To sync Dynamic Content to the subject line of a text message:

1. Choose to create a new or edit an existing HTML message. This will take you to the Edit Message page.
2. Click Make Subject Dynamic.
3. Choose the conditional. For the first block, by default, you can only choose if.
4. Choose the operator. The available operators are:
   • In List
   • In Segment
   • Field Is Blank
   • Field Is Equal To
   • Field Is Not Equal To
   • Field Is Greater Than
   • Field Is Less Than
5. Choose a value. The values that you can choose from depend on the operator you choose in the previous step.
6. Click OR to add an additional value.
7. Add the Content that will be displayed if the Dynamic Content conditions are met.
8. Optional) If you wish to add nested conditionals to a Dynamic Content block, click Logic. You can add 2 nested conditionals per Dynamic Content block. To add additional Dynamic Content blocks, click Add Block.
9. Click Insert Dynamic Subject.
10. Make sure the Sync HTML and Text Subjects checkbox is checked.
11. Click the Text Version tab.
12. Click Re-generate from HTML version. You will see the Dynamic Code that represents the Dynamic Content you added in the subject line of the HTML version of your message now displayed in the subject line of the text version of your message.

If you are a comfortable with using Dynamic Code, you can always add Dynamic Code directly to the subject line of your plain text messages. For everyone else, you can use the steps above to add Dynamic Content to the subject line in the text version of your messages. If have any questions, please leave them in the comments section below.

John Gunther
Technical Writer/eLearning Specialist at Bronto
Editor of Brontoversity

Related posts:

1. The Logical Way To Send Email: Dynamic Content We have been blogging a lot in recent weeks about...
2. Adding Dynamic Subject Lines For quite some time, Bronto users have had the...
3. Adding Blocks Of Re-Editable Dynamic Content In the past, the only way for you to edit...

When you add Social Sharing links to your message using the WYSIWYG editor, you will be asked to specify a Title and a Summary. Each social media outlet handles the display of the Title and Summary differently, and sometimes doesn’t use them at all. Below is a screenshot displaying how each social media outlet displays the Summary and Title when a contact clicks a social sharing link from your message.

Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

MySpace

Digg

Obviously for this post, I have used a generic Title and Summary. When you create your Social Sharing links, you’ll want to come up with a creative Title and Summary that best applies to the Social Sharing links you are adding. If you have any additional questions, feel free to leave them in the comments section below.

John Gunther
Technical Writer/eLearning Specialist at Bronto
Editor of Brontoversity

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2. Check Out The Fall 2009 Release Bronto’s Fall 2009 is here! If you would like to...
3. Get Ready: The Bronto Fall 2009 Release You may have noticed Halloween displays at the local...

Using Loop Tags

To make use of loop tags:

1. Add {loop}{/loop} tags to the dynamic code in a message as shown below. Notice the %%#item_#%% portion of the code. This a modified API Message Tag used specifically in loop tags.

   						{dynamic_code}
   						{loop}
   						%%#item_#%%
   						{/loop}
   						{/dynamic_code}

   Click the image below to enlarge

   

   TIP: In the example above, notice how the Dynamic Code and loop tags have been placed inside of an HTML table. This was done so the content brought in via the loop tags will display nicely in a table. It is perfectly ok to do this, but we recommend turning off the WYSIWYG editor (as is the case above) when working with Dynamic Code and HTML. The WYSIWYG editor attempts to correct what it sees as mistakes in HTML and will thus produce unintended results if it encounters Dynamic Code embedded in HTML. To turn off the WYSIWYG editor, click WYSIWYG Editor Off next to the Subject Line text box.

2. Depending on which version of the API you are using, call either addDeliveries (Version 4) or writeDeliveries (Legacy Version 3). When you call writeDeliveries or addDeliveries, the array of fields you specify in the function will look for the special loop API message tags and replace them with the content you specify for each messagefieldObject. Essentially, the loop tags will loop through each messagefieldObject specified in the function call. For each messageFieldObject encountered in the loop, the content added for each messagefieldObject will be added to the message, starting with the first array item, and continuing until the last item in the array is encountered. If no content value is added for a messageFieldObject, then that particular messageFieldObject will be skipped over in the loop. Below you can find a modified version of the code example found on the addDeliveries page of the API site. This code sends a message containing the example loop tags above, and replaces them with some generic content.

