Trigger Drafts

General description

The primary goal of Trigger Mailings is to achieve higher customer relationships. The system allows you to send a pre-structured emailing in response to a real-time contact event or action, resulting in higher open rates and increased user engagement over time.
Trigger Mailings can be utilised for different kinds of contact events:

• • subscription processes (Double-Opt-In with following welcome emailing),
  • birthday emailings, other anniversaries and special days (Christmas, Mother’s Day, etc.),
  • regular marketing emailings,
  • abandoned cart reminders,
  • inactive customer reactivation,
  • password recovery,
  • late order notifications,
  • invoice emailings, etc.

 

As can be seen above, contact events – or simple contact filters – in many cases are essential in driving the Trigger Mailings. They act as the trigger, initiating the process in response to an internal or external event. A specific contact event is generally assigned to only one Trigger Mailing.

You can reach Trigger Mailings via Mailings in Maileon. There are three submenu items within the section:

• Active Triggers,
• Trigger Drafts and
• Trigger History.

 

Below, we focus in detail on the Trigger Drafts, where Trigger Mailings are edited and precisely configured.

The main difference in creating a Trigger Mailing compared to the general emailings is entering the event in the 4th workflow step Dispatch logic and approval (for normal emailings step 5, labeled “Sending”).

Here, in the Mailing Logic > Type field, either

1. “Start using Marketing Automation”,
2. “Individual dispatch for contact event”,
3. “Continuous collective dispatch”, or
4. “RSS feed-controlled collective dispatch” must be selected (fig. 1).

 

Fig. 1: In the dropdown menu you can define the type of mailing logic for the Trigger Mailings. 

Please see below the in-depth description of each of the four options, their specific characteristics and their main types.

Please note: Trigger Mailings are never manually sent but activated as they are triggered by a specially assigned, predefined logic (contact event, contact filter criteria, etc.).

Follow the steps of each process to activate Trigger Mailings in the right corner of the screen.

Types of the Mailing logic

The choice of which type of emailing logic to use depends on the type of Trigger Mailing: content, product, offer, message, etc. However, it’s essential to select the right contact event or filter, as it serves as the primary driver for Trigger Mailings.

“Start using Marketing Automation”

This option allows Trigger Mailings to be dispatched as part of a Marketing Automation. For this process, please click on the „Activate Trigger Mailing“ button in the bottom right corner of the screen.
Note: Clicking on this button only adds the Trigger Mailing to the Marketing Automation library. It will only be activated when it’s integrated into a specific Marketing Automation.

Fig. 2: Trigger Mailing activation within Marketing Automation. This does not start the Automation process! 

Note: By default, it is not necessary to tick the “Permission neutral sendout possible” checkbox.

When the checkbox is not ticked, all the users with permission will receive the Trigger Mailing. In this case, the emailing may contain marketing messages.

Otherwise, when the checkbox is ticked, all users will receive the Trigger Mailing, regardless of their permission status.

Fig. 3: Ticking the ”Permission neutral possible” checkbox affects the list of recipients.

To start, access Marketing Automation to create a new process.

In case you need more information about Marketing Automation, please review the detailed document, which outlines the entire structure and offers an in-depth description of its operational mechanisms.

Fig. 4, fig. 5: First steps of creating a Marketing Automation. 

The corresponding Trigger Mailing will only be activated by inserting it into the process. To access the general settings, click on the Action Node in the menu bar on the right.

Fig. 6: Select the corresponding Trigger Mailing.

To activate the Trigger Mailing, complete the Automation process and click on the green radio button on the right.

Fig. 7: Build and activate the Automation to dispatch the Trigger Mailing. 

This dispatching mode can be utilised for all types of Trigger Mailings, including those that are sent only once, or are linked to a predetermined date, such as a birthday emailings or general marketing campaigns.

“Single dispatch for an event”

Unlike Marketing Automation, which can send several Trigger Mailings within its process, a single dispatch only sends one. In this case, an event triggers the dispatch of the emailing.

The first step in this process is to select the contact event in the Event field. The appropriate contact event defines which data will be transferred to the Trigger Mailing. Whenever the assigned contact event is triggered, the dispatch of the Trigger Mailing is initiated.

In this example the contact event is a DOI link confirmation after DOI subscription, which is relevant for a single dispatch as it occurs only once. This Trigger Mailing is intended to be dispatched after subscription confirmation.

The “Validity” checkbox in the „Mailing logic“ of Trigger Mailings is only relevant for those users who receive a Trigger Mailing for the first time (e.g. if the user is new). After that, the subscription remains valid for any subsequent dispatches (e.g. birthday emailings).

By default, please tick the “All active DOI Mails” checkbox. A specification (other option) is needed in cases such as when the same letter is sent simultaneously in multiple languages.

