Caution:
Communication Triggers send out automatic communications to your Contacts. Please set your triggers to manual at first and we recommend you send them manually until you are comfortable with their automation.
The Triggers define the situation and criteria for recognizing when to send a Communication Template. For example:
- When a student registers for an Event
- 2 days before an Event is due to start
- Send a notification to your internal teams when an opportunity has been won
You must have an Email Sending Address and/or SMS Sending Number set up, and appropriate Templates created before being able to create a Trigger.
You can switch the Email Trigger and SMS Trigger views by clicking on the appropriate tab.
Switch between Email and SMS using the tabs.
Once you are in the Triggers setting, you will see a table of Triggers that have been set up. If there are many of these, you can filter them down by using the search tool, or clicking the table headers to sort the tables by.
Please see the section you wish know more about:
Please also see our overall Communication Triggers Documentation for more help on this feature.
Add a Trigger
Please make sure you have an appropriate Sending Address and Template set up before continuing.
- Select the Email or SMS tab, according to the desired type of Trigger.
- Click
- Name your Trigger: this is for self-reference only.
- Give your Trigger an Abbreviation: this will be displayed in the Communications section of the Event Personnel or Students section of the Event’s Screen.
- Template: select your Communication Template
- Target: select the appropriate Administrate feature this Trigger applies to. This will reveal a new set of settings for the Trigger.
- From: select the appropriate Sending Address: Remember this Sending Address will correspond to Email or SMS, depending on what you selected in step 1.
- Automatic: select whether this Trigger sends automatically. Recommended setting for a new Trigger is Yes.
- Disabled: select whether or not this Trigger is active or not.
- Trigger: select the condition for how the Trigger activates. The options here will depend on your Target selection.
- Audience: select the intended Audience
- Companies: [optional] if you have more than one Company you can select for which Company to apply the Trigger to - default (All).
- Regions: [optional] you can restrict your Trigger to a Region - default (All).
- Location: [optional/Public Events only] you can restrict your Trigger by Location - default (All).
- LMS type: Configure whether this trigger should be enabled for Classroom, Blended or LMS events. For each event type select either Yes or No.
- Event Type: select whether the Trigger applies to Public, Private, or All.
- Click
You’ll have now created a Trigger for communications to be sent.
Edit a Trigger
- Click on the Trigger you wish to edit.
- Click
- Make your desired changes.
- Click
Your Trigger will then be updated.
Delete a Trigger
- Click on the Trigger you wish to delete.
- Click
- Click
- Confirm with
Your Trigger will then be deleted.
Field Descriptions
Here are some further explanations and in-depth knowledge of the fields seen on this page:
Target
The Target defines which Administrate feature (excluding Scheduled) the Trigger applies to. Additional options will be revealed specific to the selection made.
| Target | Description | Additional Options Revealed |
|---|---|---|
| All Events | For every Event created | - |
| Course | For every Events created from a specific or several Course Template(s) | A multi-select box to choose your Courses: use CTRL/CMD to select multiple Courses |
| Single Event | For a specific Event only: effectively a one-off Trigger | A text box to search/enter the Event |
| Opportunity |
For a specific Opportunity Transition, for example when an Opportunity moves from a Discovery step to a Proposal. This can also be used when WebLink is configured to hold Orders for internal review, before accepting payment. |
A text box to search/enter the Opportunity transition |
| Scheduled | For regularly sent communications Scheduled Target will be sent at regular intervals: Daily, Monthly, Weekly. | A text box to enter email addresses and frequency selection |
| All Learning Paths | For every Learning Path created | - |
| Single Learning Path | For a specific Learning Path | A text box to search/enter the Learning Path |
Note that selecting a single event without a start date or end date (as is the case with some LMS events) will limit the selection of available trigger types to those which don’t use the start or end date of the event.
Audience
The Audiences are the group of intended recipients. This is similar to Template Audiences.
| Audience | Who? |
|---|---|
| For all targets | |
| Students | Students, who are Contacts, that have registered for an Event. |
| All Staff | Administrators and Instructors for the Event. |
| Administrators | Those who organize and manage the Event. |
| Instructors | Instructors are Contacts that deliver the training for your Events. |
| Booking Contacts | The Contact who booked Unnamed Students. |
| For the 'Opportunity' target only | |
| Contact | The Contact who has been selected on the Sales Opportunity. |
| Owner | The User who owns the Sales Opportunity. |
Trigger
Define when, or the condition, to activate the Trigger. Because Triggers can be sent manually or be offset by a number of days, the term “activate” is used here.