   NOTE: The code example below applies only to version 4 of the API, but you can use it as reference for using loop tags with the writeDeliveries function in legacy version 3 of the API.

   To easily copy the code below, move your mouse over the top right corner of the code example. Four buttons will appear. Click View Source or Copy To Clipboard to copy the code below in plain text format without line numbers.

   /**
    * This example will create a delivery to send a message to a single contact.
    * This example also contains code to add content via loop tags to the message and
   *  assumes the message already has the appropriate loop tags added.
    * You must edit the code to refer to the message name you wish to send, and change
    * the email address of the contact to be a valid contact in your account.
    */
   
   $client = new SoapClient('https://api.bronto.com/v4?wsdl', array('trace' => 1, 'features' => SOAP_SINGLE_ELEMENT_ARRAYS));
   
   setlocale(LC_ALL, 'en_US');
   
   try {
   	$token = "ADD YOUR API TOKEN HERE";
   
   	print "logging in\n";
   	$sessionId = $client->login(array('apiToken' => $token))->return;
   
   	$session_header = new SoapHeader("http://api.bronto.com/v4", 'sessionHeader', array('sessionId' => $sessionId));
   	$client->__setSoapHeaders(array($session_header));
   
   	// get the id of the message you wish to send.  It would be more
   	// efficient to hardcode the ID here, and you may choose to do that based
   	// on your own usage scenario(s).
   	$messageFilter = array('name' => array('operator' => 'EqualTo', 'value' => 'NAME OF YOUR MESSAGE HERE',),);
   	$message = $client->readMessages(array('pageNumber' => 1,'includeContent' => false, 'filter' => $messageFilter))->return[0];
   	if (!$message) {
   		print "There was an error retrieving your message.\n";
   		exit;
   	}
   
   	// get the id of the contact you will be sending to.  It would be
   	// more efficient to hardcode the ID here, and you may choose to do that
   	// based on your own usage scenario(s).
   	$contactFilter = array('email' => array('operator' => 'EqualTo', 'value' => 'RECIPIENT_EMAIL@EXAMPLE.COM'),);
   	$contact = $client->readContacts(array('pageNumber' => 1, 'includeLists' => false, 'filter' => $contactFilter))->return[0];
   	if (!$contact) {
   		print "There was an error retrieving your contact.\n";
   		exit;
   	}
   
   	// make delivery start timestamp
   	$now = date('c');
   
   	$recipientObject = array('type' => 'contact', 'id' => $contact->id);
   	/*
   	Create an array of delivery parameters including the content
   	which will be displayed by the loop tags added in the example
   	message.
   	*/
   	$delivery = array();
   	$delivery['start'] = $now;
   	$delivery['messageId'] = $message->id;
   	$delivery['fromName'] = 'API Robot';
   	$delivery['fromEmail'] = 'api_test@example.com';
   	$delivery['recipients'] = array($recipientObject);
          /*
           Notice below that when you reference the name of the loop tag via the API, be sure to leave
           of the "%%# _#%%" portion of the tag. You will build an array using individual API message
           tags which are named as follows: <basename>_<number>. For example, name => item_1,
           rather than name => %%#item_#%%.
           */
   	$delivery['fields'][] = array('name' => 'productname_1', 'type' => 'html', 'content' => 'A Cool Shirt');
   	$delivery['fields'][] = array('name' => 'productname_2', 'type' => 'html', 'content' => 'Some Nice Shoes');
   	$delivery['fields'][] = array('name' => 'productname_3', 'type' => 'html', 'content' => 'A Trendy Hat');
   	$delivery['fields'][] = array('name' => 'productprice_1', 'type' => 'html', 'content' => '$20.99');
   	$delivery['fields'][] = array('name' => 'productprice_2', 'type' => 'html', 'content' => '$50.99');
   	$delivery['fields'][] = array('name' => 'productprice_3', 'type' => 'html', 'content' => 'FREE!');
   	$deliveries[] = $delivery;
   
