Introduction to Smart Campaigns
Smart Campaigns is a marketing tool for sending out one-shot-campaigns, such as an event invitation or special Christmas offers. In Smart Campaigns, you can send messages via the following channels: email, SMS, print, Mobile Push and Web Push.
Use Smart Campaigns to create, start, monitor and evaluate regular campaigns. You create and edit these campaigns on a graphic desktop, and access the elements that make up a campaign (recipients, target groups, A/B test and the message) from the tool list in the left panel.
To use Smart Campaigns, go to the menu bar and select Campaigns > Smart Campaigns.
A list of Smart Campaigns appears in the top half of the window. The Status column shows whether a campaign was activated or sent.
Because a Smart Campaign's elements and parameters are displayed visually, you can control and optimize it. After you activate a campaign, the Smart Campaigns working area displays feedback on it.
introduction-to-smart-campaigns.mdxCampaigns and messages
Every Smart Campaign must have at least one message. Both campaigns and messages appear in the Campaign Overview in the Smart Campaigns window. A message begins with three dots (...) and is located below its campaign. The following conditions and relationships apply:
- A message must belong to a campaign.
- To send a campaign, you must include a message.
- A message's media type (email, print, push or SMS) must match its campaign's marketing channel.
- If your campaign uses the A/B Test (split test) node, you must create two versions of the message. See A/B test.
Campaign types
You can select from the following campaign types, each of which is sent via different channels. A Smart Campaign's recipient list must be compatible with its marketing channel.
- Email. Sends email to recipient of type Email or a multiple list.
- Print. Sends message to recipient of type Print or a multiple list via post (letter or postcard).
- SMS. Sends SMS message to recipient of type SMS or a multiple list.
- Mobile Push. Sends push messages to the Android or iOS device to a recipient of type Push or a multiple list.
- Web Push. Sends push messages that appear in the recipient's web browser. The recipient list must be a multiple list or of type Push.
Campaign status
- Incomplete. Elements are missing or necessary parameters are not defined. You cannot activate or start a campaign in this status.
- Activation required. Contains necessary elements and parameters. To send campaigns manually, activate the campaign before starting it.
- Activated. The campaign is activated and can be started (sent). Campaigns with a specified sending time are sent automatically when activated.
- Sending. A campaign 's messages are being sent.
- Paused. The sending process is paused manually, or the splits of an A/B test with manual optimization are ended. Click Start to restart the campaign or Cancel to end it.
- Canceled. The campaign is canceled and cannot be restarted.
- Sent. The campaign is sent.
Actions
Use the buttons below the campaign overview to perform these actions:
Copy
Edit
Note
Some actions are not available for incomplete or sent campaigns.
Creates a new campaign. See Creating and editing a campaign.
- Click a campaign in the list.
- Click Copy….
Use Copy if you regularly send similar campaigns. You can quickly make minor adjustments to values in the copied campaign. Campaign elements (recipients, target groups, messages, and so on) are applied.
Note
Limitations
- Individual messages in the list cannot be copied.
- Messages are not stand-alone; they belong to a campaign.
- You can reuse messages by selecting a message in the Selecting the type of content step.
Note
To migrate Mailings Classic mailings to Smart Campaigns, see Mailings Classic.
To edit a campaign:
- Click a campaign in the list.
- Click Edit….
See also Creating and editing a campaign.
To edit a message:
- Click a message in the list.
- Click Edit….
Note
Limitations
- Sent campaigns cannot be edited.
- Individual messages cannot be copied.
- Messages belong to a campaign.
To delete a campaign:
- Click a campaign in the list.
- Click Delete.
To delete a message:
- Click the campaign to which the message belongs.
- Click Edit….
- Hover over the message node and click .
Note
Limitations
- Sent campaigns cannot be deleted.
- Individual messages cannot be deleted.
- Messages belong to a campaign.
introduction-to-smart-campaigns.mdxActivate/Start
After a campaign is completely defined, its status changes to Activation required, and the Activate button appears.
Before you can start a campaign, you first need to activate it.
- Select the campaign and click Activate.
Note
After you activate a campaign, messages linked to a Wait node are automatically started at the specified time.
- Click Activate Campaign in the dialog box. The button changes to Start.
Tip
When activated, the campaign is validated along with parameters (recipients, target groups, message).
- Click Start to begin sending a campaign's messages with the specified parameters (target groups, reductions in sending speed, and so on).
Note
- You can activate campaigns only, not messages.
- Incomplete campaigns cannot be activated or started.
