What is a resource and how to configure it

What is a resource?

A resource is a means of organizing customers' subscriptions to certain content via special communication channels.

Imagine it as a virtual container that can store each customer's subscription to some content. You can send this content via the channels configured for the resource. There are several digital channels for communication with your subscribers: email, SMS, push notifications, Telegram or a channel of your own.

A resource can represent:

• a web site,
• a mobile app,
• a separate web page,
• a contact data collection form,
• a separate product,
• an online or offline special offer.

Examples of resources

How does it work?

1. A customer performs some action that presupposes further communication with your company.
2. If this customer is a new one, their data gets into your database, and their digital profile is created automatically.
3. This profile gets a subscription to the resource.

For example, if a customer subscribes to the newsletter of new blog articles, they immediately get into the «Blog» resource. So, when you notify your customers who have a subscription to this resource about a new article, this new customer gets the newsletter as well.

A customer can be subscribed to multiple resources.

Subscriptions to different resources are not linked. Your customer can unsubscribe from one resource, and all other subscriptions will remain. Thus, it is up to a subscriber what kind of content they want to consume.

For example, a customer is subscribed to three resources: promotional newsletters, blog digests, transactional notifications. After a while, this customer unsubscribes from promotional newsletters, but their subscriptions to your blog and transactional notifications remain. This mechanism increases the chance of retaining a prospective customer.

How to create a resource?

Select the relevant section in the navigation menu. Then click «Create» at the top of the screen:

Step 1. Subscription channel

Select the channels to communicate with subscribers of this resource. The following channels are available:

• Email
• SMS
• Push notifications
• Telegram bot
• Telegram group
• Viber
• WhatsApp

You can also create your own channel. If you want to do this, you should contact the platform administrator.

Step 2. General settings

1. Specify the resource name and describe the resource

Description is optional, but sometimes it can be useful. This information will come in handy if you work in a team. It will be easier for your colleagues to get involved in the workflow.

2. Create a group

Groups allow you to differentiate the work of different departments in your organization. If someone wants to change something in a group, this person needs to have access to do it. Thus, by creating groups, you restrict access to a particular resource for users of other groups.

3. Introduce a sending policy

This policy is optional. You can introduce it if you want to restrict the number of messages sent to one recipient during a certain period of time.

4. Select databases

Add only those databases whose profiles you want to subscribe to a certain resource.

5. Specify the URL of the website, forms or apps

Enter the URL of the resource source. You can use your website, mobile app or URL of the form page as a source. You can add an additional URL if there are several sources.

6. Enter the default tracking domain

Tracking domain is a special domain for tracking your subscribers' activity. A tracking domain is attached to all links in a message. This way you can find out whether your subscriber opened your email and read it. You can also track which links they clicked. Usually a tracking domain is a subdomain of your main domain. It looks like this: trk.yourdomainname.com.

Step 3. Resource categories

Categories enable you to specify the type of content a profile is subscribed to. For instance, a resource like "Mobile App" can include categories such as "News," "Promotional Offers," and "Transactional messages." If a client unsubscribes from one category within a resource, they will still receive messages from other categories. Unlike subscribing to a resource, subscribing to a category has just two statuses: "Subscribed" and "Unsubscribed." You can manually modify this status in customer profiles or via API requests.

To add a new category to a resource, click the + Create button:

You can create several channels for communication with your subscribers in one resource. To add an additional channel, click on the + icon:

Specify a custom category name and name that will be used in API requests:

Additionally, you can add a category to the subscription manager so a client can independently manage subscriptions to categories. If receiving messages within a certain category is mandatory and cannot be unsubscribed, enable the option that a subscriber cannot unsubscribe from a category in the subscription manager.

You can add an unlimited number of categories. To delete a category, click on the trash can button.

Attention! After saving the resource, you will be able to edit the category name, but not the API name.

