Which information do you want to collect? We recommend that you focus on collecting a specific item, such as interests or a date of birth. This of course depends on your goals. Asking for specific information will be more effective than harassing your readers with requests to complete their entire profile.
Do you know which information you would like to collect? Then it is a matter of making the following preparations in the Lists module of Spotler:
- Creating database fields: For storing data
- Creating dynamic lists: The contacts in this filter will be the target group of your mailing.
The dynamic lists that you prepare with the filter are not just useful for sending the mailing to. They also help you determine whether a profile enrichment action is useful. From how many contacts do you already have the required data? This has to do with the so-called 'degree of profile completion', which we will discuss at the end of this step.
Creating database fields
Suppose you are a marketeer at a travel agency, and you want to send offers that are more targeted. You could ask your readers what type of vacation they are interested in. The interests that you collect will have to be stored somewhere in Spotler. This is possible in so-called database fields. Perhaps you already have a database field available and you want to supplement missing data. If so, you can skip this step. Are you going to get started with a completely new item? You have not collected interests from anyone yet? Then contact Spotler Support (+31 (0)88 – 103 09 09 or support@spotler.nl). They will create a database field for you within a few minutes, free of charge.
Interests fields
Spotler has a specific database field for interests. This is a list of 'interests' that are all checked for a contact by default, unless a contact has changed them, or it is specified otherwise in an import.
This feature was devised in order to be able to offer a customized newsletter. This way, you can offer content based on the interest(s) of your reader. The reversed principle of profile enrichment is applied with these interests fields: initially, the reader is interested in everything. Over time, they can uncheck interests. In this profile enrichment action, you could of course ask the reader if they want to update their interests by unchecking the boxes they are not interested in.
Creating dynamic lists
In order to send the mailing of the profile enrichment action, we will need a dynamic list. This dynamic list contains all contacts of which you are missing a certain item of information. For instance, their vacation preference.
Go to the Lists module. By default, you first end up in the tab Dynamic lists. To create a new dynamic list, click on the yellow New list button. Give it a name that you will be able to recognize and click on Save & next. Click on the Edit button and the editor will appear.
It is possible to add selections and exclusions to the canvas. We will create the dynamic list in two steps:
Step 1 - Selection
First, select the contacts you want to email based on a characteristic. The most logical thing is to start with all contacts that have given you permission to email them. You can then refine on other characteristics such as language, contact type (customer/prospect), etc.
Click on the +Selection button to add a selection to the canvas. You can also add a selection by double-clicking on the canvas.
A pop-up will appear:
In this case, choose All contacts, because we want to make a selection based on the database fields available within Spotler. If you click on All contacts and then OK, a new pop-up will appear.
Using the drop-down menu, you can select a database field from Spotler to use as a filter, for instance, Permissions. Next, click on OK. You end up in the first pop-up, where you see your selection and how many contacts meet that value:
You can add extra properties such as language, contact type (customer/prospect), etc. by clicking Add refinement.
Have you specified all desired properties? Then you have now selected all the contacts that you need to send a mailing to. All you have to do now, is to exclude the contacts from which you already have the desired information.
Step 2 - Add exclusions
You will now add exclusions. Only complete this step if you suspect that some of your contacts already have data in their profile. There is no need to 'bother' these contacts with a profile enrichment action.
Click on the -Exclusion button to add an exclusion to the canvas. The method is the same as with Selection, but you now specify characteristics that the list should not meet.
Suppose you want to select all contacts for which you do not have a date of birth. Then you can exclude anyone with a date of birth in this screen. To do this, click -Exclusion again. In the pop-up, select the property you want to supplement with the profile enrichment action using the All properties option. By subsequently specifying all possible values, you select everyone who already has data in their profile.
In this example, we take Date of Birth and indicate that we want to exclude people with Date of Birth (is not empty). The goal is to approach contacts of whom we have no date of birth.
The selection now looks like this:
Fill level analysis
At the bottom of the canvas you can see how many contacts are now excluded (see image above). With this information, the so-called "filling level" can be calculated. The fill rate indicates how much data you have from your contacts and how well you actually know your readers.
You calculate the fill level as follows: compare the number of excluded contacts with the total. In this example, this means 125 compared to 1,974 newsletter opt-ins that have a date of birth. So we have a date of birth of only 6,3% of the newsletter opt-ins. So it is definitely worth doing a profile enrichment campaign!
Click on Save and then on Close editor. Scroll down, and click on Save & finish. You will return to the overview of the Dynamic lists. The new list is now visible in the overview and is ready for the profile enrichment action.