Send data to Attentive

Attentive Mobile is a personalized mobile messaging platform that improves brand engagement with mobile consumers.

Amperity can manage an audience in Attentive and attributes about that audience.

  1. Send audience segments to Attentive using a SFTP-based process.

  2. Send customer attributes about that audience using the Custom Attributes API.

How this destination works

Amperity can manage audiences in Attentive and provide attributes about the customers who belong to those audiences. A segment is the list of customers to which you will send emails or messages. A subscriber is a customer for which you have an opt-in/out status. You can only send emails or messages to customers who have opted-in.

Send subscriber lists and subscriber opt-on/out status from Amperity to Attentive.

An Attentive destination works like this:

  1. Use a query or segment to a) build a list of subscribers for whom you have opt-in/out data, and then b) build a segment that contains a list of customers to whom you want to send email or SMS messages.

  2. Configure destinations that manage audience segments, and then provide attributes about the customers who belong to those audiences.

    Why are there two ways to send data to Attentive?

    Amperity uses the Subscriptions and Custom Attributes API endpoints in the Custom Attributes API to manage subscribers. Updates appear on the Subscribers page within your audience in Attentive.

    Amperity uses the subscriber segment upload process to manage segments. This process does not use an endpoint and is not subject to Attentive API rate limits . Updates appear on the Segments page within your audience in Attentive.

  3. Send a test from Amperity, and then from within Attentive verify that the Subscribers page has the updated subscriber opt-in/out status and that the Segments page has the list of customers that you sent from Amperity.

Audience segments

Amperity uses the subscriber segment upload process to manage segments. This process does not use an endpoint and is not subject to Attentive API rate limits . Updates appear on the Segments page within your audience in Attentive.

Note

Changes to audiences are not immediately available in Attentive. Allow for up to 24 hours after the point at which Amperity has finished sending audience updates for them to be available.

This topic describes the steps that are required to send audiences to Attentive from Amperity:

  1. Get details

  2. Add destination

  3. Add data template

Get details

Attentive requires the following configuration details for audience segments:

Detail one.

The username and passphrase with permission to write data to Attentive Mobile using their SFTP process.

Detail one.

The remote folder to which Amperity will send data: /uploads.

Detail one.

The public key to use for PGP encryption, if required.

Detail one.

Review the subscriber segment upload topic for specific requirements for how to format the CSV file.

Detail one.

Do not include header rows in output.

Add destination

Configure Amperity to send audiences directly to Attentive.

Important

Be sure to use “Segments” in the destination title so that users of Amperity who will send segments to Attentive will be able to identify this destination. Review the subscriber segment upload topic for specific requirements for how to format the CSV file. Do not include header rows in output.

To add a destination

Step 1.

Open the Destinations tab to configure a destination for Attentive. Click the Add Destination button to open the Destination dialog box.

Name, description, choose plugin.

Enter a name for the destination and provide a description. For example: “Attentive” and “This sends audiences to Attentive”.

From the Plugin drop-down, start typing “att” to filter the list, and then select Attentive.

Step 2.

Credentials allow Amperity to connect to Attentive.

The credential type is set automatically to attentive mobile. You may use an existing credential or you may add a new one.

Choose an existing credential or add credential.

Select an existing credential from the Credential drop-down.

– or –

Select Create a new credential from the Credential drop-down. This opens the Credential dialog box.

Enter the name for the credential, and then add a description. Select sftp.attentivemobile.com from the HOSTNAME drop-down list. Enter the username and passphrase.

Update the settings for the SFTP destination.

When finished, click Save.

Step 3.

Each destination has settings that define how Amperity will deliver data to Attentive. These settings are listed under the Settings section of the Destination dialog box.

Settings for SFTP destinations.

Complete the following SFTP Settings:

  • The path to the Remote folder.

    Tip

    If the path to the remote folder contains a space, use a backslash () character to escape that space. For example, a folder named “From ACME” should be entered as “From\ ACME”.

  • The File format. Select the file format – CSV – from the drop-down list.

  • Optional. The Escape character that is required by Attentive.

    Note

    If an escape character is not specified and quote mode is set to “None” this may result in unescaped, unquoted files. When an escape character is not specified, you should select a non-“None” option from the Quote Mode setting.

  • Optional. The Compression format. Encoding method options include “Tar”, “Tgz”, “Zip”, “GZip”, and “None”.

