A LiveCalendar allows you to create a dynamic calendar button that links directly to an event invitation from a featured calendar, depending on which email client a user opens the element in:
- Gmail or Gmail app => Google calendar
- Yahoo => Yahoo calendar
- Outlook => Outlook calendar
- Apple Mail, Outlook desktop + all other email clients => option to download a standard ICS file that can be used universally
- Outlook app for iOS => pop-up to install Microsoft Edge. However, when clicking this option the browser opens the calendar reminder in the Apple calendar app.
Examples of use are announce event dates, promote time-limited sales, confirm appointments.
In this topic, we will discuss the different configuration options specific for the LiveCalendar as well as the preview and embed codes. Check out the topic Create a new campaign, for more information on how to initially create a campaign.
Once a LiveCalendar campaign has been created, a series of steps need to be followed:
2. Preview and test the LiveCalendar
Configure the LiveCalendar
Note: Ensure a Subscriber ID is set up for your environment. Gmail in particular requires the Subscriber ID. Else, the LiveCalendar will likely click through to the default ICS file instead of the Gmail calendar link. In this case, you might get a cached version of the element when reopening the email from a different email client.
Configure basic settings
The settings configured in the Basic settings section apply to all the different versions of the element, if these exist.
Alt text — This is the text that will be read by screen readers and displayed when images are disabled. Although alt text is optional to add, it is a best practice to do so.
Click Save and Next to save the changes to the basic settings and move on to the next configuration section.
Further configuration of the LiveCalendar element
When a LiveCalendar campaign has been created, there is always a default LiveCalendar that will be the fallback image when the targeting rules do not apply to the opener of the email or when no targeting rules have been defined.
1. Start by configuring the default LiveCalendar.
2. Choose between personalizing the calendar event to each opener, or use static values. Use the Personalization toggle to confirm your choice.
Note: When personalization is turned on, a fallback calendar needs to be defined in case the personalization fields cannot be filled out.
The following event fields are available:
| Field | Required | Description | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| Event title | x | ||
| Event URL |
|
||
| Start Date/Time | x | The start date and time of the event |
- 2021-08-10T16:00:00 -Thursday, April 10, 2021 4:00 PM -Thu, 10 Apr 2017 16:00:00 - 8/10/2021 4:00 PM |
| End Date/Time | x | The end Date/time of the event. Note that this field can also be calculated relative to the start date | same as start date/time |
| Timezone | x |
The timezone must be URL-encoded when it's passed to Liveclicker.
|
Format should be "America/Los_Angeles" (following the tz database format) or "GMT-8". |
| Location | |||
| Event summary | The event summary has a character limit of 1024. When the event is downloaded in iOS, it gets cut off to 288 characters with the option to "Show All Notes". By clicking on this option, the full 1024 characters are displayed. |
Turn Personalization OFF and use static values:
In this case, the values for the different event fields are filled out manually. Make sure all required fields are filled out. When done you can continue to step 3:
Turn Personalization ON and use data from your ESP
When personalization is turned on, it applies by default to all the event fields. However, you can de-activate this per individual field.
To personalize the different event fields and give an individual opener an event invite that is personalized to their profile information, you need to create a dedicated ESP custom field that retrieves all of the event details from the ESP. Execute the following steps to configure this custom field and use it to personalize your calendar event:
a) Go to Account Settings (gear icon found in the top menu), and next to Custom Fields>Custom fields.
b) Choose an unused custom fields and give it a name to associate it with your LiveCalendar. For clarity, we suggest using "Calendar Details".
The new "Calendar Details" custom field will be used to pull in all of the specified Event Details for the element .
c) In the ESP Tag field, you will need to put in a variable tag for each of the listed Event fields separated by the pipe "|" symbol, respecting the following order: title|start_date|end_date|timezone|location|url|summary
If you choose not to personalize every event field, you can leave these fields out but you still need to respect the order for the other fields.
Make sure to save this custom field and return to your LiveCalendar configuration.
An example format with variable codes would look like:
%%title%%|%%start_date%%|%%end_date%%|%%timezone%%|%%location%%|%%url%%|%%summary%%
Note: In the event that you are unable to use the pipe "|" symbol, please contact your Account Manager or Support.
d. Back in the LiveCalendar configuration, select the Calendar Details custom field from the ESP-field drop-down.
Your event details will now be populated with information stored in the ESP.
Note: When personalizing your LiveCalendar, you may want the end date/time to be dynamically generated based on a set time delay after the start date/time. For example, set the end date 1 hour after the start date/time.
To set up a dynamic end date/time for your LiveCalendar:
1. Personalize the start date and any other event details specific to each opener.
2. Uncheck the 'personalize' checkbox for the end date/time.
3. In the end date field enter any amount of hours or days onto the minimum date/time value of ‘1000-01-01 00:00:00’.
For example, if you want to create a calendar invite for an event that has a personalized start date, BUT always lasts exactly 1 hour, you would enter the following: ‘1000-01-01 01:00:00’
Now all calendar invites will automatically have an end date/time exactly 1 hour after the start date/time.
3. Now that your event fields have been set up, you can next choose to personalize the way in which the number of downloads of the calendar event is displayed on the calendar invite. This is a great option to convince people to accept the invite, as it creates a certain pressure to also accept the invite.
Use the toggle Downloads Personalization to confirm your choice.
If it is toggled off, there is nothing to set up. Go straight to step 4.
If it is toggled on, you need to configure the following settings:
Count threshold - Enter the minimum number of clicks or downloads that need to happen before the counter starts increasing. As long as the threshold has not been reached, this number will be displayed.
Example: If the threshold is 100, the text on the calendar will show that 100 people have clicked for as long as the threshold of 100 has not been reached. The moment click number 101 occurs, the counter will increase and show 101.
Personalization text - Enter the text that should be displayed together with the click count. Make sure to include the tag in your personalization.
Example: %%tag%% are attending
All other settings allow you to personalize the look and feel of the personalized text.
4. Last, an image needs to be uploaded for your calendar button, as well as a fallback image with clickthrough URL. The fallback image will be delivered if there is an error passing the personalized event details, if your campaign has expired or your account has run out of credits with overages turned off.
5. If you want to add more versions of the Calendar invite, click the Add Alternate LiveCalendar button at the bottom and execute the same steps for each new version added.
Else, click Next and continue with the targeting rules.
Define targeting rules and AB tests
1. In this last step, you can decide which subscriber should get a specific version of the LiveCalendar through the use of targeting rules. A targeting rule will split up the audience and only target a segment of the audience with a specific version. There are 2 options:
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Define targeting rules from scratch.
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When you have already defined targeting rules for a different element in this campaign, you can re-use these targeting rules for the current element.
For more details on targeting rules, please check out the dedicated topic.
2. In addition, you can also set up AB testing for this element. With A/B testing the final version of the LiveCalendar invite shown to the remainder of the audience, is determined by the A/B test.
3. When done, click Continue. You are taken to the next element to configure, if any. Otherwise, you are taken to the Preview.
Preview and test the LiveCalendar
The Preview tab for your campaign becomes available when all elements in your campaign have been configured. It provides you with the ability to test the look and rendering of the elements in your campaign, either as a static preview or as a dynamic preview, simulating an opener. You can also send yourself or others an email preview.
For more details on how to test your elements using preview, please read the corresponding topic.
Retrieve the embed codes
In this last step, you need to provide some estimated campaign details, such as expected opens, launch date and Expiration date, as well as the Subscriber ID field.
All this information will be used by Liveclicker to optimize resources but also to create the embed code.
For more details on the Embed codes, check out this topic.
