Send newsletters from Standard ERP using Mailigen

What is Mailigen?

Mailigen is newsletter creation and automation platform. Platform offers management of contact lists, creation of letter templates using WYSIWYG e-mail template editor, analysing campaign results and more. We can send Standard ERP customer letters such as announcements or adverts using them as delivery mechanism.

What are the benfits?

There are multiple benefits using Mailigen instead of delivery of e-mails through your SMTP server:

• specialised delivery mechanism for mass mail - they make sure that everything is OK with spam filters and other issues that might arise when trying to send large newsletters out using normal SMTP server. In most cases it is not even allowed by the SMTP provider to send campaign letters
• possibility to create beautiful e-mail templates for your letters with ease
• tracking of your e-mail campaign such as who opened e-mails, who clicked on links etc. to be able to follow up and analyse efficiency of the campaign

Read more on Mailigen features

How to start with Mailigen

1. You need to subscribe for a Mailigen account or start with a trial account
2. You need to create an API key from Mailigen admin interface and send to us
3. We will set up code for you that will be able to communicate with Mailigen from Standard ERP

Importing contacts to lists

After the technical set up is done, you need to manually transfer your contacts from Standard ERP to Mailigen. In order to do so, follow these steps:

1. In the Mailigen settings indicate which customer categories should be included in the contact list, separated by a comma (Setting - Include only categories). If all customer categories should be included, then leave this field blank
2. In Mailigen, create a new Subscriber list
   • Under List Actions, choose Custom fields to edit the fields in the list
   • Add a new field labelled "Contact" (this label can be named something else too) and name the Merge Tag "CONTACT" (this cannot be modified)
   • Do not change the Merge Tag of the default field "First Name". These are the required fields, other fields are optional. The list should look like this:
   • 
3. To create a Main list:
   • Run the report "Burti - Mailigen Contact List", which will return all of the customers that match the categories defined in the previous setting, and save it to an .xls file
   • In Mailigen > Lists > My Lists - choose a List > Actions > Import  - choose the previously exported .xls file and import
4. To create a Classification list:
   • In the Mailigen Lists setting create a new row, indicating the list name, specific classifications and list web ID, as described below
   • Run the maintenance "Burti - Mailigen populate Contact Lists", which will update all the specified lists with the valid contacts
5. Once the list is created, copy the list ID that is displayed in the url, when the list is open and being viewed (https://admin.mailigen.com/contacts/dashboard/?id=XXXXXX , where X is a number).
   • If you are creating a Main list (list with all the contacts), save this ID in the Mailigen setting "Main list Web ID"
   • If you are creating a classification list, save this ID in the Mailigen lists setting column "Contact List Web ID" in the corresponding classification row

Contact updates from Mailigen to SERP

Next, it is necessary to create Webhooks, so that when a contact unsubscribes or changes their email, the changes get sent to HW.

1. In Mailigen, go to Settings > Webhooks
2. Create a new Webhooks:
   • "Trigger on" - tick "email address changes" and "unsubscribes"
   • "List" - should be the same list indicated in a setting (each webhook applies only to one list, for multiple lists create multiple webhooks)
   • "URL" - should be http://yourserver.com:port/Web_JSON_Mailigen_Updating.hal?key=[key]
     • Port is optional, only if needed 
     • The parameter "key" is required and should match the key defined in the field "Authentication key" in Mailigen settings - it can be whatever you decide
   • "Send updates made by" - tick "a subscriber" and "account admin"

If a contact unsubscribes from the emails through Mailigen, he is automatically removed from the list and the checkbox "No Mass Emailing" is ticked in SERP.

If a contact's email gets changed through Mailigen, the contact in SERP with the previous email is found, and changed to the new one.

Contact updates from SERP to Mailigen

The Main contact list in Mailigen is automatically updated if:

• Contact is added, if:
  • A new contact is created, that matches the default criteria
  • An existing contact, that did not previously match the criteria, after updating now matches all of the criteria
• Contact is removed, if:
  • An existing contact previously matched the default criteria, but after updating does not
  • An existing contact is deleted
• Contact is updated, if the contact's email, name or primary contact is changed

The Classification contact lists in Mailigen are automatically updated if:

• Same default validations apply to classification lists, as with the Main list
• Contact is added, if:
  • A new contact is created, that matches the classifications defined in the Mailigen Classification lists setting
  • An existing contact's classifications changed, and previously did not match any classifications for the classifications lists, but now does
• Contact is removed, if the contact's classifications change, and he does not match the classification requirements anymore

In order to create Activities with the recipients of the Customer Letter as the contacts, add an Activity Type in the Mailigen settings.

