With the integration with Dotdigital you can synchronize your data between Spotler Activate and the Email Service Provider (ESP) Dotdigital. With this integration you can send audiences, profiles, triggers and personalized email blocks from Spotler Activate to Dotdigital.
- Activate the Dotdigital connector
- Audiences & Profiles
- Triggers & Product sets
- Creating an email journey with DotDigital
When the full integration is finished a one-time synchronization of all email addresses and consents will start between Dotdigital and Spotler Activate. Simultaneously the standard profile fields and the product catalog will be synchronized from Spotler Activate to Dotdigital. The following data will be synchronized when the integration is complete:
- Email addresses: new email addresses are send real-time from Spotler Activate to Dotdigital. When new email addresses are created in Dotdigital, they will be send daily to Spotler Activate (so there is some lag).
- Consent: changes in consent will be send real-time from Spotler Activate to Dotdigital. When the consent status changes in Dotdigital, they will be send daily to Spotler Activate. For the sending the contacts to Dotdigital, you need to create an audience: Synchronizing contacts
- Profile fields: with every API call (email trigger or audience change) the standard profile fields from Spotler Activate will be send and saved in Dotdigital. The custom fields can be mapped with the first installation Implementation DotDigital | Mapping fields
Activate the Dotdigital connector
First, go to your DotDigital environment to create an API user. Go to Access > API users. Click New user. The email address is generated and cannot be changed. Give it an optional description. Generate a password for this user. Status is Enabled.
In Spotler Activate go to Apps and select the DotDigital connector. Here you will connect with your credentials of DotDigital.
Mapping fields
With laying the first connection, a custom field; “EMAILHASH” is created in your DotDigital environment. Other custom fields can be connected next with the Field Mapping which becomes available in Spotler Activate. Once you save your first mappings, Spotler Activate will do a one-time full import, to get all email addresses from DotDigital.
Keep in mind, Spotler Activate will only synchronize profiles with an email address AND newsletter permission
Audiences & Profiles
In the Audience Builder you can send Audiences to Dotdigital by adding Dotdigital as a Channel. For the profiles that are added to the audience Spotler Activate sends two API calls to Dotdigital:
- Address books: with this API call the audiences are send as Dotdigital Address books.
- Contacts: with this API call the contacts are send to Dotdigital and added to the address books in Dotdigital. For saving custom profile fields, you need to map these first.
Check the added adressbook in Dotdigital by navigating to Contacts > all contacts. Go to address books and if need search for an address book. The names are created as “<Spotler Activate audiencename> - SQ <Spotler Activate audience ID>”. Click on the audience name to see which contacts are added to the address book.
To check the added contacts in Dotdigital navigate to Contact > all contacts in Dotdigital. Search for the profile you synced, and click on the email adress. Look at the tab contact details and data fields to see which data is synchronized.
Triggers & Product sets
In the Journey Builder you can send triggers to Dotdigital with the email node. Note: First you have to create an email personalization in Personalizations. In the email trigger you need to configure the next items:
- URL: Copy & paste this url to the “External dynamic content” block in the campaign in Dotdigital to add personalizations.
- Campaign: the campaign or email that needs to be triggered
- Personalization: the personalization set up in the personalizations menu Creating an email journey with DotDigital | Make an email personalization
- Products:
The profiles that reach the email trigger in the journey and meet the set condition, will be send to Dotdigital with an API call:
- Spotler Activate Trigger: with this API call a trigger for a Dotdigital campaign is send for the profile. When the “External dynamic content” block is used, Dotdigital will get the personalization during the sending of the email (How can I check if the trigger is send to the connector?)
To check the trigger in Dotdigital go to Contacts > all contacts. Search for the profile and click on the email address. Click on ‘Activity' and you see the Campaigns that are send and when. Click on a specific campaign to see their statistics.
Add email hash to email links
In the profile filed EMAILHASH is created upon installation and contains the encrypted version of the email address saved. The email hash can be added to your email campaigns by following the next steps: In Dotdigital, go to email > Email campaigns > Advanced features. Here you can add Link tracking. Add field email or email_hash. Select value EMAILHASH from the dynamic fields. The email hash will be added to the URL’s of all yout campaigns, like http://www.mywebsite.com?email_hash={email_hash}
Creating an email journey with DotDigital
First, you need to create an email personalization. When DotDigital is connected as an app, you can select Email templates within the personalizations. Create the personalization as you are used to in Spotler Activate. To find more information on how to create email personalizations, please check our email personalization guide. Save and publish this personalization to use in the journey builder later.
After this, you create the journey. To create a journey which sends out an email you start by creating a new campaign email in DotDigital. If you want to use the personalized block, you add the external dynamic content block:
Now go to the journeys in Spotler Activate and in your journey add the email node. In this node, you can add the Campaign mail and the personalization you just created:
To create the dynamic block, copy the URL given in the box and paste it in the settings of the dynamic content block:
Your block in the email will look like this:
Save the email and the journey and you are ready to test and send out emails.
Once an email campaign is send, you cannot edit the mail, so please test it first without the personalized block, before testing it a final time with the personalization. The personalization in Spotler Activate can be changed without changing the email in DotDigital.