- You can start either a campaign or its associated messages.
Tip
You can automatically send a notification to an email address after a mailing is sent. See Sending automatic notification after dispatch.
A/B tests on activating/starting a campaign
If a campaign includes an A/B test, you will be able to start the splits for this campaign individually.
If you have selected the Start optimization manually option in the A/B test, then select all campaign splits after the campaign has been sent, and then click Optimize to send the optimized message to the rest of the distribution list.
introduction-to-smart-campaigns.mdxCopying a campaign to another client
Context: Recipient lists and target groups are not transferred to the target client. If a campaign uses the Design Editor for emails and archiving, it cannot be copied. If a campaign uses the Design Editor for emails and a message draft contains synchronized rows, that message draft cannot be copied.
Prerequisites: The registered user must have permission to create campaigns in the target client.
- In the campaign overview, select the campaign and click Copy to Client…. The Copy Campaign to Client window opens.
- In the New Campaign Name in the Target Client field, enter the name for the copy of the campaign in the target client.
- In the Target Clients area, select the client to which you want to copy the campaign. (To select all available target clients, check the box in the menu bar.)
- Click Copy.
introduction-to-smart-campaigns.mdxMerge content
Merge mailing content from different campaigns into a new campaign. Recipient lists and target groups are not transferred to the target client.
Note
Prerequisites
- The registered user must have permission to create mailings in the target client.
- The mailing of the target campaign must have the same content elements as the template you want to merge.
- In the campaign overview, select the mailing and click Merge Content…. The Merge Content window opens.
- In the New Campaign Name in the Target Client field, enter the name for the copy of the campaign in the target client.
- In the Content Elements area, select one or more content elements from the template you want to merge with the target campaign. The corresponding content elements of the target campaign's mailing will be replaced with these content elements.
- In the Target Campaign area, select the target campaigns with which you want to merge the template's content elements. The new campaign will be created in the client of the target campaign.
Tip
In the Target Campaign area, the last 10 created campaigns per client are displayed. You can select multiple campaigns. To select all available campaigns, check the box in the menu bar.
- Click Merge.
introduction-to-smart-campaigns.mdxAnalysis
- In the campaign overview, click a campaign then Analysis. The Campaign Analysis window opens.
At the top right, a summary of the campaign is displayed. Additionally, the number of recipients is displayed for each individual node.
- To update the analysis, click New Analysis.
- To view the order reference for a print message, in the message node, under DPAG order reference, click Details. See Viewing the DPAG order reference.
- To view the Send Time Optimization Overview (additional feature), click the corresponding Wait node or A/B test node.
Message preview
To preview a message, click the corresponding message node. The content preview opens.
Note
In print messages, if you did not connect the message node with the Recipients node, the personalized recipient data (that was added through a field function) is not displayed.
The following options are available in the preview:
Displays available subject lines.
- Target Groups. When active, select one or more target groups and click Submit Selection to display only the paragraphs assigned to the selected target groups.
The buttons only become active when you use a target group in at least one paragraph.
- Click to show the respective assigned target groups in the individual paragraphs.
- Click to deactivate the display of assigned target groups.
If you do not want to enable or disable the display of target groups, but rather just the display of a single target group, click the relevant paragraph.
- Container paragraph. Paragraphs that contain several sub-paragraphs with their own target groups are marked in the content preview as container paragraphs. Container paragraphs are highlighted with a yellow border.
Note
The target groups applied in container paragraphs are automatically carried over to sub-paragraphs included. If you hide target groups in container paragraphs using the button target groups, not only is the container paragraph hidden, but also the sub-paragraphs it contains.
Note
Paragraphs that contain several sub-paragraphs without their own target groups are not marked as container paragraphs or highlighted in yellow, but instead are displayed with a simple gray banner. However, the target groups for these paragraphs are also carried over to sub-paragraphs.
- Recipient Selection for Personalized View. To display a personalized preview with the data of a specific recipient, in the left column, select a recipient list. Then, in the right column, select the recipient.
- Change View. The tab bar on the upper left border includes the HTML, mobile and text message previews. In the HTML preview, the mailing appears as it will later appear in the recipients’ inboxes. Under the Mobile tab, you can view the message as it appears on mobile devices. The Text tab displays the automatically-generated text version of the mailing.
- Save Result as Image or Save Result as PDF. Click to save the message template as an image or PDF (only for Print campaigns).
introduction-to-smart-campaigns.mdxSend test message
Send a test message to check the appearance of the mailing before the actual dispatch. See Smart Campaigns nodes.