Velocity script tokens as an alternative for dynamic content

[Michaela_Iery3]

Following up on Kristen Carmean's awesome blog post with great examples of Velocity scripting, I’ve got another example of a basic email token Velocity script that allows you to serve up dynamic content without segmentation or snippets.

While Marketo's segmentation functionality is terrific, there are times when it isn't what you need when you want to deliver dynamic content based on the customer's data. Especially when the dynamic content you need isn't based on an either/or scenario like salutations (Mr. v. Ms. or U.S. v. Canada).

I’ve had multiple requests for a use case similar to the following:

A lead fills out a form or otherwise has data in their record indicating interest in multiple products/topics/requests. The lead can choose more than one topic, making segmentation and snippets undesirable, as you can be in only one segment at a time within a segmentation and building a segmentation for each topic area is not always feasible in many Marketo instances. The lead then receives an email response with dynamic content based on the topics they requested.

For our example here, we will be a fictional company offering a variety of dog-related topics (Training Tips, Toys and Accessories, Nutrition and Health and Adoptions) that customers can get a monthly email update about by registering via a form. This data about their interest is captured in individual custom fields in Marketo, though it could also be associated with the lead via CRM fields as well.

We will send out an email auto response confirming the topics they signed up for and providing a brief update on each topic. Only the topics they signed up for will be in the email copy.

To accomplish this, we leverage very basic Velocity #if and #end functionality. (If the value is “X,” make this text appear and then end the script.) You can do this all within one token and have the script address each value one after the other. In this case, our fields = "1" when a lead has selected that topic.

#if (${lead.mktoAdoptionsandRescues} == "1")

Adoptions and Rescues: Meet our latest furry friend, Charlotte, who is available for adoption. Charlotte is a mature, 7-year-old basset hound who would love nothing more than finding her forever home and would do well…

#end

#if (${lead.mktoToys} == "1")

Toys and Products: All of our dog companions here are just wild about the new backyard tug toy  from ACME Dog. Your dog gets all of the yanking and pulling play time he love, without the strain on your arms…

#end

#if (${lead.mktoTrainingTips} == "1")

Training Tips: Are you saying "Down" but the rest of your household says "Off"? Consistency is key to your dog understanding what you want. We've got a top 10 list of dog training Dos and Donts …

#end

#if (${lead.mktoNutrition} == “1”)

Nutrition and Health: Dogs can get the flu too – it’s time to start thinking about Fido’s annual vaccination. Talk with your vet about…

#end

I’ve saved this email script token as {{my.Dog Content Updates}} and have placed the token within the body of the email.Note that in my own record, I have only signed up for the Adoptions and Training topics, and those are the only pieces of content that appear, and without obvious space/breaks between the topic script pieces that don’t apply.

Bonus Tip One: Not strong on html writing? (Neither am I.) Build an email where you write and format the copy as you like it. Embed links, create bolded headlines, etc. Then go into the html of that email and copy the text as formatted. For example, the script piece for Adoptions actually is in my token as

<p><b>Adoptions and Rescues</b><br>

Meet our latest furry friend, Charlotte, who is available for adoption. Charlotte is a mature, 7-year-old basset hound who would love nothing more than finding her forever home. <a href="http://www.cbhr.com" target="_blank">Learn more</a>...</p> (Depending on how your email template is se

Bonus Tip Two: Consider your content carefully. Each topic/brand/request needs to be able to stand alone, as the lead may or may not have requested two that you are tying together. Also consider content length – if each piece is long and the lead signs up for all of them, this could make for a very long, unwieldy email (and depending on your email template, might look a bit clunky). For the same reason, I would be cautious about the total number of topics/brands/requests that can be selected in this type of delivery. It’s a balancing act – the more topics, the shorter the content should be. I might only use 4-5 for a content piece like the above, where you’re delivering almost newsletter “blurb” pieces of content of a few sentences. For an email that is simply listing a customer’s selections without additional content (say, confirming someone’s subscription choices without providing content for them), you might be able to get away with 10-12 choices.

I should add that I'm not in the least fluent in Velocity script - but I suspect many of you may be in the same boat. This is just a simple script token that I think can be applied in many typical, fairly straightforward use cases for Marketo.

[Anonymous]

In this case, our topics of interest fields are Boolean (true/false) fields, so values are either 1 or 0

The possible values in Velocity are "1" or the empty string, not 0 (the "Boolean" passed to Velocity is actually a Java string).

so

  ${var} == "1"   ${var} == ""   ${var}.isEmpty()

are valid comparisons.

(Comparison to integer 1 will also work because of loose comparison, but is misleading.)

Comparison to string or integer 0 will fail.

[Michaela_Iery3]

Great point - my phrasing is not clear and I will edit. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

OK, but I still think it should be explicitly "1" not integer 1. Otherwise people who understand boolean/bit fields in other languages will think these are actual bits (and thus when they try to invert the comparison it will fail, possibly without them catching it).

[Michaela_Iery3]

Is it more accurate as I have edited it now? If not, what specifically would you edit in my paragraph? I appreciate your attention to this - as I said, scripting is not my forte. I just know this is a simple little script that worked for my needs.

[Anonymous]

Sure, I like it, keeps it specific to these fields and one potential value!

[Nicholas_Manojl]

Here's a tip on that same subject..

Have many scripts, not just one.

So in your example, you'd have:

{{my.adoptionScript}}

{{my.trainingScript}}

{{my.toysScript}}

{{my.nurtritionScript}}

And so on. It's easier to edit the individual scripts, and it's easier to remember what is going to be in your email.

[SanfordWhiteman]

I sort of agree, sort of don't. 

Let's see if my next blog post can convince you to use a different way entirely.

[Michaela_Iery3]

Hi, Nicholas Manojlovic​:

I have taken that approach in the past and it can be useful - but I've also found that unlike the all-in-one approach, it can create "gaps" in the content. But I would defer to Sanford Whiteman​ on the reasons why that might occur, as he definitely knows script better than I do!

[SanfordWhiteman]

I find the opposite. As I'm describing in my blog post, stacking everything in a big script leads people to add newlines to break up components for easier reading. Problem is those newlines actually end up in the email, where they can create maddening layout bugs.

I actually agree with Nicholas about separating large text blocks, but I'm also looking at a wider "architectural" approach.  Will post the link here when it's published!

[Nicholas_Manojl]

Well I officially have your blog in my feed now so I look forward to that.

also.. is it about macros? I have to test that out..