMARTFORMS AND ONTRAFORMS – The settings tab of every form has a place to add rules that run every time the form is submitted. Again, these rules don’t have a trigger because the form’s submission is the trigger.

 

ORDER FORMS – Just like other forms, order forms also have a place for rules. However, these are a little different because they have a couple of built-in conditions – Successful Payment and Failed Payment. A Successful Payment rule will only fire when the form is submitted and the contact’s payment went through. A Failed Payment rule fires when the form is submitted and the payment doesn’t go through.

 

RECHARGE SETTINGS – When a contact’s credit card is declined, you can run rules based on the first time the card declines, every time the card declines or when the charge is finally successful.

Again, all of these are triggered by the conditions of the decline so there is no trigger in the rule.

 

TASK OUTCOMES –  With tasks, you can set multiple outcomes to any situation. The outcomes can trigger a rule.

IMPORT CONTACTS – The last step of the Import Contacts process asks if you want to run rules on these new contacts.

 

UPSELLS – Upon completion of an upsell, contacts can have one of three outcomes – successful charge, declined charge or contact clicks no. For each possible outcome, you can run a different rule.

GLOBAL VS SEQUENCE RULES

One thing new users to Ontraport find confusing is the difference between global and sequence rules.

Global rules are the real magic in Ontraport and they are what makes Ontraport stand out from most ESPs and even from other less-powerful automation platforms. The two main differences are timing and action.

Global rules fire based on ACTION.

Sequence rules fire based on TIME.

TIMING OF RULES

Global rules are “always on.” They are in the background continually scanning for the trigger you set to happen. As soon as the triggering event occurs, global rules spring into action to modify your contact’s record. If the trigger happens more than once, global rules will act every time.

On the other hand, rules in a sequence only fire at a specific point in time that you determine. If it’s a step sequence it will fire when your contact reaches that step of their journey. And it will only happen once. The contact will run through the rule and then it’s done. If the rule is part of a date sequence, it will only fire once at the date and time you’ve set.

In this example, the rule will run on the 15th day the contact is in the sequence. If on the 15th day the contact has only clicked 2 links in the email, nothing will happen and the contact will pass to the next step in the sequence. If they click two more links on the 16th day so they now have a total of four clicks, again, nothing will happen. Because the rule has already run and that moment in time has passed. If I wanted the ES:QLead tag to be applied to anyone at anytime they click 4 or more times on this particular email, I need to create a Global Rule like the example below….

REMOVE A CONTACT FROM PROMOTIONS WITH A GLOBAL RULE

A common use for a global rule is to remove a contact from a sequence once they take an action. For instance, you might have a series of emails going out to promote a flash sale on a certain product. Once someone buys the product, you want them to stop receiving the emails. A global rule could be triggered when they purchase the product to remove them from the promotional sequence.
You COULD accomplish the same thing in a sequence, but it would require you to create a rule that runs before every email is sent….

It’s much simpler to create just one rule and have it always looking.

On the other hand, it doesn’t always make sense to have rules continually running looking for trigger actions. Sometimes you’ll only want a rule to run once at a specific point in the process. When that’s the case, having the rule in a sequence is the answer.

NEGATIVE RULES

Global rules are proactive. They are constantly searching for something to happen. But what if you’re looking for something that DOESN’T happen? That’s when a sequence rule is the right approach.

For instance, you can’t trigger a global rule based on someone NOT having a tag. But in a step sequence the rule fires for everyone based on TIME – not on ACTION. So you could have a rule with a condition that said, “IF THIS IS TRUE: Contact doesn’t have Tag: XX ; THEN DO THIS….” A global rule couldn’t find that contact, but a sequence rule can.

USE CASES FOR ONTRAPORT RULES

The uses for rules are endless. Just about anything you can imagine, you can create a rule to accomplish in Ontraport. But here are some of the most common and popular uses….

• Expiring Credit Card – Don’t wait until your client’s credit card expires on their open subscription billing. Create a rule to add subscribers to a sequence that reminds them to update their CC with their new expiration date.