There are no Trigger settings for Scheduled Targets.
| Activation Point | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| Targets: All Events, Course, Single Event | |
| Event Start | Activates the Trigger once the Event has started, e.g., useful for sending worksheets for the Sessions. You can offset this by a number of days before or after the Event Start Date. |
| Event End | Activates the Trigger once the Event has finished, e.g., useful for sending ‘thank you’ messages and further resources self-improvement. You can offset this by a number of days before or after the Event end Date. |
| On Registration | Activates the Trigger once a student has registered onto an Event, e.g. useful for sending registration confirmations and joining instructions. |
| Targets: All Learning Paths, Single Learning Path | |
| Student Completed Path | Activates once the student has completed their Assigned Learning Path |
| Targets: Opportunity | |
| Opportunity Transition | Activates the Trigger once a specific Opportunity Transition has been done to a Sales Opportunity. |
Note that selecting either the Event Start or Event End option will limit Single Event targets to only those events which have the Start or End Date respectively.
Automatic
You can set your Triggers to Automatic or Manual (not Automatic). It is recommended that you set new Triggers to be Manual and check that they perform satisfactorily to your needs before switching them to Automatic.
| Status | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| * Automatic | Communications will send automatically once all the criteria have been met |
| Manual | The Trigger will activate but won’t send anything. You’ll have to send the communications manually |
* Once Automatic has been selected, you will have a message onscreen alerting you so:
Automatic Sending Message
When you see the above message, you’ll also notice the timings for the next runs:
- Next Priority Run : sends On Registration Triggers every 5 minutes on the hour, e.g. 12:05, 12:10, 12:15, etc.
- Next Full Run : sends every Trigger not set to On Registration on the 37th minute every hour, e.g. 12:37, 13:37, 14:37, etc.
Scheduled Targets
Scheduled Targets are for when you wish to send communications at regular intervals, Daily, Monthly, or Weekly, to auxiliary email addresses. These might be regular notices such as bulletin information or frequent reports to a line manager.
When you select the target, ‘Scheduled’, fields to type the email addresses and select the frequency will be revealed.
All Scheduled communications are sent at midnight UTC.
| Frequency | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| Daily | Sent every day |
| Monthly | Sent event month, on a specified date: due to February having 28 days, except leap years, this is the latest date that can be set. |
| Weekly | Sent every week, on a specified day |
Trigger Logs
A log and history of all the communications sent and due to be sent can be found at the foot of each Trigger. The log will also record the time each email was sent, opened and clicked. Click on any of the table headers to sort.
| Heading | Meaning | Display / Sorting Priority |
| Status* | The current state of the communication | Alphabetical |
| Contact | The recipient’s name | Alphabetical |
| Event | The Event the Trigger being sent for (Email only) | Alphabetical |
| Sent at | Date and time the communication was sent | No Date/Time > Earlier > Later |
| Opened at | Date and time the communication was opened by the recipient (Email only) | No Date/Time > Earlier > Later |
| Clicked at | Date and time the recipient clicked on any links contained in the email (Email only) | No Date/Time > Earlier > Later |
| Notice | Error Messages | No Priority |
* See Send Status
Message Preview and Manually Send/Resend Communications
Click on any of the rows to open a message preview window, where you can manually send/re-send your communications.
Open the email preview to send/re-send communications.
Send Status
Email:
| Clicked | Whether it is to confirm a newly registered account or to view a recommended product, asks the recipient to click a link then fires back the status of "clicked" to show that link has been accessed. |
| Deferred | The recipient mail server asked SendGrid (the third party app we use to send emails out) to stop sending emails so fast. This is not a rejection by the recipient email server. SendGrid will attempt to send the email for another 72 hours. |
| Dropped | The recipient's email address is on a suppression list and the email won't be sent, in order to protect your Sender Reputation. There are various reasons for the email address to be suppressed, e.g. repeated bounces, repeated spam reports, and repeated Invalid (see below) reports. If you encounter this status, have verified the email address and wish for it to be taken off a suppression list for another attempt at delivery, please contact Administrate Support. |
| Bounced | The Contact’s email address is no longer valid |
| Error | See the Notice column for more information |
| Future | Queued for sending in the future |
| Historical | A person who, in retrospect, has met the criteria for sending the communication to |
| Invalid | The Contact’s email address is invalid (this can also mean that the Administrate Communication Template being used has an issue with an attachment or merge field being used) |
| Not Yet Processed | The intended recipient didn’t meet the criteria set |
| Opened | The Contact's has opened the Trigger email |
| Rejected | The Trigger email has not been delivered because the recipient’s mail server has not accepted the email |
| Sent | The Trigger email has been sent |
| Soft-Bounced | The Trigger email arrived at the recipient’s mail server, but then rejected |
| Timed-out | The Trigger email is too far past the sending date |
| Unsubscribed | The Contact has the ‘No Mail’ setting checked in their Contact record |
| Hold | The trigger for the communication is set to Automatic = No and must be manually sent. |
| No Communications | The Contact has the 'No Communications' setting checked in their Contact record |
SMS:
| Done | The Trigger SMS has been sent |
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