Groups - Integration with Campaign Monitor

Created by Martin Parkinson, Modified on Thu, 26 Sep at 9:41 AM by Graeme Orchard

Campaign Monitor is an online emailing and marketing tool which can be used for mass communication with your customers and clients. It is possible to create a Group within Influence and link it to a List in Campaign Monitor.
(www.campaignmonitor.com)

Within Campaign Monitor it is possible for members of the list to unsubscribe from the list or to be deleted from the list. These changes to group members are reflected within the linked Group in Influence.

This facility has been added from version 1.00.18.046 or later. To find out more about GROUPS and how to use them, click HERE.

NOTE: When linking GROUPS to Campaign Monitor it must be a list of people - so it is only possible to link [Candidates] or [Contacts] Groups.
i.e. you cannot create a Group of Companies and set it up as a linked Group - you should instead create a group of the relevant Contacts at those companies instead.

CONTENTS (click an item to jump to the section)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Overview of Campaign Monitor Integration
System Setup
- How to find your Campaign Monitor API Key
- Additional Setup if using Influence Cloud Desktop
How to create a Group Linked to Campaign Monitor
Using Campaign Monitor Groups
- Elements of a Campaign Monitor linked Group
Managing Lists within Campaign Monitor
Troubleshooting
- i) Failed to deserialise your request.

Overview of Campaign Monitor Integration

In essence, this is quite easy; there are just a few simple steps.

In order to use campaign monitor, you will need to sign up for an account with them. You will also need to contact Influence and arrange to sign up for the Campaign monitor integration, for a small monthly fee.

STEP 1

Once you have signed up, get the details of your API Key (See below for details on how to do this)

STEP 2

Contact Influence and speak to our sales team to add the Campaign Monitor integration to your Influence subscription. You will receive a quote for the integration whcih you will need to sign, approve & return. Let us know your API key, as we will need that to setup the link between the two systems.

STEP 3

Once you have purchased the add-on, our support team will get the link setup, and activate the integration.

You can then create GROUPS in Influence and link them to your Campaign Monitor Account. Anyone added to these GROUPS will be automatically added to the same GROUP/LIST in your campign monitor account.

If anyone unsubscribes, then they will be unsubscribed from the list in campaign monitor and they will also be marked as unsubscribed from the GROUP in Influence.

Essentially the GROUP in Influence is directly linked with the LIST in Campaign Monitor, and reflects changes made in campaign monitor..

STEP 4

That it!

You can now use Campaign Monitor to send beautiful email campaigns to Lists of subscribers.

Those lists can be managed by any of your users directly from within your Influence database via GROUPS.

System Setup

In order to get the system to work with Campaign Monitor you will need to set some parameters with the relevant API Keys.

Within Maintenance > Setup > Parameters, select the parameter set for GROUPS.
You will need to set:
Campaign Monitor API
Campaign Monitor Client API

Important: Some newer API keys are very long. If your API Key is longer than 32-characters, then you should leave parameter GROUPS, Paths(1) Blank.
You will need to split the API Key up this up and store it in the 4 x Campaign Monitor parameters GROUPS, Paths(3-6). Each parameter can store upto 100 characters

How to find your Campaign Monitor API Key

These API details can be found when you login to your Campaign Monitor Account.
Select the 'Account Settings option at the top right.

Then choose API Keys

Finally make a note of the two keys (API Key and Client ID)

Additional Setup if using Influence Cloud Desktop

If you are using a Thinhost/Connect Cloud Desktop then you will need to change parameter JNL_B, Flag(1) to "C"

JNL_B, flag(1) IP Telephony Client or Server COM [ C ]

This will ensure that the communication with Campaign Monitor is sent from the Client (desktop) rather than the Server.

NOTE: This step should ONLY be needed if you are using the full hosted desktop version of Influence. the majority of customers, using Influence direct (where only the database is hosted) should not need to do this.

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How to create a Group Linked to Campaign Monitor

Groups can be created in the normal way within your Influence database, and will be visible at the left of the [Candidates] or [Contacts] workbenches.

Remember: Only GROUPS of Candidates or Contacts can be setup as a 'Campaign Monitor' List type. It is not possible to link other Groups such as 'Companies' or 'Vacancies' in this way.

When adding a group, users are able to select whether the group should be linked to Campaign Monitor using the List Type drop-down. See below.

Currently the only available List Type is Campaign Monitor (other types such as Mail Chimp may be added in future, but is not guaranteed and is dependant upon the features and API that are available from these 3rd parties to allow integration.)

Once a GROUP is linked with Campaign Monitor, all the members of that GROUP get passed to Campaign monitor and are created as a list within your campaign monitor software. They can then be used exactly as you would with any other lists you had created within your Campaign Monitor account.

Remember: Only GROUPS of Candidates or Contacts can be setup as a 'Campaign Monitor' List type. It is not possible to link other Groups such as 'Companies' or 'Vacancies' in this way.

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Using Campaign Monitor Groups

Any GROUPS you have linked to campaign monitor can be used within your campaign monitor account exactly as you would with any other lists you had created (i.e. They can be emailed, contacted, sent campaigns or newsletters, etc.)

Members of these lists can unsubscribe in the normal way via links on the email you send them, etc, etc. Please consult your campaign monitor documentation for more information about managing lists.

Within Influence, when viewing groups at the left of the workbench in the Show section, Groups linked to Campaign Monitor will be indicated with a [+]
Clicking the [+] will expand the group and show the four elements of the group. Selecting an element will query campaign monitor and retrieve the latest figures for how many people have unsubscribed, been deleted (within Campaign Monitor), Bounced, etc.

Elements of a Campaign Monitor linked Group

All - This will show the total number of member of the group across all elements.

Unsubscribed - gives a list of the members of the group who are marked as unsubscribed within the Campaign Monitor list.

Deleted - will display members of the group who are marked as deleted within the Campaign Monitor list.

Bounced - This will display details of emails which are marked as 'bounced' within the Campaign Monitor list.

All of these elements are matched by tabs on the list within Campaign Monitor

(See below) example Campaign monitor list

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Managing Lists within Campaign Monitor

Members of the list can be managed from within Campaign Monitor.
Moving members to Unsubscribed or Deleted will be reflected in Influence the next time the Group is selected or displayed, as will those which are shown as 'bounced' within Campaign Monitor.

In the example above, the WH/Ops for Mailer Group shows 4 'active' group members, 7 members in total, 1 unsubscribed and 2 deleted.

Note: If a list is deleted from within campaign monitor, then when it is selected within Influence a warning will be displayed to say that the group no longer exists in Campaign Monitor. Selecting the Properties for the group will then remove the Campaign Monitor link.

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Troubleshooting

Below are listed various error messages or warnings that you may receive back from Campaign Monitor, along with useful information about what the message means and how to resolve the issue.