• Product Delivery – When your customer buys a product, use a rule to recognize their purchase and add them to a delivery sequence

• Downloads Your Lead Magnet – Someone who actually downloads your lead magnet is a more valuable lead than someone who only requests it and never bothers to download your material. Use a tracked link with a rule to find users who download your lead magnet and accelerate their path through your funnel.

• Active Re-Engagement – Keep your email database clean by removing people who don’t engage with your content on a regular basis. ISP’s like lists of users who want your content. If your subscribers never click or open an email then you’re less likely to get delivered to inboxes in the future.

• Cart Abandonment – When a prospect visits your checkout page but never completes their order, you’re leaving money on the table. Use a rule to add these people to a sequence to encourage them to come back later and complete their purchase.

• Remove Buyers From Promotional Emails – Stop asking prospects to buy your special when they already took action on the last email you sent. Use a rule to remove buyers from future promotional email sequences.

• Give Access To Membership Site – When a customer buys a membership to your website, use a rule to give them access to their membership.

• Sort Contacts In Your System – You can build a sorting sequence that will route your contacts to any number of sequences based on their interests and their past actions. This lets you hone in on your segments and give your prospects the most relevant information for them.

MAKING RULES RETROACTIVE

As handy as it would be, global rules can not run retroactively. Global rules are triggered by an action. It’s not possible to create a global rule that looks to the past. The action has already happened. So there is nothing to trigger the rule into action.

But there is a work-around of sorts…

To find contacts who have already taken an action, use a contact group based on conditions. But sometimes that won’t work either because not every rule can be mimicked in contact groups. In those cases, I like to make a one-step sequence that only contains a single rule.

In this example, contact groups can’t be created by the number of times someone clicks a link in an email. Global rules can, but if the clicks happened in the past, it’s too late to use a global rule. A one-step sequence rule is the only way to find all those contacts and move them to a new sequence. After I’ve created this rule, I can add all my contacts through the sequence to find those who clicked the link two times or more. I call this a “Filtering Sequence.”

Some global rules cannot be recreated in step sequence. A couple that come to mind are clicking on a tracked link and visiting a specific URL. Once the moment has passed, it’s not possible to find the contacts who took those actions. So it’s essential to always plan ahead with Ontraport.

COMPLETE LIST OF ONTRAPORT RULE TRIGGERS, CONDITIONS AND ACTIONS

 

Name	Global Rules	Sequence/Form/Other Rules
TRIGGERS
Contact is created
A field is updated
When contact is added to Sequence
When Contact is removed from Sequence
Subscription to Sequence is Paused
Subscription to Sequence is Resumed
Opens Email
Clicks an Email Link
Sends you an Email
Purchases Product
Gets a refund on a Product
Visits a Landing Page
Visits a PURL
Open order is created
Open order is charged or updated
Credit card is charged or declined
When Contact is added to Tag
When Contact is removed from Tag
When Contact is added to Fulfillment List
Is given access to WordPress Membership Level
Loses access to WordPress Membership Level
SMS Received from Contact
Contact visits URL
Clicks tracked link
CONDITIONS
Has been on a sequence for a certain amount of time
Was subscribed to sequence before or after a certain date
If Contact is subscribed to Sequence
If Contact is not subscribed to Sequence
Subscription to a sequence is paused
Subscription to a sequence is resumed
Field is this value
Contact has Tag
Contact doesn’t have Tag
Has visited a WordPress site a certain number of times
Has visited a landing page a certain number of times
Has opened an Email a certain number of times
Has clicked an Email link a certain number of times
Has spent a certain amount on a product
Has ordered a certain amount of a product
Is subscribed to product
Has been subscribed to a product for a certain amount of time
If contact is subscribed to Fulfillment List
If Contact is not subscribed to Fulfillment List
Has access to WordPress Membership Level
Does not have access to WordPress Membership Level
ACTIONS
Recharge all transactions that are in collections
Add Contact to Sequence
Remove Contact from Sequence
Remove From All Sequences
Pause Subscription to a Sequence
Unpause Subscription to a Sequence
Add Product to Purchase History
Cancel Open Order
Notify someone with an Email
Add Contact to Tag
Remove Contact from Tag
Send an Email
Send a Postcard
Add Task
Send an SMS
Change the value of a field
Add to Lead Router
Ping a URL
Add Contact to Fulfillment List
Remove Contact from Fulfillment List
Give access to WordPress Membership Level
Remove access to WordPress Membership Level
Update Facebook Custom Audience

BEST PRACTICES FOR RULES

OVERUSING CONDITIONS
Redundancy in conditions is a frequent problem I see in many Ontraport setups. It’s very possible to go overboard.

