Overview
A Transactional Campaign is a one-to-one campaign that is initiated by some sort of trigger. Examples of transactional email messages would be an email sent as a purchase confirmation, an electronic sales receipt, or a password reset confirmation message. In such cases, the recipient triggers the transactional campaign by performing a specific action.
Transactional Campaigns configured within Accelerator work similarly to Marketing Campaigns. Email, SMS, or Push Templates allow a user to easily create visual elements of a Campaign.
There are several benefits to creating the Transactional Campaigns within Accelerator. Creating the Campaign through the user interface encourages the use of Dynamic Content, personalization, and the use of the Template Drag-and-Drop Builder. Additionally, creating Transactional Campaigns through Accelerator allows for reporting and analytics on contacts made through the Campaign.
Each Transactional Campaign in Accelerator contains most of the information necessary to render the message, except the recipient and context data which are provided each time a transactional message is triggered.
| Note: It is possible to send Transactional Contacts without creating a Transactional Campaign within Accelerator. |
Table of Contents
Building a Transactional Campaign
Audience for Transactional Campaigns
Transactional Campaigns without Accelerator
Additional Settings and Options for Transactional Campaigns
Testing Transactional Campaigns
Overview Page
The Overview page of a Campaign provides a wealth of information about the current setup of the campaign. You can preview using the “Inspect Message Content” button, which takes you to the Personalization page, or by clicking the Send Test.
Additionally, you can view important details of the campaign such as:
- Template
- The template associated with this campaign is displayed here.
- Clicking the template name brings you to the Overview page of that template.
- Spam Assassin Score
- Displays the score from the Spam Filter testing page.
- Clicking the score takes you to this campaign’s Spam Filter testing page.
- Approx. Message Size
- Displays the size of the template and shared content for this campaign.
- Approx. Render Time
- Displays the anticipated render time of a single message for this campaign.
- Created By
- The user who generated the campaign.
- Clicking the name will bring you to the User Details page for that individual.
- Date Created
- The date and time (GMT) when this campaign was generated.
- Last Updated By
- The user who last made changes to the campaign.
- Clicking the name will bring you to the User Details page for that individual.
- Date Last Modified
- Date and time (GMT) of last campaign edits.
- Groups
- This corresponds to the User Groups with permissions to access this campaign.
- Clicking on a particular group will bring you to a Group Details page.
From the Overview, you can also Promote the campaign. See the "API Examples" guide section for more information about promoting and triggering a Transactional Campaign.
Building a Transactional Campaign
Audience for Transactional Campaigns
Transactional Campaigns do not use Audiences to process customer data in the same way that Marketing Campaigns do. The only reason an Audience is needed when setting up a Transactional Campaign is to ensure that the Template being used supports all needed channels.
If the Template of the Transactional Campaign utilizes multiple channels of communication, then an Audience with the necessary fields must be available.
When creating an Audience, the required fields for cross-channel communication are clearly displayed. The required fields are the fields that display by default when creating an Audience.
| For more information on creating Audiences, refer to Creating and Editing Audiences. |
Template
Templates must be configured for each contact channel that the Transactional Campaign requires. Transactional Campaigns require Templates.
Personalization can be used within Templates for Transactional Campaigns, but there is no Audience data that populates the personalization. When using the API call to trigger a Transactional Campaign to make a contact, the recipient data is included within the call. If using a personalization field called "firstName" within the Template, the API call must include a field of Recipient data called "firstName" exactly.
If the Template being used in the Campaign does not have an entry for a contact channel, then the Transactional Campaign will not support that type of contact.
| For more information on creating Templates, refer to the Drag-and-Drop Editor or End-to-End Newsletter Creation. |
Creating a Campaign
After creating a Template that has entries for each type of contact, the Transactional Campaign can be created. Once this has been done, you can Navigate to Message → Delivery → Transactional to see any Transactional Campaigns that have already been created. Transactional Campaigns can be viewed in a file format or not. Switch the view using the two view buttons next to the Create Campaign button.
Click Create Campaign to create a new Transactional Campaign. The new Campaign is created immediately with a default name following this format: User Name Date Timestamp. Creating a Campaign will display the Campaign Overview screen.
This Campaign Overview screen, while sharing the same name, is different from the Campaign Overview screen displayed for Marketing Campaigns. Transactional Campaigns have fewer settings and requirements than Marketing Campaigns.
