Communications

Explains how to create and manage communications for various channels

A communication is the message that you want to send. You can use it to send a single campaign or you can use it to send multiple campaigns, with revisions in between. Campaign data is combined for each communication.

Where you create a communication and whether you create a new communication or edit an existing one determines how campaign data is combined.

For this reason you should consider the following:

  • Which project to use - your campaigns will be combined with those for the other communications in the project.
  • Whether to edit an existing communication - your campaigns will be combined with earlier campaigns for this communication.
  • Whether it is better to duplicate an existing communication rather than edit it - your campaigns will be tracked separately.

Creating a new communication

Every communication must be included in a project.

To create a new communication: enter the Create New screen. This can be reached by one of two ways:

  • Click Create New Communication from the main screen.
  • Click Create New when creating a new project - see Projects.

The Create New screen lists the following types of communication, known as channels, down the left hand side. Click the one that you want to create:

  • Email - a mass email as part of a campaign
  • Text Message - an SMS text message
  • Document - create a document that can be printed and sent in the post or emailed as a PDF attachment
  • Chatbot - a chatbot that can interact with a customer
  • Video - a video for a customer

When you are creating communications, refer to the following useful information:

Managing existing communications

When you open a project, a list of all communications within that project is displayed. For example:

List of communications in a project

For each communication listed, you can edit it (by clicking the pencil symbol Pencil symbol) or delete it (by clicking the bin symbol Delete symbol).

Note: If you try to edit a communication that another user has open, you cannot edit it; it is in read-only mode and a message is displayed with the name of the user who has it open. Similarly, if a communication is being moved or copied (which at present can only be done via the API), you also cannot edit it and a message is displayed.

Each email or SMS communication must have an Unsubscribe Category allocated to it. This is done when you create the communication. You can change the Unsubscribe Category from the Project screen above; simply click the existing category (such as Marketing) and select a new category from the dropdown list. If a communication has already been sent as a campaign, the category cannot be changed. For more details on unsubscribes, see Unsubscribes.

Notes:
  1. If an email or SMS communication was created before categories were introduced, an email communication will be assigned the category General and an SMS communication the category Account Updates. This cannot be changed if the communication has been sent. The General and Account Updates categories cannot be deleted.
  2. If you duplicate a communication, the Unsubscribe Category must be specified.

Clicking the three dots gives you the following additional options (the list of options available depends on the type of communication):

  • Send Communication (available for emails and SMS) - a shortcut for sending the communication.
  • Version History (available for email and document communications only) - displays the version history of the communication. See Version history for more details.
    Note: The Version history screen can also be accessed by clicking the History button from the summary screen for the Communication.
  • Duplicate (always available) - creates a duplicate of the communication. You need to provide a new name for the duplicate.
  • Download (available for emails and SMS) - creates a PDF of the communication.
  • Analytics (available for emails, SMS and chatbots) - opens the page displaying the reporting analytics for the communication. See Reporting for more information.

Click the chevron at the right (>) to display a preview of the communication, together with a list of any attachments (email only). Note that this chevron is only displayed for email, SMS and document communications.

The column called STATUS will show a status of Live if a video communication is live.