Getting Started with Distributions

The Distribution Manager automates communication with your customers. You can publish and distribute promo codes and share promotion updates. Distributions respond to your customers' actions and predefined events. Everything is managed straight from the dashboard with the multi-channel Distribution Manager.

In this guide, we'll go through the Distribution Manager features to show you the distribution essentials and workflow.

Contents

1. Glossary
2. How does it work?
   • Message trigger
   • Purpose
   • Audience
   • Channels
   • Message Editor
3. Distribution Setup
   
   • Manual Distribution
   • Automatic Distribution
   • Consents
   • Channels
4. Activity

Glossary

Here are the key definitions you need to grasp to understand how distributions work.

Distribution

Defines the process of creating a messaging workflow in the Distribution Manager. It comes down to defining message details such as audience, message trigger, purpose, and channel. 

Distribution Manager

Manager enables you to set up a distribution. To open the Manager, go to the Distributions tab in your dashboard and click on the Plus in the top-right corner.

Publication

The publication is an action of assigning a unique code to a particular customer. 

Message

The message means pushing out data from Voucherify to the end-customer or another application. Message limit in the pricing refers to all distributions that use our API to call your application. 

Trigger

Action that results in sending the message. You can choose from many triggers to define automatic communication workflows (customer entered or left segment, order status has changed, code was published, the reward was redeemed, and more). 

Automatic Distribution

Trigger-based distribution. Messages are sent in response to a predefined action (trigger), such as a code redemption or a new customer entering the segment. 

Manual Distribution

Manual distribution is a one-time action. Messages are sent once you finish distribution setup in the Manager and confirm with Save and Send.

Anti-SPAM Policy

By subscribing to the Voucherify Service, you accept to use it in compliance with the Voucherify Anti-spam Policy. 

Trial Messages Limit

Each trial account has a security limit on messages that can be sent. If you want to unlock the limit, send a request to our Support Team. To get the limit unlocked, you will have to describe the purpose of using distributions and add your company's name and address in the Brand Details section in your Project Settings.

Marketing Consent

If you collect marketing consents from your customers, the Distribution Manager lets you define which consents are required to send the message. As a result, only customers who have the given marketing permission checked in Voucherify will receive a message. 

Webhook

Webhooks allow external services to be notified when certain events happen. You can use a webhook as a distribution channel and push a message to the given webhook every time a distribution is triggered. Please read more here to learn about timing and re-enabling paused webhooks.

Custom event

Custom events are actions taken by your customers that you track in your application or website and pass to Voucherify using our API.

Audience

The audience defines message receivers. In some distributions, the audience is determined by the distribution trigger. 

Customer segment

Segments group customers using standard attributes (email, postal code, etc.) and custom attributes that have been added as metadata. You can also use custom events and system attributes to create segment criteria. Segments are used in validation rules and distributions to define the campaign/distribution audience. 

Segment syncing

When you create a new segment, you'll see a syncing status next to its name. Syncing means checking if your existing customers meet criteria of the new segment. When syncing is done, you can see a SYNCED status displayed next to the segment name. In a manual distribution, messages are sent 10 minutes after the syncing is completed. 

How does it work?

Creating a distribution in the Distribution Manager is a 4-step process:

1. Choose a trigger to send messages automatically or manual mode to send a message(s) right away.
2. Define distribution conditions (name, purpose, audience).
3. Use marketing consents to group your audience (optional).
4. Choose a channel and design your template.

Message trigger

When you go to the Distributions tab and click the plus, you'll see all available distribution types. 

Besides the manual distribution, you can choose between the following automatic distributions:

• Customer entered segment - customer will get a message once he/she enters a segment defined in the distribution settings.
• Customer left segment - customer will get a message once he/she leaves a segment defined in the distribution settings.
• Order update - a message is sent to each customer who updated their order.
• Order has been paid - a message is sent to each customer who created or updated their order status to 'paid'.
• Order creation - a message is sent to each customer who created a new order.
• Order canceled - a message is sent to each customer who canceled their order.

Orders

To use order-related distributions, you need to sync your transactional data with Voucherify and pass order details using our API. Read more about orders in this guide.

• Successfully published - a message is sent in response to each publication of codes from a particular campaign.
• Reward redemption - customer will get a message once he/she redeems a reward from a particular campaign. 
• Gift credits added - customer will get a message once he/she gets new credits on a gift card from a particular campaign.
• Loyalty points added - customer will get a message once he/she gets new points on a loyalty card from a particular campaign.
• Voucher redeemed - customer will get a message if he/she successfully redeems a code from a particular campaign. 
• Voucher redemption rolled back - a message is sent in response to a redemption rollback of a code from a particular campaign.
• Custom event - a message is sent in response to a custom event triggered by a customer and sent to Voucherify via API.
• Customer entered loyalty tier structure - a message is sent when a customer joins a loyalty tier structure.
• Customer left loyalty tier structure - a message is sent when a customer leaves a loyalty tier structure.
• Customer loyalty tier upgraded- a message is sent when a customer's loyalty tier is upgraded.
• Customer loyalty tier prolonged- a message is sent when a customer's loyalty tier validity is extended.
• Customer loyalty card points expired - a message is sent when points expire on a loyalty card.

Purpose

You can choose between the following distribution purposes:

1. Notify customers about promotion – share details of the particular in-cart promotion (promotion tier).
2. Send and publish unique codes from the campaign – each receiver gets a unique code from the chosen campaign assigned (published) automatically to their profile.
3. Send a plain message to customers – plain message with no promo codes included. 

Audience

If you send a manual message, your audience can be a customer segment or a single customer. In automatic distribution, the audience is determined by a message trigger:

• Customer entered or left the segment

In the case of a segment-based distribution, the chosen segment operates as your audience. You can either choose to add a new segment using the plus sign or search for existing segments using the magnifying glass. If you choose to create a segment on the spot, use filters to create and save a dynamic segment.

