Creating the journey
Time to build. You've experienced the journey as a customer—now construct the orchestration in AEP that makes that experience real for your users.
Story so far
The customer has returned to the website and completed their personal loan application. You now build the journey that sends the loan details via email, encourages them to sign their agreement with personalized content, and follows up with a reminder through their preferred channel if they do not complete the process.
Journey - overview
To log into the Adobe Experience Platform, check the Environment & AccessEnvironment & Access page.
To open Journey Optimizer, click the 
icon on the top-right corner, the select Journey Optimizer.
To get an overview of all journeys:
- In the menu on the left side, under Journey Management, click on Journeys. You will see an overview with all existing journeys.
Creating a journey
- Click on Create Journey.
- Select Create from scratch. You'll be taken to the journey canvas with the journey properties opened.
- Set the name to [{{LASTNAME}}] Decide - Loan Application.
- For the other properties keep the default values.
- Your screen should look like the image below. Click Save to save and close the properties.
You're now in the journey canvas. This is where you'll be creating your journey's logic. In the left menu you have activities. There's three types of activities:
Events are the triggers that can start or continue your journey.
Orchestration is the logic of your journey. It looks at conditions, audiences, but can also be used to make your workflow wait or end.
Actions are the results of your journey. This can be messages, profiles updates or API calls.
Event trigger
- Starting the journey with an event trigger. From the events tab, choose ApplicationReceived and drag it onto the canvas.
- Change the label to Application has been submitted/ received.
- There's nothing else to configure.
- Click Save to close the menu.
Email #1 - Application has been received
In the next steps you will be building the email for your journey.
- From the Actions tab, choose Action and drag it onto the canvas, where this icon
appears.
- In the Select action type window, click on the drop down and select Marketing.
- Select Email, then click Add.
- On the right you'll see the detailed view; set the label to Application has been received.
- Click Configure action.
Now you are in the wizard dedicated to the configuration of the details about the email.
- Set the Email channel configuration to marketingEmailMessages. Leave the other settings as they are.
- Click on Edit content to start designing your email.
- Click on
to create a subject line. Set it toFIRSTNAME, your application has been received
- Remove the text FIRSTNAME and search for first name in the profile attributes.
- Find the field First name (... attributes > person > Full name) and click on the + icon to add it to your subject line. It should now be
- Click Save.
Personalization in Journey Optimizer is based on the templating syntax called Handlebars.
Handlebars expression look like regular text with embedded within curly brackets. In this case, the expression will be replaced by the first name taken for the profile in AEP.
Create an email content from scratch can take time; for this lab you will start with a template and then add some additional elements.
- Click on Edit email body.
- Under Select design template
- Click on Saved template
- Select the template Email - Application has been received
- Finalize by clicking on Use this template.
The email designer will now open. It should look like this:
In the left menu you have Components
- Structure components are the building blocks of your email, they will determine the layout of your email.
- Content components are the different forms of content that you can place inside your structure components, like text, buttons and images.
As first step you have to personalise the body of the email with contextual data. In the subject line you have used an attribute from the profile; you can also use data coming from the trigger event.
- Click on the text in the middle of the screen, and click on the first orange box front ofDEPOSIT.
- Click on
to open the personalisation window.
- Removecontext.deposit.
- On the left menu, click Contextual attributes.
- Search deposit and click on +.
- Click Save.
- Repeat the same for all the others one (interest rate, monthly payment, term).
Your email body should look like this:-
At the bottom of the email there is an empty box where you want to add more information depends of the type of loan
- Click on
to see the list of content fragments available.
- Drag and drop the item [Example] 50/50 - Text/image in the Drop content here area just after the Details of your application.
Why section - content fragment
One advantage of using a content fragment is that you can manage and update its fields through the fragment settings, on the right side panel, rather than modifying the elements directly in the email body.
- Click on the fragment in the body of the email; a blue border will appear.
- Replace the Header text with Personal Loan
- Replace the Button label with Learn more
- Replace the Button URL with https://dsn.adobe.com/web/hol-fsi-prod-1/personal-loan?productId=Kf0X2T_eN.
- Remove the placeholder image by clicking the X icon in the Source field.
- Click Select an asset, search for personal-loan, click on the asset and click Select.
- Click Save.
Your screen should look like this:
You can make this banner dynamic, so it shows different variants, based on some criteria.
- Click on the box outside the fragment; should now see the blue border around the whole section and a label 1:1 column in the top right corner.
- Click on the
to enable Conditional Content.
- On the left, a new menu will appear, with the list of the variants.
The platform has already created a variant, that is a copy of the default content. To personalise the banner you need to modify:
- the condition
- the content
The new variant should reflect the type of loan you subscribed. In AEP, there is an audience that includes all such profiles. To implement this logic, adjust the condition as follows:
- click on
to open the list of available conditions on the first variant.
- Click on the [Example] Personal Loan.
- Add an other variant, then click on the same button
- Select an other condition like [Example] Home Loan
- if the audience list is empty click on Legacy Experience, then click on Experience Platform.
Your condition should look like this:
- On the first condition, click on the three dot button then on rename
- Fill the title with {{LASTNAME}} - Personal loan
- Repete for all the condition.
The second step is to update the banner content to clearly convey the information intended for this specific audience. To do this, select the second condition and repeat the same steps you followed when creating the first variant (the first one is already done).
- Click on the fragment in the body of the email; a blue border will appear.
- Replace the Header text with Home Loan
- Replace the Button label with Learn more
- Replace the Button URL with https://dsn.adobe.com/web/hol-fsi-prod-1/home-loan?productId=QOiJDoJIs
- Remove the placeholder image by clicking the X icon in the Source field.
