In this article, you'll learn more about using Effects in the Rule Builder. You should have already read Building a Rule and Using Conditions.
What's an Effect?
In Talon.One, Effects are triggered when all (or at least one) of the Conditions of a Rule are validated to TRUE. When the Rule Engine evaluates conditions, Effects will only be triggered if the Conditions are valid. Effects are defined in the rules of your campaign, for example, apply a 5% discount, give 20€ off a specific item or give the cheapest item free.
Available Effects
When you select +Add Effect a menu will appear with a list of possibilities to build your condition. Below is a list of available options and their definitions.
Discount session total
Use this effect to apply a discount on a customer's session. Whatever information you enter in the Value field will determine the discount effect that is returned to a customer.
For a dollar amount discount, type in the amount into the value field (e.g., 10 for 10€ off). Percentage discounts require the formula “SessionTotal * 10%”.
Click the blue + button on the right side of the field if you want to add a variable to your formula.
You can also enter more complex formulas and/or variables in the Value field to create more dynamic discounts. For example, you can use a saved Cart Item Filter or a Custom Attribute you have already created like "Sale Items".
Tip: To round your formula's result to a whole number, just highlight the section you'd like to round and click one of the appearing options.
Discount individual items
Use this effect to apply a discount to an item in a customer's cart. To select the item from the contents of your customer's cart, select a Cart Item Filter that you have already defined for your rule.
Next, give your discount a name then add the value of the discount in the formula field.
The default formula is "(Item Price * Item Quantity)* 10%" which will apply a 10% discount to the item(s) saved in your filter. In the Value field, you can add any logical formula and variable combination to achieve the discount requirements of your rule.
To add a new variable to the value field, click the blue "+" add variables on the right side of the field to open the palette and select your variable or attribute.
If you would like to make an item in your customer's cart free, simply use the formula "Item Price * Item Quantity" in the value field. Or if you want to apply free shipping, click the blue + button and select the variable "Shipping Cost" to give free shipping. Read more about Per Item Discounts.
Discount additional cost
Use this effect to apply a discount to an additional cost, such as shipping costs, transaction fees and other additional fees. You first need to create the additional cost in Talon.One before you can use this effect. To create an additional cost:
| Note: Only Admin users can create an additional cost |
- Click on the Account icon in the lower-left corner.
- Under Dev Tools click on Additional Cost.
- Click on + Create Additional Cost.
- Define the internal name, title, description, and save it.
- Optional: Select the Application in which the additional cost is available.
After creating the additional cost communicate with your development team to ensure that the attribute is ready to be used.
After adding the effect you can select which additional cost you want to discount, define a discount name and add the formula to calculate the discount amount. If you would like to give free shipping multiply the additional cost by 100%.
Add an item to the cart
If you want to add one or more free items to a customer's cart as a reward, you can input the SKU of the item to be added and use the quantity field to specify a number.
Alternatively, you can use a custom attribute formula to dynamically calculate how many of the item should be added.
In the example below, the Cart Item Filter 'pizzas_in_cart' returns the number of pizzas found in this transaction. Two of item 'BR162' will be added to the cart for each of the qualifying items found.
Create a notification
To notify customers of special offers or rewards on your site, you can select the "Set notification" Effect and trigger a message. Read how to create Notification Effects here.
You can enter text and add variables or attributes like 'user name' or 'loyalty points' to your message to make it more dynamic. Learn more about implementing notifications with your system in our developer documentation.
Create a Coupon Code
This effect automatically generates a Coupon Code as an effect of your campaign. For example, if a customer registers or makes a purchase, automatically generate a new Coupon Code as a reward.
Note: with this effect, you will almost certainly want to include a Check for events type condition and set it as Customer Session Closing to ensure the coupon is only issued when the customer completes their session. Otherwise, a new coupon will be created with every session update.
First, select the campaign for which this code applies. You can define the following settings for these automatically generated coupons in the Rule Builder:
- Recipient ID: Define who can redeem the coupon code. You can select between the current customer or no recipient (anyone can redeem the code).
- Redemption Limit: Define how many times your customer(s) can redeem the coupon code
- Code Pattern: Select between using the campaign's default code pattern or create your custom code pattern.
