Manually running automation processes

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Enterprise license required

Features described on this page require the Kentico Xperience Enterprise license.

You can manually start marketing automation processes for specific contacts or multiple contacts in a single batch.

Automation triggers

For full automation, define triggers for your processes. This allows the system to automatically run processes for contacts based on dynamic conditions.

Note: Running a process manually for contacts bypasses any triggers and additional conditions that may be defined for the process. Such contacts skip the process’s Start step and immediately move to the following step in the process flow.

Permission requirements

To manually start processes for contacts, you need to have the following on-line marketing permissions:

  • To run processes directly, you need to have the Start process permission.
  • To run processes by creating a trigger (including Time-based type triggers), you need to have the Manage processes permission.

Running a process for multiple contacts

To run a process for multiple contacts at the same time, we recommend creating a Time-based trigger for the process:

  1. Open the Marketing automation application.

  2. Edit the process and open the Process tab (in Design mode).

  3. Select the Start triggers step in the process designer graph.

  4. Click New trigger in the panel on the right.

  5. Select Time-based as the trigger’s Type.

  6. Set the Start time when you want to run the process.

  7. Add a Contact condition to select the contacts for which you want to run the process.

    Important: If you leave the condition empty, the trigger starts the process for all known contacts, which may have a negative performance impact on your site.

  8. Click Save.

The system automatically starts a separate instance of the process at the configured time for all contacts who fulfill your condition.

Running a process directly

Alternatively, you can also start a process for one or more contacts directly:

  1. Open the Marketing automation application.
  2. Edit () the process you want to run.
  3. Select the Process tab, and switch to Contacts mode.
  4. Click Add contacts.
  5. Choose the contacts for which you want to run the process.

The process immediately starts for the selected contacts (a separate instance of the process for each contact). The process may fail to start for some of the contacts, depending on its recurrence settings.

Using contact groups

You can prepare a contact group with the required contacts and then start a process for the entire group:

  1. Open the Contact groups application.
  2. Edit () a contact group.
  3. Switch to the Contacts tab.
  4. Choose the contacts in the group for which you want to run the process:
    1. Selected contacts – mark specific contacts using the checkboxes on the left side of the list
    2. All contacts – all contacts who belong to the contact group
  5. Select the Start new process action in the second drop-down list.
  6. Click OK.
  7. Choose the automation process that you want to start. Only enabled processes are available.

A separate instance of the process starts for each of the specified contacts. The process may fail to start for some of the contacts, depending on the recurrence settings of the selected process.

Running processes for a specific contact

  1. Open the Contact management application on the Contacts tab.
  2. Manage () the contact for which you want to run the process.
  3. Switch to the Processes tab.
    • Here you can see a list of all automation processes that are currently running or finished for the contact.
  4. Click Select.
  5. Select the process that you want to start for the contact. The process must be enabled.

After starting the process, you can see its status in the list on the contact’s Processes tab.