Go ahead and create those emails with the subject lines “Thank you for registering, %%FirstName%%!” and “%%FirstName%%, did you know…”, respectively.
Use the following bodies: Email #1:
<html> <body>
<p>Thank you for registering! Don’t forget to <a href=
”http://www.example.com/download/”>download our mobile app</a>!</p> <small>
<p>This email was sent by:</p> <p>
%%Member _ Busname%% <br />
%%Member _ Addr%% <br />
%%Member _ City%%, %%Member _ State%% %%Member _ PostalCode%% <br />
%%Member _ Country%% </p>
<a href=”%%profile _ center _ url%%”>Profile Center</a> </small>
<custom name=”opencounter” type=”tracking”> </body>
</html>
Email #2:
<html> <body>
<p>... we have an app? <a href=”http://www.example.com/down
load/”>Download it today</a> and save 20% on renewal next year!</p> <small>
<p>This email was sent by:</p> <p>
%%Member _ Busname%% <br />
%%Member _ Addr%% <br />
%%Member _ City%%, %%Member _ State%% %%Member _ PostalCode%% <br />
%%Member _ Country%% </p>
<a href=”%%profile _ center _ url%%”>Profile Center</a> </small>
<custom name=”opencounter” type=”tracking”> </body>
44
With our assets now available for use, we can move on to the next task, which is to set up the customer data model (“contact model”) using Contact Builder.
Setting Up the Contact Model Using Contact Builder
Contacts are defined in the Contact Builder application. To define your contact model, navigate to Contact Builder under Data & Analytics. Contact Builder opens in the Data Designer tab (Figure 19).Figure 19: Contact Builder Data Designer
Contacts consist of attributes, which represent a single piece of information about a contact such as a first name, email address or favorite ice cream flavor. Contact attributes reside in data extensions and need to be linked to the contact record before they are available to Journey Builder.
Data Designer allows you to define and manage linkages between the contact model and your data extensions. To do that, you create attribute groups that map contact attributes to specific data extensions and columns within those data extensions. These attribute groups can then be used in Journey Builder activities and triggers (among other places).
Create an attribute group using the steps below: 1. Click on Create Attribute Group.
2. Name your attribute group customers. 3. Click Save.
4. Click on Link Data Extension to link the subscribers data extension you created in Going Further with Data Extensions.
5. In the right panel, select the subscribers data extension. 6. In the left panel, select the Contact Key attribute. 7. In the right panel, select the EmailAddress column.
8. In the right panel dropdown, select One, then check the box labeled Use as root (Figure 20). 9. Click Save.
46
When you link data extensions to the contact model, you need to specify the cardinality of the relationship: • One-to-one relationship: A one-to-one relationship indicates that the data extensions being
linked relate to each other on a single piece of information called a primary key (e.g., a unique member ID or mobile number). Each data extension contains a single reference to that primary key. One-to-one relationships are used to extend the contact record, e.g. by linking demographic information from an outside source via the primary key.
• Root relationship: A root relationship is a special kind of one-to-one relationship between a contact record and a data extension that acts as the source for contact information. A root relationship can only occur between the contact record and a single data extension. The data extension used in a root relationship must contain only one row per contact, and each row in that data extension represents a contact.
• One-to-many relationship: A one-to-many relationship indicates that the data extensions being linked relate to each other on multiple pieces of information via the primary key. For example, you could use a one-to-many relationship to relate the contact’s email address to multiple orders contained in a purchase history data extension. One-to-many relationships are beyond the scope of this tutorial.
• Many-to-many relationship: A many-to-many relationship can match several different values between two data extensions. Many-to-many relationships are also beyond the scope of this tutorial. In our case, we are defining the contact model based on the subscribers data extension, so we specify the root relationship.
Finally, before we can use our new attribute group with Journey Builder, we need to tell Contact Builder the EmailAddress column in the subscribers data extension we just linked is an email address using the steps below (Figure 21):
1. Click on Contacts Configuration in the top menu bar. 2. Click Edit in Email Channel Address Order.
3. Click Add Address.
4. Select the subscribers data extension in the popup window. 5. Select the EmailAddress column in the popup.
6. Click Save in the popup.
7. Click Save in Email Channel Address Order.
Figure 21: Adding the EmailAddress column to Email Channel Address Order
Creating your First Interaction in Journey Builder
We’re ready to create our first interaction! To launch Journey Builder, navigate to Journey Builder under Marketing Automation, which opens in Journey Builder’s Summary View. Summary View shows a filterable list of interactions in the account along with analytics from activated interactions.
