Configure Journey with Conversica as a Custom Activity

Having successfully mapped your campaign contact list and personalized the conversation with the desired variables, you’re all set to craft a journey using Conversica as an activity with the SFMC Journey Builder. Let’s dive into the intricacies of the journey  setup, providing you with a step-by-step guide to effortlessly navigate through the process.

Marketer Journey Configuration

Explore the process for setting up a tailored journey for your leads with Conversica as a custom activity.

1. Login to SFMC Journey Builder.

2. Click Create New Journey.

3. Select the desired Entry Source.

Note: If you need assistance in selecting or creating an entry source, please refer to the Salesforce knowledge base articles listed, which cover commonly used entry sources.

• • • • • SFMC KBA: Create a Data Extension in Contact Builder
        • SFMC KBA: API Event Entry Source Use Case
        • SFMC KBA: CloudPages

4. Click Schedule & select Schedule Type.

5. Configure the new SFMC Journey with the desired activities, flow control and custom activities. 

Note: To incorporate Conversica into the journey, follow the 4 steps below.

1. Expand Customer Updates in the left column, click Conversica and drag to the desired area within the journey for seamless integration.

2. Select the Conversation & Channel(s) to be utilized for this activity & click next.

3. Align the lead fields with the corresponding Conversica lead fields, then click next.

Note: Conversica's required fields are id, firstName, email and repName, marked with an asterisk and highlighted in red. It's recommended to include a phone number if one is available.

4. Click Done on the Confirmation tab to confirm the Conversica configuration.

6. Save journey

7. Click validate journey in Journey Builder to confirm that the entry sources, settings, activities, goals, & exit criteria is set up to work as planned. 

Note: When you save or activate a journey, the system automatically launches the validation tool, so don’t worry if you miss this step.

If the validation detects errors, the results show as error message, below are the key areas to review the errors. 

• • • Errors and configuration issues appear in the results drawer.
    • Multiple errors for the same activity appear in the same error tile.
    • Activities that require attention are highlighted on the canvas.

Note:—Some errors—such as those related to messaging, cross-cloud, and custom activities—are found only after you test or activate the journey.

Consider Conversica as a custom activity: when a lead requires further qualification, Conversica's RDA initiates personalized two-way messaging, sending all relevant data back to the Salesforce Marketing Cloud activity screen for future use. This data can be utilized to create rules triggering the next steps, and we'll explore this feature now.

Journey Connected Data Setup

If the marketer desires to follow up on leads processed by Conversica, they can use the status and fields returned by Conversica to make decisions and take next steps. For example, adding "not interested" users to  different nurture journey for later or send "hot leads" to Reps so they can follow up immediately. Let's walkthrough the steps to configure setup now. 

1. 1. Login to SFMC Journey Builder
   2. Select the desired journey for rule setup
   3. Click Decision Split & Select Path
   4. Choose Conversica Conversation and select the specific field you wish to base the rule on.
   5. Select the appropriate category from the drop down and type out the required variable.
   6. Click Done

Note: Upon receiving the field information from Conversica for the lead, and with an applied rule to that field, the lead will seamlessly progress to the next steps predetermined by the rule.

With the Conversica App downloaded and configured, user management streamlined, and conversations and journeys tailored for optimal exchange and flow, we are now poised to test the integration.