Fig. 8: For a single dispatch please select the appropriate contact event, which defines the data of the trigger. 

Any contact event can activate a Trigger Mailing indeed, but in these cases only one letter is sent as well.

Fig. 9: Select the appropriate contact event to activate the Trigger Mailing.

Main types of single dispatch emailings:

• cart abandonment,
• forgotten password,
• invoice emailings,
• delivery/late delivery,
• welcome emailing.

 

Note: Ticking the “Permission neutral possible” checkbox results in all the users associated with the contact event receiving the Trigger Mailing regardless of their permission status.

Fig. 10: Ticking the ”Permission neutral possible” checkbox affects the list of recipients. 

Before activating the Trigger Mailing, please set the “Dispatch limit”, which determines the maximum number of dispatches to a contact within a certain time period.

Fig. 11: Please set ”Dispatch limit” for the Trigger Mailing.

Then, as in the previous case, activate the Trigger Mailing by clicking on the button in the bottom right corner of the screen. In this case, pressing the button activates the process.
Note: activating the process is not the same as sending! The process will go „live“ immediately and will be listed under „Active Trigger.“ It is now prepared to send emailings to contacts according to the configured dispatch logic.

Fig. 12: Start the process with the ”activate Trigger-Mailing” button.

“Continuous consolidated dispatch”

This emailing logic enables the dispatch of multiple Trigger Mailings simultaneously at a scheduled time such as for birthday Trigger Mailings. In addition to the manually adjustable time interval, it is necessary to specify whether an event or a contact filter affiliation will activate the process.

With the “Event” option, Maileon collects all addresses and additional required data externally via a certain predefined contact event, whereas with the “Contact filter affiliation” option, Maileon collects all recipients within the system who meet specific conditions.

Fig. 13: The dispatch can be triggered by either a contact event or a contact filter affiliation.

Event-based triggers can follow the examples mentioned previously. The „Contact Filter Affiliation“ option is applicable for the following types:

• “we miss you” emailings,
• birthday and jubilee emailings, and
• general marketing campaigns.

 

“RSS feed controlled collective mailing”

In this case the RSS feed is the trigger which must be manually adjusted. In addition, you can also set the timing schedule for the dispatch (fig. 14).

Fig. 14: Copy and paste the appropriate RSS link, then set the time interval.

In the “Dispatch conditions” you can specify the type of RSS feed update that triggers the emailing (fig. 15).

Fig. 15: Please select the RSS feed update conditions.

The “Minimum number” sets the threshold for how many new RSS feed entries are required for the process to start. It can depend on the product: for text content, such as blog articles, one new entry may activate the sending of a Trigger Mailing, whereas for products it is advisable to specify a higher minimum threshold.

After setting this, select the appropriate product sorting and choose an ascending or descending order (fig. 16).

Fig. 16: Define the extended sending conditions for sending RSS feed triggers in a few steps. 

Before activation, simply select the relevant contact filter (or create one) and specify the dispatch limit (fig. 17).

Fig. 17: The appropriate contact filter and dispatch limit must be selected before activation.

Summary: The choice of which type of emailing logic to use depends on the type of Trigger Mailing: content, product, offer, message, etc. However, it’s essential to select the right contact event or filter, as it serves as the primary driver for Trigger Mailings.

Placeholders in Trigger Mailings

Creating a new trigger draft

When editing Trigger Mailings, the first step starts in Mailings > Trigger mailings > Trigger Drafts. Create a new Trigger Mailing by using the “+” icon (fig. 18).

Fig. 18: The first step to create a Trigger Mailing is to click the “+” icon in Mailings > Trigger mailings > Trigger Drafts.

Clicking on the icon “+” will lead you to the editor, where you can create a Trigger Mailing using the same steps as for the general emailing template. For more information, please navigate to Editor2 in the Help-Center. The display is analogous to general emailings with a few exceptions. The differences encountered during the editing process are detailed below.

The editor takes you through the usual steps of content creation. After filling in the basic settings, you can build your emailing using “Saved templates”, from the “Templates gallery”, by “Import HTML file” or “From scratch”.

Inserting a placeholder

During the content creation process in the editor, there is an option to insert placeholders in the context menu of the text element (fig. 19).

Placeholders individualise the Trigger Mailing, which increases engagement and personalises the tone of wording. You can add multiple placeholders in the emailing, including personal name, address, date, city or even products.

Fig. 19: ‚Insert placeholder‘ allows you to specify the contact parameters.

The curly brackets { } indicate the specification of the contact’s parameters. The selected placeholders can be inserted into the text, customising it according to the placeholders. The more placeholders in the emailing, the more personalised the emailing becomes. However, please ensure that the proportions are appropriately maintained.

