SAP Emarsys: Getting Started Guide

Emarsys Overview and Introduction

SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement isn't just a tool; it's your gateway to delivering personalised and engaging experiences to your customers. In today's competitive business landscape, SAP Emarsys stands as a comprehensive platform that offers features and capabilities to elevate your customer engagement efforts.

At the heart of SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement is data. It collects data from various sources, turning it into actionable insights for segmentation, personalisation, marketing automation, AI calculations and analytics. Throughout this article, we will get into details of how to best get started with SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement. Covering the following steps as highlighted by SAP Emarsys:

1. New Account Setup
2. Activating your Account and Appointing Account Owners and Users
3. Data Integration Setup and Data Onboarding
4. Data Collection via Web Extend
5. Initiating Campaigns and Sending Test Messages
6. Email Onboarding, Migration and Enabling Your Account to Send Emails

1. New Account Setup

If you're just starting your journey with SAP Emarsys, welcome aboard! To configure your Emarsys tenant and get everything up and running, there are a few essential steps you need to follow. These are crucial for setting the stage for a successful Emarsys experience.

Tenant Configuration Forms

To kickstart the Email Channel activation process, you'll need to provide some key details about your desired configuration through forms, link available in the title.

Email Channel Activation

To kick-off the email channel activation, you will need to download, complete and review the relevant forms with your specific configuration details, link available in the title. You will then need to connect with your Implementation Consultant, share the completed form with them or open an incident via SAP Launchpad to send the completed forms directly to Emarsys.

2. Activating your Account and Appointing Account Owners and Users

Once your Emarsys account is created, the next step is to activate your Account Owner role. This is a crucial role that comes with a couple of additional responsibilities and the activation process ensures that everything is set up correctly.

The Activation Email

Shortly after your account is created, you'll receive an activation email. Inside this email, you will find a link boldly highlighted with the text "ACTIVATE YOUR ACCOUNT OWNER ROLE." Click on this link to kick-off the activation process.

Clicking the activation link will redirect you to an activation form where you will need to provide the required information. This includes details related to your account, login, profile and regional settings. Ensure that you fill in all the necessary information accurately.

What happens if the link doesn’t work?

It's important to note that the activation link in the email has an expiration period of 30 days. If you face any issues or if the link has expired, don't worry. Simply get in touch with the Emarsys Support Team or your implementation partners for assistance.

Account Owner Role (Super Admin)

For users with the Account Owner role, there's an extra layer of security in place. Multi-factor authentication is required to complete the activation, using a phone number. Setup can be done via SMS or a phone call.

Once your phone number has been verified, select "Activate User" at the bottom of the form. This step finalises your activation process.

Accessing your Emarsys System (Client User Interface)

After successful activation of the Emarsys Account through the relevant email and the setup of the Account Owner, you'll have everything you need to access the client user interface and get started. You can do this in two ways:

1. On completion of the account and account owner setup, select "Go to Login" on the success page.

2. You can use the link in the confirmation email sent to you upon activation.

Note, that you will also be provided the account credentials within this confirmation email if you require them to login.

3. Data Integration Setup and Data Onboarding

To start the data onboarding process in SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement go to Predict Data Sources page under the Management tab. This centralised hub serves focal point for configuring various data integrations. Let's break down the key steps.

i. Setting Up Currency:

Go to the Account Settings box on the right-hand side and configure your base currency. This element is needed to track revenue statistics across your platform. It’s a quick and easy first step and only requires the base currency your organisation uses, even if you use multiple.

ii. Uploading Product Data:

Start your data onboarding by uploading your product data. You can use either the Emarsys Native CSV Format or Google Product Feed Format as formats for uploading your product data. Click "Upload your product catalogue" in the Product Catalogue box to start this step. When uploading product data, best practices state that you should include all products, past and present, to build comprehensive contact profiles and product affinity models.