Step 4. Standard and custom fields in subscription channels

To make it easier to create segments, profile settings provide an ability to create standard and custom fields

Standard fields are used to specify basic system information. With that tupe of help you can customize mailings for users of specific devices and platform versions. This makes creating segments more convenient, for example, newsletters related to Windows or iOS will be sent to users depending on their system

There are types of fields you can add:

• Device tupe (Desktop, Mobile, Other)
• Device model
• Device name
• Platform (Windows, Linux, Mac, Opera, iOS, BlackBerry, Android)
• Platform version
• Platform time zone
• Platform language
• Ad tracking allowed (True or False)
• Ad identifier
• Application ID
• Application installation ID
• Application version
• Browser (Bots, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Facebook, Chrome, Opera, Outlook, Thunderbird)
• Browser version

To store additional information about your channel subscription, use custom fields. They are created in resource settings. Click on the buttom "Add custom field"

Then choose a type of field:

• whole number - positive and negative integers

• floating-point number - Positive and Negative Floating Point NumbersA string is text in any language, this also includes numbers, special characters, and spaces. Unicode standard is used

• line - text in any language, also includes numbers, special characters, and spaces. Unicode standard is used

• boolean - a field that allows you to choose from two options True or False (Yes or No)

Specify the field name and the name that will be used in API requests. Any symbols can be used in the name. The API name can only use Latin characters, numbers and underscores

API name request must begin with a letter

Then in your client profile in the subscriptions section, you can set the necessary information about subscribing to the resource:

Step 5. Resourse Settings

Email channel

If you are planning to send emails to your subscribers, add an email channel to the resource. Enter the sender's name and email address. Here you can see how they will be displayed in the email that your customer will receive:

If newsletters on this resource involve subscribers' feedback, specify the name and address to receive it.

Google requires email senders to include a List-ID header in their emails. This header contains a unique identifier for the mailing list, which helps email clients filter and organize incoming messages.

For existing resources, the platform will automatically generate a List-ID based on the email sender's address, replacing the @ symbol with .. For example: promo@example.com will become promo.example.com.

Enter the List-Id in the format [list-label].[domain]. Examples:

• list-header.nisto.com
• commonspace-users.list-id.within.com
• 0Jks9449.list-id.cmu.edu

List-ID is specified without "<" and ">" symbols. The length of the identifier should not exceed 255 characters. The domain should match the sender's domain.

SMS channel

If you want to send text messages to your subscribers, add an SMS channel to the resource and enter Caller ID.

Caller ID should be coordinated with your SMS provider, otherwise the provider's name is used.

Push channel

Add a Push channel to send push notifications from your website or mobile app to your subscribers. Select the necessary platforms and providers. You can see the available services for push notifications in the table below:

Learn more about how to enable push notifications on your website or mobile app.

Telegram bot channel

If you want to communicate with your subscribers via a Telegram bot, activate a Telegram bot channel. Specify this Bot token provided by Telegram messenger.

Telegram group channel

Are you going to communicate with your subscribers in a Telegram group chat? Add a Telegram group channel. Here, besides the Telegram bot token, you also need to specify a group chat or channel ID.

Viber

To send messages on Viber, you need to set up an integration through the provider, such as Devino Telecom, SMS Traffic or MTS OmniChannel.

In the channel settings, select the Viber connection with Devino Telecom, SMSTraffic or MTS OmniChannel you created earlier and specify the sender's name. This name will be visible to subscribers when they receive a message. You can find the sender's name in your provider dashboard, and it should be verified by your provider.

You can learn more about the Viber newsletter in this article.

WhatsApp

To send messages to subscribers in the messaging app, you need to set up integration with the WhatsApp Business API. Integration can be done through such providers as edna or 360dialog.

After setting up the integration, select the connected account (360dialog) or channel (Edna) in the drop-down list:

Learn more about the newsletter in WhatsApp in this article.

Step 6. Saving

If you want to save a new resource, click «Save» in the upper panel of the platform.

If you only want to apply the changes you have just made, but not close the current window to work with the resource, click «Apply». Now you can launch your first newsletter.

Check list

1. Go to the «Resources» section and click «Create».
2. Select the main channel to communicate with your subscribers: email, SMS, push notifications, Telegram.
3. Enter the resource name and give a brief description of this resource.
4. Create groups to restrict access and add tags for quick search if it is necessary.
5. Introduce a sending policy if you want to restrict the number of messages sent to one recipient during a certain period of time.
6. Specify a source of the resource: the URL of the website, form or app.
7. Use a tracking domain to track the subscribers' activity: whether they click the links in your emails.
8. Add and configure additional channels to communicate with your subscribers.
9. Save the resource.