Configure an email channel

Transcript

In this video, we’ll guide you through configuring the email channel in Adobe Journey Optimizer to enhance your marketing strategies. We’ll guide you through the step-by-step process of setting up email configurations, managing unsubscribed requests, personalizing subdomains, header parameters, and testing custom actions. Journey Optimizer allows you to define message delivery parameters through channel configurations. These configurations specify the technical details required for each channel, including email type, sender name, email address, mobile applications, SMS configurations, and more. Before setting up a channel configuration, make sure you’ve delegated a subdomain and created an IP pool. Both are essential for using the presets. Let’s dive in and set up our new email channel. Begin by navigating to the Channels section within the Administration menu, and then click on Channel Configurations in the General Settings menu. Here you can see a list of existing configurations. Since we’re creating a new email channel, we’ll go ahead and click the Create Channel Configuration button on the canvas. The Channel Configuration Details section is where you define all the technical settings needed for your messages. Before we begin, keep in mind you’ll need the Manage Message Presets permission to create, edit, or delete channel configurations. Let’s start by giving our configuration a name. We’ll name it Luma Marketing Messages and add a short description. Next, we’ll choose the channel type for the dropdown menu. For this example, we’ll select Email. Now it’s time to associate your marketing actions. This step links your configuration to specific consent policies, helping you honor your customers’ preferences when sending messages. You can add one or more marketing actions by selecting them from the dropdown list. Now let’s move on to the email settings. You’ll find two email types to choose from. The first is Marketing. This is for promotional emails that require user consent. The second is Transactional, used for non-commercial emails like order confirmations. In some cases, these emails can even be sent to profiles that have unsubscribed. That’s because transactional emails are not subject to business or fatigue management rules, so they’re always delivered regardless of the customer’s marketing preferences. For this example, we’ll go ahead and select Marketing. Next, you’ll need to select a subdomain that you’d like to use for this channel. You also have the option to apply dynamic subdomains by clicking on the toggle button. Dynamic subdomains personalize email sending based on profile attributes, improving deliverability by reducing spam flags and helping to maintain brand trust. They also help manage large campaigns and enhance security and compliance by isolating email streams to prevent domain blacklisting. As an example, if your legal policy requires you to send emails from different addresses for each country, dynamic subdomains make it easy. Instead of creating separate configurations, you can use one setup with multiple sending subdomains, each mapped to a different country. This lets you run a single campaign that’s tailored across regions without extra complexity. For now, we’ll continue without using a dynamic subdomain and simply select one from the top left. Next, we’ll select our IP pool from the dropdown menu. If you’d like to learn more about creating subdomains and IP pools, be sure to check out our dedicated video tutorials on those topics. List unsubscribe is enabled by default but can be disabled using the toggle. Keep in mind this setting applies only to marketing emails. If the Mail To Unsubscribe feature is enabled, the unsubscribe request will be sent to the default email address associated with the subdomain you configured. If the One Click Unsubscribe URL feature is enabled, or you’ve included an unsubscribe link in the email body, the recipient will be immediately opted out, either at the channel level or at the profile level depending on your consent setup. Keep in mind not all email clients support the HTTP unsubscribe method. Now let’s define how unsubscribe requests will be managed. You have two options. The first option is Adobe Managed. In this mode, consent data is handled directly within the Adobe system. You can choose from two consent levels. Firstly, there’s Identity, which determines which individual the consent applies to. For example, if someone unsubscribes using their email address, the system stores that preference under the Email Identity namespace. Next is Channel, which refers to the communication method like email, SMS, or push notifications. For example, an individual may consent to receive emails but opt out of SMS messages. The second option is Customer Managed. Here you manage consent data externally. Adobe will not automatically update this data unless you initiate synchronization. We’ll choose Customer Managed and enter a custom unsubscribe email address. This provides an alternative method for recipients to opt out, which is especially helpful for email clients that don’t support the HTTP method. Be sure to follow best practices to remain compliant with email regulations. Next, enter your one-click unsubscribe URL. This must be a post URL. In the Header Parameters section, you will define the sender names and email addresses used for emails sent through this configuration. You can personalize each header parameter, which is perfect if you manage multiple brands. For example, instead of creating separate configurations, you can use one setup and personalize the headers to ensure each customer sees the correct sender name and email based on the brand they’re interacting with. This personalization also extends to reply settings. When a recipient clicks reply, you’ll want the correct reply to name and email address to show up, matching the brand and sender they received the message from. To personalize the front name in your emails, start by clicking the edit icon next to it. This opens the personalization editor, where you can choose from various profile attributes. In this example, we’ll use our brand name, Luma, and then add the recipient’s loyalty tier, followed by service. Once your conditions are set, save changes to apply them. Next, let’s personalize the from email prefix, which is the address your emails will be sent from. Just like before, we’ll select the profile’s loyalty tier, then