Overview of the innovations of the new e-mail engine

The new e-mail engine benefits from years of continuous improvements and added features:

• Access to transactional e-mail campaigns (specific setup to be planned)

• Possibility to add loop personalizations (via HTML import, custom templates, or loop blocks from the library of modules)

• Evolution of the "A/B test" feature:

  • Possibility to carry out A/B/C/D testing instead of just A/B

  • Possibility to also test on the whole content of the e-mail. Choice of A/B/C/D testing on the following components: "object", "sender", "preheader", "content"

• Extended possibilities for variable transformations, personalizations and conditions

  • Advanced management of data sources (among others, for multi-tables)

  • Visual revamp

  • Additional transformation functions (for instance for dates)

  • Personalization quickpickers available directly in the editor or when creating a personalization

  • Extended conditioning (possibility to define multi-criteria display conditions)

• Possibility to use emojis in the subjects: the feature can handle emoticons up to unicode 11 (= most of the existing ones)

• Extended possibilities in the html template editor

  • Options to allow the edition/modification of the available templates (standard and custom): choice of style, font, colors, borders, paddings

  • Access to a library of blocks to adapt standard templates according to your brand's design needs

• Extended campaign parametrization options

  • Possibility to add a control group, similarly to what already exists for SMS

  • Possibility to define the preheader in hard just as the sender/subject

  • Possibility to chose among several link domains available in one entity, instead of needing several entities

  • Possibility to change the campaign type, even after its creation

  • Summary of the campaign parameters displayed at the last step

• New automated exports available

• Access to the newsletter application (add-on)

• Access to Bynder DAM (add-on)

Overview of the differences in usage

Several features have a direct equivalent from what you're used to in the old e-mail engine, but the implementation may be slightly different.

The following guide helps you understand these differences for a smooth transition :

• Campaign creation

The database and the entity to which the campaign is linked are fixed after the first step of the campaign creation. They can't be modified (in draft or in the case of a copy).

However, when creating a campaign, it is possible to chose to create a campaign based on another existing one: this will import the structure and the content of the HTML.

Note that a limit of 4 Mo is applied to any campaign that leaves from Actito. A campaign weighing more than 4 Mo at the sending will cause an error.

• Campaign groups

A campaign group can only include campaigns of a same type, meaning either mass campaigns, either scenarized. It's not possible to have on group containing campaigns of both types.

Note that the behaviors of sending groups and campaign groups are different. A sending group (old engine equivalent) is automatically created when a new e-mail is sent with a new subscription. E-mails created afterwards with that subscription will automatically be added to that sending group. A campaign group on the other hand, is always resulting from a user's choice.

• Sending template

Each sending template is linked to a certain type of campaign (either mass or scenarized).

• Personalization

  • When it comes to personalizations based on an external file, headers of said file can't have spaces or special characters.

  • It is not necessary anymore to refer to a linked data table in the targeting to be able to personalize on its values, but they should be added in the personalization "sources" by turning on expert mode.

  • Format of the personalization values: in order for the personalization to be taken into account, the name of the variable should be between curly brackets, as follows ${personalization}. E.g. ${firstName} = OK, $firstName = KO

• Links

  • Links format: spaces aren't allowed in URLs (neither in the URL itself or at the end of it)

  • Generating link names is semi-automated and is done in a non-iterative way: the name of the link depends on its content. Two links containing a same keyword (Facebook for instance), will have the same name. It is recommended to check the names of your links before validating the campaign.

  • <title> tags are not taken into account to define the default names of the URLs in the HTML. When copying an old campaign with such tags, it is necessary to review the setup of those links.

  • The client's link domains host the images in the editor. This implies that images are not displayed in the preview of the editor if the client's link domain is still in http. This also has an effect on the display of the e-mail of the "heatmap" in the click report of the campaign. Even if it's possible to preview these images by accepting non-secure links in the browser, we strongly advise to purchase a SSL certificate and installing it on the link domain.

  • Links aren't organized by name anymore, with the exception of the top clicked links. Two links with the same name will now be displayed with different values in the heatmap and the click report.

• Advanced parameters

  • Goals are activated by default when creating a campaign. They do not need to be activated for each campaign.

  • UTM parameters are to be found at the third step of the e-mail creation and can be automatically generated.

• Creating a campaign with the HTML import feature

Variables to define a condition in the HTML source code are « data-actito-if » in the new engine instead of the previously used « data-if ».

• Creating a campaign with the "Code your own" function

Some fields are pre-filled in the HTML e-mail to simplify the editing.

• Validating a campaign and testing group steps

Test profiles from the testing groups can no longer be directly contacted. It is now essential to have (at least) one address to send a test e-mail.

• APIs calls

Calls now only works with the ID's or technical names of the campaigns.

The "name" setting to create an API campaign becomes the technical name: spaces and special characters are therefore forbidden (dashes and underscores can be used)

• Scenarios

  • Scenarized campaigns should be activated to be selectable in a scenario. It is no longer possible to select a draft scenarized campaign.