Update the name and descriptions of the Campaign by selecting the title.
While there are Campaign settings for Transactional Campaigns, the first step of configuring a Transactional Campaign is to select a Template.
It is important that the Template have an entry for all channels that the Transactional Campaign will support.
Selecting a Template that supports more than one channel displays the appropriate channels within the Template selection. Different channels from the Template can be enabled or disabled for the Campaign by using the toggles.
The Notification Email Address is an email address that receives updates if there is an error with the Campaign.
The URL Append field can be used to add information to the URL for reasons like Link Tracking or Google Analytics.
Selecting a Template will change the Campaign Overview screen to display the Template and configurations selected.
Four new tabs display at the top of the Campaign Overview screen. View the Campaign Overview details by selecting the Overview tab.
API Example
The API Example tab contains a pre-generated example of an API call through the Transactional Campaign.
The API Example generated in this tab is based on the details of the Campaign.
| Note: Copying and pasting the API Example and attempting an API call will not work right away. The API Example contains some variables like <bearerToken> and <promotedCampaignId> that are not yet accessible. The <promotedCampaignId> is generated after the Campaign is promoted. The <bearerToken> is a value that can be gathered through an API call. |
The API Example also contains Recipient Data. In an actual API call, this would contain the information of the recipient who will be contacted through the Campaign. The values in the API Example come from the Audience that is connected to the Template. Any fields established through the Template Audience, including Launch Variables, display within the API Example. Those fields showing in the API Example do not mean that all API calls must contain this information.
The required fields for a Transactional Campaign depend on the type of contact. It is also recommended that any values required for rendering the Template correctly be included in the API call.
The full API Example from the picture above:
POST https://api.messagegears.net/v5/campaign/transactional/<promotedCampaignId>
Headers:
Authorization: Bearer <bearerToken>
Content-Type: application/json
Body:
{
"accountId": 84207387,
"context": "<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?><ContextData></ContextData>",
"recipient":
"<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<Recipient>
<EmailAddress>griz.ruos@blackhole.messagegears.com</EmailAddress>
<RecipientId>86</RecipientId>
<Firstname>Griz</Firstname>
<LastName>Ruos</LastName>
<PushAddress>cca037628001130f812a0cfd38516b7b</PushAddress>
<PushService>FCM</PushService>
<DaysSinceSignup>1</DaysSinceSignup>
<LifetimeValue>433</LifetimeValue>
<LoyaltyLevel/>
<LoyaltyNextLevel/>
<LoyaltyNextThreshold/>
<ProfileComplete>0</ProfileComplete>
<MobileApp>1</MobileApp>
<ChannelPreference>Push</ChannelPreference>
<low_valueA isLabel="true"/>
<low_valueB isLabel="true"/>
<no_mobile isLabel="true"/>
<welcome isLabel="true"/>
</Recipient>"
}
At the bottom of the API Example tab is the response that the API service sends back after a call.
This requestId can be used in another API call to view the contact sent to the recipient.
| The <promotedCampaignId> within the API Example will be populated after the campaign has been promoted. |
| Read more about using requestIds for reporting here. |
Personalization
The Personalization tab displays the Template attached to the Transactional Campaign. Use this view to confirm that the Template is rendering correctly. Any personalized values within the Template need to be included in the API call in order to be utilized within the Template. Test the Template to confirm it renders successfully.
| For more information on testing Template Personalization, refer to End-to-End Newsletter Creating. |
Spam Test
The Spam Test tab runs the contact attempt that the Transactional Campaign will generate a test to determine the likeliness that a contact through this Campaign will be detected as Spam. Choose an Account and Sample Recipient and create the test.
The Spam test will return ratings through multiple services. Because of this, the test may take a few minutes to complete.
Promoting a Campaign
Similar to launching a Marketing Campaign, a Transactional Campaign must be promoted before use. Promoting a Campaign takes the settings of a Transactional Campaign and updates the API environment with the campaign details. Whether creating a new campaign or updating an existing campaign, the campaign must be promoted before it can be utilized through an API call.
Promoting a campaign will not cause contacts to immediately be sent. Instead, it will allow API calls to successfully access this Transactional Campaign and use the HTML and details of the campaign.