  • Optional. The PGP public key that is used to encrypt files that are sent to Attentive.

  • Optional. The Quote mode that should be used within the file. From the drop-down, select one of “all fields”, “all non-NULL fields”, “fields with special characters only”, “all non-numeric fields” or “None”.

    Note

    If the quote mode is set to “None” and the Escape Character setting is empty this may result in unescaped, unquoted files. When quote mode is not set to “None”, you should specify an escape character.

  • Optional. Select Include success file upon completion to add a .DONE file that indicates when an orchestration has finished sending data.

    Tip

    If a downstream sensor is listening for files sent from Amperity, configure that sensor to listen for the presence of the .DONE file.

  • Optional. Select Include header row in output files if headers should be included in the output.

  • Optional. Select Exclude Parquet extension from the directory name for managing how Apache Parquet files are added to directories.

Step 4.

Business users are assigned to the Amp360 User and/or AmpIQ User policies. (Amp360 User allows access to queries and orchestrations and AmpIQ User allows access to segments and campaigns.) A business user cannot select a destination that is not visible to them.

Business users – including users assigned to the DataGrid Operator policy – may have restricted access to PII.

What is restricted access to PII?

Restricted PII access is enabled when the Restrict PII access policy option that prevents users who are assigned to that option from viewing data that is marked as PII anywhere in Amperity and from sending that data to any downstream workflow.

You can make this destination visible to orchestrations and allow users with restricted access to PII to use this destination by enabling one (or both) of the following options:

Allow business users access to this destination.

Note

To allow business users to use this destination with campaigns, you must enable the Available to campaigns option within the data template. This allows users to send campaign results from Amperity to Attentive.

The other two settings may be configured within the data template instead of the destination.

Step 5.

Review all settings, and then click Save.

Save the destination.

Important

You must configure a data template for this destination before you can send data to Attentive.

Custom attributes (API)

Attentive is your source of truth for your customers’ subscription status, while Amperity is your source of truth for profile attributes that describe those customers.

Amperity uses the Custom Attributes API endpoint to send custom profile attributes to Attentive. Use these attributes to apply customizable data or characteristics to each of your subscribers, and then use that information to build segments for use with campaigns and journeys.

Caution

The Attentive Custom Attributes API allows you to build segments based on a match with customer profile attributes. Custom attributes cannot contain any sensitive or special categories of information .

This topic describes the steps that are required to send audiences to Attentive from Amperity:

  1. Get details

  2. Add destination

  3. Add data template

Get details

The Attentive Custom Attributes API requires the following configuration details for sending audience subscribers:

Detail one.

The Attentive API key.

Detail one.

The ID for the sign-up unit . Sign-up units are managed from the Sign-up Units page in Attentive. You must provide an ID for an active sign-up unit.

Add destination

Configure Amperity to send audiences directly to Attentive.

Important

Attentive accepts email addresses or phone numbers as the primary identifier. The set of data that is sent from Amperity must contain the primary identifier. For example, if your primary identifier is phone numbers, than the phone field must be included.

You may send the non-primary email address or phone number as a custom attribute.

To add a destination

Step 1.

Open the Destinations tab to configure a destination for Attentive. Click the Add Destination button to open the Destination dialog box.

Name, description, choose plugin.

Enter a name for the destination and provide a description. For example: “Attentive” and “This sends audiences to Attentive”.

From the Plugin drop-down, start typing “att” to filter the list, and then select Attentive.

Step 2.

Credentials allow Amperity to connect to Attentive.

The credential type is set automatically. You may use an existing credential or you may add a new one.

Choose an existing credential or add credential.

Select an existing credential from the Credential drop-down.

– or –

Select Create a new credential from the Credential drop-down. This opens the Credential dialog box.

Choose an existing credential or add credential.

Enter the name for the credential, and then add a description.

Attentive has the following settings:

  • The Attentive API key.

When finished, click Save.

Step 3.

Each destination has settings that define how Amperity will deliver data to Attentive. These settings are listed under the Settings section of the Destination dialog box.

Settings for Campaign Monitor.

The following settings are specific to Attentive:

Setting

Description

Primary identifier

The ID for the sign-up unit . Sign-up units are managed from the Sign-up Units page in Attentive. You must provide an ID for an active sign-up unit.

Step 4.

