What is engagement?
The engagement score measures your mailing list's actual interest in the communications you send; in other words, it defines whether a contact is active or inactive.
This rating is based on a time frame we call recency, which is the time window within which we analyze the behavior of contacts in terms of opens and clicks so that we can then categorize them according to the interest they actually show.
How to customize the recency period for each database
By default this period is set at 91 days. In the case of daily mailings, for example, it can be shortened to consider as unengaged a contact who has not opened communications for more than a month.
You can customize the recency period for each of your databases by following the path:
Profile Studio > Database List > Database Name
at the name click on the settings icon and choose 'Setup'
In the main tab you can change the time frame (defined in days):
Engagement values
Depending on the interest your contacts show in your communications, they will have an engagement value:
- Clickers: contacts who in the recency period clicked on at least one email.
- Openers: contacts who in the recency period opened at least one email but never clicked.
- New: contacts who received their first communication in the recency period and neither opened nor clicked.
- Ex Openers: contacts who opened or clicked on emails in the past but never opened or clicked in the recency period.
- Never Openers: contacts who never opened or clicked on any communication.
- Out of recency: contacts who never received a communication in the recency period.
Engagement by channel and multi-channel
If you use multiple sending channels in your account, such as email, SMS, WhatsApp or other custom channels, engagement is calculated separately for each channel.
For example, if you regularly send communications via email and SMS, each contact will have two distinct values: email engagement and SMS engagement.
In addition to these, a global or multi-channel engagement value is also available, which expresses the contact's overall level of interest. This value corresponds to the maximum value among all engagements per channel. This gives you a concise but meaningful overview of the contact's overall interaction with your messages.
How to use engagement
With the engagement score you can assess not only the interest of individual contacts in the communications you send, but also of the entire database.
To learn about this data you can view the overview of the database you are interested in.
This data also allows you to filter contacts and create audiences according to engagement.
Filter contacts
You can use filters to find contacts based on their engagement level, for example to create audiences of the most engaged contacts (clickers and openers).
The filters dedicated to engagement are:
- the current engagement value (e.g. Email engagement, SMS engagement)
- the previous value, useful for analysing changes over time (e.g. Previous email engagement)
- the date on which the value changed.
Example: if a contact was an ‘Opener’ and has now become a ‘Clicker’, you will see both values and the time of the change.
For example, you can apply these filters in the contact list, workflow nodes, workflow entry limits, on-site message display rules, and email visibility conditions.
Create a dynamic audience based on engagement
Engagement filters can also be used to create dynamic audiences that are updated in real time.
For example, you can select Never-openers and Ex-openers to build an audience of inactive contacts.
- Choose the desired criteria, in the example Never-Openers and Ex-Openers were selected to create the audience of inactive contacts
- Click the Create audience button
From here, you can decide whether to try to reactivate them with a targeted campaign or exclude them from future sendings.
You can also use past and present values to build more sophisticated audiences: for example, reward contacts who are now “clickers” but were previously only “openers”, indicating a positive trend in engagement.
Create a trigger for status changes
You can create an automated flow to engage contacts who used to open or click on your emails but no longer do so. This is a typical reactivation flow, giving you one last chance to rekindle a relationship that has cooled off a bit.
Create an automated flow, select a periodic filter node, and enter the following as the entry condition for contacts:
- the current engagement value is Ex-opener;
- the previous engagement value is Opener or Clicker.
This way, the flow checks every day which contacts are no longer engaged and adds them to the flow.
This condition allows you to safeguard newly entered contacts, who will not yet have any interaction and have a current engagement status equal to New.