  • Scenarized campaigns that were created before the migration can't be selected in new scenarios. These old campaigns are recognizable by the label [Deprecated].

Activation process

When the new e-mail engine is activated, you gain access to a new interface and its feature. The effect of the switch on your existing campaigns depends on their status.

• All your Sent campaigns are transferred to the new interface. You keep access to the report and the interactions. You can copy a Sent campaign and it will create a new draft with the copy of the content and access to all the features of the new engine.

• All your In progress scenarized campaigns are transferred to the new interface, but they continue to run on the old e-mail engine when they are triggered. They are flagged by the label [Deprecated]. You keep access to the report and the interactions but you can't "correct" a [Deprecated] campaign and you can't use it in a new scenario. However, you can copy a [Deprecated] campaign and it will create a new draft with the copy of the content and access to all the features of the new engine (see G. on the Checklist below for more details).

• You should not schedule a campaign during the operation.

• All your Draft campaigns will not be transferred to the new interface. If you want to keep a draft, we advise to save it as a campaign template or export its HTML content.

• All your design and campaign templates are transferred.

• Your sending and link domains are transferred and ready to be used. There is no deliverability impact to the switch.

Activation checklist

The activation of the new e-mail engine needs to be done by the Actito teams, but there might be some points of attention on your side depending on your usage of the deprecated engine.

To switch to the new e-mail campaigns engine, please run through the following checklist and give the results to your dedicated Actito contact person, who will schedule the operation with you.

If you answer YES to a question marked by an asterisk (questions A to D), we advise you to discuss the topic with your contact person beforehand. Some dedicated support projects may be required.

If you answer YES to a question not marked by an asterisk (questions E to J), some adaptation of your processes might be needed, but shouldn't prevent the switch. You can still discuss it with your contact person if you feel you'll need assistance. They will present you the possibilities to order a dedicated support project.

A. Do you use JSP templates in your licence?*

JSP e-mails are no longer available in the new e-mail engine. Only HTML can be used to code e-mails in the new engine. Any JSP e-mail that you want to continue using will have to be translated into HTML. Our teams can assist you with this process through a dedicated project.

B. Do you have the AMI add-on?*

The compatibility of your custom dashboards with the new engine should be analyzed with the AMI project managers.

C. Do you use specific apps (developed by the Actito service teams) related to e-mails?*

Due to the custom nature of these apps, their compatibility with the new engine should be checked with our teams.

D. Does your licence have custom templates (created by the Actito service teams)?*

We advise you to request our service teams to check their recency and their compatibility with the new engine technology, such as for example the block library.

E. Do you use the "Planning" app?

The "Planning" app is deprecated and not compatible with the new e-mail engine. It cannot be used anymore.

F. Do you use API to trigger e-mail sending?

API Calls now only works with the IDs or technical names of the campaigns.

The "name" setting to create an API campaign becomes the technical name: spaces and special characters are therefore forbidden (dashes and underscores can be used)

G. Do you have active scenarios / continuous campaigns, that you want to keep active after the switch?

It will not be possible to correct migrated scenarized campaigns or to use them in new scenarios. If triggered, these campaigns will continue to be sent out using the old e-mail engine modalities. These old campaigns are recognizable by the label [Deprecated].

However, copying them will create a new engine draft similar to the original campaign, but with access to all new e-mail engine features ! You will be able to use them to upgrade your existing processes.

A future update will allow users to edite active scenarios to replace the campaigns triggered by the scenarios. This will allow you to use the new version of the campaigns without having to recreate a new scenario.

All campaigns with the label [Deprecated] will stop working as of December 31 2022. They will need to be replaced by a new version beforehand.

H. Are there standard exports on e-mail events in the licence?

As explained above, [Deprecated] campaigns are still triggered on the old engine. To make sure that events from both engines are included in the same file, existing exports will be updated.

These updated exports will switch from "Incremental custom" to "Standard" exports, which means that they will be directly available in the Manage Exports app (Datamart Studio > Manage Exports).

I. Do you use link domains in HTTP?

Your link domains host the images in the editor. This implies that images are not displayed in the preview of the editor if the link domain is still in http. This also has an effect on the display of the e-mail of the "heatmap" in the click report of the campaign. Even if it's possible to preview these images by accepting non-secure links in the browser, we strongly advise to purchase a SSL certificate and installing it on the link domains (see Securing your Link Domains).

J. Do you have added campaigns in a campaign group stored in a different entity than that of the campaigns?

In the new engine, campaign groups can only contain campaigns from the same entity as them.

Scheduling the intervention

• Your drafts will not be transferred to the new engine. If you want to keep a draft, we advise to save it as a campaign template or export its HTML content.

• No mass campaign should be scheduled during the switch. Before choosing the date of the switch, plan a 2 hours window in which you won't send campaigns.

• Switches to the new e-mail engine are carried out on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Please choose a date accordingly.