Triggered Emails -- Overview

Introduction

Triggered Emails is a powerful tool that automates the sending of Email Messages. Messages are automatically sent when something happens in the System. This could be something that an Admin does, like changing a Product's Price. Or, it could be something that a customer does, like abandoning their Shopping Cart. The Email Message that is sent can be uniquely crafted for that Triggered, and can use Email Operators to create rich, tailored, and targeted emails for your customers, partners, vendors, and employees.

Getting Started

There are no system level configurations related to Triggered Emails. 

Types of Triggered Emails

There is a vast array of Triggered Emails to handle most any situation.

Triggered Email Descriptions

Here is a brief description of each type of Triggered Emails:

• Account: May be sent to Account holders and are triggered by a specified date.
• Account Marketing Campaign: 
• Account Membership Level:
• Account New Media Awarded:
• Account Payer Balance Due:
• Account Post Digest:
• Cart: May be sent to Account holders and are triggered when Products get added to the Shopping Cart, but the Order is not completed.
• Course Date: May be sent to Account holders, Administrators, or Coordinators and are triggered by the Course Start Date, Course End Date, or Course Expiration Date.
• Course Status: May be sent to Account holders, Administrators, Coordinators, all Learning Coordinators, or just the Primary learning Coordinator(s) and are triggered when the Course Status is set, such as 'Graded'.
• Daily Order Actions:
• Form Answer: May be sent to Account holders, Administrators, or Coordinators and are triggered when a specific answer is received to a form question on a completed Order.
• Order: May be sent to Account holders, are not assigned to Products, but are sent for all Orders. These are triggered by the Order Date, Start Date, or End Date. When there are multiple Events in one Order, the trigger will be the earliest Start Date of all Events, or the latest End Date of all Events in that Order.
• Org Fund Balance Warning:
• Org Fund Expiration Warning:
• Participant: May be sent to Participants and are triggered by a specified date.
• Participant Marketing Campaign:
• Participant Membership Level:
• Product Data: May be sent to Account holders, Administrators, Coordinators, or Participants when Product Data is updated.
• Product Participant Purchased: May be sent to Participants of Events and are triggered by the Order Date, Start Date, or End Date of the Event.
• Product Purchased: May be sent to the Order Email Address, or the Account holder and is triggered by the Order Date, Start Date, or End Date of an Event.
  
• Recurring Billing Credit Card Expiration: May be sent to Account holders and are triggered by the Expiration date of a credit card being used for Recurring Billing.
• Schedule Day Event:
• Subscription Expiration:
• Triggered Virtual Meeting: May be sent to Virtual Meeting attendees and are triggered by the Start Date, or End Date of the meeting.
• Triggered Virtual Meeting Purchased With Product: May be sent to Virtual Meeting Attendees, or Organizers and are triggered by purchasing a Product to which a Virtual Meeting has been assigned.
• Triggered Virtual Meeting Purchased With Course: May be sent to Virtual Meeting Attendees, or Organizers and are triggered by purchasing a Product to which a Course is assigned and that Course contains a Virtual Meeting.

Send Methods

There are two methods of sending Triggered Emails. The first is referred to as the nightly job. For this method, the Triggered Emails will be sent between 12AM and 6AM, daily, per the Time Zone configuration of your database. The second method is virtually instantaneous. 

Most types of Triggered Emails are sent via the nightly job. The Course Status, Form Answer, and Product Data types or Triggered Emails are sent via the virtually instantenously method, because they are more time sensitive. 

Assignable Triggered Emails

Some types of Triggered Emails can be assigned to Categories, Regions, Products, Virtual Meetings, and Courses.

Category, Region, and Product Assignable
The following can be assigned to Categories, Regions, and Products:

• Product Data
• Product Purchased
• Product Participant Purchased  

Like with other Assignable Items, click to edit the Category, Region, or Product, go to Assignments, select the Email Tab, choose Triggered Emails, and drag the item from the Unassigned to the Assigned column.

For more information on assigning items, see the Product Assignment Video, or the Categories and Regions help files.

Virtual Meeting and LMS Assignable 

Virtual Meeting Triggered Emails can be assigned to Virtual Meetings. LMS Course Triggered Emails can be assigned to LMS Courses. See their dedicated articles for more information.

System-Wide Triggered Emails

Some types of Triggered Emails do not need to be assigned to anything. The following are System-wide Triggered Emails:

• Account
• Cart Created 
• Form Answer
• Order
• Participant
• Recurring Billing Credit Card Expiration 

Creating the Email Messages

We suggest creating the Email Message prior to creating the Triggered Email -- when you are creating the Triggered Email, you must indicate which Email Message will be used, so it is best to have already created the message. Login to the Administrative side of your Configio database, and navigate to Settings --> Assignments --> Email Messages. Click the "Add New Email" button.


Input a Title and choose the Type of Email Message. The names of the types of Email Messages match the names of the Triggered Emails that are listed above, except that they also contain the word "Triggered". As there are many types of Email Messages available, you can search to help you find the correct one. Click the Create button when ready.


You can now begin to compose your Email Message. Input a Subject, and add text to the Body. You can use plain text, and you can use Operators. Operators read data from the system that is relevant to the Order, Account, Participant, or Product, and input that data into the email. For example, if the email is being sent to the Account holder, then the Operator "Account First Name" will input the first name of the Account holder into the email message. To add an Operator, click it. Operators in the Body are formatted with a green text color. Click to make it "Active", and click the "Save" button when you are done. 


After you have Saved the Email Message, you can click to Preview it.


This is a brief description to get you going, read the dedicated article to learn more about Email Messages. 

Creating the Triggered Email

Navigate to Settings --> Assignments --> Triggered Emails. Click the "Add New Triggered Email" button.


Input a Title, choose the Type, select your Message, choose the date range that the Triggered Email will be used, and choose what will trigger the sending of the Email Message. If you want the Triggered Email to not expire, you can select No End Date. Click the "Save" button when you are done.