Creating A Welcome Ladder In Action Network

Creating A Welcome Ladder In Action Network

One of the simplest uses of Action Network Ladders is the ability to automate a welcome journey for new members using a combination of Decisions, Waits and Actions. In the example below we'll go through a very simple new member welcome journey.

Before You Start

It's a lot easier to create a welcome journey if you've planned this out in advance, ideally in collaboration with others. There are a few key decisions to be made:
  1. What information do you want to send to your new members, and who will write the copy?
  2. In what order to you want to send this information?
  3. What will your timeline be, and how frequently should emails be sent?
  4. Is there anything else you want your Ladder to do other than simply email members?
You'll also need to consider that this welcome journey will be triggered both by new members joining, as well as existing members who move into your local party area, and so the email copy should be a welcome to the local party more than a welcome to the party overall. Remember, new members will receive welcome comms from GPEW. You should also factor this into the frequency of emails you send during the early life of the member's journey.

You should also make sure:
  1. You have a Wrapper set up for your welcome emails: How To Set Up A Basic Email Wrapper.
  2. You send tests of any emails to yourself, and ideally somebody else to make sure they're fully checked before publishing.

Creating Your Welcome Ladder

1. From the Start Organising menu click on PEOPLE, move your mouse over Ladders and click on the plus (+) icon that appears.



2. Give your Ladder a title, and add some notes explaining the function of the Ladder. This makes it easier to manage Ladder content in future.



3. Now click on the button marked + ADD NEW RUNG to start your Ladder.



4. As this is a new member journey we'll add people to the ladder based on them subscribing to the mailing list. Select Subscribed To Email List from the drop-down menu and click on SAVE RUNG & TRIGGER.



5. You'll now see the beginning of your Ladder. To add the next step move your cursor over the plus (+) icon beneath your first rung.



6. As this welcome Ladder is intended to welcome new members, and not supporters the first thing we'll need to add is a Decision. Simply click on Decision to get started.



7. You'll be taken to a Query Builder page. Give your Decision a title that explains what the Query aims to do, and set it to target activists with a Local_Party value equal to your local party name, and a Membership_Status of Current or Pending. It should look like the Query below. Once you're done click on the button marked SAVE DECISION.



8. You'll be taken back to your Ladder, where you'll see two branches coming from this decision- marked with Y (Yes) and N (No). They will both show as exit points. In this example we'll leave the No branch as an exit point, but keep adding to the Yes branch. Again, we need to move our cursor over the plus (+) icon to choose our next option. We're going to send an initial welcome email to our new member, but we want to make sure it arrives at a sensible time of day, and so we'll click on Wait.



9. On the next page we'll set the first dropdown to Wait Until The Next Period, the second to Wait until the next weekday, and then add the time of day we want the email to be sent. Then click on the button marked SAVE WAIT.
All times are in the Eastern Time zone. You can use a time zone converter like this one to work out the time you need.



10. We'll be taken back to our ladder, and now we want to set up our welcome email. So, again we click on the plus (+) icon, and this time select Action.



11. From the dropdown menu that appears select Send An Email.



12. All the fields you need to create your email will appear. Simply complete them and design your email as you normally would.
Emails sent from Ladders use the Visual Editor and not the Drag & Drop Editor, so make sure you choose a Wrapper to apply your local party branding. If you haven't yet set up a Wrapper you can get started here:  How To Set Up A Basic Email Wrapper.
13. Once you're happy with your email click on SAVE ACTION.



14. You'll be taken back to your Ladder. Continue adding Waits and Actions until you have the email journey you want planned out.
You can add in a Decision step at any point (repeating steps 6 & 7 above), to confirm those on the ladder are still members. This is a useful check to add in, particularly if your welcome journey spans a number of months.



15. Once you're happy with your welcome journey and you're ready to publish it click on the button marked SAVE & PUBLISH.



16. You'll be prompted to confirm that you're happy to publish your Ladder. If you're happy to do so click on OK.



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