Business users are assigned to the Amp360 User and/or AmpIQ User policies. (Amp360 User allows access to queries and orchestrations and AmpIQ User allows access to segments and campaigns.) A business user cannot select a destination that is not visible to them.

Business users – including users assigned to the DataGrid Operator policy – may have restricted access to PII.

What is restricted access to PII?

Restricted PII access is enabled when the Restrict PII access policy option that prevents users who are assigned to that option from viewing data that is marked as PII anywhere in Amperity and from sending that data to any downstream workflow.

You can make this destination visible to orchestrations and allow users with restricted access to PII to use this destination by enabling one (or both) of the following options:

Allow business users access to this destination.

Note

To allow business users to use this destination with campaigns, you must enable the Available to campaigns option within the data template. This allows users to send campaign results from Amperity to Attentive.

The other two settings may be configured within the data template instead of the destination.

Step 5.

Review all settings, and then click Save.

Save the destination.

Important

You must configure a data template for this destination before you can send data to Attentive.

Add data template

A data template defines how columns in Amperity data structures are sent to downstream workflows. A data template is part of the configuration for sending query and segment results from Amperity to an external location.

To add a data template

Step 1.

From the Destinations tab, open the menu for a destination that is configured for Attentive, and then select Add data template.

This opens the Add Data Template dialog box.

Step 1

Enter the name of the data template and a description. For example: “Attentive” and “Send audiences to Attentive.”.

Step 2.

Verify business user access to queries and orchestrations and access to segments and campaigns.

A business user may also have restricted access to PII, which prevents them from viewing and sending customer profile data.

Step 2.

If business user access was not configured as part of the destination, you may configure access from the data template.

Important

To allow business users to use this destination with campaigns, you must enable the Available to campaigns option. This allows users to send campaign results from Amperity to Attentive.

If you enable this option, the data extension settings require using campaign name and group name template variables to associate the name of the data extension to your campaign.

Step 3.

Verify all configuration settings.

Verify settings for the data template.

Note

When the settings required by Attentive were are not configured as part of the destination, you must configure them as part of the data template before making this destination available to campaigns.

Step 4.

Review all settings, and then click Save.

Save the data template.

After you have saved the data template, and depending on how you configured it, business users can send query results and/or send campaigns to Attentive.

About filename templates

A filename template defines how the names of segments and campaigns will appear in Attentive.

The following table shows how your segment name will appear in Attentive. These examples represent a one-time buyer campaign that is attempting to win a second purchase. The campaign is named “Winback” and it has sub-audiences for “Dress Shirts”, “Jeans”, and “Shoes”. Keep these types of patterns in mind when naming campaigns, treatment groups, and sub-audiences within your campaigns that will be sent to Attentive.

Pattern

Segment name(s)

Description

(empty)

WinbackDressShirts

WinbackJeans

WinbackShoes

An empty filename template setting is the equivalent of {{ campaign_name }}{{ group_name }}.

campaign_name

Winback

Use this pattern for campaigns that do not have more than one treatment group or sub-audiences. This will use the name of the campaign as the name of the segment in Attentive.

Tip

Use {{ campaign_name }} instead of {{ list_name }}.

campaign_name + group_name

Winback_DressShirts

Winback_Jeans

Winback_Shoes

Use this pattern for campaigns that have more than one treatment group and/or have sub-audiences.

You may use an underscore ( _ ) or a hyphen ( - ): {{ campaign_name }}_{{ group_name }} or {{ campaign_name }}-{{ group_name }}.

You may put them next to each other (without using an underscore or hyphen): {{ campaign_name }}{{ group_name }}.

You may switch the ordering: {{ group_name }}_{{ campaign_name }}.

Tip

Be sure to use descriptive names for campaigns and treatment groups and be careful to not use the default treatment group names when sending campaigns to Attentive.

This will ensure that downstream users in Attentive will be able to understand what each segment is for and won’t have to view default naming patterns like “Winback_Recipient1”, “WinbackRecipient2”, etc.

group_name

DressShirts

Jeans

Shoes

Use this pattern to only use the names of treatment groups as segment names in Attentive. This will omit the name of the campaign and the name of the sub-audience from the segment name.

Important

The filename template, as used with Attentive (and unlike how it is used with other destinations), does not build a file name. Instead the filename template defines which strings (campaign and/or treatment group) will be used as the name of a segment in Attentive. Spaces in campaign and treatment group names are removed.