Understanding Campaigns

In this article, we will cover the basics of Campaigns in Talon.One. Campaigns are the framework for your promotions and are the core entity that marketers create in the Talon.One Campaign Manager (UI).

Campaigns are defined by a name and a sequence of rules that evaluate conditions and trigger effects.

Depending on your business requirements, your campaign's design can include a variety of elements such as coupons, per item discounts, free items, webhooks, customer attribute updates, referral codes, loyalty updates, customer wallets and point collection to name a few. 

Before getting started with creating campaigns, you should have already added an application to your account.

Create a new campaign

Once you're logged into your account, choose the application you want to work with.

The Campaign page's list will be empty until you create your first campaigns. Once created, all your campaigns will appear here and can be filtered by State, Campaign Name, ID, etc. 

To create a new campaign: 

1. Click the + New Campaign button in the top-left of the page
2. Name your Campaign something sensible 
3. Optional:
   • Click the Coupons, Referrals or Loyalty checkboxes to activate these features
   • *Note: Loyalty only appears if you create a loyalty program and connect it to your application. 
   • You can also add these features later in Settings
4. Click Create Campaign

Congratulations!  Your campaign is now saved as a Draft and can be found with the rest of your campaigns in the Campaign section. You can continue building your campaign rules now.

Build Rules

Every campaign needs Rules before you can activate it. Rules are made up of conditions that need to be validated, and effects, which are triggered when conditions are true or false.

To build rules for a standard coupon campaign, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Rule Builder in the left side-menu
   • Or click on the hyperlinks on the Dashboard in the Rules or State sections
2. Click + Add Rule
3. Give your rule a name (e.g. Holiday 10% coupon code)
4. Click + Add Condition
5. Select "Coupon code is valid" from the drop-down menu
   • You can add multiple conditions to make your rules more specific
6. Click + Add Effects
7. Select "Set a discount" from the drop-down 
8. Edit the formula if required (e.g. Add "10" if you want to give a $10 discount)

Learn more about building rules here.

Edit and manage campaigns

For a more detailed overview of all your campaign settings, learn how to manage campaigns here.

The Dashboard gives you an overview of important information and links to useful campaign settings, which can also be accessed from the side menu.

Once you've created a campaign and added some Rules, look at the yellow help boxes that highlight important steps you should consider before activating your campaign. Click the boxes you want to update, click the hyperlinks from the Campaign Dashboard or go to Settings in the menu.

Follow these steps to finalize your campaign: 

1. Define Rules (mandatory): 
   • Rules are required before you can activate your campaign. The Rule Builder is where you define the logic of your campaign. Learn more about Rules here.
2. Add Details: 
   • Give your campaign a recognizable name, add a description and tags. Naming conventions with clear descriptions are very useful for keeping campaigns organized and easily identifiable. Go to the Settings page to update.
3. Set Schedule:
   • Define the timeframe in which your campaign will be active. This step is optional, but an expiry date is highly recommended for security reasons. Go to the Settings page to update.
4. Set Budget: 
   • Set a budget to define the maximum number of redemptions per coupon code or customer profile and/or the amount to be spent. Go to the Settings page to update and read more about setting a budget here. 
5. Coupons (optional):
   • If your campaign requires coupon codes, go to the Coupons page to create codes or view existing codes. Learn how to add Coupons to a campaign here.
   • When you choose "Create a coupon code" as an Effect in your rule, you will want to edit the structure of automatically generated coupon codes in Settings.
   • Your developers can also generate custom codes using our API.
6. Referrals (optional): 
   • Learn more about Referral Campaigns here. You can view codes in the Referrals section. Unlike Coupons, Referral Codes are created with the API, read our developer documentation for creating Referral Codes here.
   • When you choose "Create a referral code" as an Effect in your rule, you can edit the structure of automatically generated codes in Settings.
7. Campaign State:
   • Activate your campaign once you have finished adding the necessary elements like Rules and Coupons.
   • Before you Activate your campaign, it will appear as "Disabled" or in "Draft" if you don't have any Rules yet.

Of course, the order for completing the steps required for a campaign is up to you. You can create a campaign with just a name, save it and then add final details later. 

Activate Campaign

Once you've added Rules, Budgets and Schedules you should test that everything is working, then review and make sure all your information is correct. Now you can Activate your campaign!

Archive / Delete Campaign

From the Campaign Dashboard, you can also archive or delete your campaign after you activate it. 

Next, you might want to read: 

• Managing Campaigns 
• Settings Overview
• Copying Campaigns