When you send unique codes from a campaign that is limited to a particular segment by validation rules, you'll see that segment in the Manager. Mark the checkbox if you want to send messages in response to changes in the segment used in the campaign validation rules.

• Voucher-based triggers (gift credits added, loyalty points added, voucher redeemed, voucher redemption rollback, reward redemption)

The audience is limited to customers who perform the triggering action using the codes from the chosen campaign. For example, if the trigger is voucher redeemed, a customer gets a message once he/she redeems code from a particular campaign added to the distribution setup.

• Order status changes

Changes in order status determine the audience. Every customer whose order status changes as defined in the distribution receives the message. 

Validation rules

In this distribution type, you can also create validation rules that need to be met to trigger a message. This means that the customer receives a message when their order status changed and he/she satisfies distribution validation rules. Read more about the rules here.

• Successful code publication

The message is sent to a customer in response to a code publication. The audience is limited to customers who will get the unique code published to their account (code from a particular campaign).

• Custom event

The message is sent to each customer who performed a custom event defined in the distribution settings.  Validation rules

In this distribution type, you can also create customer and event-related validation rules that need to be met to trigger a message. This means that the customer receives a message when he/she performs a predefined event and satisfies distribution validation rules. Read more about the rules here.

Channels

Voucherify supports multi-channel delivery. While setting up distribution, you can choose the following integrations and built-in channels:

• Email using Voucherify as your email provider
• Email using external provider (SendGrid, Mandrill, Mailgun)
• SMS (Twilio, CM Telecom, Textlocal)
• ActiveCampaign
• Braze
• MailChimp
• Intercom
• Webhook

Note that not all channels entail sending a message to end-customers. It's up to you if the Voucherify messages will be sent directly to the end-customers or the 3rd party applications of your choice. For example, after choosing MailChimp or Braze as a channel, messages won't be sent to the end-customers. Distribution transfers codes to customer profiles in the respective external application, and then you can forward them to your end-users.

Message editor

Voucherify is equipped with a messages editor to customize your emails and text messages. You can choose between a simple template or a configurable flyer that gives you a much wider scope for personalization. 

Here are email customization options:

• A text editor (font effects, font size, links, text layout). 
• Variables (e.g., customer name, QR code, loyalty score, referral reward, customer cockpit, reward value, and many more).
• Images (image size, alt text, link, gif files, alignment).
• Buttons (CTA size, color, alignment, corners, and link).
• Dividers (width, color).
• Social media buttons (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube). 
• Background (header with your logo, colors, content space, borders, and alignment).
• Footer (custom information, text, colors).

Enterprise clients get even more options for customization, such as custom HTML email templates.

Distribution Setup

Setting up the distribution starts from running the Manager. Go to the Distributions and click the plus. 

Now, decide whether you want to set up manual or automatic distribution.

Manual Distribution

Manual distribution delivers messages once you confirm its settings with Save and send. Please note that each manual distribution is sent with a 10-minute delay, so you can introduce edits or stop the message delivery within this time. 

Step 1: Choose Manual message

Step 2: Define distribution conditions

In Distribution conditions, set the name, define the purpose and choose your audience. Manual distribution delivers messages to a single customer or all customers from the chosen segment. You can either use the magnifying glass to search for already existing segments or use the plus to add a new segment. If you choose to add a new segment, you can either select customers individually and create a static segment or use filters to create a dynamic segment.

If you created a new customer segment for your audience, a 10 minutes countdown starts when the segment is fully synced. Syncing ends once all customers are validated against segment criteria. Syncing status is displayed next to the segment name so you can monitor if the segment is already synced or if syncing is in progress.

Automatic Distribution

Automatic distributions send messages in response to a predefined action (distribution trigger).  

Step 1: Choose the distribution type (trigger)

After running the Distribution Manager with the plus, click Create next to the chosen distribution type.

There are many automatic distributions represented by different message triggers. You can choose from among the following actions:

1. Changes in a chosen customer segment:

• Customer entered segment 
• Customer left segment

2. Voucher-related activity:

• Gift credits added 
• Loyalty points added
• Voucher redeemed
• Voucher redemption rollback
• Reward redeemed

3. Cart-related activity (once your order data are synchronized with Voucherify, the distribution can respond to changes in customers' orders):

• Order created
• Order updated  
• Order has been paid
• Order canceled

4. Loyalty tier related activity:

• Customer entered loyalty tiers structure
• Customer exited loyalty tiers structure
• Customer loyalty tier upgraded
• Customer loyalty tier downgraded
• Customer loyalty tier prolonged

5. Successful code publication – the message is sent once the code from a campaign is assigned to a customer.

6. Custom event - the message is sent once the customer performs a predefined custom event. 

Step 2: Define distribution conditions

After choosing the trigger, the Manager directs you to the Distribution conditions. You can name the distribution, choose the message purpose and audience. 

Step 3: Consents

Using Consents, you can set which marketing permissions are required to send messages (1) or disable consents' verification (2).

Read more about Consents.

Step 4: Channels choice & messages

The next step is to configure channel(s). First, enable channel settings as in the screen below. Note that you can enable many channels within a single distribution.

The detailed message setup depends on the chosen channel. Please go to the dedicated tutorial to see how to configure the message:

• Email
• SMS
• ActiveCampaign
• Braze
• MailChimp
• Intercom

After you confirm the distribution, manual messages will be sent with a 10-minute delay, whereas automatic distributions will be triggered every time a customer performs the required action. 

You will be able to see all your distributions in the Distributions list and you can filter them by creation date and subject.

Activity

You can also view the activities for a particular distribution and get more insights by clicking on the event or log for the activity.