   	$parameters = array('deliveries' => $deliveries);
   
   	$res = $client->addDeliveries($parameters)->return;
   	if ($res->errors) {
   		print "There was a problem scheduling your delivery:\n";
   		print $res->results[$res->errors[0]]->errorString . "\n";
   	} else {
   		print "Delivery has been scheduled.  Id: " . $res->results[0]->id . "\n";
   	}
   } catch (Exception $e) {
   	print "uncaught exception\n";
   	print_r($e);
   }

3. In order to see if your {loop} tags are functioning as expected, we suggest scheduling some test deliveries and viewing the results. {loop} tags get processed at send time, so you won’t be able to view the end result of adding in these tags in a message previews or a dynamic preview. Below is an example of what the message above will look like after it has been sent and the content called via the loop tag has been added:

   Click on the image below to enlarge

   

Conclusion

That was a lot of information to cover, and working with loop is probably not something you should try and tackle unless you are comfortable using the API. However, with the right know how, incorporating loop tags into your email marketing program should be a straight forward process that can allow you to do some pretty powerful things. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments section below.

John Gunther
Technical Writer/eLearning Specialist at Bronto
Editor of Brontoversity

Related posts:

1. Give Them What They Want With API Message Tags This post only applies to Legacy Version 3 of...
2. Using readDeliveries In API Version 4 In version 4 of the API, we have updated the...
3. Clear that List using the API v4 Last fall, Alex explained how to Clear Contacts From...

Creating Content Tags

To create a Content Tag:

1. Go to Content->Content Tags.
2. Click Add Content Tag.
3. Specify a name for the tag in the Name text box. The name you specify will be used to references this block of content via the Content Tag. For example, if you name the Content Tag mycontenttag, you would reference this Content Tag in your message by adding %%@mycontenttag%% to your message.
4. Add the content you wish to display via this Content Tag using the WYSIWYG editor.
5. Click Save.

NOTE: HTML used in Content Tags will appear as is (i.e. unformatted) if the Content Tag is used in a plain text message. In other words, if you add “This word is <strong>BOLD</strong>” in your Content Tag and then add that Content Tag to a plain text message, you will get “This word is <strong>BOLD</strong>” instead of “This word is BOLD“. However, if you add this Content Tag to an HTML message, you will end up with “This word is BOLD“.

Adding Content Tags To Your Message, Header, Or Footer

To add a Content Tag to your message, header, or footer:

1. Create a new, or edit an existing message header, or footer.
2. In the body, header, or footer of your message, add %%@thenameofyourcontenttag%%, replacing
   thenameofyourcontenttag with the name of the Content Tag you want to reference. For a list of all the Content Tags in your account, go to Content->Content Tags.
   
3. When editing a message where Content Tags are being used in the message, header, or footer, click Show Preview. The preview will allow you to see what your message will look like with the content referenced via the Content Tag added to the message, header, or footer.
   

So now you have a convenient way to utilize reusable blocks of content that can make the creation of your messages that much more easy and efficient. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments section below.

John Gunther
Technical Writer/eLearning Specialist at Bronto
Editor of Brontoversity

Related posts:

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2. No Data? No Problem. Using Dynamic Content To Handle Empty Tags Placing Field Tags in your messages is a great...
3. Success! Tags We have added in a small feature you may not...

Placing Field Tags in your messages is a great way to use existing contact data to create more personalized messages. However, sometimes you don’t have certain data for contacts in your account. Without this data, the tags will be replaced with no content. Obviously, this can create problems and be a blemish on an otherwise flawless email.

Tell Me More

Let’s start off with an example. Let’s say at the top of your message you have the following salutation:

Dear %%firstname%%,

When the message is sent, %%firstname%% will get replaced with the value stored for the contact in the firstname field. However, if there is no value in the firstname field for the contact, the salutation will read “Dear ,”. Not only does this look bad, but it ruins the personalized feel of the message and leads your contacts to believe that grammar was a sour point for you in school!