Clicking on the { } icon activates a drop-down menu where you can choose – in the case of Trigger Mailings – from four placeholder types. One of these is the “Contact field”, which offers placeholders for every contact field available in the user contact area, e.g. First name (fig. 20, 21).

Fig. 20, 21: Types of placeholders within the ‚Contact field‘. 

Clicking on First name will insert the placeholder [[% firstname]] in double square brackets in the text area. In the dispatching process the placeholder will then be replaced by the personalised information – in this case, the first name of the user (fig. 22).

Fig. 22: The placeholder with its specified information appears in double square brackets. 

During the content creation process you can insert placeholders for both external and internal data sources.

Internal sources for placeholders are those that occur within the Maileon system, such as the name and the unsubscribe link.

In the case of external sources, the data is usually obtained via API interfaces. Contact events represent definitions of a contact’s activities that are transmitted through the interface. They contain a set of properties. Each property is labelled with a name, which will later be the placeholder’s name.

For example: If in the external source (e.g. webshop) exists a field “last name“ and you want to use it in the Trigger Mailing, you would set up a property in the contact event and name it accordingly “lastname” or “last_name”.
Note: no blank spaces allowed in property names!
After the contact event is set up with all required properties, you assign it to your Trigger Mailing in the phase “Dispatch Logic & Approval”. Now you can use any property of the assigned contact event within a placeholder, just where you need it in the Trigger Mailing.

Clicking on the { } icon again, the “Contact event” option from the drop-down menu is only available for Trigger Mailings (fig. 23).

Fig. 23: The ”Contact event” option in the ”Insert placeholder“ submenu is only available for Trigger Mailings.

Since a Trigger Mailing is initiated by an event, the parameters and specifications of this event can be embedded in the emailing.
Select the corresponding type of “Contact events” by clicking on it (fig. 24), and then the appropriate “Contact event property” as well (fig. 25). If there is no appropriate contact event yet, please create a corresponding one before starting to use the editor. The contact events must be transferred via API.

Fig. 24: Clicking on ”Contact event”, please select the appropriate one from the dropdown list. 

Fig. 25: For “Contact event” also select the corresponding “Contact event property”. 

You can further customise the placeholders shown in the Trigger Mailing by selecting the „Use default value“ checkbox. The value entered manually in the pop-up box depends on the type of “Contact event”. The box also contains examples to fill it correctly.

See below two examples (fig. 26, 27). 

Fig. 26: Example of a manually set default value for a webshop order where the contact event property is the date.

Fig. 27: Example of a manually set default value for an abandoned cart where the contact event property is the name.

∑ (sum) sign

It is a tool that allows you to set the output of the information under „Contact event property“, such as security settings, decimal values, upper/lower case letters, abbreviations, etc. The three of these, which consist of numbers, are three different methods to encode your output. This is useful in cases where you don’t want your information to be seen (fig. 28).

Fig. 28: The sum sign can be used to further specialising. Three of these are methods to encode your output.

Further placeholders

You can also place “Email properties” as placeholders – such as send date and subject line – and “Voucher codes” in the content. For further information, please navigate to Editor2 in the Help-Center.

Salutation rules in Trigger Mailings

Dynamic Texts (Conditional Content), which can be found at Media & Templates > Dynamic Elements > Dynamic Texts are not allowed within Trigger Mailings. These can only be used for regular emailings.

To insert salutation or personalised content from contact fields please use contact fields with fallback or personalisation scriptlets.

Maileon works here with IF and ELSE rules to assign the appropriate salutation. If detailed information about a contact is not available, a general salutation is included as a fallback option.

Some examples to illustrate:

1. Last name or “Hello,”

• Hello Mr. XY,
• Hello Ms. XY,
• Fallback: Hello,

[[IF|EXISTS|CONTACT|LASTNAME]][[IF|EXISTS|CONTACT|SALUTATION]][[IF|CONTAINS-IGNORE-CASE(‚Mr‘)|CONTACT|SALUTATION]]Hello Mr. [[CONTACT|LASTNAME ]],[[ELSE]]Hello Ms. [[CONTACT|LASTNAME]],[[/IF]][[ELSE]]Good afternoon,[[/IF]][[ELSE]]Good afternoon,[[/ IF]]

2. Last name or “Dear Sir or Madam,”

• Dear Mr. XY,
• Dear Ms. XY,
• (Fallback:) Dear Sir or Madam,

[[IF|EXISTS|CONTACT|LASTNAME]][[IF|EXISTS|CONTACT|SALUTATION]][[IF|CONTAINS-IGNORE-CASE(‚Mr‘)|CONTACT|SALUTATION]]Dear Mr. [[CONTACT|LASTNAME ]],[[ELSE-IF|CONTAINS-IGNORE-CASE(‚Mrs‘)|CONTACT|SALUTATION]]Dear Ms. [[CONTACT|LASTNAME]],[[ELSE]]Dear Sir or Madam,[[/ IF]][[ELSE]]Dear ladies and gentlemen,[[/IF]][[ELSE]]Dear ladies and gentlemen,[[/IF]]

