Transition segments, emails, journeys, and assets
Important
The outbound marketing module will be removed from Customer Insights - Journeys on June 30, 2025. To avoid interruptions, transition to real-time journeys before this date. More information: Transition overview
Segments, emails, and journeys are the most used components in Customer Insights - Journeys.
Segments
You can use outbound marketing segments also in real-time journeys, however, it's recommended to rebuild the segments in real-time journeys for increased performance and smaller refresh cycles. There's no way to automatically create a real-time journeys segment from an outbound marketing segment, but it's possible to use natural language and Copilot to create a real-time journeys segment.
Emails
It's not possible to use outbound marketing e-mails directly in real-time journeys. However, you can use the Import emails button in the real-time journeys email editor to select and transfer any outbound marketing emails you want to use.
Importing outbound marketing emails not only saves time, but also protects your investment in expensive designs and layouts. During the import, most of the functionality like personalization and content blocks is also transitioned. After the import, make sure to check to see if all settings and personalizations are correct. Also, you need to choose the right compliance settings for the email before you can go live and use the email in a journey.
While reviewing the imported emails, it's worth considering whether you should start using brand profiles. Brand profiles provide the ability to standardize content like links to your company’s LinkedIn in a similar manner that content settings do for outbound marketing.
You can use the same tool to import email templates. To import templates, go to the email templates area in the real-time journeys email editor and select the Import template option.
Journeys
Journeys in real-time journeys are the equivalent to customer journeys in outbound marketing. Journeys are the container that define the sequence of marketing actions that contacts are involved in. The underlying architecture for journeys in the real-time journeys module is fundamentally different from outbound marketing, which is why journeys can't be transferred automatically and manual recreation of the journey is required.
Using quiet times, you can control when messages get delivered, increasing engagement and meeting customer preferences. Quiet times allow you to comply with regulations by only reaching customers at their preferred times or by preventing nighttime, weekend, or holiday deliveries. Learn more: Improve communication timing by setting up quiet times
Journey end dates behave differently in real-time journeys. In outbound marketing, if a journey had a set end date, customers who already entered the journey would stop and not finish the journey. In real-time journeys, customers who have already entered the journey after the end date complete the journey but no new customers are allowed to enter the journey.
Asset library
No migration of the asset library should be needed. If you're using the outbound marketing asset library, the same asset library is used by real-time journeys, so you can continue to use all previously uploaded assets. If you're using an external asset library, the process remains the same (get the URL of the asset from the external library and insert it in your messages).
Relevant upcoming features
The features listed below may be of interest as you transition from outbound marketing to real-time journeys. These features provide parity, equivalent, or better functionality than what was available in outbound marketing.
Scheduling
- Send scheduling: Elevate your customer engagement, conversion rates, and revenue with our send scheduling in real-time journeys. Reach your customers when they're the most active and likely to respond aligning their habits and preferences. Schedule deliveries within specific time frames daily, or on particular days weekly to maximize impact. Learn more: Reach customers at the right moment with send scheduling
- View email in browser: With varied display formats across email providers, your emails can sometimes be displayed incorrectly. "View in Browser" in real-time journeys allows your customers to see your emails exactly as you created them. Learn more: Enhance email engagement by allowing browser viewing
- Email A/B testing: Use email A/B testing in real-time journeys to compare and test variations of your emails on different subsets of your recipients to determine which variation performs best. Easily create alternate email versions by changing elements such as subject, body, or from address and optimize content for your audience. Learn more: Optimize engagement, increase conversion rates with email A/B testing
- Orchestrate across multiple email address contact points: Maximize customer reach, choose the right email address for each journey. Now, whether it's a contact’s work or personal email address, you have full control over where your messages are delivered, ensuring they’re seen where customers are most likely to take action. Learn more: Ensure messages go to the right contact email address
Journeys
- Journey split by percentage or absolute number: Split your audience into branches to provide a subset of your audience with unique experiences. Split your audience by percentages (for cases where you need randomness) or by number (for cases where you want to deliver specific experiences to a set of people). Learn more: Provide varied experiences in one journey using journey split tiles
- Web tracking: Trigger journeys and make decisions based on all known user interactions, from messages to web pages, making it even easier to create consistent personalized experiences across your brand's digital touchpoints. For example, you can engage your customers when they show interest by sending a personalized offer after they visit your website. Learn more: Engage customers with content and follow-ups based on website interactions
Tip
If you have questions or comments, visit the Customer Insights - Journeys community forum