If a campaign has been created from the Customer Letter (Campaign status has to be "Campaign Created". If the Status is "In Progress", run maintenance "Mailigen campaign check" (button in Customer Letter)) and it is OKed, Activities will be created for all of the recipients of the Customer Letter that currently match all of the criteria.

{
  "cube_name": "HansaWorld CRM",
  "cube_reports": [ {
     "name": "All customer e-mails",
     "result_view": "table",
     "definition": {"columns":{"dimensions":[{"name":"Measures","selected_set":["[Measures].[Customer e-mail]","[Measures].[Customer primary contact]"],"members":null}]},"rows":{"dimensions":[{"name":"Customer","selected_set":["[Customer].[Customer].Members"],"members":null,"bookmarked_members":null}],"filter_by":{"conditions":[{"expression":["[Measures].[Customer e-mail]"],"operator":"matches","value":".+@.+"}]},"nonempty_crossjoin":true},"pages":{"dimensions":null},"options":{"nonempty":true},"view":{"current":"table","maximized":false,"table":{}}}
  } ],
  "calculated_members": [{"name":"Customer e-mail","dimension":"Measures","formula":"[Customer].CurrentMember.getProperty('E-mail')","format_string":""},{"name":"Customer primary contact","dimension":"Measures","formula":"[Customer].CurrentMember.getProperty('Primary contact')","format_string":""}]
}

How to send a letter from Standard ERP

1. Create a template you will use to format this e-mail. You can create one from scratch or use their provided templates, but the main thing is that you need to have a code of the template without any spaces and in capital letters. For this example I will use one called USER-PASSWORDS:
   
2. Create a new letter in CRM>>Register>>Customer Letters
3. Select either specific customer or put an asterisk * in the customer field to send for all customers matching other criteria

4. Select either a specific customer category or leave it blank to send the e-mails to all of the categories defined in the setting (if setting is blank, sends to all categories)

5. If applicable select one or more classifications to filter down the contacts accordingly
6. Enter the subject of the e-mail
7. Enter the template name from above in the field Document (e.g. USER-PASSWORDS)
8. Select the person that should be placed in the Reply to of the e-mail
9. To check which contacts will be the recipients of the letter, use Operation >> Letter List
10. Run Operations>>Create Mailigen campaign. This will create a campaign on Mailigen side. Due to different business checks we can't send the campaign immediately
11. To check if the campaign has been created successfully, presss the button "Mailigen campaign check". If everything went well, the status of the letter will change to "Campaign created"
12. Click Open Mailigen campaign button to go to Mailigen and send the campaign
13. Once the campaign is done, OK the letter to indicate that it has been done. If there is an "Activity type" filled in the setting, then activities will be created for all of the recipients of the Customer Letter that currently match all of the criteria.
    

How to set up Mass Mail package on server

These are main steps for setup:

• install nodejs (for example: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sdk-for-javascript/v2/developer-guide/setting-up-node-on-ec2-instance.html)

• link mailigen folder to SERP root folder for example

  ln -s git/mailigen mailigen

• install node package in mailigen folder (for example npm install xmlhttprequest)
• add needed HAL rules
• in SERP set up Timed Event MassMailCheckMn that will periodically update campaign status from Mailigen (i.e. is it created)
• Add Mailigen settings in CRM > Settings > Mailigen Settings
  • Script runner - node (or full path to node, if just node does not work)
  • Campaign file location path - location, where the generated campaign files will be located. These indicate, which campaigns have been created. Example - tmp-mailigen/. The folder must exist!
  • Mailigen file location path - location, where the mailigen filed are located. In a previous step, the git/mailigen folder was linked to mailigen, so this should be mailigen/
  • API key - From Mailigen > Settings > API keys
  • Authentication key - should match the parameter "key" defined in Webhook call URL
  • Main List Web ID - Mailigen contact list ID, that can be found in the URL, when the appropriate list is opened (https://admin.mailigen.com/contacts/dashboard/?id=XXXXXX, where X is a number)

Troubleshooting: 

• If a mailigen.json file is created in the mailigen/ folder, with the corresponding letterNr, but a campaign has not been created, then that means that the HAL side has worked and the script has not been run - problem with either Script runner being defined incorrect or Campaign file location path. The folder must exist beforehand.
• If it is possible to run node from the command line in the server folder and it executes without errors, but it does not work when running from the Letter, then that means that the Script runner is defined incorrect. On a successful run, a file should be made in the defined Campaign file location (mailigen+letterNr_timenow)
• On the server, Mailigen-debug.log outputs all of the key information that might be useful (segment, campaign creation, list modification etc)