Creating Push Content

Create, customize, and send, a QA tested push notification to multiple platforms in a single campaign.

Push notifications are a powerful channel that enable you to communicate with your app users when your app isn’t open or even running. MessageGears push notification campaigns help you to engage with your customers in a timely, relevant, and personalized manner.

Use push notifications to target the right message to the right people at the right time:

• Engage with inactive users – Encourage users back into the app using highly personalized push notifications.
• Promote special offers – Reward loyalty through daily, weekly, or monthly promotional offers.
• Connect users to in-app promotional offers – Make the experience frictionless with push to in-app messaging.
• Abandon cart notifications – Send reminders to users who have added items to their cart but have yet to purchase.
• Order progress updates – Keep users up to date on their purchases and pending deliveries.

Select your push content template 

Before building a template, it's advised to select the appropriate push app from the Templates screen.

This selection dictates the entire template building experience, including whether it's a Swrve or Pinpoint/Airship vendor. It also defines: 

• The inclusion of specific fields on the Content builder page
  • Platform-specific deeplinks.
  • Advanced Android options.
  • iOS rich media. 
• The QA devices available for sending test push notifications.
• The in-app message and embedded campaigns that can be linked from a push notification. 

Setting a default push app 

To ensure a seamless content creation process, users can set a default push app in the system configuration settings. This default push app will automatically populate the push app selection field on newly created templates (except for templates created by duplication), simplifying the workflow for marketers responsible for a single push app.

Default push app setting in the system configuration

Manually altering the push app on the template overview page is permitted; however, it's important to note that this action will clear any previously created content associated with that template within the push channel. To prevent unintended changes, users will receive a warning when attempting to make this change.

With release 24.1.1, to avoid disrupting existing push templates, the push app field is not automatically populated. For existing templates that don't have a value in the push app selection field, they are noted as using the Airship/Pinpoint vendors. Selecting the push content screen opens the existing push content options. Consequently, the content page for these templates will remain the same as before, with no alterations to the content-building experience.

Edit your push content template

Once the Swrve vendor push app is selected on a template, users can proceed to edit push content templates in our new streamlined editing experience, allowing you to input push notification content using a single, cross-platform form.

Editing content on the Push content screen

Platform-specific content

The dynamic push content screen only displays the platform-specific fields that are supported by the selected push app.

• iOS-specific media
  • Supports .gif and .wav (audio) files, which are not supported by other push platforms.
• Android, Amazon, and Huawei advanced options
  • Extended content - replaces default content when the notification is extended in the notification panel
    • Icon - replaces large icons in the extended view.
    • Title - replaces default titles in the extended view.
    • Body - replaces default body in the extended view.
  • Large icon - displays to the right of the content.

Custom buttons and engagement actions

With release 24.1.1, the following functionality is available:

• Custom buttons
  • Add up to three custom buttons to give your users options for interacting with the notification in extended view.
  • You can configure the button actions with deeplinks to direct the customer to a specific screen in your app, or even use the buttons to create a short survey.
• Engagement actions
  • Define the behavior when the user interacts with the notification.
  • Open app.
  • Deeplink, which directs the user to the specified URL either by a screen within the app, or by opening the URL on the device’s default browser.
  • Open to in-app message or embedded campaign, which displays a preconfigured Swrve in-app message or embedded campaign. For more information, see Push notifications to in-app campaigns in the Swrve Help Center for details.

Personalizing dynamic content logic

Personalizing push notifications is made simpler with the new personalization menu. Users can inject recipient data directly into each content field, defining fallback behaviors and letter case preferences without having to use FreeMarker.

After selecting a data value, users have the option to customize the following:

• Lettercase - This feature enables users to modify the casing of the string value according to the audience attribute. By default, no change is applied, but users can opt for all caps, sentence case, or all lowercase.
• Fallback text - Users can input a value to be used if the selected attribute is empty for any specific recipient.

Select personalization from the lightning bolt icon within the content form

Recipient attributes added via personalization are displayed as chips within the input field, enhancing visibility and allowing users to modify attributes or fallback behaviors conveniently. For more advanced dynamic content logic, users can still leverage FreeMarker directly in the fields.

Insert recipient data in the input field

Testing push content on Swrve apps 

Before deploying push notifications to a wider audience, you can view a template preview of a fully rendered push notification with recipient data on both iPhone and Android devices. Users can select one or more QA devices to send test messages to, confirming the behavior of push notifications upon engagement.

The dashboard provides feedback on whether the push notification was successfully sent or rejected by the push service, aiding in troubleshooting any potential issues.

Viewing a push preview

Delivering push campaigns

Push notifications can serve both marketing and transactional campaigns, each with distinct requirements.

Creating a marketing campaign

To create a marketing campaign leveraging the push channel, there are some important prerequisites:

• A template with push content for the production push app. As templates can include app-specific content such as deeplinks or campaign links, the push app will be set (by default or user selection) on the template.
• An audience that is set to include the push app that corresponds to the app specified in the template.
• The device reach of the push delivery must be known.
  Note: Transactional campaigns have a device reach of last active device per platform (iOS or Android).