To create an interaction, click Create New Interaction in the upper right hand corner. This will take you to Journey Builder’s Canvas View (Figure 22). The Canvas View gives you all the tools required to declaratively create interactions.
Let’s go ahead and create our first interaction. First of all, give the interaction a name by clicking on Untitled Interaction in the top left corner. Name the interaction install the mobile app, then click Done. Optionally, you can also add a description.
48
Figure 22: Journey Builder Canvas View
Defining the Trigger
Next, let’s define the trigger. As described in Journey Builder Basic Concepts, a trigger specifies the condition that must be met for the interaction to begin executing. Define the trigger using the steps below: 1. Click Select a Trigger…
2. Click Create Trigger. 3. Click Next.
4. Give the trigger the name app has not been installed.
5. Find the subscribers attribute group in the Attributes pane and expand it.
6. Drag the HasAppInstalled attribute and drop it where it says Drag and drop Attributes to build an Expression.
7. Select Is False from the dropdown menu.
8. Drag another HasAppInstalled attribute and drop it in the same place. 9. Select Has No Value from the dropdown menu.
10. On the very right hand side of expression builder, change AND to OR in the dropdown menu. 11. Specify the data source by clicking Choose Data Extension then selecting the subscribers data
extension. Your screen should now look like Figure 23. 12. Click Next.
13. Click Next again. 14. Click Done.
Figure 23: Defining the trigger
Adding Activities to the Canvas
Next, let’s define the activities that make up the interaction. As described in the chapter opening, our interaction plan is as follows:
Once the account has been created, we’ll fire an event into the Journey Builder engine that begins a simple drip campaign designed to get the customer to install the mobile app. The first step of the drip campaign is to send an email to the customer thanking them for signing up. We’ll use that email send to encourage new customers to download the mobile app, including a link to the app store to make it as easy as possible for them to do that as well as to track who clicks through. Next, we’ll wait a few days, and if the customer hasn’t yet installed the app, we’ll send them another email with an incentive to do so: 20% off renewal next year.
Add the first email to the canvas using the steps below:
1. Drag the Send Email activity from the Activity pane and drop it on the canvas under Immediately (Day 0).
2. Hover your mouse over the Send Email activity you just dropped. 3. Click Configure.
4. Select the first email you created in the section Creating Your Content in the Email App. 5. Click Next.
50
Next, let’s add a wait to the canvas. In production, we’ll want to wait three days before we send the second email, but for the purposes of testing, let’s just wait three minutes for now. In the upper right part of the screen, change the Time Interval dropdown from days to minutes.
Waits are implicitly added to the canvas based on where subsequent activities are dropped. Since the next activity is a decision split (essentially, an if/then like control flow activity), add the decision split to the canvas using the steps below:
1. Drag the Decision Split activity from the Activity pane and drop it on the canvas under Minute 3. 2. Hover your mouse over the Decision Split activity you just dropped.
3. Click Configure.
4. Build the expression HasAppInstalled Is True in the same way you built the expression for your trigger in Defining the Trigger.
5. Click Done.
6. Drag the Send Email activity from the Activity pane and drop it on the canvas under the No split of Minute 3 (i.e., the path that gets taken when the expression HasAppInstalled is either False or Has No Value).
7. Select the email for this Send Email activity in the same way you selected the first one. This time, select the second email you created in the section Defining the Trigger.
Your screen should now look like Figure 24.
Figure 24: Adding activities to the canvas Chapter 7: Creating Your First Interaction
Activating the Interaction
We are now ready to activate the interaction and test it. To activate the interaction, click Activate, then click Activate again to confirm we want to activate it. Note that the Canvas View switches to include interaction metrics appropriate to the channel (e.g., opens and clicks) on the canvas (Figure 25).
Figure 25: An activated interaction
Testing the Interaction
Next, let’s fire the event to start the interaction via the API, which in our hypothetical scenario will happen when the customer creates their account and supplies their email address.
To fire the event, we need to know the event definition key of the trigger we defined in Defining the Trigger. To get the event definition key, go back to the Summary View and click on Trigger Administration in the top right corner. Find your trigger, and note the value in the column Event Definition Key (Figure 26).
