Dynamic Content was created for those customers who have the need to create customized content for each recipient. What this means is that each recipient can receive an email message that has information that is tailored to their specific interests.
For example, you may be a publisher of a weekly newsletter that provides information on sports. You want to provide your readers with information that is relevant to the teams in which they are interested. Jon may have an interest in Basketball and Hockey. Jon wants to read about the Philadelphia Sixers and the LA Lakers in the Basketball category; in the Hockey category he wants only to receive information on the Philadelphia Flyers. Gregory might have an interest in Basketball and Soccer. He wants his newsletter to focus on the LA Lakers and the Washington Wizards. He wants to read about the D.C. United and Colorado Rapids in the Soccer category. Dynamic Content can be used to customize each newsletter for each recipient when sending a single job.
The body document is the template that defines where the variable pieces of information will be inserted into the email message. You can have three different body documents for each supported type of body file: HTML, Text and HTML-lite (AOL format).
You are not required to have all three types, however there must be at least one body document. You must define your Categories and your Sections.
Category
A category is a major heading or grouping for your content. You can have an unlimited number of categories in your document. In our example above, we will have three categories: Basketball, Hockey and Soccer. Within each category there can exists various sections. A category keyword is a placeholder in the body document which indicates where the sections for the category should appear in the email message. The example below illustrates a text body file. The category names are placeholders in the document and are surrounded by a double set of square brackets. (e.g., [[BASKETBALL]] or [[HOCKEY]]). At the time the job is processed, these placeholders are removed from the document and replaced by the appropriate sections.
The example below illustrates a text body file. The category names are placeholders in the document and are surrounded by a double set of square brackets. (e.g., [[BASKETBALL]], [[HOCKEY]] and [[SOCCER]]). At the time the job is processed, these placeholders are removed from the document and replaced by the appropriate sections.
Sample Message Body
Hello (I1)!!
We are happy to provide you with your weekly sports update. To add, change or remove your team preferences, please go to http://www.sportsrus.com/myprofile.html.
********************************************* [[BASKETBALL]]
[[HOCKEY]]
[[SOCCER]]
Section
A section is a piece of content. You can have an unlimited number of sections in your document. You can have three different documents for each supported type of body file: HTML, Text and/or HTML-lite (AOL format). You are not required to have all three types of files for each section, however, you MUST have a section document that matches the format of each body document you use.
For example, if you will be using an HTML and a Text body document, there must be a corresponding HTML and Text file for each section. The more categories and sections that you have, the more complicated this procedure becomes, so it is a good idea to map out what body documents and sections you will need before sending a job.
In our sports example above, each section will be an article on one of the various teams. The rules for which sections appear under a category are defined in the list.
For users of the messageREACH Subscription Management service, your customer service representative works with you to set up your Subsciption Management Database. You will need to tell your representative that you will be using Dynamic Content.
Your database will contain parameters (database field names). These parameters are your subscription database table's field names. These field names determine the names of the sections you will be using in your email message.
Your customer service representative will also assist you in determining your
Parameter Groups. Parameter Groups are a new feature in the Subscription Management
database that work with Dynamic Content. A Parameter Group is similar to a Category.
You will use the Parameter Group name in the Message
Body document.
| messageREACH | mR Subscription Management |
| Category | Parameter Group |
| Section | Parameter (database field) |
The list is the guide in the construction of each individual recipient's email message. The structure of the list specifies what categories will appear, what information will appear in each category and in what order.
The first step in creating your list will be to determine what categories are in your email message (the Dynamic Content Body Document). In our sports newsletter example, we will be including three categories: Basketball, Hockey and Soccer. The category heading names in the list must have a "C_" in front of them. For example Basketball would appear in the list heading as C_BASKETBALL.
The second step in creating your list will be to determine what sections will appear in each category for each recipient. Remember, a section is the actual content that the recipient will read (e.g., information on the Lakers or information on the Wizards). A category can be empty or can have multiple sections depending upon the recipients' preferences. For example, Jon wants to read about the Sixers and the Lakers. For the C_BASKETBALL category, Sixers and Lakers must be in the field. A semicolon must separate multiple selections (;). In another example, Gregory does not want to read about hockey, so his C_HOCKEY category is empty. He will not receive any information on hockey at all.
Illustrated below is how the list would look for the above two examples:
REF ADDR C_BASKETBALL C_HOCKEY C_SOCCER INS_1 gregory gregory@jamminjuices.com lakers;wizards united;rapids Gregory jon jon@aol.com sixer;lakers flyers Jon
Below is an example of how the actual CSV (Comma Separate Value) file appears when exported from a database program or Excel.
| REF,ADDR,C_BASKETBALL,C_HOCKEY,C_SOCCER,INS_1
gregory,gregory@jamminjuices.com,lakers;wizards,,united;rapids,Gregory jon,jon@aol.com,sixers;lakers,flyers,,Jon |
If you are a messageREACH Subscription Management User, you will create a query based on the fields you have in your database. The Subscription Management system will insert the appropriate information on Parameter Groups (Categories) and Parameters (Sections) in your query. All you need to do is to make sure that your message body document contains the necessary Category inserts to create a customized email for each recipient.
Select all of your standard job options on the the Job Submission, Attachments and Pull Files tabs. You can click the <<Back and Next>> buttons at the bottom of the pages to navigate through the tabs or you can click on the tabs themselves.
To select local files, click Browse to open a Find File box, and select your file. Your file will automatically be uploaded. If you are sending a multipart/alternative message, select each of the parts. When you are finished, click OK. You will see your filename(s) shown in the Files in this section area window on the Dynamic Content screen.
To select remote files, click Browse File Store to open a browser window where you can view and select from your files saved on Customer File Store. Select your file and click on OK. You will see your filename(s) shown in Files in this section area window on the Dynamic Content screen.
To delete a single section:
Under the List of Sections, highlight the section you want to remove and click
on the Remove section link. You will be prompted to confirm the removal
of the section. Click OK to proceed or Cancel to return to the Dynamic Content
page without removing the section.
To delete all sections:
Under the List of Sections, click on the Remove all sections link. You will be prompted to confirm the removal of all the sections. Click OK to proceed or Cancel to return to the Dynamic Content page without removing the sections.
Under List of Sections, highlight the section to which you want to add a new file.
Under Files in this section, click on the Add section file link.
To select local files, click Browse to open a Find File box, and select your file. Your file will automatically be uploaded. If you are sending a multipart/alternative message, select each of the parts. When you are finished, click OK. You will see your filename(s) shown in Files in this section area window on the Dynamic Content screen.
To select remote files, click Browse File Store to open a browser window where you can view and select from your files saved on Customer File Store. Select your file and click on OK. You will see your filename(s) shown in Files in this section area window on the Dynamic Content screen.
Under List of Sections, highlight the section to which you want to remove a file.
Under Files in this section, click on the Remove section file link.
Once you have made all of your section and section file selections, click the Next>> button to move to the Options tab where you can make selections for Skip Duplicate Addresses, Auto Insert Send-a-friend Link and HTML Open Tracking or click the Finish button to review a summary of all your job details.