Delivery capping

Segmentation is undoubtedly one of the most important features in campaign creation, and Mailkit provides you with a wide range of options to segment.

Email marketing should be targeted – it's not recommended to send all the campaigns to all the recipients, but it is desirable to be able to target your campaigns only to the recipients they are relevant to.The Delivery capping function is used for this purpose.

Activating Delivery capping

Delivery capping is set in the campaign via the Delivery capping button.

After clicking the button, the Query builder appears, where you can define complex, but simple rules, that the recipient must meet in order to get the campaign. This Query builder has the same basis as the Filter recipients function, so its functionality is similar.

 

 

 

 

 

The 1st step of Delivery capping – recipient data

Query builder has two steps, it is not mandatory to have rules filled in both steps at the same time - individual steps can be omitted.

In the first step you can (but don't have to) create rules for segmentation based on recipient data. To create a rule, click the Add rule (to add one rule) or the Add group button (add multiple rules in one level). The total number of rules and their nesting is not limited.

TIP # 1: Matching text fields applies to the use of equal, not equal, begins with, doesn't begin with, contains, doesn't contain operators:
All comparison of text strings is CASE INSENSITIVE, ie. doesn't matter whether the text is upper-case, lower-case or mixed-case.
Example: City equals "london" will match all records containing value "london", as well as "London", "LONDON" or "LoNdOn".
     
TIP # 2: Matching does not distinguish diacritics (accents):
Example 1: City equals "Červené Pečky" finds not only records with "Červené Pečky" but also "Cervené Pecky".
Example 2: City equals "Cervené Pecky" finds not only records with the value "Cervené Pecky" but also "Červené Pečky".

While creating your filters, you can review the number of recipients that match the conditions you specify at any time by clicking Verify rules.

Clicking on the Number of matching records, these recipients will be exported to CSV (once the export is completed, you will find it for download in Notifications, on the top right of the page –  )

Created rules can be saved and then reused. Just use the Load rules/Save rules buttons. You can manage all your stored rules in the Profile/Queries menu.

The 2nd step of Delivery capping – campaign delivery data

In the second step of delivery capping you can, but do not have to, create rules regarding the distribution of campaigns to the recipients and their interactions. For example, you can create a condition to send a campaign to those recipients who have received, opened but not clicked in another campaign.

Start by clicking on the Add Campaign/Message button and select the campaign or message from the list. Only campaigns and messages from the past 1 year (365 days) are available for selection. Click the OK button.

Then click on Add rule and define whether the selected campaigns/messages were sent to the given recipients or not. You can also define a time limit for sending.

After clicking on Add group you can determine whether the recipient clicked, opened, converted, etc. in the selected campaigns/messages.

Applying delivery capping rules

Regardless of whether you have completed the rules in both the conditional delivery capping steps or only one, save and activate this setting by clicking the Use Filter button. A green check mark appears next to the Delivery capping button to confirm that the rules have been set: 

How to work with dates

Targeting recipients who ordered 7 days ago? Or target those whose contract will expire in 2 months? Or selecting those who have a birthday today? You can do almost anything...

When creating rules you can work with dates stored in any of the recipient's custom fields or system dates like date added, date of last message sent, consent date, etc.

The following operators can be used when working with dates: equal, not equal, greater, greater or equal, less, less or equal.

Simple comparison

The date value to be compared must always be entered in the default MYSQL format, i.e. Y/m/d (2020/02/16).

Example 1: Simple comparison of a date field with a specific date:

Field	Operator	Value/expression
change_date	equal	2019/08/01

Comparison using expressions

To specify an expression, enclose the value in square brackets: [DB_field_format; field_function | expression; expression_function]

Each time the expression is used, it shall be completed at least:

• DB field format, that you compare with (for date type field enter "date", for text field containing date enter the format in which the date is stored, see supported formats)
• expression - see supported expressions

Example 2: Comparison a date field with an expression:

Field	Operator	Value/expression	Note
change_date	greater_or_equal	[datetime|CURDATE-7]	Date of last change (change_date) is greater than or equal to the current date minus 7 days (7 days before today) and change_date field is of type datetime.

When filtering over a field in text format, you must specify the​​​​​​​ format in which the date is stored in the field..

Supported formats:

Format name	Field type use	Format	Example
datetime	date updated, date added, date of last message sent, consent date	MySQL datetime	Saved in a datetime field type formated as 2018/12/31 23:59:59
date_us	custom field	Y-m-d	2018-12-31
date_us_short	custom field	y-m-d	18-12-31
date_us_md	custom field	m-d	12-31
date_eu	custom field	d.m.Y	31.12.2018
date_eu_short	custom field	d.m.y	31.12.18
date_eu_dm	custom field	d.m.	31.12.

Supported expressions:

Expression	Use	Meaning
CURDATE	[date|CURDATE+X]	Current date + X days
	[date_us|CURDATE-X]	Current date - X days
	[date_eu|CURDATE-X]	Current date - X days
	[date_eu_short|CURDATE+X]	Current date + X days

Example 3: Comparison a text type field with an expression:

Field	Operator	Value/expression	Note
custom_2	greater_or_equal	[date_eu|CURDATE-7]	Custom field nr. 2 (custom_2)  is greater than or equal to the current date minus 7 days. Custom_2 is a text field with a date saved in the “date_eu” format  – "d.m.Y" (eg 31.12.2018).

Comparison using functions

Functions can be used for a database field, as well as for a comparison value. Therefore, we must always specify the function on the left and / or right side separately.

[DB_field_format;field_function|expression;expression_function]

Supported functions

Function	Meaning
YEAR	Year
MONTH	Month
WEEK	Week
DAY	Day (1-31)
DAYOFWEEK	Day of week
ANNIVERSARY	Anniversary – compares the day and month of a given date regardless of the year.
AGE	Age
DATE	Date – rounds the date and time to whole days, ie without the time component.

Example 4: Using functions:

Field	Operator	Value/expression	Note
s_last_sent	not_equal	[datetime;DATE|CURDATE]	The date of last message sent (s_last_sent) is a datetime field. This filter excludes all recipients to whom something has already been sent today.
custom_1	equal	[date_eu;DAYOFWEEK|CURDATE;DAYOFWEEK]	Custom field 1 (custom_1) is a text field with the date stored in d.m.Y format. Day of week in custom_1 equals to the current day of the week.
custom_2	equal	[date_eu;MONTH|12]	Custom field 2 (custom_2) is a text field with the date stored in the d.m.Y format. This filter selects all December dates in the custom_2 field.
custom_3	equal	[date_us;ANNIVERSARY|CURDATE;ANNIVERSARY]	Custom field 3 (custom_3) is a text field with the recipient's date of birth stored in Y-m-d format. This filter selects all recipients who have a birthday today.
custom_4	equal	[date_eu_dm;ANNIVERSARY|CURDATE+1;ANNIVERSARY]	Custom field 4 (custom_4) is a text field with the recipient's date of birth stored in d.m. format. This filter selects all recipients who have a birthday tomorrow.
custom_5	equal	[date_eu_dm;ANNIVERSARY|2015/12/24;ANNIVERSARY]	Custom field 5 (custom_5) is a text field with the recipient's date of birth stored in d.m. format. This filter selects all recipients who have a birthday for Christmas.
custom_6	greater_or_equal	[date_us;AGE|18]	Custom field 6 (custom_6) is a text field with the recipient's date of birth stored in Y-m-d format. This filter selects all adult (18 years old or older) recipients.