The print channel

  • Updated

General information

Availability

Sending print messages via Optimizely Campaign works via an integration with the service Print-Mailing Automation by Deutsche Post AG. Currently sending print messages works only in Germany. The feature is activated by customer support on request.

Functionality overview

When defining Smart Campaigns or Transactional Campaigns, you can use message nodes of the type print to define a campaign that will be printed and sent via Print Mailing Automation. As Transactional Campaigns can be used in Marketing Automation, all types of campaigns support print.

The recipients are defined as usual in Optimizely Campaign. The type and content of the print messages are defined in the Print Mailing Automation portal which is offered and supported by Deutsche Post AG.

PrintMA_campaign2pma_02.png

If you need assistance with the Print Mailing Automation Portal, please contact print-mailing.dp-ds@deutschepost.de.
Optimizely can not provide support for this external page.

Creation of print campaigns

About recipient lists for print

In Optimizely Campaign, the field PLZ decides if a recipient list can be connected to a print message node (PLZ = Postleitzahl = zip code). PLZ is therefore called a channel field. Print-Mailing Automation needs additional fields to reach actual recipients. A commonly used set of fields is:

  • First and last name or company name
  • Street
  • House number
  • PLZ
  • City

With the exception of PLZ, the fields can be named differently in Optimizely Campaign. The fields are manually mapped to fields in Print-Mailing Automation.

Creating a recipient list for print

Context: Other channels have channel fields that are suitable as primary keys. The print channel's channel field PLZ is not suitable as a primary key.

Prerequisites: All recipient list fields required for using print campaigns are available in your client (see above).

  1. Start creating a new recipient list as usual (see Recipient list management)
  2. Click on Create List, enter a list name and fill in all required information.
  3. Add all the fields that are required for print campaigns.
  4. Recommended: Add another field that is suitable as a primary key (e.g. email or phone nr).
  5. Move the mouse pointer over the field you want to use as primary key, click context_menu.png (context menu) to open the context menu and click Set as primary key.
  6. Click Save.

Creating a print campaign

Context: Your print campaign in Optimizely Campaign will trigger the sending of messages in Print-Mailing Automation.

Prerequisites: The Print-Mailing Automation integration is available on your client. A print-compatible recipient list is available.

  1. Open the campaign editor for Smart Campaigns or Transactional Campaigns as usual (see Creating and editing campaigns).
  2. Add a Recipients node to the design area and select a print-compatible recipient list.
  3. Add a Print message node to the design area.
  4. Connect the recipients node to the message node.
  5. Move the mouse pointer over the recipients node and in the tooltip menu, click on campaign_editor_-_properties.png (properties).
    → A pop-up menu is displayed. 
  6. In the pop-up menu, in he section Transfer of Recipient Fields for Print Campaigns, click on campaign_editor_-_add.png (add) to add the fields from your recipient list that you want to map in Print-Mailing Automation.
  7. Click on Save.
    → A pop-up menu is displayed.
  8. Enter a name for the campaign.
  9. Click on Save.

→ The campaign is saved. A corresponding mailing with the same name will be displayed in Print-Mailing Automation. The fields you selected in Step 6 will be available for field mapping.

Preparing the mailing in Print-Mailing Automation

Before starting a full print campaign, you can send a printed test message to yourself. This works the same way it works for purely digital campaigns (see Editing mailing content)

Context: This section tells you the general steps required to prepare a print campaign for sending. For details regarding Print-Mailing Automation, please refer to the user guide and support provided by Deutsche Post AG.

  1. In the Optimizely Campaign menu bar, click on Smart Campaigns or Transactional Mails to get to the list containing your print campaign.
  2. Find your campaign in the list and click on the print message draft name (starting with "...") below the campaign name. 
    → The detail view below the list contains a link to the Print Mailing Automation portal (see image above)
  3. Click on the link.
    → The list of mailings is displayed in Print Mailing Automation.
  4. Find the mailing that has the same name as your campaign in Optimizely Campaign.
  5. Define your mailing and map the previously selected fields from the recipient list.
  6. Activate the mailing.

→ When the mailing is properly defined and activated in Print-Mailing Automation, your print campaign is complete and can be started in Optimizely Campaign.

Activating and starting a smart campaign

Prerequisites: The mailing is activated in Print Mailing Automation.

  1. Activate and Start the campaign in Optimizely Campaign.

→ The messages are printed and delivered by Deutsche Post AG.

Activating and starting a transactional campaign

Prerequisites: The mailing is activated in Print Mailing Automation.

  1. Activate the campaign in Optimizely Campaign.

→ When messages in the print node are triggered, they will be printed and delivered by Deutsche Post AG.

Display of print campaigns

Print campaigns are displayed together with other campaigns of their type (Smart Campaign, Transactional Messages, Marketing Automation).

When you select a print message draft in the list of campaigns, the following information is displayed:

  • link to the Print-Mailing Automation Frontend (see image above)
  • name of the campaign
  • id of the campaign
  • status of the campaign
  • Ad Format
  • Shipment Content (commercial or not)
  • Sender Address (if available)
  • address check (yes/no)