Automated Messages Sending Methods

Overview

Automated messages can be triggered via three sending methods: API, EventTriggered or Recurring.

• API - Used to trigger messages via API calls. Individual message recipients are specified in the API call.
• Event Triggered - Used to send messages based on contact's real-time behavior or a change in contact's attributes. Audience rules can be used to create audience segments.
• Recurring - Used when a message is to be sent automatically based on a set schedule. Audience rules are used in conjunction with the schedule to determine when a message is sent and to which audience segment.

API Sending Method

The API sending method is used for triggering messages via REST API using the POST /automationtemplates/{key}/send call.

Enabling the API triggered sending method 

1. Create a new automated message or edit an existing draft. Make note of the message key as it will be referenced in the API call.
2. Complete the message headers and message content and publish the draft.
3. Choose the API sending method from the left navigation bar.
   
   
4. Click the Enable button to enable the sending method.
   
   

The published message is now available to be triggered via the POST /automationtemplates/{key}/send API call. Note that you must reference the message key (em-sms in this example) when making the API call to send the message.

All subscribed and valid contacts are automatically part of the audience and the message recipients are specified in the API call itself.

Learn more about sending automated messages via the API.

Event Triggered Sending Method

The event triggered sending method is used when a message is to be sent as the result of a contact's behavior or a change to a contact's attribute.

The available event triggered methods are:

• A change in a contact attribute value.
• When a contact is added to a list.
• A custom named event.
• When a change is made to a contact attribute supplement record (*Requires a feature to be enabled)

Some examples of the types of messages that take advantage of event triggers include: 

• Welcome Message
• Abandon Cart message
• Browse Abandon Message

Enabling the event triggered sending method

1. Create a new automated message or edit an existing draft.
2. Complete the message headers and message content and publish the draft.
3. Choose the Event Triggered sending method from the left navigation bar.
   
   
4. Select the desired trigger event and associated options. Below is an example of a Custom Named Event (browse) with a conditional event property (Women's category) used to trigger the message. When the qualifying event is passed to the system, the message will send.
   
   
5. You also have the option to add an audience rule to filter contacts that can be sent the message (i.e. exclusion lists) after they qualify for the trigger.
6. Click the Enable button to enable the sending method.

For detailed instructions and examples of event triggered messages read about automation use cases.

Contact Attribute Supplement Triggers

Contact attribute supplements allow you to store additional data about a contact. With this feature you're now able to trigger message automations and orchestrations based on changes to this data.

In order to get started, make sure you've created a supplement that has the option "use as contact attribute" selected. It also helps if you've added at least one record so the fields show up in the UI.

Once you have a contact attribute supplement created, you can start to build your message automation

1. Select the supplement you would like to trigger from
2. Then select the "changed" field that will initiate the trigger. The field must change either from one value to another or from no value to the matching condition in the UI
3. Then select the "conditional filter". This is useful if you want to ensure this automation runs only when the supplement record meets specific criteria. For example if your record included a category field. You could ensure that this automation only ran for a specific category.
4. Last, you can select the trigger strategy. The default trigger strategy is "created or updated" which will trigger when the supplement record is either created for the first time or when it is updated. You can also run this trigger only when records are created or only when they're updated.

Delaying event triggered sending

The Delay sending option allows for a message sending delay to occur after the trigger event is met. Event triggered messages can be delayed for a designated number of minutes, hours or days.

Handling events triggered during the delay

Unlike immediate sending, delayed sending presents an opportunity for a contact to trigger the same event more than once during the delay and before the initial message is sent. This is particularly true when the trigger is based on a custom event such as browse, product view, add to cart, etc.

Settings for handling events triggered during delay will become available for messages triggered by a custom event. Additionally, multiple If/Then statements can be combined to create a programmed response to contact's real-time behavior.

Restart delay time - In this example, the contact will receive a message 5 minutes after triggering the browse_product custom event. However, should the contact continue to trigger this event during the 5-minute delay, the delay timer will restart each time until it is allowed to expire in absence of repeated triggers.

Send a unique message for each trigger event - It is possible to send a message each time the custom event is triggered. In this example, the contact will receive a message for each browse_product trigger made within a 5 minute delay period. Consecutive browse_product triggers will not reset or stop one another's delay timer. For example, contact who triggers the custom event at 3:00 PM, and again at 3:04 PM, will receive two messages, one at 3:05 PM and another at 3:09 PM.

Ignore - Custom event triggers made subsequent to the initial trigger can be ignored, allowing the delay time to expire uninterrupted. For example, the first browse_product event could be triggered at 3:00 PM, and a subsequent one at 3:04 PM. Because subsequent triggers are ignored, one message is sent at 3:05 PM.

Multiple If/Then conditions can be added to further automate message sending based on contact's real-time behavior. The Abandon Cart Message use case demonstrates how to trigger a message when the contact abandons their cart, and how to cancel sending if a purchase trigger is activated instead.

Recurring Sending Method

The recurring sending method is used when a message is to be sent automatically based on a set schedule. Audience rules are used in conjunction with a schedule to determine when a message is sent and to which audience segment.

For example, a message could be set to check every day at 8 am for contacts that haven't opened a message or clicked a link in the past 30 days, and send them a message.

Using recurring messages for a message series

Recurring messages can also be used as part of a series with sends being based on if a contact received a certain message in the past, such as in a welcome series. For example, the recurring method can be used to check every day at 10 am which contacts received the initial welcome message exactly "x" days in the past, and then send the next welcome message in the series. 

Enabling the recurring sending method 

1. Create a new automated message or edit an existing draft.
2. Complete the message headers and message content and publish the draft.
3. Choose the Recurring sending method from the left navigation bar.
   
   
4. Select the desired schedule recurring time and configure the audience rules to filter the contacts that will be eligible to receive the message. The image below shows the recurring set up for a welcome message that will be sent at 10am for every contact that received the Welcome Message Series 1 exactly 3 days in the past.
   
   
5. Click the Enable button to enable the sending method.

Learn more about setting up a welcome series using the recurring sending method.

For detailed instructions and examples of other recurring messages read about automation use cases.

In the next article learn about automated message performance.