Overview
Build, launch, and monitor customer journeys in DinMo.
Who this section is for
Marketers and lifecycle teams building automated customer flows
CRM and retention operators responsible for activation timing and orchestration
Customer success and growth teams reviewing journey results
You do not need warehouse or SQL knowledge to use this section.
What Is a Journey?
A Journey is a workflow that moves contacts through a sequence of steps over time.
In DinMo, you use Journeys to decide:
Who enters a flow
When they wait
How they branch by profile attribute
When they exit early
Which destinations get activated at each point
Journeys are designed for lifecycle orchestration rather than one-time activation. Instead of sending a contact to a destination once, you define a path that reacts to time, profile data, and events.
What a Journey can do
Onboard new users over several days
Entry on signup event → Wait 1 day → Activate email platform → Wait 3 days → Activate CRM
Re-engage inactive customers
Entry on inactivity audience → Wait 2 days → Segment by tier → Activate per branch
Branch by profile attribute
Segment node splits contacts by country, plan, or status
Wait for a meaningful event
Pause Until a purchase event → continue or fall through on timeout
Stop once a contact converts
Exit rule on status = converted removes contacts mid-flow
How a Journey works
Every Journey follows the same high-level model:
Contacts enter through the Start step when they match your entry rules.
They move through steps — Wait, Segment, Pause Until, Activate.
They can leave early if they match one of your exit rules.
They finish when they reach the end of a path or a Stop node.
When to use a Journey
Use a Journey when timing and sequence matter.
Examples:
Welcome series with delays between activations
Re-engagement flow that branches by customer status
Post-purchase flow that waits for a follow-up event before continuing
When not to use a Journey
Do not use a Journey when you only need a static audience or a single activation with no follow-up logic. In those cases, a Segment or a one-time activation is simpler and easier to maintain.
Journey Lifecycle
A Journey moves through three working states:
Draft
Working state for designing and editing. The Journey does not run.
Active
The Journey is live, accepts new contacts, and runs on its configured schedule.
Paused
Progression is temporarily stopped. Use this to review or prepare a controlled change.
Journey Anatomy
The builder canvas is the visual map of your Journey. Each box is a step. Connections between boxes define the order that contacts follow.
Every Journey starts with a single Start step and then expands into the rest of the flow.
Step types
Start
Defines entry rules and the Allow Journey Repeat setting. Every Journey has exactly one.
Wait
Delays progression for a fixed duration or until a chosen weekday and time.
Segment
Splits contacts into branches based on a profile field value.
Pause Until
Blocks a contact until a condition is met or a timeout is reached. Creates two paths.
Activate
Activates one or more destinations for contacts at that point in the flow.
Stop
Explicitly ends a branch. Terminal node with no outgoing edges.
Rules outside the canvas
Entry rules
Configured on the Start step
Determines who is allowed to enter the Journey
Exit rules
Apply to the whole Journey
Removes contacts early when a condition becomes true
Reading a Journey from left to right
Start with the entry rules — who enters and under what conditions.
Check the first delay or decision point.
Review each branch separately.
Look at every Activate step to understand what gets activated.
Confirm where each branch stops.
Review exit rules last — they can interrupt any active path.
Getting Started
Create Your First Journey
This guide walks through a simple first Journey that is easy to validate and safe to launch.
Goal: Build a basic lifecycle flow with one Start step, one Wait step, one Activate step, one Stop step, and optional exit rules.
Before you begin, make sure you have:
Access to a Customer Hub
At least one audience or entry condition you can use
At least one destination available for Activate
Permission to publish, or a reviewer who can approve the launch
Step-by-step:
Create the Journey draft
Configure the Start step and add your entry rules
Add a Wait step after Start
Add an Activate step after the Wait
Add a Stop step after Activate
Add exit rules if needed
Review the publish checklist
Publish the Journey
Run and monitor
Recommended first pattern:
For most teams, this is the safest first shape:
Then expand to Segment or Pause Until only after the simple version behaves correctly.