It is important to ensure a consistent schedule to upload and synchronise your product data to keep it up-to-date.

iii. Integrating Web Behaviour Data:

Leverage Emarsys data collection scripts to capture visitor behaviour on your website. To do this, you can utilise Emarsys’ prebuilt data collection scripts to put in your website’s code. To get the JavaScript snippets, simply click "Show Tracking Code" in the Web Behaviour box to unveil the JavaScript snippet. Implementing this snippet is quick and easy to do, it opens the door to accurate product recommendations.

iv. Importing Contact Data:

To best use Emarsys to its full capacity, it is critical to import your entire customer database into the system. Prepare to import your entire customer database into Emarsys by ensuring correct data field existence and formatting between the Emarsys system and your existing data. The import wizard is used to import existing customer contact data.

v. Ensuring Contact Data Synchronisation:

Post the customer contact data import, you can guarantee that your contact data stays current with various synchronisation methods. Choose an approach based on your requirements, whether real-time synchronisation using the Emarsys API or automated imports from your servers. Emarsys provides flexibility for custom integrations with leading e-commerce platforms.

vi. Integrating Sales Data:

Sales data is integral for building up customer contact profiles and product affinity models and it is used by some of Emarsys’ incredible features that enable marketers to drive additional value from consumers. Use the manual upload function for initial or larger data imports. A simple HTTP API is available for recurring updates, ensuring a steady flow of critical data.

4. Data Collection via Web Extend

At the heart of the Emarsys Marketing Platform lies Web Extend, a dynamic data collection module that seamlessly captures visitor interactions on your website. This robust tool processes this valuable input, powering various Emarsys features: Revenue Attribution, the Automation Centre, Smart Insight and Predict.

Web Extend gathers information from the previously listed sources: product data, web behaviour, visitor interactions and historical sales data. This process creates validated data, crucial for enhancing the functionality of Emarsys.

These scripts track user behaviour, synchronising interactions with known contacts in your Emarsys database. This continuous synchronisation is the foundation for many automation programs, ensuring they are built on up-to-date and relevant data so you can interact with your customers at the exact point of interactions.

Contact Identification Mechanisms:

Web Extend employs mechanisms to identify website visitors, laying the groundwork for personalised interactions.

The data collection scripts use first-party cookies with a one-year expiration time to identify website visitors, in cases where the visitor is not linked to an Emarsys contact, the cookie will be pseudonymised.

Emarsys then offers two alternative methods for explicit identification. One involves using the visitor's email address, securely hashed and handled by Emarsys. This method ensures comprehensive coverage of your contact database. Or using the external ID—customer ID or user ID—is used for identification. If you choose this method, you must make these IDs available in the contact database for each contact and maintain the list through the contact import API.

5. Initiating Campaigns by Sending Test Messages

Upon the creation of your Emarsys account, you can begin sending your first test message. Even as your data undergoes preparation, you can delve into the platform, kickstarting your marketing journey. This section guides you through key points to undertake during this juncture.

Before launching campaigns, establish a consistent brand across all channels. Align email addresses and SMS sender names to foster brand coherence, laying the groundwork for a recognisable identity. You can then craft compelling messages by bringing in your business fonts and images through the Media Database. This step ensures easy accessibility and seamless integration, contributing to brand consistency and enhancing visual appeal.

You can also test campaigns to explore Emarsys functionalities in the early stages without full data integration, enabling you to refine your approach before a comprehensive strategy. Seize the chance to send test campaigns across channels, despite pending full data integration. This phase allows you to assess message effectiveness and familiarise yourself with platform capabilities, optimising content based on insights.

You should view test campaigns as an iterative process. Analyse initial test performance, gather insights and make adjustments. This continual refinement positions you for a stronger and more informed marketing strategy, paving the way for comprehensive integration.

