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Externally triggerable campaigns

An externally triggerable campaign is a simple way to integrate transactional messages, originating from external applications, with Contactsend. Either you or an external program add or update the subscriber data in the subscriber source, before a request is made to the Contactsend API for a triggerable message to be sent. In this way, a triggerable campaign works like a template that is used to send one message at a time. They can only be sent by using API calls.

Unlike other campaigns, Contactsend does not launch a triggerable campaign itself. Instead, a triggerable campaign resides on our system, waiting for your external application to trigger it when a message needs to be sent. The Contactsend API then sends the message, typically using configuration settings that have been created specifically for this purpose, for example:

  • Dedicated and perhaps whitelisted or certified IP address(es)
  • Personalized headers, templates and similar

Using externally triggerable campaigns​

Externally triggerable campaigns do not scale very well because of their inherent processing overhead. If you expect to send more than a few thousand messages per day using a triggerable campaign, you should consider the alternatives, such as:

These have been specifically designed to overcome the scalability limitations of triggerable campaigns.

Externally triggerable campaigns should be applied consistently to avoid misusing Contactsend:

  • Clearly define the purpose of your campaignFor example, to send a subscription confirmation.
  • Create different triggerable campaigns for different streams A stream is a set of messages that have the same scope, purpose, template, or other elements.
  • Do not create a triggerable campaign for individual recipients if you can use a normal campaign instead.

An error is raised when using an externally triggerable campaign if the subscriber does not exist, or the campaign is not triggerable.

Available elements​

Click the appropriate link for more details about the relevant element:

  • triggerDeliveryById Sends an existing triggerable campaign, selected by its unique identifier, to a single subscriber.
  • triggerDeliveryByAlias Sends an existing triggerable campaign, selected by an alias, to a single subscriber.