To add a new Triggered Message, click on Marketing+ > Triggered Messages > New.
The Add New Triggered Message page is divided into 4 sections.
- General information, which is the top section of the page
- Frequency
- Event trigger
- Action
General information
In the top area of the page, you can specify:
- Name: a short name for the triggered message that you are creating
- Description: a description of what it will be used for. Both name and description are for internal use only. They are never shown to the recipient of the triggered message.
- Activation status: whether the triggered message is Enabled or Disabled. Leave a triggered message disabled when you don't want it to be executed (e.g. you are just testing it).
- Activation period: you can specify a certain period of time in which an Enabled triggered message will be executed.
- Timezone: specify which timezone you are in. The dates you specify will refer to your timezone.
Frequency
Next, specify the frequency with which the system will check whether the message should be sent.
- Every N days: Specify how often (number of days). For example, if you want the system to run this triggered message weekly, enter 7.
- Different time slots for different recipients: use the feature Sending time depends on the time zone defined in the field, to have the system run the triggered message 3 times a day, and execute it depending on the time of the day specified. For example, if you have recipients in different time zones and you wish the triggered message to be sent during the day (vs. at night time), you would use this feature and specify the different time slot to be used for different recipients. Click on Show time periods to see what the time slots are.
- Send only once: use this setting to avoid sending the message again to a recipient that has already received it
What does "Frequency" mean?
Frequency refers to the interval at which the triggered message is run. You are not setting how often the message will be sent. You are indicating how often you wish the system to check whether the message should be sent. The message will then be sent if the event that triggers it occurs. That is: if the conditions that you specify under the Event trigger tab are found to be true.
Event trigger
What event(s) will trigger the execution of this triggered message? This is the area of the page where you will specify the conditions that - when true - will trigger the execution of the message.
First, you will need to specify whether you want all conditions to be true for the message to be sent, or whether it's enough for one of the selected conditions to be true.
Then, you must specify which conditions will be checked. The options are:
- After N days from certain events. The events are:
- Email subscription: the date when the recipient subscribed to the List
- Email pending: the date when the recipient signed up, but did not confirm his/her intent to subscribe, thus remaining in "Pending" status
- SMS subscription: the data when the recipient subscribed to receive text messages in this List
- Latest click or open: the date when the recipient last opened a message or clicked on a link in a message
- Latest profile update: the date when the recipient last updated his/her profile in this List or any of the Lists that he/she is subscribed to
- When a certain condition applied to a Recipient field is true (e.g. the "Gender" field equals "F").
- Profile filter is matched: whether a Profile filter that you have previously setup is true for the recipient
- Activity Filter is matched; whether an Activity filter that you have previously setup is true for the recipient.
- Profile filter is not matched; whether a Profile filter that you have previously setup is true for the recipient.
- Activity Filter is not matched; whether an Activity filter that you have previously setup is true for the recipient.
The bottom part of the page allows you to further restrict the applicability of the triggered message. You can:
- Include only recipients that belong to one or more groups
- Exclude recipients that belong to one or more groups
- Apply additional filters (rare)
Action
Finally, you need to specify what happens if the conditions that have been checked are all true. The options are:
- Whether the message to be sent is an Email or a SMS (text message)
- Sender email or mobile phone
- Sender name
- After sending the message copy the recipients in this Group: this feature allows you to assign to a certain group every recipient to whom the triggered message is sent. This allows you to do chained campaigns, where you could create a second triggered message that is sent only to those that belong to that group.
- Send this message: select the message to be sent
- Retrieve the message ID from the field: alternatively, you can have the system select the message to be sent by pointing it to a field that contains the ID of the message to be picked. This means that you have a Recipient field that you are using to store the numeric ID of the message to be sent. This feature allows you to change the message that is sent depending on who the recipient is.