3. Last name or “Dear newsletter reader,”

• Dear Mr. XY,
• Dear Ms. XY,
• (Fallback:) Dear newsletter readers,

[[IF|EXISTS|CONTACT|LASTNAME]][[IF|EXISTS|CONTACT|SALUTATION]][[IF|CONTAINS-IGNORE-CASE(‚Mr‘)|CONTACT|SALUTATION]]Dear Mr. [[CONTACT|LASTNAME] ],[[ELSE-IF|CONTAINS-IGNORE-CASE(‚Mrs‘)|CONTACT|SALUTATION]]Dear Ms. [[CONTACT|LASTNAME]],[[ELSE]]Dear newsletter readers,[[/IF]] [[ELSE]]Dear newsletter readers,[[/IF]][[ELSE]]Dear newsletter readers,[[/IF]]

4. First name or “Dear company fan,”

• Dear XY,
• Dear XY,
• (Fallback:) Dear company fan,

[[IF|EXISTS|CONTACT|FIRSTNAME]][[IF|EXISTS|CONTACT|SALUTATION]][[IF|CONTAINS-IGNORE-CASE(‚Mr‘)|CONTACT|SALUTATION]]Dear [[CONTACT|FIRSTNAME]] ,[[ELSE-IF|CONTAINS-IGNORE-CASE(‚Mrs‘)|CONTACT|SALUTATION]]Dear [[CONTACT|FIRSTNAME]],[[ELSE]]Dear company fan,[[/IF]][[ ELSE]]Dear company fan,[[/IF]][[ELSE]]Dear company fan,[[/IF]]

Trigger Mailings from Template gallery

Trigger Mailing drafts can also be found in the Template gallery. When editing, please select “Template gallery” from the emailing creation options, and then choose “Trigger Mailing”, which contains some predesigned drafts – and there are more to come (fig. 29, 30).

Figs. 29, 30: Select from the Template gallery’s Trigger Mailing templates quickly and easily.

Among these you will find the most essential Trigger Mailing templates, which are fully customisable, editable, and available for use. The emailing patterns include the most essential Trigger Mailings, such as examples of abandoned cart, birthday, welcome, and double opt-in emailings.

JTL templates

In the Template gallery you will find the JTL templates, which use different names for the contact event and properties compared to the others.

Fig. 31: JTL use different names for the contact event and properties.

Please note: Templates that are used by default in Maileon are not compatible with the JTL plugin. Those users who utilise JTL Shop need a plugin to connect both systems. The features are the same as in the other plugins.

For further details on this topic, please refer to the JTL Shop plugin documentation.

Testing of Trigger Mailings

The testing of Trigger Mailings is different from normal emailings because the inserted placeholders contain unique transactional data. As a result, testing involves a multi-step process, which is outlined below.

Note: All the details cannot be displayed due to privacy concerns. While the description of the process does not include specific details, its structure remains straightforward to understand.

Once you have completed editing the emailing, click on “Preview” (screen icon, fig. 32).

Fig. 32: The first step of testing is the same as for normal emailings.

Once on the test page, click on the “+ Create sample” button to activate the contact event in your plugin (fig. 33). Note: The text version (with the red dot) should always be activated when accessing the preview.

Fig. 33: Click on the ”+ Create sample” button to start testing. 

Next, since an empty box pops up here, specify the sample contact event by entering the sample transaction JSON code within it (fig. 34).

Note: The JSON contains a list of information in standardised format that belongs to an emailing address. For more details, please refer to the relevant section of the Help-Center.

Fig. 34: In the empty box, enter the sample transaction JSON code.

The code can be entered manually in multiple steps. To input it, please go to List & Contacts > Contact Events > Event Data. Select one “Event Data” and click on it (fig. 35).

Any order can be utilised for testing purposes, provided it contains genuine order parameters.

Fig. 35: Click on the corresponding ”Event data” to access the JSON code.

The following list contains the comprehensive history of the contact event. Note: For data protection reasons, the data in the figure is not real. Click on a magnifying glass icon here to activate the transformation. To conduct the testing, any dataset parameters are suitable (fig. 36).

Fig. 36: Click on the magnifying glass icon to get the code for testing. 

The long code in the following pop-up window contains the sample transaction JSON code. Please copy the formatted information to finalise the testing purposes (fig. 37).

Note: For data protection reasons, the data in the figure is not real.

Fig. 37: To complete the process, copy the long code of JSON format to the testing interface.