Product Updates

We have just finished adding support for user data attributes to our Subscriptions API. The list and read methods have been enhanced to display all of the user data attributes that have been collected for the given subscriber, along with their corresponding values. This includes the default user data attributes (first_name, last_name, city, etc) in addition to any custom user data attributes that you have defined for your account. The create and update methods have been enhanced to allow you to specify user data attribute values for your subscribers. Storing data for your subscribers allows you to segment your subscription list, targeting messages only to users whose data matches the criteria you define. This means you no longer have to worry about troubling your male customers with sales offers for woman’s apparel. You can see the changes in our API Documentation.

Non Backwards Compatible Changes

Unfortunately, some of the changes are not backwards compatible with previous versions of the Subscriptions API.

Some attribute names will be different in the new version of the API

Previous versions of the API returned very basic information about the subscriber. Some of that information was re-structured when we added support for custom user data attributes. We would like future APIs that also interact with custom data attributes to use consistent names for the attributes. So, we’re biting the bullet now by making this change. The API name for all data attributes, which is the name to use when referring to a given attribute in the API, can be found in the User Data section of the application.

Result from the list method will now be paged

In previous versions of the API, there was no way to limit the number of subscribers you would get back with a call to the list method. If you had 100,000 subscribers, calling the list method would return an XML response approximately 1,500,000 lines long. That can be quite a bit to swallow, and could choke some applications running on machines with limited resources. Now, the list method will return 250 subscribers at a time, and allow you to iterate through your subscribers by specifying a page attribute in the request. For example, not specifying the page attribute would return subscribers 1-250. Specifying page=2 in the request URL will return subscribers 251-500. Specifying page=3 will return subscribers 501-750, and so on. This should give you more control over the API response.

User data attributes with no value for the subscriber will not be displayed

In previous versions of the API, we returned all of the user data attributes, all of the time. Even if the subscriber had no data for that particular attribute. This wasn’t too big of an issue when we were working with a fixed set of attributes. However, you now have the ability to create as many user data attributes as you wish, which could dramatically increase the size of the API response. So, we’ve changed the list and read methods to only list the user data attributes that have corresponding values for the given subscriber. If you don’t see a particular data attribute for a given subscriber, it means that subscriber has no value for that particular attribute.

Testing The New API Methods, and Migrating Your Code

The new API methods are in production, and ready for testing. The create, update, and delete methods are completely backward compatible, so you should be able to continue using them as you were. To access the new versions of the list and read methods, simply add ?new=true to the end of your request. For example, /api/subscription_campaigns/{campaign_id}/subscriptions.xml will invoke the old list method, and /api/subscription_campaigns/{campaign_id}/subscriptions.xml?new=true will invoke the new method. This will allow you to test the new and old API methods side by side, and switch to the new version of the API methods at your convenience.

In a few weeks, after everybody has migrated to the new version of the API, we will make the new versions of the API methods accessible without the ?new=true URL parameter, and you can remove the ?new=true URL parameter at your convenience.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us at support@interactivemediums.com.

Now everyone using our platform can take advantage of our new “shorten URL” tool that is integrated within the message box. We’ve simplified the process of creating these shortened URL’s by putting them right where you schedule your messaging.

Once you shorten your URL you gain the advantage of getting real-time convenient click data right in our application.

This tool is great for anyone who needs to fit a lengthy URL into a 160-character SMS message.  It is also a great tool for pushing users to a mobile website, whether it be for information collection, to give them a coupon, or to push them to your mobile online store.

Once you’ve got a long URL in place, simply click the “shorten URL’s” text on the bottom left hand corner and voilah! You now have reduced your text, included a link, and can track the number of clicks it receives over time.

When you are ready to check up on the success of your links, go to our “tools” section and scroll down to “short urls”. Here you will have a page covering all of your links with their statistics.  It also gives you the ability to edit links in the event URLs change.

Last but not least we offer a customized QR (quick-response) code for you to download and utilize in your marketing needs. This acts as a visual representation of the shortened link, and sends the user to the same destination URL when scanned with a mobile phone’ camera. It is great for business cards, POS and magazine advertisements.

For more on QR Codes check out this Wikipedia entry: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code>

Questions? Write us: gettingstarted@interactivemediums.com

With an eye toward making the IM application easier and more enjoyable to use, we’ve spent the past month making refinements and updates to nearly every screen you’ll encounter when creating and editing campaigns, lists and messages.

Today, we’re pleased to announce that these changes are live! When you log in to your account, you’ll notice that things look different, though not unfamiliar. Here are just a few of the highlights:

Refined navigation: campaigns + lists

Everything in our application revolves around campaigns and lists, so we’ve tightened up the navigation around those core functions.

To bring commonly used functions closer to the surface, we’ve added dropdown menus to the navigation. Many regular activities are now quickly accessible from anywhere in the application.

Better campaign filtering

You can now sort campaigns by type or keyword. We’ve also changed our default sort to show the most recently created campaigns at the top of your screen. Recently active campaigns and lists can also be accessed when you first log in to the dashboard.

Simpler campaign and message creation

We’ve revisited every create and edit page to streamline the process of launching and editing your campaigns.

Descriptions get promoted

We used to identify campaigns and lists by keyword. We’re now aligning them with the campaign description you enter when creating a campaign or list. We’ve used it this way for awhile now, and find it’s easier to locate campaigns and lists.

If you’re a current client of ours, we’d love to get your feedback on these updates, so please let us know what you think.

We’ll be introducing some exciting new features over the next three months. Look out for more frequent customer communication like this and please reply with any questions or feedback.

In certain cases where you have a user who is not sure how to opt-out of your subscription or loyalty list and they contact you to remove them manually these are the steps you follow as a program administrator.

