You've hit on another key difference between Outbound and Real-time Marketing! You are correct. As of the current capabilities of Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Journeys (Real-time Marketing), there is no direct, out-of-the-box way to create a segment based on contacts who have gone through a specific Real-time Marketing journey in the same way you could in Outbound Marketing.
In Outbound Marketing, you had the "Journey activity" tile within segments, allowing you to filter contacts based on their interaction with specific journeys. This functionality is not directly available for Real-time Marketing journeys.
Why the Difference?
The underlying architecture and data model for Real-time Marketing are different, focusing more on triggers and real-time interactions rather than a historical journey participation record for segmentation. Real-time Marketing emphasizes reacting to specific behaviors and events as they happen.
Potential Workarounds and Strategies:
While a direct "went through journey X" segment isn't available, here are some alternative approaches you can take to achieve similar segmentation goals in Real-time Marketing:
- Segmenting Based on Goals Reached within the Journey:
- In your Real-time Marketing journey, define specific goals that represent successful completion of a certain stage or the entire journey.
- You can create segments based on contacts who have achieved a specific goal within a Real-time Marketing journey. This allows you to target contacts who have successfully completed a particular flow.
- Segmenting Based on Actions Taken Within the Journey:
- Instead of segmenting based on overall journey participation, segment based on specific actions contacts took inside the journey:
- Email Interactions: Segment contacts who opened or clicked specific emails within the journey.
- Custom Event Triggers: If your journey uses custom event triggers, you can segment contacts who triggered those events.
- Attribute Updates: If your journey updates contact attributes (e.g., a "Completed Onboarding" flag), you can segment based on those attribute values.
- Using Tags or Lists Updated by the Journey:
- Tags: Within your Real-time Marketing journey, you can use the "Manage tags" tile to add a specific tag to contacts who reach a certain point or complete the journey. You can then create a segment based on contacts with that tag.
- Marketing Lists: While Real-time Marketing leans away from static lists, you could potentially use the "Manage lists" tile to add contacts to a specific marketing list upon journey completion. You can then create a segment based on membership in that list.
- Leveraging Customer Insights - Data (CDP):
- If you have Customer Insights - Data configured, the rich behavioral data captured there might allow you to build more complex segments that indirectly identify contacts who have interacted with specific Real-time Marketing initiatives. You could potentially look at sequences of events or attribute changes.
- Creating Separate "Follow-Up" Journeys:
- Design subsequent Real-time Marketing journeys that are triggered by the completion of a goal in the initial journey or by a segment of contacts who completed a specific action within it (as described in points 1 and 2).
Key Takeaway:
The paradigm shift in Real-time Marketing means you need to think less about historical journey participation as a segment criteria and more about segmenting based on:
- Goals achieved in real-time.
- Specific behaviors and interactions within the journey.
- Attribute changes resulting from journey progression.
- Explicit tagging or list management within the journey.
While it requires a different approach, these methods can often provide more targeted and behaviorally relevant segments for your follow-up communications. Consider how you defined "went through a journey" in Outbound and map those desired outcomes to goals, actions, or attribute changes within your Real-time Marketing journeys.