Dynamic Content To The Rescue!

To prevent this little mishap from occurring, you can make use of Dynamic Content. We could remedy the issue in the example above by doing the following:

1. Click Insert Dynamic Content on the WYSIYG editor toolbar.
2. Select the options shown in the screen shot below from the Edit Dynamic Content window.
3. Click Insert Raw Dynamic Code or Insert Re-Editable Dynamic Content.

Basically this works by checking to see if the firstname field is blank. If it is, then the text “Valued Customer” is used. If the firstname field for the contact has a value, then the value is used. For those of you familiar with Dynamic Code, the complete code for the salutation would look something like this:

Dear {dynamic_code}{if $Contact.firstname eq ""}{literal}Valued Customer{/literal}{else}{literal}%%firstname%%{/literal}{/if}{/dynamic_code}

A contact with no value in the firstname field would see “Dear Valued Customer”, whereas a contact with a value in their firstname field would see “Dear John Doe” (where John Doe is the value in the firstname field for the contact).

So now you have an easy way to handle instances when there is no data in Field Tags you use in your messages. Feel free to leave any questions or comments in the comments section below.

John Gunther
Technical Writer/eLearning Specialist at Bronto
Editor of Brontoversity

Related posts:

1. Cracking The Dynamic Content Code We recently blogged about our new Dynamic Content feature introduced...
2. The Logical Way To Send Email: Dynamic Content We have been blogging a lot in recent weeks about...
3. Adding Blocks Of Re-Editable Dynamic Content In the past, the only way for you to edit...

What This Code Does

The example code will read the details of any delivery made in your Bronto account in the last 7 days. It will also print out what message was sent, how many contacts it was sent, how many messages were actually delivered, and how many conversions each delivery received.

With a simple call using readDeliveries, we were able to find out some pretty valuable information. You can use this example to get started making calls of your own and adjust the parameters to get back the data you need. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments section below.

John Gunther
Technical Writer/eLearning Specialist at Bronto
Editor of Brontoversity

Related posts:

1. Clear that List using the API v4 Last fall, Alex explained how to Clear Contacts From...
2. Using Loop Tags With The API A very useful, but little known feature in Bronto is...
3. Who Loves You: Getting Open Rates Via The API This post only applies to Legacy Version 3 of...

Setup

First things, first. You need to enable and setup the Custom Analytics integration in Bronto.

To setup the Custom Web Analytics Integration:

1. Go to Home->Integrations.
2. Click the Custom Analytics box.
3. Click Options.
4. Click the Enable Custom Analytics check box.

Specify The Data You Want To Track

Now you need to add custom Keys and Values in their respective text boxes. The Key should be used to designate the type of data being tracked in the URL. The Value is the actual data you want to track. You can hard code values by adding them into the Value text box, or use the dynamically populated Keys and Values we provide. The dynamically populated Keys and Values we provide are:

So What’s Going On Here

The Key and Values that you specify add specific parameters and data onto the end of all URLs (or specific URLs if you choose) contained in messages you send from Bronto. Your custom analytics solution can then look at these parameters and grab the data contained in them. For example, let’s say I sent out a birthday email with a link in it to www.bronto.com. Before sending this message, I enabled the Custom Analytics integration and choose to include the following Keys and Values:

Now let’s say I sent this message to john@bronto.com and he clicked on the link to bronto.com contained in the message. When he did this, the Keys and Values I specified earlier will be added on to the URL like so:

(Click to image to enlarge)

Your Custom Analytics solution should then be able to identify the parameters, get the data, and use it for reporting purposes. Depending on your analytics solution, you may need to adjust certain settings within the analytics tool you use to look for these specific URL parameters. Consult the documentation for your analytics solution for specifics on how to do this. Hopefully you have a better idea of the data that Bronto can offer up to you for use in your custom analytics solution. If you have any additional questions, please leave them in the comments section below.

