Create a Dynamic Bundles Email Experience

Contact your dedicated Customer Success Manager (CSM) if you want to add the Monetate Dynamic Bundles feature to your account.

Follow these steps to create a Product Recommendations for Email experience that uses a Dynamic Bundles Email action.

  1. Click EXPERIENCES in the top navigation bar, and then select Web.

    Callout of the Web option in the EXPERIENCES top navigation menu

  2. Click the drop-down arrow to the right of CREATE EXPERIENCE, and then select Product Recommendations for Email.

    Callout of the 'Product Recommendations for Email' option in the menu available from the 'CREATE EXPERIENCE' button on the Experiences list page

  3. Click the pencil icon, enter a name for the experience, and then click the green checkmark icon to save the name.

    Animated demonstration of a user clicking the pencil icon beside the experience name field, typing a name, and then clicking the green checkmark icon in the Product Recommendations for Email experience editor

  4. Click WHAT and then click ADD ACTION.

    Callout of the WHAT settings and the ADD ACTION button in the Product Recommendations for Email experience editor

  5. Click Product Recommendations for Email on the Action Type panel.

    Callout of the 'Product Recommendations for Email' option on the Action Type panel in the Product Recommendations for Email experience editor

  6. Click the Dynamic Bundles Email action template that you want to use.

    Example of the action templates available on the Product Recommendations for Email panel. One of the templates available is Email Dynamic Bundle.

  7. Select the bundle that you want used to populate the recommended products.

    Callout of the Dynamic Bundle strategy selector on the Email Dynamic Bundle action template

  8. Input the minimum number of products that must be available to trigger the action.

    Setting Minimum products returned to zero prevents the bundle from firing and email recipients from seeing any recommendations.

    If in step 7 you selected a bundle with Prepend context item in recommendation enabled, then the context item counts toward meeting the threshold you set in Minimum products returned.

    Callout of the 'Minimum products returned' field on the Email Dynamic Bundle action template

  9. Set the maximum number of products the action can recommend.

    You cannot configure an Email Dynamic Bundles action to show more than six recommended products.

    If in step 7 you selected a bundle with Prepend context item in recommendation enabled, then the context item counts toward meeting the threshold you set in Maximum products returned.

    Callout of the 'Maximum products returned' field on the Email Dynamic Bundle action template

  10. If necessary, modify the HTML code for the recommendation item template.

    Callout of the Recommendation Item template HTML editor on the Email Dynamic Bundle action template

  11. Optionally, add dynamic text to the HTML by selecting an option from the selector and then pasting the snippet into the HTML code editor.

    Callout of the Dynamic Text selector for the Recommendation Item template on the Email Dynamic Bundle action template

  12. As necessary, adjust the size of the image container.

    Callout of the Width field and Height fields on the Email Dynamic Bundle action template

  13. Click CREATE.

    Callout of the CREATE button on the on the Email Dynamic Bundle action template

  14. Click GENERATE EMAIL HTML.

    Callout of the 'GENERATE EMAIL HTML' button in the Product Recommendations for Email experience editor

  15. Replace the $customer_id placeholder and, as necessary, the placeholder for a run-time parameter in the generated HTML, with their respective values. See Preparing the Generated HTML for more information.

    Callouts of the customer_id value placeholder that must be replaced in the generated HTML code for a Dynamic Bundles Email experience

  16. Click COPY TO CLIPBOARD and then paste the HTML into your ESP email template.

    Callout of the 'COPY TO CLIPBOARD' button in the 'Generate Email HTML' modal of a Dynamic Bundles Email experience

Unlike Web experiences, a Dynamic Bundles Email experience requires no activation because you send it to customers using your ESP.

Preparing the Generated HTML

You must make a few modifications to the HTML code that appears in the Generate Email HTML modal before you can use it.

Customer ID

You must replace each $customer_id placeholder, found in both image URLs and link URLs within the generated HTML, with your ESP's customer identifier. Often you can replace $customer_id with a subscriber merge token that dynamically resolves to the ESP identifier.

The ESP's customer identifier must be sent to the Monetate platform as part of the Web Track process or some equivalent means.

Callouts of the customer_id value placeholder that must be replaced in the generated HTML code for a Dynamic Bundles Email experience

Depending on the configuration of the recommendation strategies that you selected when creating the experience's action, the generated HTML may contain one or more pass-through parameter-and-placeholder pairs. You must also replace the placeholder with its respective attribute value(s) that you want to use in the experience.

Item Group ID

If one of the recommendation strategies is configured with Item group ID(s) in run-time parameter (for email) selected for Base Recommendation on, then pt_based_on_item_group_id=$runTimeFilter appears in the generated HTML code for the email.

Callout of the pass-through parameter for item group IDs and the parameter's placeholder within the HTML code for a for a Dynamic Bundles Email experience

You must replace the $runTimeFilter placeholder with an item_group_id value that you pass to Monetate.

The item_group_id value that you use must be in the product catalog associated with the bundle that you selected when configuring the experience's action. Otherwise, no results will be returned.

Previewing the Email Experience

Follow these steps to preview a Dynamic Bundles Email experience complete with the context of a customer ID.

  1. Click PREVIEW on the Experience Editor page.

    Callout of the PREVIEW button on the Experience Editor page

  2. Enter a customer ID value in the Preview modal, and then click PREVIEW.

    This identifier is equivalent to the one used by your ESP to identify users. If you enter a valid customer ID, then the preview represents the experience seen by that customer. If you enter an invalid or imaginary customer ID, then the preview appears as if it would for an email recipient with no history.

    Callout of the 'Customer ID' field and of the PREVIEW button on the Preview modal for a Dynamic Bundles Email experience

If the preview appears blank, a likely culprit is a syntax error in the template. Another possibility is a lack of returned recommended items due to either an empty catalog or the configuration of the bundle selected in the WHAT action.

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