Journey Concepts
Entry Rules
Entry rules define who enters the Journey. If you configure multiple rules, the Journey uses an operator:
OR — a contact enters if any rule matches
AND — a contact enters only if all rules match
Available entry rule types:
Audience entry
The contact should enter because they belong to a specific DinMo audience
Event occurrence
The contact should enter because a tracked event happened (purchase, signup, etc.)
Limits: up to 10 entry rules per Journey. At least one valid rule required before publishing. Entry rules are locked while the Journey is active.
Allow Journey Repeat lets a contact re-enter the Journey after completing or exiting it. Use only when re-entry is a deliberate part of the lifecycle.
Exit Rules
Exit rules define when a contact should leave the Journey early. They apply across the entire Journey and are evaluated continuously.
Available exit rule types:
Profile fields
A profile attribute matches a condition (e.g. status = converted)
Event table
A tracked event happened (e.g. cancellation event)
Operator behavior: OR means any matching rule can remove the contact. AND means all configured rules must match.
Limits: up to 10 exit rules. Exit rules are locked while the Journey is active.
Wait
Wait pauses the contact for a fixed period of time or until a specific weekday and time.
Wait modes:
Duration
Choose an amount and a unit (hours, days, weeks)
Wait 2 days
Until day
Choose a weekday and a time
Wait until next Tuesday at 09:00
Constraints: duration must be at least 1 unit and cannot exceed 1 year (365 days).
Segment
Segment splits the Journey into branches based on a profile field. Each group of values creates one branch. Contacts that match no group take the implicit other branch.
Common use cases: branch by country, plan or tier, lifecycle status.
Constraints: up to 10 groups, group names must be unique, overlapping values create ambiguity.
Pause Until
Pause Until blocks a contact until a condition is met or a timeout is reached. It creates two possible paths:
Condition met — contact continues immediately when the condition is satisfied
Timeout — contact falls through to the fallback path after the maximum duration
Condition sources: profile field changes, or event occurrences.
Constraints: timeout cannot exceed 365 days. If no timeout is set, the wait may be indefinite.
Activate
Activate activates one or more destinations. This is the step that sends contacts out of DinMo to the destinations selected for that node.
Configuration rules: at least one destination is required. The same destination can appear in multiple Activate steps.
Stop
Stop explicitly ends a branch of the Journey. A Stop node is terminal — it has no outgoing edges. Stop improves readability by making intended branch endings visible in the canvas.
Monitoring and Troubleshooting
Run History
Run history is the main operational view for a live Journey. Check it:
After publishing a Journey
After running a Journey manually
Before resuming a paused Journey
When business results look different from expectations
Common Validation Issues
Validation prevents invalid or risky configurations from being published.
Errors block publishing:
Missing entry rule
Missing destination on Activate
Incomplete Segment configuration
Incomplete Pause Until configuration
Invalid Wait configuration
Warnings highlight risk but do not block:
Immediate activation after Start
No timeout on Pause Until
Repeat entry without an early delay
Best Practices
Designing Safe Journeys
Keep the entry logic simple — start with one clear rule
Add a Wait before the first Activate unless immediate activation is deliberate
Use exit rules so it is always clear how contacts leave
Avoid branching unless the downstream paths are meaningfully different
If the flow is hard to explain in one sentence, it is probably too complex
Wait vs Pause Until at a glance
Use when
Delay is time-based
Delay depends on a condition
Trigger
Elapsed time
Profile field change or event
Paths out
One — continues after duration
Two — condition met, or timeout
Example
Wait 2 days after signup
Wait until purchase event, timeout after 7 days
Reference
Glossary
Active
The Journey is live and can run
Allow Journey Repeat
Setting that lets a contact re-enter the Journey after completing or exiting it
Draft
The editable working state of a Journey
Entry rule
Condition that determines whether a contact can enter the Journey
Exit rule
Condition that removes a contact from the Journey early
Pause Until
Step that waits for a condition or a timeout before continuing
Run history
Operational record of Journey executions
Segment
Step that branches contacts based on a profile field value
Activate
Step that activates one or more destinations
Stop
Terminal step that explicitly ends a branch
Wait
Step that delays progression for a fixed duration or until a specific weekday and time
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