Contact Management for Mobile Apps
The Mobile App Manager integration connects your mobile apps to Engage. The Mobile App Manager helps you create and send push notifications, configure your sendout settings, and manage your contacts in Engage.
To take full advantage of managing different channels in a single application, it is important to understand basic concepts in Engage.
Profile Merging
Each contact in Engage has a single profile. If an existing contact subscribes on a different channel or installs various apps, Engage merges the new profile data into their profile. As soon as Engage recognizes that a contact already exists in another channel, the system automatically combines the profile data.
The merging process in Engage is based on attributes and must be defined before you start to use the system. To prevent duplicate profiles for the same contact, define the merging attribute before you add new channels to your Engage system.
For more information, see Merge Profiles.
Dedicated Groups for Mobile App Sendouts
Engage manages contacts in groups. Sendouts are always processed in the context of a group. The group determines which contacts get a push notification when you do a sendout.
You define configurations, restrictions, and sendout options in each group's group settings. If you use the same group for different channels, the group settings can cause conflicts.
To prevent the unintentional deactivation of a contact or skipped messages, set up separate groups for each sendout channel (email, SMS, or mobile push).
Example
Engage deactivates email contacts who do not want or cannot receive email. This protects the deliverability of your email messages. When Engage deactivates a contact, the contact is deactivated system-wide in all channels.
If you send push notifications and email messages in the same group, contacts who are deactivated due to email cannot receive push notifications.
Unlike email, push notifications do not cause deactivations in Engage. If a group only sends push notifications, you can configure your group settings to send messages to system-wide deactivated users without harming your overall deliverability. This means that contacts who are deactivated for email can still get push notifications. Only use this setting in groups that send exclusively in the mobile push channel.
For more information, see Create a Mobile Push Group.
Manage App Contacts in Groups
To evaluate the effectiveness of your contact management in the mobile push channel, you need to differentiate mobile push messages from messages sent in other channels. This requires at least one dedicated group. If you connect several apps to Engage, you can create a different group for each app.
Different groups let you select a contact list for a specific goal (for example, to promote a special offer for all users of an app). Use the groups to define sendout configurations and collect additional app-specific profile data. Set up your groups to match your internal workflow. Here are some examples:
Groups to check membership levels and contact development:
One group for every app or every operating system (iOS, Android).
Groups for paid or non-paid apps.
Groups for known or unknown users.
Groups to take advantage of group settings:
Groups that send messages to contacts at a certain time. Define an explicit sendout-time for each group in the group settings.
For more information, see Sendout Options (tab).Groups that limit the number of push notifications sent to each contact.
For more information, see Define Contact Message Limitation.
Groups that store and use data that is only available in a specific group:
Member attributes store profile data that is only valid for contacts within a specific group. The data is deleted if the group ceases to exist or as soon as the contact leaves the group.
Group attributes store information in values that are available for all messages that you send to the group. The value is only available within the group. Example: a special offer for all group members.
Add Contacts to Mobile Push Sendout Groups
When your app transfers new contacts to Engage, they are added to the Engage system, not to a specific group. Since message sendout in Engage always takes place in the context of a group, you must assign your new contacts to groups. Once you create your groups, you can add your contacts to the appropriate group.
Use the Profile Data Changed (New) (C) event to set up an automation that transfers the incoming contacts to your sendout group.
For more information, see Add Contacts to Mobile Push Sendout Group.