Click the Promote button at the top of the screen to promote the campaign. A prompt will appear.
Promoting a Campaign cannot be undone. Once it is sent to the Cloud environment, API calls can use the Campaign configuration to send contact attempts. To stop using a Campaign, simply stop calling it.
After promoting the Campaign, a new tab will display.
Analytics
One benefit of using a Transactional Campaign is the easy reporting tool in the Analytics tab of the Campaign.
This tab is an easy method of viewing the results of contacts made through the Transactional Campaign. View the total deliveries, opens, clicks, attrition, bounces, and suppresses from contacts made through the Campaign.
Four logos display in the top right of the screen:
Use these buttons to break down the reporting information based on the type of contact. The first option includes totals of all forms of contact. The envelope logo only includes email contacts. The next logo is for Push contacts. The final logo is for SMS contacts.
Transactional Campaigns without Accelerator
It is possible to use API calls to launch Transactional Contacts without setup within Accelerator. Using the API method called Transactional Job Submit, a contact can be sent to a recipient without configuration of a Transactional Campaign. Personalization can still be used in this method.
If using this method, the HTML of the email contact will have to manually be configured within the API call. Because there is no Transactional Campaign, there is no attached Template to dictate what must be rendered. The HTML of an email contact must be included.
More information on the Transactional Job Submit can be found within the API Documentation.
Additional Settings and Options for Transactional Campaigns
Settings
The Settings page for a Marketing Campaign is where you designate the Template and List for the campaign’s design and recipients.
Name and description can be edited from what was set during the original creation of the campaign, and changes will display on the Overview page. These items are internal and only visible to users, not recipients.
The Category field is meant to be used as a reporting tool, allowing you to categorize and identify groupings of campaigns together. Category is returned with internal reporting data, and can be pulled into campaign content using the personalizable field for Job Category: ${Gears.jobCategory}
In the Template field, you will start typing the name of a Template created in the Content section of Accelerator and select the one you want to send.
Advanced Options
Notification Email Address allows you to provide an address to receive error notifications related to this campaign.
Using the URL Append field, it is possible to add parameters to all links in the campaign, such as Google Analytics UTM strings or other parameters for internal analytics.
Testing Transactional Campaigns
Personalization (Testing & Preview)
On the Personalization page in a Campaign, you can generate a live test of the content on the page in order to test personalization rendering times and results across HTML and text content versions.
Spam Filter Testing
On the Spam Filter page in a Campaign, you can generate and view spam scores associated with the template. This can help to identify content issues which may lead to the campaign emails landing in spam folders rather than recipients’ inboxes. This tool is powered by SpamAssassin, a commonly used spam filter.
API Examples
Using an API request, the recipient and context data can be provided resulting in a single email to a single email address being triggered. The TransactionalCampaignSubmit API requires that a CampaignId be provided with the request, as well as the recipient data used to render and send the message.
Since Transactional Campaigns are triggered by API, the necessary Account ID, Campaign ID, and API Key are all provided on the Transactional Campaign’s “API Examples” page. Additionally, we provide sample code for submitting the API request via REST, Java SDK, or C# SDK.
Read more about the parameters for the TransactionalCampaignSubmit API Here
| Note: A Transactional Campaign cannot be triggered until it has been Promoted. |
Promoting a Transactional Campaign
Transactional Campaigns are initiated by triggers, but before any transactional messages can be sent the campaign must be initially Promoted. When first Promoting a Transactional Campaign, there will not be any messages triggered to be sent; it merely assigns a campaign ID and makes the campaign available for triggering. Before being Promoted, a Transactional Campaign will not have a Campaign ID to use with the TransactionalCampaignSubmit API.
After being initially Promoted, subsequent changes to content of campaign settings can be made and tested without affecting live triggers. Once the changes have been tested and approved, Promoting the campaign again will push the new content live, and future messages will use the new content.
The Promotion process takes up to 5 minutes to take effect in triggered sends of the campaign, during which time API requests will continue to receive the previously Promoted version.
| Note: Before promoting a Transactional Campaign successfully, the template will need to have a successful preview in the Test->Personalization tab. If there are render errors, please correct your template and retry. |
Analytics
Charts on this page reflect daily and monthly statistical trends in engagement with this Transactional Campaign.
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