6. Email Onboarding, Migration and Enabling Your Account to Send Emails

A key step in your Emarsys Customer Engagement system is to build your sender reputation to ensure email deliverability. When transitioning between email providers, your sender reputation doesn't travel with you. Building trust with email filters for your new brand emails is crucial. This section will guide you along the steps and strategies to effectively generate your new sender reputation.

The first step to email deliverability is dependent on ‘Email Filters’. Understanding email filters is essential, as they not only filter out spam and other ads but they identify emails likely to be opened. "Deliverability" measures your emails' success in navigating these filters to reach subscribers' inboxes. This is influenced by 1. Sending from a trusted infrastructure, 2. Your existing sender reputation, 3. Active campaigns and recipient responses.

Email Onboarding:

To configure your email, you must configure your DNS settings. These settings are completed by the user: inputting your email domain and domain link. You can do this here. Additionally, you need to have submitted the account setup forms described in step 1 of this guide, link in the title.

Reputation Building:

To establish a robust sender reputation, it's essential to generate it through an analysis of data and recipient responses. Ensure the contact data you employ is recent and valid, in these initial steps, you should aim to build your reputation by sending emails to active customers. On top of this, build content to achieve high open and click-through rates, while exercising caution when sending to older or less active recipients.

Email Migration:

The final phase of your onboarding process involves migrating your current email campaigns to Emarsys' sending infrastructure. This entails a managed ramp-up procedure, starting with sending crucial campaigns to a select group of highly responsive contacts, as just discussed. Subsequently, the volume increases gradually as new IP addresses are accepted by ISPs and your sender reputation solidifies.

Volume Building Campaigns:

You should gradually increase campaign volume, plan strategic boosts and deactivate previous provider automation for a smooth transition. Regularly review performance, promptly address data quality issues and expand the reputation-building segment with controlled criteria. Ensure a steady, controlled ramp-up in email marketing activities by regularly reviewing campaign results.

Troubleshooting:

During email onboarding troubleshooting, focus on data quality and potential reputation issues. For a successful reputation-building process, prioritise recent, valid and active data, avoiding older or less active records. Monitor hard bounce, open and click rates while segmenting lists and creating engaging content. Hard bounces impact your sender's reputation, while block bounces signal issues but shouldn't be excluded. In the warm-up phase, anticipate blocking or filtering by some ISPs, resolving with sustained high engagement rates. Initial lower delivery and open rates compared to your previous platform will normalise as your reputation strengthens.

Implementation Duration - How long will it take?

The onboarding timeline varies based on a few factors but if you're going for the core package with just email, you complete the implementation in about 30 days, depending on your contact database size and available resources. But if you're diving into the advanced or premium packages with more channels and complex data integration, it might take up to 90 days.

This period covers shifting your existing digital marketing activities to Emarsys, opening up opportunities to amplify them with Emarsys Customer Engagement’s features and capabilities. The key variable is the ramp-up time for your email reputation, which can take up to three months depending on how well it has been conducted. How fast or slow depends on your email content, how often you send, the volume and your current sender reputation. As this phase is pretty crucial, it's smart to do the Email compliance self-assessment early.

Conclusion

Embarking on the Emarsys Customer Engagement journey with Prezien promises a seamless transition into a realm of enhanced digital marketing capabilities. As your expert implementation partner, we've curated a comprehensive guide through each step of the onboarding process, from account creation and data integration to email migration and beyond. Our expertise, honed through successful implementations, positions us as the ideal companion for your venture into the world of Emarsys.

At Prezien, we understand the intricacies of Emarsys, ensuring that your transition is not only efficient but also tailored to your unique business needs. Whether you're a seasoned marketer or just stepping into the digital arena, our user-friendly approach, coupled with in-depth knowledge, makes the onboarding experience a journey of growth and optimisation.

Ready to explore the full potential of Emarsys Customer Engagement? Visit our website for more insights, resources and a closer look at how Prezien can elevate your marketing strategies. Feel free to book a demo with us and let's embark on this transformative journey together. Your success in the world of Emarsys awaits!