- Set start and end time: Define when your coupon code starts being valid and expires.
- Coupon Attributes: Add values for predefined Coupon Attributes.
- Store generated value in session: Select if you want to use this code in a second effect.
To define the code length and possible characters for this coupon, go to the Settings page in your application.
When selecting the custom code pattern option you can add an attribute as the code prefix and suffix. For example, you can use your customer's name as the code's prefix and their surname as the code's suffix to create a personalized code.
Create a Referral Code
This effect automatically generates a Referral Code for a user as an effect of your campaign. For example, if a customer registers, automatically generate a new Referral Code as a reward.
Note: with this effect, you will almost certainly want to include a Check for events type condition and set it as Customer Session Closing to ensure the coupon is only issued when the customer completes their session. Otherwise, a new coupon will be created with every session update.
First, select the campaign for which this code applies. You can define the following settings for these automatically generated coupons in the Rule Builder:
- Redemption Limit: Define how many times your customer(s) can redeem the coupon code.
- Code Pattern: Select between using the campaign's default code pattern or create your custom code pattern.
- Set start and end time: Define when your coupon code starts being valid and expires.
- Referral Attributes: Add values for predefined Referral Attributes.
- Store generated value in session: Select if you want to use this code in a second effect.
To define the code length and possible characters for this coupon, go to the Settings page in your application.
When selecting the custom code pattern option you can add an attribute as the code prefix and suffix. For example, you can use your customer's name as the code's prefix and their surname as the code's suffix to create a personalized code.
Add loyalty points
Use this effect to adds points to a user's wallet or subledger in a Loyalty Program. To use it, first enable the Loyalty feature in the campaign settings.
After adding the effect you can define the following settings:
- Select Loyalty Program: Select in which Loyalty Program the customer receives their points.
- Subledger: Select in which subledger the customer receives their points.
- Recipient: Define who receives the loyalty points. You can choose between the Current Customer, Advocate, or select a custom variable.
- Reason: You can write or select a custom attribute with the reason the user received the loyalty points.
- Amount of Points: Write the formula to calculate how many points the customer receives.
- Click the blue + button on the right side of the field if you want to add an attribute to your formula.
- Reward Settings: Define when the points start to be valid and when the points should expire. Select Custom if you want to define a relative start and end date or if you would like to use an attribute.
Note: Custom reward settings affect only the loyalty points issued by this effect. Existing points cannot be modified.
Redeem loyalty points
This effect allows you to deduct points from your customer's wallet. In the effect, you can set from which subledger the points should be deducted.
In the amount of points field you can define how many points the campaign will deduct. You can include any built-in or custom attributes in the formula field by clicking the + button.
Update a custom attribute
Select this option if you want to update a custom attribute you have added to your account.
First, choose an attribute from the palette then select how you would like to adjust this attribute. Input a value or in the "set attribute" field pick an attribute from the palette.
Once you select an attribute from the palette, you have the following possibilities to set a new value:
- Choose operators: increase, decrease, multiply, divide, set to value, flip the value)
- Input a numerical value
- Input a formula (numbers and/or numbers and variables)
- Select a variable from the palette
Important: Attribute update effects will run with every session update if you do not include a condition prohibiting this. This means if you have a coupon which increases the value of an attribute by 100, that attribute will be increased every time you send Talon.One a new session update with that coupon attached.
Instead, consider using attribute update effects only in tandem with a "Customer Session is closing" condition. You may pair that with another rule using a Notification effect when the coupon code is valid informing the customer of the increase, e.g. "Congrats! We'll increase your points by 100 once you check out."
Webhooks
A Webhook will execute effects outside the Talon.One API and trigger third-party services like Email or SMS. Webhooks will appear in Effects only if they have been configured in the Developers section of your account. Learn how to configure a Webhook.
For example, create a webhook that will trigger an email to a customer when their friend redeems a Referral Code.
Conclusion
Now you know more about using Effects when building rules and what is possible with the available options. Depending on the data you send to Talon.One, you can create customized Effects tailored to your campaign requirements.
Get in touch if you want to discuss more possibilities for your promotional campaigns.
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