New features in Marigold Engage
October 3, 2024
Version 5.78

 

Important Update on 2FA

At Marigold, we take security seriously and to strengthen this even more, Two Factor Authentication via email will be mandatory for Engage from January 2025. At that moment, 2FA via email will be activated for all customers.

In case you wish to have 2FA activated before that time, please create a ticket at our support portal.

Note: 2FA via SMS is not mandatory. Also, 2FA via email will not be activated for customers who are currently using SSO.

 

RCS as a New Communication Channel

BACKGROUND:
RCS or Rich Communication Services is the next generation SMS. RCS uses mobile data or wifi to send these messages and requires recipients to have RCS activated on their mobile phone to benefit from the functionality. With RCS, you can send rich content, such as videos and images, as well as include action buttons to steer recipients in a certain direction.
Engage currently supports SMS and MMS as well as mobile messages, but this does not include RCS.

SOLUTION:
To allow marketers to send out more advanced SMS messages with images, videos and buttons, RCS is now available as a channel in Engage.

Note: This feature is available on request.



What this looks like in Engage:
RCS is available as a new channel that needs to be set up for your environment. If you are interested in this channel, contact Marigold to set this up.

Once RCS is up and running, you can start creating RCS content in the Content chapter, and use this message in journeys.

Upon creation of an RCS message in the Content chapter, the marketer can choose between a simple text message or a Rich Card. A Rich Card allows adding images or videos, optional thumbnails, as well as a button that redirects the reader to a website or another Engage journey. You can use assets from the library, or manually enter the URL to an external asset.

The result of the message:

Once the RCS message is created and published, it can be added as a component in a custom journey, or it can be selected as an asset in a Single Batch or Recurring Batch Journey wizard:

(More information can be found in the following topics: Create RCS, Design RCS, RCS Component in Journeys, RCS global channel.)

 

Bot Click Tracking

BACKGROUND:
When recipients open an email, they often interact with various security measures like anti-malware software, enterprise security and monitoring software, browser extensions, or antivirus firewalls. Those same systems, meant to keep email secure, may proactively investigate messages, sometimes even clicking on links within emails. While a link has been clicked, the system, not the intended recipient, is being counted in the click rate.
While not all recipients or messages are impacted, in some extreme cases, these bot clicks can inflate total click rates by up to 10 times the actual number.
Protecting people from malware and bad actors is an important job, but email senders can find that their email reporting data is significantly affected by these systems, compromising their ability to interpret results and make business decisions.

SOLUTION:
Marigold Engage now tracks bot interactions and makes this information available in Engage.
In this first release, this information will be made available through generic exports.
Later on, this data will also be reflected in reports and dashboards, as well as be available for use in segmentation.

Note: This feature is available on request.


What this looks like in Engage
In Engage, tracking bot clicks is performed in the following way:

  • Through the IP address from which the clicks originate

  • Through the User Agent used by specific bots (such as Googlebot)

The combination of an IP address within the bot IP range and a bot User Agent is considered to be a bot.

These bot interactions are taken into account for the generic exports , where a split is made between human and bot interactions. Generic exports are delivered by Marigold to Engage platform users.

(More information can be found in this dedicated Bot Interaction Detection topic.)

 

List Creation Wizard

BACKGROUND:
When creating new assets, such as lists, It sometimes is unclear what information is expected to be filled out.

SOLUTION:
A List creation wizard is now provided, guiding the user through the creation process and providing details on what exactly is expected to be filled out.

What this looks like in Engage:
A wizard guides the user through the creation of an asset:

Once the type of list/segment has been selected, a properties panel is displayed where the details of the list or segment need to be filled out. For clarity, a split is made between basic fields and all fields. Use the corresponding tabs to toggle from one view to the other.

On the left, instructions or tips are displayed to help you fill out this form.

(More details can be found in the List Creation topic.)

 

Engage Home Page - Performance Dashboard

BACKGROUND:
For marketers it is important to follow up on their business and on the impact marketing campaigns may have on performance results. Is their audience growing and how fast over time, what is the generated revenue, how many contacts left, and more.

SOLUTION:
Marigold Engage has made a new performance dashboard available from the Home page. Note that this requires the user to have access rights for dashboards.

What this looks like in Engage:
The following dashboard can be consulted from the Home Page:

  • The number of new contacts that were created per day and in total over the last 30 days.
  • The total revenue generated per day and in total, over the last 30 days.
  • The number of unique contacts that were active per day over the last 30 days, and the total number of unique active contacts in total over the last 30 days.
  • The number of contacts that unsubscribed per day and in total over the last 30 days.
  • The total revenue generated per journey.(Specific journeys can be searched for, and journey types can be filtered.)

You can click bars on all charts to filter data. The data (charts and values) in all widgets are then filtered (except for the 'newly created contacts' widget, which functions as a separate one).

You can export information from this dashboard and download it as a CSV or XLS file, or save it as a PNG image.

(More information on this can be found in the corresponding Home Page topic.)

 

Corrections

  • Auto-refresh of UI in chapters like Imports/Exports; Tasks or Data Syncs, is now visible in Firefox.
  • Clicks are again visible on reporting heatmaps without repeater.
  • Asset is no longer shown multiple times in fly-out when multiple users has this asset pinned as favorite
  • Target counts are correctly reported to CAMPAIGN_EXECLOG and the logging when working with journey data.
  • It is again possible for a user for who folder rights are enabled, to open a content block that is shared with an organization the user doesn't have access to.
  • Heatmaps are now working for messages without a repeater and with content including a content block with dataselections.
  • Reporting - sharing of dashboards with other organizations works as expected for global organizations.