This add-on is an integration with the multichannel instant message delivery platform Sinch Engage (SE), opening up a wide selection of instant messengers to use in Emarsys.

The following IM platforms are currently supported:

• Apple Business Chat [IM]
• Facebook [FB]
• Instagram [IG]
• Telegram [TG]
• Viber [VI]
• WhatsApp Business [WB]

The add-on offers a configuration interface where you can: 

• connect to your existing SE account;
• synchronise contacts from SE to Emarsys;
• create and preview campaign and personalization content;
• set up channel-specific Inbound Messaging rules that trigger external events to use in Automation journeys;
• a Sinch Engage node (listed under channel nodes in Automations) that you can use in any interaction or behavior-driven automation journey to send a preconfigured campaign to contacts passing through this node.

SE organizes messaging activities into Projects (it's similar to an audience in Emarsys).

Projects contain a number of contacts (called customers in SE) and all the assets (messaging templates, etc.) created in SE under this Project.

Projects can contain contacts (customers) across several Channels, which is the SE terminology for instant messengers.

While the add-on itself is self-service - and allows to later edit or update configurations independently - we recommend booking Implementation Consultant resources for the initial onboarding of the add-on as contact acquisition and management strategies need to be accurately mapped out and implemented to avoid contact database quality issues in the future.

Before starting your work in Emarsys, you need to complete the onboarding of your SE account and have:

• Your Projects / API credentials available
• Contacts imported to Sinch Engage and regular updates configured (when applicable)
• Campaign templates set up and (if needed) reviewed or authorized by the Channel (e.g. WhatsApp has a review process to authorize personalization and templates)

The contacts (customers) you can target on these Channels must be present in your contact databases on both SE and Emarsys side. 

Your onboarding with SE will have included an initial import of your contacts (customers). This initial database is then increased with contacts (customers) acquired through the messaging platforms (people initiating conversations with your brand).

The add-on takes care of synchronizing back these contacts into Emarsys on a regular basis. 

When this synchronization happens, one of 2 things can happen:

1. The contact in Sinch Engage is matched to a contact in Emarsys: in this case the Emarsys record is enriched with new information from SE, such as opt-in status, most recent activity, or any other “customer property” set up in Sinch Engage).
2. The contact in Sinch Engage cannot be matched to an existing contact, in which case a new contact is created with the above SE data.

Considering these possibilities, it is extremely important that you manage your contact databases on SE and Emarsys side in a coordinated manner. 

• You can set up a Welcome-type automation in Emarsys for contacts acquired through SE and collect further contact information such as email address, etc., to turn them into omnichannel contacts.
• You may also want to set up a cleanup Automation that makes sure to periodically delete SE contacts who do not convert to omnichannel contacts.

Another important element to consider is the opt-in status of contacts. Again, this status will be specific to each Channel used. It should be considered that different Channels provide different opt-in management options with different sending behavior, which will impact your Automation program settings (e.g. you may need to add a channel-specific opt-in filter to your program depending on whether your use-case is considered as marketing or transactional messaging).

Similarly to the opt-in status, SE allows their clients to maintain a blocklist of contacts (customers) they want to exclude from receiving any messages on a given channel. This “blocked” status is maintained in a boolean field (0 = no block, 1 = blocked) in Sinch Engage. If an Emarsys client uses this feature in Sinch Engage, it should also be synced to the Emarsys database and used as a filter in the relevant Automation programs.

Finally, don’t forget that your contacts might have contacted you over multiple channels, with different levels of engagement. Take this into account (last activity date, etc.) when orchestrating your Automation programs and target the right audience on the right channel. Combined with external events, the add-on can support Automation journeys of any complexity.