The OpenEMM allows you to use special data to address customers according to their characteristics or properties and to supply certain groups among your subscribers flexibly with special offers by using flexible text modules.
Let us take the example of a shoe retailer: If you have, for example, recorded women with a German shoe size of 39 or men with a German shoe size of 42 in the database, you can have dynamically generated e-mails sent to them. This means that women with a shoe size of 39 will receive a different newsletter than men with a shoe size of 42 – without having to generate two different mailings to do this.
As a rule there is a large amount of information that is of equal interest to all customers, and a message such as “Adidas is bringing out a new style of shoes” would be information that could be use for all customers. The message “Adidas is bringing out a new style of shoes for women with size 39 feet” however is only of interest for females with the corresponding shoe size. The OpenEMM can differentiate between general and special information and assign this to the respective customers, and men with a shoe size of 42 would not receive the message.
It is extremely easy to create such a dynamic newsletter using the OpenEMM:
• | Create appropriate target groups (see chapter "Target groups - Dynamic filters"). |
• | Create individual text modules for each target group. |
The following example describes a mailing with different e-mails for men and women. To create the mailing, proceed as follows:
1. | Create two target groups, one selecting men, the other filtering women. In our example, they have been given exactly those names. Further information on creating target groups is contained in chapter "Target groups - Dynamic filters". |
2. | Select the mailing overview. Click on the mailing, and in the detailed view click on the Content tab. |
3. | The example assumes that a text module for the text version of the mailing already exists (otherwise you must create this text module first). Open the existing text module in the Text version section by clicking on it. Please note: There are different text modules for the text and the HTML mailing versions. Our example concentrates on the text version. The description is also valid for the HTML version. If you want to create both a text and an HTML mailing, you must create target group specific text modules in both versions. |
Fig. 3.38: Call up existing text modules by clicking, using the Content tab.
4. | As you can see, both below the entry box for the first text module and below all other entry boxes there is a drop-down list for you to select a target group for that text module. |
5. | Adapt the first text module to female recipients, then select Women in the Target group drop-down list. |
6. | In the lower New content field, insert the mailing version for men and select Men in the Target group drop-down list. In our example, women are offered a different link leading directly to a shoe shop’s summer collection. |
7. | Now click on the Add button. |
Fig. 3.39: Two text modules, two target groups: customized mailings for men and women.
You can repeat this procedure as often as you like, creating, for instance, more than one text module for different target groups. In our example, it would be useful to create another module for recipients whose sex is unknown (the GENDER field has the entry 2).
Alternative text modules are displayed in the text module overview. The Target column gives the target group you selected for each module.
Fig. 3.40: The overview displays text modules by target groups.
Please note: The sequence of text modules plays an important role. The OpenEMM checks target groups starting with the top of the list. If a recipient belongs to the first target group, he will be sent the appropriate text module, and the system jumps to the next recipient. If you do not take care to select the correct target group sequence, it could be that some recipients do not receive the mailing intended for them at all. In other words: you should start with the “smallest” target group. Here, the system distinguishes between HTML and text versions.
This is easiest to understand using an example. Suppose you wanted to send customized mailings to men and women. Furthermore, recipients are to receive a special greeting if it is their birthday. If you just append the birthday target group to the list shown in the figure, no-one will ever receive a birthday greeting. Why is that? The OpenEMM checks first if a recipient belongs to the “men” target group, then it checks the “women” target group. As a named recipient is bound to belong to either group, the birthday target group will never be checked at all.