Complete Guide to Message Templates

Message Templates in Akita are a useful way to automate key messaging to your customers. These templated messages will be sent (in email form) as part of a playbook. They can be sent individually, as part of a drip email campaign or in combination with automated tasks to manage a specific process (On-boarding, Renewal etc).

Akita templates can be configured to include both standard attributes (Name, Title, Company Name etc.) AND metrics that are specific to you and your company (Product Usage, Voice-of-Customer data etc.), meaning you can automate the sending of very tailored, powerful messages and calls-to-action. 

1. Create your Message:

To begin creating a Templated message, navigate to the Playbooks section and click on the Message Templates tab [Below].

Next click on the + New Message Template button on the upper right-hand-side of the page.

Add:

• Template Name - This is for your reference (not visible to the customer).
• Subject Line - The subject line of the email the customer receives. 
• Body - The main section of the email message (you don't need to complete the message at this stage, just add a couple of words and then click ...
• Create & Continue Editing... (You will complete the message in the next step).

2. Edit Your Message:

Now you can complete the body of your message. In order to ensure your messages are personalized (and compelling), you will want to: 

• Add Standard Contact Traits
• Add Sender Traits
• Add Non-Standard Account/Contact Traits
• Add Rich Text elements
• Edit in Html

Here's how...

• Add Standard Contact Traits:

To make some basic personalizations to your message, you can add the Contacts/Accounts details by navigating to and clicking on the relevant trait (First Name, Account Name etc.). 

• Add Sender Traits:

The Sender is the person/Role selected from the Send As... dropdown field when adding a message to an Akita Playbook [Image Below].  

In the message editor you can select Sender traits (Name, Email Address etc.) and add then to the message [Below].

• Add Non-Standard Account/Contact Traits: 

This is where you can leverage the real power of Akita. Any/all Account or Contact data you are pushing into Akita is available to add to a message. So any revenue, voice-of-customer, platform usage, health data etc. can be added to create a compelling message or call-to-action in any context. Simple search for the relevant Trait and drop it into the message. In the message [Below] we are sharing the customers current Daily Active User (DAU) metric to illustrate how engaged they are. 

• Add Rich Text elements:

If you feel you message need to be more than just basic text, you can add the rich text tools to add a flourish (or hyperlink text etc).

• Edit in Html:

For those of you that want to apply your Html skills to the design of your message, click <> to access and tweak the code as you see fit [Below]. 

3. Proof read and Save Your Message:

You can review how the message will appear to the customer (with the added Traits populated) before saving or adding to a playbook [Below]. 

• Click on the Test Tab at the top of the page.  
• In the Search for a test Contact field, key in the name of an existing contact
• Under Click on a Contact to Display and send Test, the contacts name, or a selection of names, will appear. Click on a name and the populated message will appear to the right. 

Review the message and edit as required. Oh, don't forget to hit SAVE!