How to set up a sequential content delivery experience using Automation and Custom Profile Fields

Pippa Updated by Pippa

Do you have multiple content topics with multiple pieces of content in each topic? Do you want to deliver a new piece of content every time your user asks for more? Do you want to keep track of how many pieces of content a user has completed in each topic?

You've come to the right place! This article will show you how to set up your profile fields, content and automations to achieve exactly that. Let's get started.

Step 1: Add custom profile fields

You'll need to create a custom profile field for each one of your topics.

  1. Navigate to the “Dashboard” tab on the left-hand side.
  2. Click on the “All Conversations” collection.
  3. On any user, scroll to the Custom Profile (on the left-hand side)
  4. Click ADD button
  5. Add a custom profile field for each of your topics one-by-one. Here are some example topics:
    1. Space (text field)
    2. Maths (text field)
    3. Art (text field)

Great! Now that you've got the fields you need, refresh your browser to make sure you new fields show up as options in Automation.

Step 2: Create an Automation for the first piece of content in your first topic.

You'll need to create an Automation for each piece of content in the Topic. This automation will have two triggers and two actions. Let's start with the first topic in our example: Space.

  1. Navigate to the "Automation" tab on the left-hand side
  2. Click the ADD AUTOMATION button on the top right
  3. Add your first trigger.
    1. Select the Message received trigger type
    2. Select exact match
    3. Type "SPACE" or the keyword of your choice in the 'Specify the exact text' field. This keyword will be used by the user every time they want a new piece of content from that topic so it makes sense to have the keyword the name of the topic.
    4. Click NEXT
  4. Add a second trigger by clicking on the + ADD TRIGGER button
    1. Select the Message received trigger type
    2. Select 'Contact has a specific profile'
    3. Select "Space' as the contact field (or whatever the name of your first topic is)
    4. Leave the "Should exactly match the following value' field blank
    5. Click NEXT
  5. Add your first action to reply with a piece of content. In this example the first piece of content in topic 1 (Space) is called 'Did you know about Virgo?
    1. Click + ADD ACTION
    2. Select Reply with a message
    3. Select your piece content (if you've loaded it already) or use the Add new content button to add it now
    4. Click NEXT
  6. Add a second action that updates your Topic 1 contact field.
    1. Click + ADD ACTION
    2. Select Update a contact
    3. Select your topic 1 contact field e.g. SPACE
    4. Set to the value in the input field to 1 (e.g. You're tracking that this user has seen content piece 1 in topic 1)
    5. Click NEXT
  7. Review your Automation and give it a Title. We recommend something like: Topic 1: Content 1 (e.g. SPACE: Did you know about Virgo?)

Your automation should have these four components:

Automation Component

Trigger or Action Type

Specific detail

Trigger 1

Message received > Exact match

Exact text: Topic 1

(e.g. Space)

Trigger 2

Message received > Contact with a specific profile

Contact field: Topic 1

(e.g. Space)

Should exactly match the following value: (leave blank)

Action 1

Reply with a message

Select: Content title

(e.g. Did you know about Virgo?)

Action 2

Update a field on a contact

Contact field: Topic 1

(e.g. Space)

Should set to the following value: 1

  1. Click ACTIVATE to save your automation

Your first automation should look like this:

Now that you've automated your first piece of content in that topic, it's time to automate the rest.

Step 3: Create an Automation for the second piece of content in your first topic.

The structure is the same as your first automation you have two triggers and two actions, but with a few minor differences in specific detail:

Automation Component

Trigger or Action Type

Specific detail

Difference from Automation 1

Trigger 1

Message received > Exact match

Exact text: Topic 1

(e.g. Space)

No change

Trigger 2

Message received > Contact with a specific profile

Contact field: Topic 1

(e.g. Space)

Should exactly match the following value: 1

The difference here is that instead of leaving the topic 1 contact field blank, you'll be setting it to 1. This tells Turn only to send this automation if the user has already seen the first piece of content.

Action 1

Reply with a message

Select: Content title 2

(e.g. Did you know about the South Pacific Swirl?)

Your action will still be to reply with a message but your message content will be different (as you're sending the next message in your sequence)

Action 2

Update a field on a contact

Contact field: Topic 1

(e.g. Space)

Should set to the following value: 2

Your action will still be to update the contact field for topic 1 but you will set the field to 2 (as the user would have seen the second piece of content in your sequence).

