A couple of weeks ago I was at a client site doing ExactTarget API consulting. This client is standardizing on ExactTarget as their single source of all e-mail communications from three of their internal applications. They will use 5Buckets for the automation in certain cases, but also needed to develop their own integration with ExactTarget directly.
One of the developers posed me a question about “filters” in the ExactTarget web service. You can use
simplefilterpart() to specify what data point you want to filter on, and of course the value. For example, to filter on CustomerKey -
SimpleFilterPart sfp = new SimpleFilterPart();
sfp.Property = “CustomerKey”;
sfp.SimpleOperator = SimpleOperators.equals;
sfp.Value = new string[] { “TransactionalSendKey” };
Here you are first creating an instance of SimpleFilterPart. Then indicating that you want to filter using “CustomerKey”, indicating the operator and finally the value of the CustomerKey.
Now, if you have two filter criteria, you create two instances of the SimpleFilterPart and join the two using ComplexFilterPart (see code example in the Webserivces API guide, pg. 36)
Going back to the question that came up at client site - they wanted to know how they would add a third filter criteria. Well, it’s simple enough. Create a third instance of SimpleFilterPart and set the property and values as appropriate. Then create another instance of a ComplexFilterPart and assign you first ComplexFilterPart to the LeftOperand and the third SimpleFilterPart to the RightOperand.
If you are like most ExactTarget API users, your first introduction to the ExactTarget API must have been a PDF document. A large 100+ page PDF document. A little daunting, not so much because of the complexity, but because who the heck has the time to go through a 100+ PDF document. Then someone at ExactTarget probabaly mentioned the ExactTarget Developer Community to you. The community has many useful resources - the documentation, code samples (yes!), forums, a call wizard, ET API experts that respond to your questions!
Let me point out one more piece of the Developer Community that I find very useful - an online help file. It is listed on the “Resources” page, towards the very end of the page. This is the entire REST based API in a search-able, indexed Help format!!!! You can search for a specific API call and get to it directly, no need to thumb through a 100+ PDF. :)
Full disclosure - this Help file currently has only the REST based API and the Batch API guides. The Web services API and the ET for AppExchange API are not in there (ExactTarget - please add them in asap!!).
Here’s a quick little tip about the new ExactTarget Webservices API, particularly the one that does the integration between Salesforce.com and ExactTarget. When you trigger an email send using the ETforAppEx API, make sure you specify -
a) IndividualResults = true;
b) IndividualResultsSpecified = true;
This will ensure that the send, open(s), click(s) are dumped in to Salesforce.com by ExactTarget. The manual says there is no need to explicity specify IndividualResults, and that the tracking will be dumped in to SFDC by default. But as a good practice I would strongly recommend you specify it explicitly. You really don’t want to be left guessing if that tracking information will really be sent to SFDC or not.
Send me an email (adalvi -at- rightoninteractive.com) if you want a more detailed code sample.
In an earlier post I commented on a cool Google Analytics widget that allowed for key web metrics to be displayed as a widget on the users desktop by the Yahoo! Widgets desktop application.
Basically you enter a “job id” (a unique id applied to an email send) and then it updates that campaign every 15 minutes so you get near real time reporting on campaign activity. Pretty slick.
Also, There is another “Advanced Tracking” widget, but as of right now I could not get it to install properly on my computer. I do look forward to using it once they get it figured out! Once it is I will post it here.
So if your an ExactTarget client and find yourself obsessively logging in to see how your email marketing campaign in doing…this little tool may be the answer!
I was reading Marketing Sherpa this morning and came across this interesting case study about how a simple change to your newsletter can make all the difference.This is a great reason to start doing that email testing that you have been putting off because the results can be amazing. Every email that goes out without a split is a missed opportunity to gain insight into your recipients behavior.
SUMMARY: Sometimes even the smallest change can make a world of difference in your email design. See how one publisher transformed a related stories link into a gray utility button and immediately saw a 190% increase in clicks and traffic is up 6% on a different landing page.
It’s an easy tweak that if you haven’t considered, you may want to test on your own newsletters.
Why not let your customers pick an email template and color theme from a set of available themes when they register/optin to your marketing campaign? It could be something similar to how blogger lets you choose a template and color theme for your blog. Your mailer program could then leverage this to send out visually personalized email.
I am a fan of the Customer Driven Marketing blog and it never fails that I run across some interesting ideas every time I visit. This little musing got me thinking about how we always fret over the look and feel over our email templates…and what if we just turned it over to the subscriber? And make it a part of their preference center so they can change whenever they want? Its food for thought.
I am proud to announce that I have an article published in a new book titled “Email marketing by the numbers”. The book is authored by email marketing expert and well known blogger Chris Baggott. It’s really a collection of expert articles and anecdotes by various authors. Chris, an avid blogger, public speaker and email marketing expert hit upon the idea to publish a book that allowed the best email marketing minds to come together and provide insight about email marketing. The book covers various topics ranging from general email marketing concepts, deliverability to database marketing.
I lend my voice around database integration and APIs. With integration you can continue to use your current applications, but use “APIs – Application Programming Interfaces” to extend the application. Given my history around integration and custom software development space, I talk about what is integration and how it can be used within email marketing.
I just want to take a moment and tell you about a book that has come out recently that I highly recommend - “Email Marketing by the Numbers“. It is a great book by Chris Baggott and Ali Sales - both of whom I collaborated very closely with during my days in marketing department at ExactTarget. They are both extremely talented marketers to which I can personally attest.
I bought the book as soon as it came available and was delighted to find it not just a book by Chris, but a compilation of work from many talented internet marketers from around the world. Many of those talented professionals are people I worked with while at ExactTarget like Morgan Stewart, Chip House, Joel Book, and Ali Sales. Other contributors, specifically Amol Dalvi, I continue to work with in my current position at tech start up Right On Interactive.
I also want to mention Kelly Rusk with Card Communications who is an email marketing expert who contributed to the book as well - she both posts and links here and is an extremely talented internet marketer. I met her by chance when I started blogging and have been faithfully reading her posts ever since!
Besides the fact that many reputable professionals contributed to the book (my friends!) - it is also an easy read. A book on email marketing could easily put anyone to sleep (even die-hards like me) but instead it flows nicely and the examples and insight are truly inspiring.
So if you are truly interested in adding email to your marketing arsenal or just want to hone in your existing skills - you cant go wrong buying this book. Good job guys!
What we have here is a major shift in how marketers will have to approach email marketing, since Microsoft has decided to move away completely from usability and technology in favor of security. (It should be noted that I don’t accept the premise of the argument that it is ultimately a choice of one or the other…)
If you are a web designer - you may want to relearn how to design using tables because the new Outlook does not support CSS floating or positioning. The irony for us old web designers is that we actually remember what it was like to hack together a design using tables - most new designers are unfamiliar with the old way of designing on the web…welcome to 1999!
If you put forms in your email - don’t expect those to render either. You know those sophisticated emails that contain surveys or registrations…kiss them goodbye because they are now the odd man out. Sit back and think about what this means as marketers…yep, it sucks that bad.
And if you were ever holding out for rich media - videos, flash, applets ect…fuhgettaboutit! Microsoft doesn’t seem to think that those spam filter issues are going away any time soon - so now it will be even longer before they become available in email. Thanks alot.
The biggest point I am making besides the fact that all of these changes really impact email marketing negatively - is that its a fundamental shift in Microsoft’s way of thinking. Instead of pioneering the way to help make email more user friendly and extending its functionality, they have decided to force us into much more primitive email. It almost feels like Microsoft is trying to revert back to 1999.
But then those were much better times for Microsoft.