Configure the following settings to successfully create a marketing campaign for push delivery: 

1. In the MessageGears navigation, select Campaigns > Marketing.
2. Select Create Marketing campaign. 
3. Enter the campaign Name, and an optional Description.
4. Select a Template for the campaign, which was previously configured with push notification content for the push app.
5. Select the Audience of recipients to receive the marketing campaign.
   Note: If the push app specified in the template does not match the app in the selected audience, a validation message will appear. This can be resolved by selecting a different template or audience with a matching push app.
6. Select the relevant Channels for the message. For push notifications, choose one of following recipients:
   • All channels.
   • User preference.
   • Push only.
7. For the Push delivery options, specify the platforms and device reach for the push delivery:
   • Platform options include iOS and Android. By default, all platforms are selected to ensure maximum delivery scope.
   • Device reach options include Last active device or Last active device in each platform.
     • To optimize your push campaigns for engagement by targeting the device the user was most recently active on, set the device reach to Last active device.
     • To use a broader delivery strategy that targets users' devices across all selected platforms, set the device reach to Last active device in each platform.
8. Select the relevant Account and any other specific requirements for the marketing campaign.
9. Select Save.
10. Select Preview Recipient Data to test the campaign.
11. In the Schedule screen area, choose change and configure the schedule for the marketing campaign.

Creating a marketing campaign

Creating a transactional campaign

The settings for transactional campaigns for push notification vary depending on the channel and use case. However, the same prerequisites apply when delivering push notifications to a mobile device.
To configure a transactional campaign for push delivery:

1. In the MessageGears navigation, select Campaigns > Transactional.
2. Select Create Transactional campaign. 
3. On the Campaign Settings screen, select a Template for the campaign, previously created with push notification content for the push app.
4. Select the Push toggle, to include a push notification delivery.
5. In the Push App field, select the required push app.
   Note: Ensure this matches the push app in the selected template.
6. By default, the Platforms are set to iOS and Android, with Device reach set to Last active device.
   Note: Push notifications have the maximum reach set for transactional campaigns. 
7. Select any other specific requirements for the marketing campaign.
8. Select Save.

Creating a transactional campaign

Viewing campaign metrics

As part of this release, Accelerator will provide support for the current range of push notification metrics applicable to all tasks conducted using a Swrve push app. This includes key deliverability metrics, such as Recipients, Deliveries, Bounces, Content Errors, and Suppressions.

Exporting data to Swrve using External Campaigns

Data is sent to Swrve through External Campaigns in Accelerator. Accelerator supports two Swrve destinations: Swrve Attributes, which adds attributes to the Custom User Properties list in Swrve; and Swrve List, which updates existing user lists, or creates and updates new user lists.

Swrve Attributes

Use the Swrve Attributes destination in External Campaigns to add attributes to the Custom User Properties list in the Swrve dashboard. Once exported, you can use these attributes in the Swrve dashboard for personalization, targeting, and reporting purposes.

1. In Accelerator, navigate to Segment > External > Create External Campaign.
2. In the Destinations screen, select Swrve Attributes Destination as the destination.
3. Select the ID Type and the ID Column.
   • ID Type refers to either the Swrve ID or External ID, and this information should be included in the recipient data. If you're uncertain, you can preview your recipient data.
   • ID Column is the column in your recipient data that contains the ID.
4. Select Create.
5. Once you launch the campaign, validate that the export was successful by logging into the Swrve dashboard and navigating to Manage > User Properties.
6. Search for the properties exported.

If an external campaign is executed with properties that do not already exist in Swrve (excluding the above scenario), then new user properties are created in Swrve.

If a user record does not exist in Swrve when the external campaign is executed, the outcome is dependent on the ID type used:

• If using a Swrve ID, a new user record is created with that Swrve ID.
• If using an External User ID, the request is ignored and a new user record is NOT created.

Swrve List

Use the Swrve List destination in External Campaigns to add users to User Lists in Swrve. In addition to updating existing lists, you can create and update new lists.
Note: There is a limit of 50 user lists. If the limit is reached, log in to Swrve to archive old user lists before creating new ones.

1. In Accelerator, navigate to Segment > External > Create External Campaign.
2. In the Destinations screen, select Swrve Attributes Destination as the destination.
3. Select the ID Type and the ID Column.
4. Select the relevant User List.
   Note: You must have access to the Swrve Dashboard to see the available User Lists.
5. If you can't locate the required list, create a new one by selecting Create New User List.
6. Create a List ID. This requires a specific format as it is the field used to identify the list in API calls, for example, sarahs_user_list.
7. Create a List Name. The readable form of the List ID, for example, Sarah’s User List.
8. Select Done. The list is automatically created and available for selection in the User List dropdown.
9. Validate that the list was created by checking in the Swrve dashboard. Log in to Swrve and navigate to Manage > User Lists.
10. Search for the required list.
11. Once the campaign is launched, validate that the export was successful.
    
    A user record with a matching Swrve ID or External user ID must already exist in order for that user to count towards the user list size (number of user columns in the Swrve User lists page). However, Swrve maintains a record of users who were added to the list based on the Swrve ID (not the External user ID). If any user records with a matching Swrve ID are subsequently created, users who were previously added to the list are counted. Requests to add or remove users from a list based on the External user ID are disregarded if no corresponding record is found.