Request: Add "Add to automation" action
In the list of automation actions there is an action to remove a contact from an automation(s). However, there is no action available to ADD a contact to an automation(s). Please add this capability to automation actions. #idea #request
In the contact, click the Emails tab and at the bottom you can Add Automation.
Or in the contact list, you can select contacts and then one of the Bulk Actions is Add to Automation Funnel.
Jonathan Gwyer you can indeed manually add someone to an automation funnel, it would however be nice if this can be done within an automation funnel
Jonathan Gwyer Thanks for responding. Yes, I know that contacts can be added to an automation manually either singular or bulk. However, that's not what I meant by this post. What I meant is that there is no way in an Automation Action to add a contact to an automation. There is a way to remove a contact via and Automation Action, but not ADD a contact to an automation.
Norm Sash Yes, I completely misread the question!
However, I would say from personal experience, if I'm going to use an Automation for more than one purpose then I would set it to trigger from a tag. That way the reusable part can be called from any other automation, and I don't have to worry editing an automation that I'd forgotten is called by another one somewhere else.
Jonathan Gwyer Yeah, I do that too. However, there are cases where that strategy just doesn't work well. And the inability of FCRM to have multiple triggers (with the exception of jump goals) makes the usage more difficult.
Anyway, yes, I'm quite familiar with using the tags to add to automations. But I'm also very familiar with ActiveCampaign's ability to add to an automation from within an automation, and to have multiple automation triggers. Those are capabilities that I sorely miss in FCRM.
And I don't understand the FCRM design logiic in having an automation action to remove a contact from an automation(s) but not an action to add a contact to an automation(s).
Norm Sash i agree with you, ADD TO AUTOMATION is important, I would love to see FCRM build this functionality in. Here's a business use case:
We launched our platform (LearnDash and FCRM and wpFusion) just last week. We already have business partners enrolling users in LearnDash groups. Now (a week later) we are ready to build an automation, the official trigger for the automation is: on learndash group enrollment, add the user to the automation. This is great for NEWLY enrolled students going forward, but how do I "get the existing enrolled students" IN to this automation?
Today there is no method to do this, other than writing custom code and physically inserting values to the FCRM database (which could be dangerous if not done properly).
From the engineering standpoint, I understand - this isn't easy (given the way triggers work in FCRM automation). Most triggers, add a "context ID" to a custom field in the automation. This context ID is a POST ID in most cases, and in the case of "trigger when enrolled in LearnDash Group" it's a LearnDash Group POST ID - so that: the automation knows "what context it was triggered in".
This is also one of the reasons why FCRM does not (today) allow multiple triggers on a single workflow, as it may destroy the context, or at the very least change the context on a contact by contact basis.
I've added my upvote to FCRM for "add contact to workflow".
By the way, I've used other competing CRM's before, and what they do is: separate "automations" from "workflows". The "automations" are in fact nothing but Triggering actions (including multiple triggers), that kick off "workflows" which are headless flows that accept contact records, or company records, etc...
My suggestion to the core dev team at FCRM has been: Instead of storing a single POST ID as context, why not store a JSON encoded string? containing far more, and far deeper context information about where and how the trigger was originated? why not allow ACTIONS in the workflow to create local variables (add them to the JSON string in the workflow) so they can be referenced later in conditions for example, and timers?
Hope this helps,
Dan