On this page: Preview the extraction file, validate and activate your campaign or journey, and manage postal consent so your direct mail reaches the right recipients accurately.
Learn how to preview the extraction file, validate and activate your direct mail campaign or journey, and manage postal mail consent in Journey Optimizer.
Before you start before-you-start
Before you test and send a direct mail message, create the message and configure the extraction file. Ensure you have also completed direct mail channel configuration.
Preview the extraction file preview-dm
Once the content of the extraction file has been defined, preview it using either simulation method:
- Click Simulate content to test content variations with sample input data or AI auto-generation. Learn how to simulate content variations
- Click Simulate content, then select Simulate content (AEP profiles) from the dropdown and add a test profile to check how the extraction file renders.
Detailed information on how to preview & test content is available in the Content Management section.
Once that the file content is ready to be sent, close the simulate screen then click the Review to activate button.
Validate & activate the direct mail campaign dm-validate
Before activating the direct mail campaign, make sure that the campaign or journey and the extraction file are configured properly. To do this, check alerts in the upper section of the editor. Some of them are simple warnings, but others can prevent you from sending the message. Two types of alerts can happen: warnings and errors.
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Warnings refer to recommendations and best practices. For example, a warning message is displayed if your SMS message is empty.
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Errors prevent you from publishing the campaign, as long as they are not resolved. For example, an error message warns you when the subject line is missing.
When your direct mail campaign is ready, complete the configuration of your journey or campaign to send it.
Once sent, you can measure the impact of your direct mail campaign or journey within the reports. For more about direct mail reporting, refer to these sections:
Manage consent for direct mail dm-consent-management
In Journey Optimizer, consent is handled by the Experience Platform Consent schema. By default, the value for the consent field is empty and treated as consent to receive your communications.
If a profile has opted out from receiving direct mail, in the corresponding Experience Platform profile attributes, the value for consents.marketing.postalMail.val will be n and the corresponding profile will be excluded from subsequent deliveries.
To enable it again, the profile attribute has to be changed back to consents.marketing.postalMail.val : y.
To manage a profile’s attributes, go to Experience Platform and access the profile by selecting an identity namespace and a corresponding identity value. Learn more in the Experience Platform documentation.
Learn more about managing opt-out in Journey Optimizer in this section.
Related topics related-topics
For common questions about direct mail, see Get started with direct mail.