Conversational campaigns

This article explains the conversational campaign with an example and tells you about all available options.

Christiaan Proper avatar
Written by Christiaan Proper
Updated over a week ago

We are happy to announce that we have introduced a third type of campaign. This conversational campaign can be used for any purpose of your choosing. During this documentation we will be using it to create a shopping assistant for visitors on your website. This documentation is split into 2 sections. At the top we will be breaking down an example conversation to show off what you can do with it in practice. At the bottom we will be looking at all available options.

Conversation breakdown

To start creating one, go to campaigns - conversational campaign.

When you create a conversational campaign, you will be greeted with a blank canvas. In its essence it is very similar to a hybrid campaign. You create a flow and add components wherever necessary. The end goal however is different. To show exactly how it works, we have set up a flow to break down.

Let's break down exactly what happens:

Step 1: The conversational trigger
At the top of the flow (green block), we have set up a conversational trigger. This trigger activates the moment the visitor has scrolled 20% of the webpage. This trigger indicates when the visitor will be greeted. Keep in mind that the chat icon will always be visible. The trigger simply represents the greeting. You also have the option to set audience settings. If the visitor is not in the audience you targeted, the chat icon will not show up. These settings are identical to the audience options in other parts of our platform. Check out this link for more info.
​
You also have the option to set a toolbar title. This simply represents the name displayed in the bar at the top of the conversation.
​
​The conversational trigger rules

  • A greeting will only be shown once per visitor. This data is saved browser side. This means it will be displayed again if the information is removed from the browser.

  • A visitor can see an unlimited amount of conversational campaigns in a session. Only the first however will be shown with a greeting per campaign (to avoid spam).

Step 2: A Conversational Message
Underneath the assistant trigger, is an untitled message (dark blue block). This message is the opening message of the chat. The question asked here is "What is your favorite car brand?". You do have the option to add more than 1 message. They will be displayed one after the other.

Step 3: Conversational options
After the question has been asked, we need to present the visitor with available answers. This is what the next step is for. We can present these answers by using conversational options (blue block). As you can see in the screenshot down below, we present the visitor with 3 possible answers. These being Volvo, Audi and Volkswagen.

Step 4: Recommendations
After the visitor has selected one of our options, we need to present them some content. For this we use recommendations (white block). You can create a recommendation and then select edit content. You will then be redirected to a page similar to the one you see when creating a touchpoint. You can select exactly what content needs to be displayed. In our example we are filtering content by making sure brand = Volvo, Audi or Volkswagen depending on the option.

Step 5: Closing the conversation
We are ending the conversation by asking "Restart the chat?". This would generally be changed to "did this help you?" or something similar when actually applying it in practice. We are presenting them with 2 options: "Yes" or "No". Because "No" is the final option in the flow, the chat will automatically be closed once it's selected (unlike hybrid flows, manual closing is not required). If "Yes" is selected, the flow will restart at the first question ("What's your favorite car brand?").

This is what the flow looks like in practice (red arrow points to the button that allows you to preview your conversation):

As you can see, I am first asked what my favorite brand is. After I answer with "Audi", the conversation recommends me the cars that match the brand "Audi". After presenting me with this information it asks me whether I want to restart the chat. If i select "yes", the conversation will restart. Pressing "no" will result in "this conversation ended" being displayed at the bottom of the chat.

Options breakdown

To make sure you can use our conversational campaign optimally, let's break down all possible options available on the left side of the screen.

Let's start at the top and work our way to the bottom:

  • Conversational trigger: This will determine when the conversational campaign will be shown to your visitor. You can select when you want to show the chat icon with the audience settings and the greeting with the "When to display the assistant" setting.

  • Untitled message: This option allows you to show one or more messages to your visitor.

  • Untitled option: This option presents your visitor with selectable answers. Depending on the question you can have as many option as you want.

  • Email input: You can use this option if you want to request a visitor's email address. You have the option to add a message to it. For example "please provide your email address so we can send you X". The visitor will be presented with a field in which he can fill in his email address. Visitors also have the option to decline the request. We will save the email address to the Datatrics visitor profile.

  • Recommendations: These can be seen as touchpoints stripped down to just the content selection and appearance part. You can add a message to the recommendation as well. For example "Based on your answer, we have found these items for you". You can select/filter exactly what content needs to be displayed and what information has to be there. You can present visitors with a maximum of 5 items.

  • Set custom field on profile: You can use this option to create a field on the visitor's profile and assign a value to it. Let's say you asked whether the visitor is "male" or "female". After responding with "male" you want to save this information somewhere. By using this option you can create a field called "Gender" and save the value you just learned to it.

  • Split: This option allows you to connect multiple follow-up actions that are then selected at random. Only one option will be selected. You can for example use this if you want to display one of three messages to prevent the conversation from always looking the same.

  • Remove profile from segment: You have the option to remove the profile that is currently in the conversation from a segment. Maybe you have a segment called "has never had a conversation with us". You would want to remove them from this segment at some point during the conversation. You choose which segment you want to remove the visitor from. If the visitor is not in one of the selected segments, this action will simply do nothing.

  • Add profile to segment: It is also possible to add a profile to a segment during a conversation. You can determine the visitor's interests by looking at their answers. You may want to add a visitor who chooses "Audi" as their favorite car brand to a segment called "Audi fans".

  • Trigger webhook: You can use this webhook to send a message to an external tooling.

  • Untitled decision: You can use these to check for a specific audience targeting. Depending on the true or false (yes or no) outcome of this check, you can direct them to wherever you want. You can use these at any point in the conversation.

When you try to connect elements that are not meant to be connected, you will get a warning displayed in the bottom left corner.

This is an example of a warning that is shown when you try to connect an option to another option.

You also have the option to use the live mode. This mode will allow you to see how many profiles are currently in each step of the flow and how many have been there in total.

You can enable live mode by clicking the switch (number 1 in the screenshot).
The information between the 2 elements (number 2) represents:
​amount of profiles currently in the flow / total amount of profiles that have been in the flow.

Previewing the conversation

You can preview your conversational campaign at any point by clicking on the icon in the bottom left corner of the canvas.

Did this answer your question?