Actually, ‘problem’ might be too strong a word. It doesn’t really hurt anything to wear a belt AND suspenders, but it’s a waste of time and clutters things up.

The most common mistake I see is calling out the sequence a rule is located in as a condition of the rule. The only place the rule will fire is already in the sequence. There is no need to repeat the name of the sequence as a condition. In the example above, there is no need to have this condition. The contact is already in the sequence. It’s the very fact that they are in the sequence that will cause the rule to fire in the first place.

Another common redundancy issue is explicitly calling out that the contact is not subscribed to a sequence before adding them to the sequence. It doesn’t matter. In Ontraport, a contact can’t be in a sequence twice. So if they are already in the sequence and you add them again, nothing will happen. In the above example, the condition is not necessary for this reason.

Again, it won’t hurt anything if you do add this extra condition. It’s only wasting time and adding extra steps that aren’t needed.

DUPLICATING RULES ACROSS THE SYSTEM

A good rule of thumb…if you are creating the same rule multiple times across the system, it should be a global rule instead.

I see this on the backend of forms all the time. Often, folks will create a series of optin forms all with the same rules on the backend of the form. Months later when they want to change the rule, they have to dig through dozens of forms to do what could have been done with one rule. It also makes it very hard to follow your system if you have rules “hidden” throughout the system. Keeping them all in one place, makes organizing your system easier.
Remember, less is more.

THE LOGIC OF ‘AND’ VS ‘OR’ CONDITIONS

While using AND/OR commands when creating conditions seems simple enough, it can get confusing – especially when negatives are involved.

AND – pretty easy. If you want this to be true AND that to be true, then use AND to connect the two.

OR – again, seems easy enough. If you want this to be true OR that to be true, then use OR to connect the two.

It gets more complicated as you string additional conditions together or you introduce negative conditions – such as doesn’t have or didn’t do.

OR only applies to the two conditions immediately adjacent to the command. It can only compare two conditions, it isn’t creating groups of conditions. (See example above listed under Rule Mechanics)

NEGATIVE CONDITIONS

When creating conditions with negative statements, the connection is almost always AND. This trips most people up because they construct the rule by thinking, “I don’t want them to have this OR that.”  But that’s not how computers and programming think.

Here are some diagrams to break it down to its simplest logic. While reading these examples, think of them as groups of contacts with blue tags and contacts with yellow tags…

Using the AND command we get only the contacts who overlap and have BOTH the blue and yellow tags.

Here we get the combination of everyone who has the blue tag or the yellow tag.

But when negative logic is involved, things aren’t quite as simple. Most people want to use OR to link statements together. But that doesn’t work. Here’s why…

Let’s find contacts who have neither the blue or the yellow tag. If we create the condition using OR it would look like this – Contact does not have blue tag OR Contact does not have yellow tag.

But in order for this entire statement to be true, only one of the conditions needs to be true. After all, we used the word OR, right? That means one OR the other need to be true to make the statement true.

Let’s look at all four possible combinations….

 

If the contact has a blue tag, then the “not blue” part of the condition is false. And the same applies for the yellow tag. So in order for the statement to be true the contact only needs to be missing one of the tags – not BOTH of the tags. So using OR means that three out of the four possible combinations will result in a true statement. Not the outcome we intended.

Now let’s change the OR to AND and see what happens…
Contact does not have blue tag AND Contact does not have yellow tag.

Now both halves of this statement need to be true in order for the entire statement to be true. Let’s look at the four possible combinations in this scenario.

Now only one of the four combinations is true. The one where neither tag is applied.

The answer is almost always AND when combining negative conditions.

WRAPPING UP

Rules in Ontraport are extremely powerful and it’s worth your time to learn them and use them often. After all, the power of rules is why you bought into Ontraport in the first place.

Happy automating!