So how do you set up your second automation? Follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the "Automation" tab on the left-hand side
  2. Click the ADD AUTOMATION button on the top right
  3. Add your first trigger.
    1. Select the Message received trigger type
    2. Select exact match
    3. Type "SPACE" or the keyword you chose for your topic in automation 1. Type this in the 'Specify the exact text' field.
    4. Click NEXT
  4. Add a second trigger by clicking on the + ADD TRIGGER button
    1. Select the Message received trigger type
    2. Select 'Contact has a specific profile'
    3. Select "SPACE' as the contact field (or whatever you names the contact field for your first topic)
    4. Update the "Should exactly match the following value:' field to 1
    5. Click NEXT
  5. Add your piece of content as an action. In this example the second piece of content in topic 1 (SPACE) is called 'Did you know about the South Pacific Swirl?"
    1. Click + ADD ACTION
    2. Select Reply with a message
    3. Select your piece content (if you've loaded it already) or use the Add new content button to add it now
    4. Click NEXT
  6. Add a second action that updates your Topic 1 contact field.
    1. Click + ADD ACTION
    2. Select Update a contact
    3. Select your topic 1 contact field e.g. SPACE
    4. Set to the value in the input field to 2 (e.g. You're tracking that this user has seen content piece 2 in topic 1)
    5. Click NEXT
  7. Review your Automation and give it a Title. We recommend something like: Topic 1: Content 2 (e.g. Space: Did you know about the South Pacific Swirl?)
  8. Click ACTIVATE to save your automation

Your second automation should look like this:

Step 4: Repeat Step 3 to create an Automation for every piece of content in your first topic.

Yes, we know this is a lot of work. But while it might be complex for you to setup, it is super easy for your user to navigate through on WhatsApp so it is well worth the effort. Put your headphones on, pick a tune that'll get you focused and go for it. It'll go faster than you think.

Remember: The structure is the same as your second automation as you have two triggers and two actions. The difference is in the specific detail:

Automation Component

Trigger or Action Type

Specific detail

Difference from Automation 2

Trigger 1

Message received > Exact match

Exact text: Topic 1

(e.g. Space)

No change

Trigger 2

Message received > Contact with a specific profile

Contact field: Topic 1

(e.g. Space)

Should exactly match the following value: 1

For each new piece of content in this topic, you'll need to put in the previous number in the sequence (e.g. 2,3,4,5,6...... 100) as you'll telling Turn to only send this message if the user has seen the previous piece of content.

Action 1

Reply with a message

Select: Content title 2

(e.g. Did you know about the South Pacific Swirl?)

Your action will still be to reply with a message but your message content will be different (as you're sending the next message in your sequence)

Action 2

Update a field on a contact

Contact field: Topic 1

(e.g. Space)

Should set to the following value: 2

You will need to set the value to the next number in the sequence (e.g. 3,4,5,6...... 100) as you'll telling Turn to record that this user has seen this piece of content, and save that to the Topic 1 field on their contact.

Step 5: Repeat Steps 2-4 to create Automations for every piece of content in your other topics (e.g. Maths, Art)

Step 6: Set up an Automation to inform users when they've reached the end of your content!

So how do you set up your last automation? Follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the "Automation" tab on the left-hand side
  2. Click the ADD AUTOMATION button on the top right
  3. Add your first trigger.
    1. Select the Message received trigger type
    2. Select exact match
    3. Type "SPACE" or the keyword you chose for your topic in automation 1. Type this in the 'Specify the exact text' field.
    4. Click NEXT
  4. Add a second trigger by clicking on the + ADD TRIGGER button
    1. Select the Message received trigger type
    2. Select 'Contact has a specific profile'
    3. Select "SPACE' as the contact field (or whatever you names the contact field for your first topic)
    4. Update the "Should exactly match the following value:' field to X(the number of your last piece of content e.g. 100)
    5. Click NEXT
  5. Add your piece of content as an action. In this example the last piece of content in topic 1 (SPACE) is called ' Space: No more content"
    1. Click + ADD ACTION
    2. Select Reply with a message
    3. Select your piece content (if you've loaded it already) or use the Add new content button to add it now. Make sure you inform the user you've got no more content on this topic and direct them to where they can find content on other topics.
    4. Click NEXT
  6. Review your Automation and give it a Title. We recommend something like: Topic 1: No more content (e.g. Space: No more content)
  7. Click ACTIVATE to save your automation

Your last automation should look something like this:

And you're done! Congratulations - your hard work setting this up means your users are going to have a simple experience navigating your content.

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