The External Content Add-on enables you to use externally available data for personalization purposes.
What is External Content?
With External Content you can use your own API to personalize content in your messages with data from external sources.
How does it work?
External Content can send API calls towards your endpoints to access external data. These calls are made when content (Email, Web campaign, SMS) with personalization tokens is sent out. Click on the nodes to learn more about the relevant features of the platform.
Your API has to send back JSON replies with the expected response format containing data for previously set response fields. The add-on uses the values in your defined reference fields as a key. These keys determine which external value is used for a specific contact in a personalization scenario.
The matched data is inserted at the placeholders defined in the personalization tokens of the relevant content. The following image shows the relation of reference and response fields if the external data source is in a table format. Click on the API request and response to learn more about them.
For more information on personalization, see the Omnichannel personalization - Creating use cases and tokens.
For more information on the format of the Emarsys API request and the required JSON response format, see the Developer Portal.
Why should I be using External Content?
This solution is practical for the following scenarios:
- You do not want to establish a direct database connection with Emarsys.
- Your database is not supported by RDS, therefore establishing a connection is not possible or would take up too much resources.
- You already have an application whose API can be redesigned as required.
- Additionally, your company does have sufficient IT resources (expertise, personnel, infrastructure) to develop APIs.
- You already have an application or database whose data processing logic is essential for your business strategy and you would like to use this with the capabilities of the Emarsys platform.
- You want to use a time-sensitive solution to use Emarsys and your data sources for personalization.
FAQ
- How can I try External Content in the pilot stage?
Contact your Client Success Manager to arrange a trial.
- Can I segment my contacts using the External Content Add-on?
External Content cannot be used for segmentation.
- Does External Content offer an advantage compared to RDS?
You can personalize your messages in the same way as with RDS. Data processing speed highly depends on the underlying infrastructure and solutions on the customer side. Contact your Client Success Manager to discuss which Emarsys solution is the most suitable for you.