John Gunther
Technical Writer/eLearning Specialist at Bronto
Editor of Brontoversity

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2. Dynamically Adding Values To Conversion Tracking URLs In recent weeks, I have been getting a lot of...
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Obtain the URL

In order to begin using Direct Add, you need to enable the feature and obtain the Direct Add URL. To do this:

1. Go to Home->Settings->Data Exchange.
2. Scroll to the Direct Add section and click the Enable Direct Add for adding new contacts checkbox.
3. Optionally, you can check Add contacts with “unconfirmed” status. (By default all contacts are added with “active” status.)

Understand the URL

The Direct Add URL works by you specifying parameters that correspond to a contact to add, fields and data you want to associate the contact with, and lists you want to add the contact to. We will be adding these parameters to the image URL in the following format: &email=email@example.com&field1=field, operation, value&list2=listid. For example:

The first part of the URL is given to you as part of the code snippet you got from the Direct Add section on the Data Exchange page. This is unique to each account and allows the application to identify your account. The next few parameters, q, fn, and id allow us to know how to process the data that is to follow, as well as identify your account. The last bit, is the actual string that we created earlier.

Construct The URL

At a really high level, Direct Add works by specifying a contact that you want to add, field data that you want to include for the contact, and a list you want to add the contact to. This is accomplished by adding parameters to a URL contained in an image tag in the following format: &email=example@example.com&field1=fieldname, operation, value&list2=listid. Notice that for fields, you specify the field name, followed by add, and then a specific data value. For lists, you only need the list ID.

Fields

In order to specify a field to add, you will need to use the exact spelling of that field as you specified it within the application. You can see a listing of all your contact fields by going to Contacts->Fields. Because you are adding a new contact, you will only be able to use add as the operation when adding field data. Note – add only supports numerical field types. The field types supported are number, decimal, and currency.

Lists

In order to specify a list to add the contact to, you will need to make note of the id that corresponds to the specific list. For any list, you can go to Contacts->Lists and click on the name of the list you want to use. On the Overview page for that list, you will see an id number for the list. Make note of the list id, as it will be used in the Direct Add URL.

Multiple Adds

You can add more than one field and or list at a time. The application supports adding up to 10 parameters (fields, lists, or a combination of both) within one call. Additional fields and lists are included by adding another value parameter to the image URL. Multiple fields and lists are separated by the ampersand character (&). You also need to increment the number after each field or list. For example:

Finishing Up

All you need to do is include this HTML snippet on pages on your website linked to from emails you send via the application, define the email address of the contact being added, add any field and field data you want to include, add any list you want to add the contact to (refer to the list using the list ID), and tack that data onto the URL provided on the Data Exchange page. You can dynamically add this data to the URL using the language of your choice, such as PHP or Javascript

This was a lot of information to cover, but hopefully you now have a good idea of how Direct Add works and how you can use it to add contacts to specific lists. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments section below.

John Gunther
Technical Writer/eLearning Specialist
Editor of Brontoversity

Related posts:

1. DIY Integrations: Getting Contacts Into Your Account With Direct Add Integrating your website or database with a third party application...
2. Importing Contacts: Updating Existing Contacts And Adding New Contacts Often times, when managing your Bronto contacts, you’ll want to...
3. Two step signup using Direct Add and a Welcome Message We have several clients who are interested in doing a...

Sending Welcome Messages VIA Webforms

When creating an Add Contacts Webform, you can adjust the settings for the Webform to automatically send a welcome message when a contact uses the form.

To setup an automatic welcome message via an Add Contacts Webform:

1. Go to Content->Webforms.
2. Create a new, or edit an existing Add Contacts Webform.
3. From the Edit Webform page, click Form Settings.
4. Scroll down to the Add Contact Settings section.



5. From the Welcome Message Behavior pull-down menu, choose Send a message to anyone who uses this form.
6. Choose a message to send from the Message To Send pull-down menu.
7. Add a From Name and From Address for the welcome message being sent.
8. Click Done.

Sending Welcome Messages VIA An Automated Message Rule

With automated message rules, you can specify a rule that will send out a welcome message when a contact performs a specific behavior.

