Using Personalisation Datasets To Personalise Emails

Using Personalisation Datasets To Personalise Emails

What Are Personalisation Datasets?

The Personalisation Datasets feature was released by Action Network on September 16th 2021. This feature allows you to create custom clips, which return a value based on the value of a Custom Field.

How Can Personalisation Datasets Be Used?

Personalisation Datasets allow for greater personalisation of email content, based on information we hold on an Activist. They can insert text, or HTML into an email based on a Custom Field value. Some examples of how this can be used are:
  1. Insert different messages into an email based on the value of the Membership_Status field, so that those in Grace are reminded to renew, while the rest of your membership see a different message.
  2. If you have a lead organiser for each Ward, you could provide the contact details of the organiser to everybody in the Ward.
  3. Include a link to a local party website from the regional level, based on the value of the Local_Party field.
This can greatly reduce the number of individual emails that need to be created to target different Groups of activists without the use of complicated IF arguments. Now one email can be sent to all Activists with different messaging based on the value of any Custom Field.

How To Create A Personalisation Dataset

Preparing Your Dataset

Preparing your Dataset is simply a case of creating a CSV file with two columns titles Key and Value. The Key is the value that will be checked against the Custom Field value of your Activist, and the Value is the content that will be added to your email.

You'll need to decide which Custom Field to use. In the example below I plan to use the Membership_Status field. There are only four possible Membership_Status values- Current, Pending, Grace or Cancelled. I've added these to the Key column.



In the Value column I've added the text I want to display based on each Custom Field value. As you can see it's possible to enter HTML if you want to add in links, images, or other HTML content. If you're not comfortable with HTML then keep it simple and stick to text values only. 
Once you've finished preparing your Dataset save the file in CSV format.

Adding Your Dataset to Action Network

1. From the top menu bar click on DETAILS, move your mouse over Personalization Datasets and click on the plus (+) icon that appears.



2. Select the Custom Field you want to match your Key to. In this case we're looking up Membership_Status.



3. Click on Browse for a file, and locate your saved CSV file to upload it.



4. Then give your Dataset a title to make it easy to identify for other Action Network administrators. Once you're done click UPLOAD.



The size of your CSV file will determine how quickly it is processed and ready to use. Smaller files may be available to use straight away, but for larger files you may need to come back to the Datasets page later to check when it's available to use.

Using Your Personalisation Dataset In Emails

1. From the top menu bar, click on DETAILS, move your cursor over Personalization Datasets and click on the list icon that appears.



2. From the list of available Datasets, locate the one you want to use in your email and click on Copy Clip.



3. A Textbox will appear containing your Clip code. Select the text and copy it.
The default value will be blank, and so won't display anything for those with no value held in the Custom Field this clip is matched to. If you want to add a default message to be displayed add it in straight quotation marks after  'default:'. You'll see an example of this in the next step. 



4. Head to the Action Network email you want to add your clip to (or create a new email), and paste your Clip where you want the value to be displayed within your email body.



Before sending your email, make sure to test it. This is a vital step, particularly when using Clips. Find out more here: How To Send A Test Email From Action Network.

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