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All the Starting Points
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A starting point is an event or action that adds a contact to a Customer Journey. Use starting points to add contacts to your journey based on conditions that you set.
In this article, you'll learn about all the starting points you can use in a Customer Journey.
Things to know
- To learn more about starting points and how to use them in your Customer Journey, check out About Customer Journeys.
- Some starting points require certain types of information in your contacts’ audience fields. To learn more, check out Manage Audience and Signup Form Fields.
- You can change a starting point within a paused map. To learn more, check out Edit a Customer Journey Map.
Available starting points
Here are all the starting points to choose from when you create or edit your customer journey.
Contact activity
These starting points add contacts to a journey when they sign up for your emails, or when their audience data changes.
| Starting point name | Action |
|---|---|
| Tag added | Adds a contact after you add a specific tag to them. |
| Signs up for email | Adds a contact when they sign up for your email marketing. You can also choose to include new, imported email contacts. |
| Texts a keyword | Adds a contact when they text a custom keyword to your SMS phone number. Keywords can be between 2-30 characters, and they include letters and numbers. To use this starting point, you need to first set up an SMS Marketing program. |
| Signs up for SMS | Adds a contact when they sign up for your SMS marketing. You can also choose to include new, imported SMS contacts. To use this starting point, you need to first set up an SMS Marketing program. |
| Joins audience group | Adds a contact after they join a specific group in your audience. |
| Leaves audience group | Adds a contact after they leave a specific group in your audience. |
| Audience field changes | Adds a contact when their audience field data changes to a specific value. |
| Viewed a page | Adds a contact after they view a page in your Mailchimp website with Track with Mailchimp enabled. |
| Clicked a link | Adds a contact after they click a link in your Mailchimp website with Track with Mailchimp enabled. |
| Manual add | Adds a contact when you choose to add them. |
Date and special events
These starting points add contacts to a journey based on a specific date field in your audience, like a birthday or anniversary.
Recurring date starting points and Birthday starting points add contacts to a journey on a yearly cycle. Specific date starting points add contacts to a journey based on a specific day and year in the future, so they can’t be used with Recurring date or Birthday starting points or wait rules.
| Starting point name | Action |
|---|---|
| Specific date | Adds a contact based on a specific date field in your audience. |
| Signup date | Adds a contact based on the date they were added to your audience. |
| Birthday | Adds a contact based on birthday field data in your audience. |
| Recurring date | Annually adds a contact based on a specific date field in your audience. |
Shopping activity
These starting points add contacts from your connected e-commerce store. To use the Shopify starting points, you'll need the latest version of the Shopify integration.
| Starting point name | Action |
|---|---|
| Buys any product | Adds a subscribed contact after they purchase any product from your store. |
| Buys a specific product | Adds a subscribed contact after they purchase a specific product from your store. |
| Time since last purchased | Adds a subscribed contact if they have not purchased anything from your store within a specific timeframe. This starting point looks at purchase activity after your journey is activated. |
| Shopify: Views pages in Shopify store | Adds a contact who has viewed any page or viewed a specific page in your Shopify store. |
| Shopify: Views products in Shopify store | Adds a contact who has viewed any product, viewed a specific product, or viewed a collection of products in your Shopify store. |
| Shopify: Performs search in Shopify store | Adds a contact who performs a search for any term or a search for a specific term in your Shopify store. |
| Shopify: Adds products to Shopify cart | Adds a contacts who adds any product to their cart or adds a specific product to their cart from your Shopify store. |
| Shopify: Performs checkout action in Shopify store | Adds a contact if they perform 1 of the following actions in your Shopify store: start checkout, submit payment information, or complete checkout. |
| Shopify: Adds a low inventory product to a shopping cart | Adds a contact who created a cart and adds any product or adds a specific products to their cart that is low in stock. |
| Shopify: Product back in stock | Adds a contact who added a low-stock product to their cart and alerts them that the product is back in stock. |
| Abandons cart | Adds a contact who created a cart in your store and didn’t complete the checkout process. To learn more about this starting point, check out Create an Abandoned Cart Customer Journey Map. This can't be used with any other starting point, but it can be used with Send email or Send SMS actions. |
| Abandons cart with specific products | Adds a contact who has not completed the checkout process after they create a cart that includes or excludes specific products from your store. To learn more about this starting point, check out Create an Abandoned Cart Customer Journey Map. This can't be used with any other starting point, but it can be used with Send email or Send SMS actions. |
| Order confirmation | Notifies a customer that their order has been confirmed. This can't be used with any other starting point. |
| Cancellation confirmation | Notifies a customer that their order has been canceled. This can't be used with any other starting point. |
| Order invoice | Notifies a customer that their payment has been processed. This can't be used with any other starting point. |
| Shipping confirmation | Notifies a customer that their order is on the way. This can't be used with any other starting point. |
| Refund confirmation | Notifies a customer that their refund has been processed. This can't be used with any other starting point. |
Marketing activity
These starting points add contacts to a journey based on email engagement.
| Starting point name | Action |
|---|---|
| Sent an email | Adds a contact after they are sent a specific email. |
| Opens email | Adds a contact after they open a specific email. |
| Unopened campaign | Adds a contact if they don't open a specific email within a certain timeframe. |
| Clicks any email link | Adds a contact after they click any link in a specific email. |
| Doesn't click email link | Adds a contact if they don't click any link in a specific email. |
| Clicks specific email link | Adds a contact after they click a specific link in a specific email. |
| Responds to survey | Adds a contact after they respond to your survey. |
API and integrations
These advanced starting points target contacts who meet the criteria from your Integrations with Mailchimp or custom API integrations.
| Starting point name | Action |
|---|---|
| Customer Journeys API | Adds a contact when an API endpoint is triggered. |
| Event API | Adds a contact after an API call is posted to the Events endpoint with a specific event name. Contacts can be added to a journey with an API call to a URL displayed in the Customer Journey Builder. |
| Eventbrite: Any event check in | Adds a contact when they check in for any of your events. |
| Eventbrite: Purchases any Eventbrite ticket | Adds a contact when they purchase a ticket for any of your events. |
| Eventbrite: Specific event purchase | Adds a contact when they purchase a ticket for a specific event. |
| Eventbrite: Specific event check in | Contacts will enter when they check in for a specific event. |
| Chat finished | Contacts will enter when they’ve ended their LiveChat conversation. |
| Zapier custom event | Creates a new event when an email address is collected via Zapier. |
Additional information
Ready to get started or learn a little more? Here are some more resources to help you along the way.
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Create a Customer Journey
Use Customer Journeys to automatically send targeted emails, tag contacts, and accomplish other important tasks.