service. Reply to name is the name displayed when recipients reply, for example, Luma customer care. Reply to email is the address where replies will be sent, such as reply at luma.com. Error email prefix is the address that receives asynchronous bounce errors, out of office replies, and challenge responses. We’ll set this to something like error. The BCC feature enables a copy of each email to be automatically forwarded to an external email address, offering an easy way to archive or monitor outgoing communications. It can be selectively applied at the template level, allowing you to control which messages are BCC’d. This provides flexibility in managing communication flows across different campaigns or use cases. Additionally, brands maintain control over the use of BCC’d emails, ensuring that the feature is used appropriately and securely. Importantly, the BCC functionality has minimal impact on email sending velocity, ensuring it does not affect overall delivery performance. To enable the BCC email option, simply enter the external email address you’d like to use. Just make sure that it’s not part of a subdomain that’s already been delegated to Adobe. For example, if marketing.luma.com is delegated, you can’t use an address like abc at marketing.luma.com. Instead use something like bcc at marketing.com. Bear in mind that only a single BCC email address is supported per customer account. To ensure smooth operation, the specified email address must be properly configured on a server that is capable of receiving messages reliably. It is also recommended to use a dedicated email address for BCC traffic and to confirm that the receiving mail server can handle the anticipated email volume. These setup considerations are essential for maintaining deliverability, compliance, and overall system performance. Let’s configure the email retry parameters to control how long the system will attempt to resend an email that fails due to a temporary soft bounce. By default, retries are performed over a period of 3.5 days, or 84 hours. However, this time frame is fully customizable, allowing you to adjust the retry duration based on your specific delivery requirements. For marketing emails, the system requires a minimum retry period of 6 hours, while for transactional emails, retries can begin as soon as 10 minutes after the initial failure. Regardless of the type of email, the maximum retry period is capped at 84 hours, or 5040 minutes. Since this channel is used for marketing emails, we’ll go ahead and enter 7 hours as our retry period. Seedlists allow you to automatically include specific internal email addresses in your audiences. These seed addresses receive an exact copy of each message at the time of delivery, providing a reliable way to confirm the right content is going out. They’re especially helpful for keeping stakeholders in the loop, even those not directly involved in testing by giving them visibility into live email campaigns. Seedlists also serve as a valuable reference for audits, allowing you to track which messages were sent and in which languages. Beyond assurance, seedlists help you monitor formatting, images, and links to ensure everything displays as intended. They also offer an extra layer of protection, alerting you if your mailing list is ever used improperly by a third party. Each seed address receives one copy of every variant, including multilingual messages and A-B test versions. You can manage your seedlists from the email settings option in channels. Keep in mind you will need the Manage Seedlist permission to view or edit them. Define URL tracking parameters to measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts across different channels. This feature is optional but highly valuable for gaining insights into campaign performance. You can define up to 10 tracking parameters, each with a name and value field. When activated, the parameters you define will be automatically added to the end of each URL in your email content. These parameters can then be captured by web analytics tools, such as Adobe Analytics or others to generate detailed performance reports. The Name field indicates the parameter while the Value field can be entered manually or configured using the Personalization Editor. Just click the Edit icon to open the editor, where you can choose contextual attributes or customize the value directly. There are also predefined values available, including Source Action ID, Source Name, Offer ID, and more, making it easy to standardize and automate your tracking setup. As you build your parameters, you’ll see a dynamic preview of the final tracking URL. This preview updates automatically with every change, helping you ensure your links are configured just the way you need. With personalized tracking, you can take it a step further, embedding dynamic, user-specific values directly in your email links for deeper insight and more tailored analytics. Finally, you have the option to override the default execution address used for sending emails. When multiple email addresses exist in a profile, such as personal or professional, you can choose which one to prioritize. While the primary address is usually defined at the sandbox level, here you can customize this setting for a specific email configuration. Simply edit the Delivery Address field and select from the available Email Type XDM fields. Execution fields determine which email address or phone number takes priority from the profile service. These settings can be configured globally in the sandbox, affecting all email or SMS messages. The default values can be updated by navigating to Channels, General Settings, Execution fields. You can select and save the desired Email Type XDM field to be used as the primary execution address. You can override the default execution field either at the email configuration or journey level for specific cases, like testing emails by sending them to your own address or targeting subscribers of a particular list. It’s important to use override sparingly and only when necessary, since the primary execution address defined globally is generally the best choice for a consistent delivery. Now that we’ve finished configuring our email channel, click Submit. The submission indicates a deliverability audit. Once the channel settings pass the audit, the channel becomes active and is ready to be used in your journeys and campaigns. And that’s it! Your email channel is now configured. Thanks for watching!