1) Login, click on Lists.

2) Click on the keyword of the list your managing.

3) Click on the Subscribers link on the left hand side.

4) Click on the Add/Remove Subscribers link and then put the number into to form field at the bottom of the page.

When you are in your “Lists” overview and you have selected the subscription list you would like to request data from, select that list.

Now that you have select to “broadcast a message” from here you will highlight your list, or a list segment, which we discussed previously in the blog post “How to Broadcast a Message to a Segment of Your Subscribers”.

Next select the time you would like to schedule your message, and input your message description. You can call this “Birthday Message”.

From there go ahead and type your message, and make sure it relates to the data you will request from your customers.

I will suggest something like:

“Here at BIGBOXRETAILER we want to make sure we’re targeting you with the best deals based on your interests. Please respond with your birthday in XX/XX/XXXX”

next check the box that says “This message requests data from the participant”

From there you will see a dropdown of data attribute options. In this use case you would select birthdate.

You are also given the option to select an invalid & verified data response message.

For invalid you can say “ sorry we don’t recognize that as a birthday, please repond in XX/XX/XXXX format”

And for verified data you can say “thank you for helping us market to you more effectively”

We’ve been making a number of enhancements to our routing campaign. Our routing campaign allows you to setup a bidirectional SMS connection to your application. Using this campaign, your custom application can receive MOs from a user texting your keyword on a short code. Upon receiving a POST from our system, your application can run its logic and then optionally send MTs back to the user.

Quicker Creation and Duplication

Setting up new routing campaigns is now easier with a single page to fill out. The only required information is a description, keyword, and a URL to send messages to. If you have a routing campaign that is mostly right, you can choose to duplicate that campaign. You will be presented with an already filled out form, which you can edit and submit to get up and running quickly.

Export SMS Messages

We added support for exporting all the MOs and MTs associated with your routing campaign. After clicking the link in the sidebar, confirm the information name and email address in the form and click “Export Now”. The export process will occur in the background and an email will be sent when your file is ready to download.

Recent Activity

At the bottom of the campaign overview page is a listing of the 25 most recent messages that have passed through your routing campaign. You can click the See all link to view all your messages for the past two days, or to adjust the timeframes.

Enhanced API

We added some additional parameter to the message we send to your systems. We in addition to the raw message the user sent, we now call out the identified keyword in their message and the message with the keyword stripped off. We hope breaking apart the message like this will make it easier to handle user requests in your system.

We will be down for system maintenance Monday April 19th between 1 and 2 AM Central Time. We are going to be updating our servers. Please plan accordingly & do not schedule any messages for  this time.

Regards,

The Interactive Mediums Team.

The past few months we’ve been working on some very big changes to how our platform manages web forms. As you may already know, web forms let your customers interact with your marketing campaigns via a website, which can be a nice addition to the SMS support the platform provides by default.

In the past, web form support varied greatly from campaign type to campaign type. In addition, there was limited support for customizing how those forms looked, and how they behaved. The newly revamped web forms fix that by providing a consistent experience across campaign types and by giving you complete control over how the forms look and behave.

Introducing Web Form Themes

The new web form functionality introduces the concept of a web form “theme”. A theme contains an HTML template, as well as images, css files, and other resources that define how the web forms look. You have the ability to create, customize, and upload a theme that looks just the way you want. Web form themes can be uploaded and modified by navigating to Tools -> Web Form Themes.

Once a theme has been uploaded, it can be used by any of your campaigns. At the moment only Voting, Sweepstakes, and Subscription List campaigns are supported. But, we plan on rolling out web form support to the other campaign types very soon.

Default Themes

The platform provides a default theme that you can use to get your web form up and running quickly. The default theme is optimized to look great on a desktop web browser AND a mobile browser (on a smart phone). If you just want to get up and running quickly, and don’t need the ability to fully customize the look of your web form, then the default theme is a great choice.

Creating Your Own Themes

If you need more control over how your web forms look, then creating your own theme is the way to go. Web form themes are like any other web page. They consist of HTML, CSS, images, etc, and can be created and modified using the web authoring tools of your choice. However, the platform does enforce a few rules. First, your theme must include a file named template.html. This file serves as the template for all of the web forms using this theme. Second, the template must include a few placeholders that tell the platform where to insert the campaign’s header text, footer text, captcha, data collection, and campaigns specific content. Third, all images, css files, and other web resources must be located in a directory named resources. More information on these requirements can be found here.

Creating a new web form theme from scratch can be a little intimidating. So, the platform allows you to download any of the existing themes as a zip file, giving you a great starting point for creating your own theme. Simply download an existing theme, and start customizing it to suit your needs. When you’re finished, simply zip up the files, and upload them as a new theme.

Creating a Web Form For Your Campaign

To create a web form for your campaign, click on the Web Form option on the side when viewing the details for that campaign.

If a web form doesn’t already exist for that campaign, you will be prompted to create one. Creating a new web form is as simple as giving it a description, and selecting the Web Form Theme that it will use. After clicking Create, your web form will be live if your campaign is active.

After the web form has been created, you can customize it to fit your needs. Several configuration options are available, including the ability to use a custom domain (vanity domain), a custom URL, captcha, data collection, custom messaging per campaign, redirect to a specific website after submitting the form, prompt user to subscribe to a subscription list, and more. All configuration options are described in detail here.

More Information at the Resource Center

You can read more about the new web forms at our Resource Center. As always, please don’t hesitate to email us if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.

We have uploaded some new tutorial videos to help you get familiar with the platform. Whether you are a potential customer or a current client, we feel these are great knowledge tools to take advantage of. Go check them out at our Product Resource Center. If you have any questions feel free to contact us.

regards,

the Interactive Mediums Team.