To setup an automated message rule that will automatically send a welcome message:

1. Go to Messages->Automated Message Rules.
2. Click Create.
3. Specify a name for the automated message rule in the Name text box.
4. Choose Behaviorally Targeted as the automated message rule type.
5. Select the related message in the Type Settings section
6. From the Mail Contacts Who pull-down menu, choose Converted. For this example, we will assume that the action that triggers the automated message rule to send is a conversion. In this case, the conversion is contacts signing up to receive messages from you via the related message you choose in the previous step. Remember, a conversion does not have to be a strictly monetary concept. They can also involve actions being performed, such as downloading a white paper or signing up to receive emails. NOTE – This example also assumes that you have setup conversion tracking for the action you want to track.



7. Click Next Step.
8. Specify the From Name, From Address, and Reply Address.
9. Choose the message that will be sent when the automated message rule is triggered (i.e. in this case, when the conversion is made). You will want to choose a welcome message.
10. Specify the Timing Options for the automated message rule.
11. Click Verify Settings. Optionally you can click Advanced and setup options like an Expiration Date, Delivery Rate, and Ineligible/Eligible Recipients.
12. Review all the selections you made. Click Save As Draft to save the automated message rule but not activate it. Click Save And Activate to save and activate the automated message rule.

If you need any additional help with the concepts covered in this post, here is a list of some related posts that can help:

• Dynamically Adding Values To Conversion Tracking URLs
• Creating an Automated Birthday Message
• Creating New Webforms

John Gunther
Technical Writer/eLearning Specialist
Editor of Brontoversity

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Adding Re-editable Dynamic Content Blocks

In order to edit blocks of Dynamic Content using the Dynamic Content Editor, you need to chose Insert Re-Editable Dynamic Content when adding Dynamic Content to the HTML version of a message.

Once you do this, an image will be added to your message that acts as a visual representation of a Dynamic Content Block .
To add Dynamic Content using the WYSIWYG Editor, click on the WYSIWYG Editor toolbar. Note that you cannot edit Dynamic Content Blocks using the the Dynamic Content Editor in the Text version of a message.

Editing Dynamic Content Blocks Using The Dynamic Content Editor

Once you have added a re-editable block of Dynamic Content in your message, you can easily go back and edit it.

To edit a Dynamic Content Block:

1. Click on the edit Dynamic Content Block image . The image will be highlighted and the Insert Dynamic Content button on the WYSIWYG editor will also be highlighted.
2. Click the Insert Dynamic Content button on the WYSIWYG editor.
3. The Dynamic Content Editor will appear. Make any changes you wish to make.
4. Click either Insert Raw Dynamic Code or Insert Re-Editable Dynamic Content. Each option is described below:
   • Insert Raw Dynamic Code – Choosing Insert Raw Dynamic Code will add a Dynamic Content Block to your message that contains raw Dynamic Code. If you want to make changes to this Dynamic Content Block, you will have to edit the Dynamic Code directly.
   • Insert Re-Editable Dynamic Content (HTML Version Only) – Choosing Insert Re-Editable Dynamic Content will add an image to your message that acts as a visual representation of a Dynamic Content Block . If you click on this image and then click the Insert Dynamic Content button on the WYSIWYG editor, the Dynamic Content Editor will open up and you will be able to make changes to the Dynamic Content Block using the Dynamic Content Editor. The image will be replaced with the appropriate content when the message is actually sent, or when you choose to dynamically preview the message.

That’s all there is to it. Now you have a an easy way to edit blocks of Dynamic Content, without having to deal with Dynamic Code. Feel free to add any comments or questions in the comments section below.

John Gunther
Technical Writer/eLearning Specialist
Editor of Brontoversity

Related posts:

1. The Logical Way To Send Email: Dynamic Content We have been blogging a lot in recent weeks about...
2. Dynamic Content In Text Version Subject Lines Although you can’t directly add Dynamic Content to the subject...
3. Cracking The Dynamic Content Code We recently blogged about our new Dynamic Content feature introduced...