- Click Select an asset, search for home-loan, click on the asset and click Select.
- Click Save.
The email should look like this:
Simulate Email Content
If you want to see how the email would render for a test profile with certain attributes, you can Simulate Content.
- Select Simulate Content > Simulate Content from the Email Designer
- Add a test profile that you want to simulate email content for.
- Click on Manage test profiles.
- In Identity namespace, click on
.
- In Select identity namespace, click on Email, then click Select.
- In Identity value type the email address you used at the beginning of this lab.
- Click Add profile.
Now you have a test profile you can use to simulate the email content. Click the arrow in the top left corner to come back to the Simulate page.
The simulation takes in consideration only the contextual data available. In this case you will only the personalisation based on the profile attribute; Deposit, Interest Rate, ... will be empty because the event payload is not available at this stage.
The email is rendered based on the profile attributes:
- the body contains the first name;
- On the bottom banner, the correct personalization depends on the type of loan.
Your simulation should look like this:
- Click Close to return to the Email Designer.
- Navigate out of the email designer by clicking the back arrow icon in the top left. If prompted, click on Save&Close.
- Navigate out of the message overview by clicking the back icon in the top left.
- You'll return to the journey canvas. Click Save in the Actions: Email panel.
Your journey should now look like:
Event trigger
To finalize the subscription, the customer should sign his contract; this is the next step of the journey: waiting for the subscription event.
- From the events tab, choose the prebuilt event Signature and drag it onto the canvas. This event is meant to be triggered once the customer signed his contract.
- Click on the Define the event timeout checkbox to activate it, then specify the wait duration to be 7 days.
- If not yet checked, click on the Set a timeout path checkbox so the journey branches into 2 paths.
- Click Save.
Defining a timeout path allows you to specify the actions that should be taken if the expected event does not occur. This ensures that your process can continue smoothly and handle exceptions in a controlled and predictable manner.
Your journey should now look like:
Condition - Preferred Channel?
You want to be sure that the customer receives the follow up message on his preferred channel. Right before sending the follow up communication, check the customer's preferred channel.
- From the orchestration tab, choose Optimize and drag it onto the canvas, over the 7 d timeout branch.
- Click on the activity to open the detailed view.
- Set the Label to Preferred Channel.
- Set the Method to Data source condition.
- Click on Path1 and change the label to Push.
- Click on the Expression text field to open a window.
- On the left side, search for "preferred". Drag the data element Preferred Channel to the right side.
- Select Push, then click Ok.
Your condition should look like this:
- Click Ok to save the condition.
- Check Show path for other cases than one(s) above and set the label to Other channels.
Your screen should look like the image below. Click Save.
Push - Registration Reminder
Now, you need to author a push notification to inform the customer that the loan signature still needs to be completed. This sends a short message to the user’s smartphone, indicating that an action is required. As you can see, it is easy to interact with. When they click on the push notification, they are taken directly to the mobile app.
- From the actions tab, choose Action and drag it onto the canvas following the Push path after the Preferred channel condition.
- In the Selection action type window select Push, then click Add.
- Click on the activity to open the detailed view.
- Set the label to Signature expected.
- Click on Configure action.
- In Push notification channel configuration select pushMessages.
- Click on Edit content to start designing your push.
- If you don't see the properties panel on the right, click on Properties, at the bottom of the page, then:
- Set the title to Signature expected
- Set the body to
{{profile.person.name.firstName}}, to move forward and secure your loan, it's essential that you review and sign the required document as soon as possible. This step is necessary to finalize your application and ensure you don't miss out on this limited-time opportunity. Please take a moment to complete the signing process now so you can access your funds without delay.
- Add personalization for the first name in the same way we did in the previous email.
- Click Save.
Your screen should look like the image below:
You may have noticed the double curly brackets in the body: in the push messages you can use contextual data, exactly like you did for the email.
- Navigate out of the designer by clicking the arrow in the top left.
- Click Save to close the detail panel.
Your screen should now look like the image below:
Email - Registration Reminder
Final step: you need to create an email for customers who have not yet signed their contract and have not selected push notifications as their preferred communication channel.
The implementation will be faster, since there is a template available.
- From the Actions tab, choose Action and drag it onto the canvas, where this icon appears.
- In the Select action type window, click on the drop down and select Marketing.
- Select Email, then click Add.
- On the right you'll see the detailed view; set the label to Signature Expected
- Click Configure action.
Now you are in the wizard dedicated to the configuration of the details about the email.
- Set the Email channel configuration to marketingEmailMessages. Leave the other settings as they are.
- Click on Edit content to start designing your email.
- Click on Content template > Apply content template.
- Select Email - Signature Expected, and click Confirm.
The template contains everything is needed: the subject line, the images and the personalisation expressions.
- Click on Edit email body to check the content.
The email should look like this:
- Navigate out of the email designer by clicking the back arrow icon in the top left. If prompted, click on Save & close.
- Navigate out of the message overview by clicking the back icon in the top left.
- You'll return to the journey canvas. Click Save in the Actions: Email panel.
Your canvas should look like this:
Recap
Well done! With the Decide section you have explored how Adobe Journey Optimizer orchestrates post-purchase communications:
- Journeys triggered by real-time events, like an Application or Signature.
- Personalised emails built with contextual data, profile attributes and conditional content fragments.
- Preferred channel logic to reach each customer on email or push, based on their profile.
In this section, the customer completes the personal loan subscription, receives a tailored loan confirmation—including details based on the type of loan—and a week later, receives a follow-up message via their preferred channel if they have not signed the contract. Now that the customer has completed their subscription, it is time to step back and analyze what happened. The next section, Research, shifts the focus from the customer experience to the data behind it.