How to send (and populate) email based on new products

[Jo_Pitts1]

Hiya All.

Here is a bit of a question for you.

A company adds new products to their product database.

That same company wants to (based on customers interests (determined by pre-selected preferences and/or previous online behaviour e.g. browsing particular brands or product categories)) send them emails when the new products are a good 'fit' for the customer.

The email sent would need to have images, product blurb etc.

Let's assume Marketo is at the core of the solution.  I'm struggling to see how I get the product details into Marketo and then perform the analysis on what to send whom.

Let's also assume customers have signed up and opted in for Newsletters, so we don't have an issue there.

Thoughts?

Regards

Jo

[Grace_Brebner3]

Hey Jo,

This is definitely achievable. Are you looking to do this as a one-off, point-in-time campaign or a triggered, always-on campaign?

If the latter, I'd strongly consider using lead scoring to control the analysis of "most likely fit"- e.g. create a field for each product, + & - points on preferences/demographics/behaviour, and then a process to update a "most likely fit" field with whichever product has the highest score. Noting that this is most effective as an always on process and would require a bit more thought around restrictions if done retrospectively for a one-off campaign. But it would provide an opportunity to tailor a lot of your engagements with leads according to what they're most interested in, and would change dynamically as their interests did.

If you're looking to point-in-time once-off, it's likely easier to simply define the criteria for "most likely fit" with smart lists.

You can then send emails accordingly based on this - there's a few options for the how here

• single email with dynamic content based on a "most likely fit" segmentation,
• single email populated with velocity script according to most likely fit,
• multiple emails, one for each product, version sent controlled by smart campaign rules.

[Jo_Pitts1]

Grace,

you just pop up everywhere don't you.

This will definitely be always on (for 'fit' analysis), and probably executed weekly for email sends.

I was thinking about using lead scoring for product ranges and product categories (as opposed to individual products), so we are very aligned on that.

The trick is more around pulling product details directly from the (potential) client's online catalogue and into the email (i.e. Jane is interested in Green products.  We've added a new green product to the online shop.  How will I get that into an email for Jane).

Thoughts?

[SanfordWhiteman]

The trick is more around pulling product details directly from the (potential) client's online catalogue and into the email (i.e. Jane is interested in Green products. We've added a new green product to the online shop. How will I get that into an email for Jane).

Write it to a global (top-level) Velocity token, formatted as a JSON array of objects w/properties (JSON array is parsed as a VTL List/Java ArrayList).

Then parse and output the data in program-level Velocity tokens.

There isn't really any other way to have a catalog data stored in one place in Marketo and selectively output in email content. This is is the way we manage store catalogs for one of our clients (who operates Marketo for a range of stores, so technically in this case they're second-level tokens at each store's level, while in your case you can have just one token at the uppermost level just under the Marketing Activities root).

[Jo_Pitts1]

Oh MMoS,

rather than a multi value field, would you consider using a custom object to store the areas of interest (one per object, and then one:many relationship between Person:Interests, and then use that in conjunction with the catalogue token to populate the email?

Is there anything to be gained with that approach, or is it all down side?

Regards

Jo

[SanfordWhiteman]

would you consider using a custom object to store the areas of interest (one per object, and then one:many relationship between Person:Interests)

I would think about it, but probably wouldn't do it for this case.

What you could potentially gain with a CO is the ability to have metadata that accompanies their interest, such as the timestamp when they first signaled their interest. (Though actually you can do the same thing by storing JSON in a Textarea field.)

What you would lose is the ability to modify those interest values from the Marketo UI and/or in a flow.  So you can't do a mass update only in Marketo, in the case of typo, change of product, etc. You would have to detach and recreate all those objects.

[Grace_Brebner3]

Hey Jo,

I'm probably on here more than I should be

I was thinking Sanford might jump in here - I'd go with his suggestion!

[SanfordWhiteman · Accepted solution]

Even if the emails tend to change, the bulk of the script format would likely be the same and the product inputs what varies.

Yes, the catalog Velocity token gets updated via API whenever there are changes.

Assuming there's a multi-valued field on the lead representing their areas of interest, then the token that outputs their interesting products never needs to change, even as new products are added and new interest categories are eligible on the lead.

If you use individual Boolean or DateTime fields on the lead, though (which I wouldn't recommend for this very reason) then you would have to change the output token, albeit slightly but annoyingly, whenever you wanted to consider a new field.

[Jo_Pitts1]

Sanford,

that sounds like the right approach.  An API to populate an array token, then velocity scripting in the email to leverage the array.

to both Grace and Sanford - nice answers.  It was the Array masked as a token that I was mostly missing, but you are both rock stars!

Cheers

Jo

[Jo_Pitts1]

Grace,

yep - I was waiting for the Mighty Mind of Sanford (MMoS) to get in the mix as well.