Campaigns
Campaigns in ZAP~POST allow you to send personalized direct mail to individual customers based on real-time events or actions.
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Campaigns in ZAP~POST allow you to send personalized direct mail to individual customers based on real-time events or actions.
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To get started, follow these steps:
To navigate to the campaigns overview page, click the ‘campaigns’ icon in the header of ZAP~POST.
On the campaign overview page, you can create new campaigns, edit existing ones, or view archived campaigns. Make sure to configure the campaign settings appropriately.
To create a new campaign, click the ‘add new campaign’ link at the top right of the campaign overview page, this will launch the campaign creation wizard.
The first screen of the wizard requires you to choose a paper stock.
You have the option to select which paperstock you would like. For more information on our paperstocks and to download a template, see our academy here.
After you have selected your paper stock, you can either choose to 'Use Template' or to 'Start From Scratch':
If you choose to use a template, you will see the screen below. The templates shown will be based on your chosen sector. If you change the sector in the dropdown, you can then see the templates available for different sectors. When you have made a selection, you will have two options: 1. Next Step - Navigates to naming you campaign 2. Edit Fields - Gives you ability to edit the campaign fields
You can hover over each campaign type for more information.
If you choose to start from scratch, you will see the screen below. On this screen, there is a table of all of the mandatory data fields which a campaign must have in order to send out Zaps. By using the 'add new custom field' button at the bottom of this table, you can add new custom fields to one of your campaigns. This will require you to correctly set up the custom fields depending on what data you want to put into your campaign. When you have made a selection, click the ‘next step’ button which will appear at the bottom right of the screen.
After choosing 'start from scratch' for your campaign, you will now be able to create and edit the custom fields. These custom fields allow you to choose data specific for your campaigns and customer data to be displayed on your Direct Mail campaigns.
When selecting 'add new custom field', you will be able to create the following:
Name
The name of the field. This will be shown in CSV templates as column headers.
Description
This will identify the use of the field to users submitting via CSV. The CSV template will contain the description below each column header.
Mandatory
If a value must be included for the field.
Label
This will be used in the design to identify the field so that it can be replaced for submitted data.
Further options on the field creation wizard include the data type. All data types are listed below, including variable fields based on each data type.
Number
Min Value
The minimum number allowed
Max Value
The maximum number allowed
Decimal Places
The number of decimal places expected
Example Value
An example of a typical value that may be submitted
Text
Min Length
The minimum length the provided text value can be
Max Length
The maximum length the provided text value can be
Example Value
An example of a typical value that may be submitted
Date
Date Format
The format the date must be provided in
Example Value
An example of a typical value that may be submitted
Time
Time Format
The format the time must be provided in
Example Value
An example of a typical value that may be submitted
Datetime
Date and Time Format
The format the datetime must be provided in
Example Value
An example of a typical value that may be submitted
The final customisation option when creating a new field for your template is 'Validation Expressions'. This can be used to define a collection of regular expressions (should the field require its own unique validation).
More information on regular expressions can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression
When you have finished setting up your field, please click the 'save changes' button in the bottom right of the page followed by the 'submit' button.
The following screen is where you will give your campaign a name. When you are finished naming your campaign, click the ‘next step’ button again.
The campaign name must be unique to this campaign.
This will take you to the final screen of the campaign creation wizard where you have two options.
You can press the ‘save and download CSV' button which will save the campaign and download the CSV template which you will need later to upload data into ZAP~POST.
You can press ‘save and exit’ which will save the campaign and take you back to the campaign overview page.
You can still download the campaign CSV template from the campaign overview page at a later time.
The final step is confirmation that you can use on of our integration partners.
When sending a Zap Campaign, there is a set of required data that every campaign must have in order to send out a Zap. There are a few bits of validation around the Default Data which are important to note when trying to troubleshoot issues with data uploading via CSV or ingestion via the API.
Customer ID
Yes
No
Salutation
No
Firstname
Yes
Up to 35 Characters in combination with Surname
Surname
Yes
Up to 35 Characters in combination with First name
Company Name
No
Up to 40 Characters
Address1
Yes
Up to 35 Characters
Address2
No
Up to 35 Characters
Address3
No
Up to 35 Characters
City
No
Up to 35 Characters
Postcode
Yes
Up to 15 Characters
Country
Yes
Only UK Currently
Currency
No
Language
No
There are four possible campaign statuses in ZAP~POST. These can be seen in the column marked ‘status’ on the table of your campaigns on the campaign management page.
Waiting
The campaign requires either a design to be published or data to be uploaded.
On Hold
The account has billing issues which need to be resolved before proceeding. Users should get in touch with their ZAP~POST client manager or contact billing@zappost.com
Active
The campaign has had Zaps sent from it and is ready to send more
Archived
This will move the campaign to the ‘archived campaigns’ area which can be accessed by clicking the link on the campaign management page. This allows users to file away old campaigns, ready to be used again at a later time if needed.
