Transactional API email and SMS/MMS campaigns are automated, personalized campaigns that usually follow customer interaction with your company or website.
Transactional campaigns can include:
Welcome messages
Account notifications
Order confirmations
Password resets
Shipping confirmations
Loyalty status updates
Notification of update of terms of service
Recall notice
Data breach update
Note: Some campaign examples listed can also be promotional campaigns in Bluecore, depending on the campaign’s message. If you’re not sure which type your campaign should be, contact your Customer Success Manager.
Considerations
Personalize your campaigns by adding transactional attributes
The Transactional API allows you to send transactional attributes directly from anywhere you store customer or product data, from your customer relationship management (CRM), order management system, or anywhere else that can communicate via API.
These systems can then send Bluecore order numbers, tracking numbers, product and customer information, and other data that you want to include in the campaign. This ensures that your transactional campaigns have the most up-to-date customer data.
See how to add transactional attributes for both <link>email</link> and <link>SMS/MMS</link> campaigns.
Product blocks can be added to transactional emails
All transactional emails support adding product block rule types.
Note: Interaction history product blocks can’t be added to transactional emails.
There are two ways to add product blocks to your emails:
Add a product block to the transactional email that uses next best purchase, best sellers, new arrivals, or dynamic products from catalog.
Add a co-recommendations product block and send the Product ID via API, which is used to generate the recommendations.
If you have questions about adding marketing or promotional material to transactional emails, review the CAN-SPAM Act and contact your Customer Success Manager.
If you use product blocks, the only fallback option available is Do Not Show Product Block. This ensures that transactional emails are sent when product blocks can’t be displayed.
To learn more about different kinds of products block and how how to add them to a campaign, see How to use campaign bulder.
Product blocks only appear to opted in customers
If product blocks are added to transactional campaigns, only customers who are opted in to receive marketing messages will see the product recommendations.
Because product blocks are a form of marketing, customers who opt out of receiving marketing emails will still receive the transactional email, but without the product blocks.
Use co-recommendation product blocks for post-purchase campaigns
If you want to use a product block in emails about an order, like order confirmation or shipping notifications, Bluecore recommends adding a co-recommendations product block.
To use co-recommendations, the transactional API call must be configured to send a Product ID, and Bluecore recommends sending one of the Product IDs from the customer’s order.
The Product ID that is sent via API will be used as the input product to generate recommendations.
For example, if a customer purchased a pair of socks, the Product ID for the socks is sent via API. Bluecore’s recommendation model then finds products based on the socks. When the customer receives the order confirmation email, the email contains product recommendations based on the socks.
To learn more about how the input product is used to generate recommendations, see the co-recommendations technical overview.
Prerequisites
A technical resource at your company must be available to integrate with the API.
Review how to prepare for transactional campaigns and send that information to the technical team who will set up the API.
Decide if the campaigns will use the co-recommendations product block. This will determine if the technical team should send a Product ID via API.
If creating a transactional email campaign, a Transactional integration must be set up.
Create a transactional email campaign
Navigate to
Campaigns > Automated Campaigns.Click New > Campaign.
Click the Automated Campaigns Email > Next.
Click Transactional > Next.
Click API and click Next.
Click the transaction type and click Create. The Settings screen appears.
Message
Attributes can be used in the email header, email body, and SMS/MMS message.
To add attributes to your template, you must reference the exact name of the transactional attribute that your technical team sends via API and wrap it in curly brackets.
For example, if your technical team is sending customers' first names as first_name, you can reference this in your email campaign’s text component as {{first_name}}.
Create a transactional SMS/MMS campaign
Navigate to
Campaigns > Automated Campaigns.Click New > Campaign.
Click SMS/MMS > Next.
Click Transactional > Next.
Choose the transaction type and click Create. The Settings screen appears.
API requirements
Once you’re finished entering in the information on your campaign, send the Campaign ID to your technical team.
Once they can send a successful API call for that campaign, you can proceed to creating the message in the Message section.
Once the connection has been established, a bell icon displays on your campaign in the Communicate Campaigns list.
Message
Once your technical team has established an API connection, you will see the transactional attributes that can be populated in the message.
Customer attributes can’t be added to transactional SMS/MMS campaigns unless it’s being sent via API. If you need to reference customer information, ask your technical team to send that data via API so you can reference it in the message.
Automatically populated transactional attributes can’t be moved, but you can delete and then insert them in your message by completing the following:
Click in the message field where you want the transactional attribute to be.
Click on Insert Transactional Attributes. The Insert Transactional Attribute dialog box appears.
Select the attribute you want from the dropdown, and click Insert. The transactional attribute appears where your cursor displays.
Testing transactional email campaigns
The best way to test transactional email campaigns, especially if they contain product blocks, is to submit an email via API with the following information:
A test email address in which you have access to its inbox and is opted in.
If you have a test email and you’re not sure if it’s opted in, search for the email address in Customer360 to see its eligibility status.
If the email is not opted in, you can opt that email into marketing communication on your brand’s website.
A real Product ID from your catalog, if using a co-recommendations product block.
After submitting a successful test via API, check the test email’s inbox and review the email.