52
Figure 26: Getting the event definition key for the API call
Once we know the event definition key, get an access token from Fuel’s authentication service following the instructions in Using the API Directly, then use that access token to make the following API call:
POST https://www.exacttargetapis.com/interaction-experimental/v1/ events
Authorization: Bearer OAUTH _ ACCESS _ TOKEN Content-Type: application/json
{
“ContactKey”: “YOUR _ EMAIL _ ADDRESS”,
“EventDefinitionKey”: “EVENT _ DEFINITION _ KEY _ FOR _ THE _ TRIGGER”, “Data”: {
“EmailAddress”: “YOUR _ EMAIL _ ADDRESS” }
}
You should receive the first email immediately and the second email three minutes later per our interaction. You can simulate installation of the app by using the API to set the value of the data extension column HasAppInstalled to true after you receive the first email (and, obviously, within the first three minutes after receiving it).
Congratulations! You have successfully built your first interaction and gotten your customer to install your mobile app! In the next chapter, we’ll cover what you can do now that you have valuable screen real estate on that customer’s smartphone.
Now that the app has been installed, you have a new and valuable customer touchpoint—the customer is now literally only a few taps or swipes away from your brand each and every time they use their smartphone. But your app sits alongside thousands of other apps competing for attention and screen real estate. To take maximum advantage of your new customer touchpoints, you need to keep your app (and brand) top of mind, which isn’t always easy. And you need to maximize the value of each interaction once the user is in-app, which requires more sophisticated functionality that goes beyond traditional push messaging.
This chapter will show you how to take maximum advantage of your new customer touchpoints by integrating Journey Builder directly into your mobile apps using the Journey Builder for Apps SDK. The Journey Builder for Apps SDK builds on the MobilePush SDK available from the ExactTarget Marketing Cloud since 2012, adding powerful in-app messaging capabilities to the push messaging support provided by MobilePush.
Sending Push Messages
At its core, the Journey Builder for Apps SDK provides a framework for you to use when sending push messages. These push messages can include a simple text alert, a mobile-optimized landing page, or a combination of text alert and mobile-optimized landing page. The Journey Builder for Apps SDK works with both iOS and Android platforms (including the new Amazon devices). You can also use either native apps or take advantage of the new Cordova support to blend universal HTML 5 applications with native device functionality (e.g., the device camera).
Once you integrate the SDK with your iOS, Android, or Amazon app, you can use the same personalization information available for email or SMS messaging for your push messages. When your customers opt to receive push messages, you can display messages or send links to mobile-optimized landing pages directly on the smart phone screen. The SDK also provides information on how users interact with your app, including which messages users open and how much time they spend in-app. This information is available in the MobilePush app, available in the ExactTarget Marketing Cloud app menu.
Chapter 8:
in the Mobile App
In this chapter …• Sending Push Messages
• Using Location within Push Messages
• Sample Journey Builder for Apps Workflow
• Journey Builder for Apps SDK Configuration
54
Typically, push notifications are designed to get the user to launch the app.. let’s now go beyond that within the app itself.
Using Location within Push Messages
The Journey Builder for Apps SDK also supports the sending of push notifications based on location in the following three scenarios:
1. The user enters a specified location, known as a geofence. This type of message can help you bring users into a specific location using a time-sensitive offer.
2. The user leaves a specified geofence. This type of message can help you reward users with an offer that prompts them to return to a location in the near future.
3. The user encounters a beacon, a low-power Bluetooth device that allows you to target a mobile device at close range, such as within a store versus a larger radius centered around a store. This type of message can help you provide a specific offer to a user already in a store or prompt a user when their mobile device comes near an item on their wishlist.
Sample Journey Builder for Apps Workflow
The steps below outline how you might prompt a user to download your mobile app and enable push messaging:
1. Advertise your app via in-store signage, website, or direct promotion (such as email or SMS). 2. Send a push message welcoming the user and prompting them to take an action (such as visiting a
location or updating a preference center).
3. Continue push messaging with offers, alerts, and updates. a. Target and personalize messages via subscriber data. b. Provide product recommendations.
c. Sign users up for cross-channel promotions, such as email or SMS messages.
d. Automate messages with personalized messages to create targeted lifecycle campaigns. e. Use the MobilePush REST API to trigger transactional messages (such as bank statements,
flight statuses, or shipping confirmation). f. Promote surveys.
g. Create location-based sending with time-sensitive offers.
h. Prompt inactive users with retention messages based on contact record information. i. Provide coupons for loyal customers.
j. Include remarketing information to prompt users that abandon carts.