Introduction

This document has been created by Taguchi^® and is intended to be used for the purpose of training marketers in the use of the Taguchi^® Digital Marketing system.

The purpose of this document is to be a reference manual providing detailed information to support the creation of marketing emails within version 5.

About Taguchi

Taguchi^® is a world-class, enterprise-level digital marketing platform. It integrates with a range of existing data sources. It has powerful analytics, sophisticated automation, and patented optimisation technology.

But what sets Taguchi^® even further apart is its ability to accurately predict your short and long-term ROI. Understanding the lifetime value of your database enables you to plan and implement your marketing strategies with more confidence than ever before.

For marketers, retailers and publishers, Taguchi^® is much more than a one-to-one communications tool. It’s a window to the future.

Support

If you require further assistance with Taguchi^® V5, please visit our support portal. Alternatively you can raise a support ticket with our Australian based support team, Monday to Friday, 9am – 5:30pm AEST.

Logging In

Navigate to https://login.taguchi.com.au/ using a supported web browser (see below for supported browsers). The login screen will display with a username and password field, enter in your details and click 'Log In'.

If you do not have a username and password for Taguchi^® version 5 yet, please ask a team member in your company who is a Taguchi^® administrator to add you to the organisation. After they have added your account, you will be sent further instructions on how to set a password and log in to Taguchi.

Alternatively, if you have a Taguchi^® V4 account, and your organisation has V5 access enabled, you can follow the instructions here on how to create a Taguchi^® V5 account and link your existing organisation to it.

Resetting your password

If you have forgotten your password, simply navigate to the log in screen, click the 'Forgot password?' link, fill in your email address and click the 'Reset password' button.

An email will be sent to you with details on how to reset your password, simply follow the instructions within the email to reset your password. The password reset email can take up to ten minutes to reach your inbox.

Supported browsers and devices

Taguchi v5 is supported on most current devices (including mobile devices) and up-to-date web browsers.

Supported web browsers

Two-factor authentication / OTP

Two-factor authentication (also known as 2FA or OTP) is a method of confirming a user's claimed identity by utilizing a combination of two different components. This authentication process occurs every time you log in.

Taguchi^® has adopted two-factor authentication via QR code (or manual entry by account ID and key). This means you can set up 2FA easily using your mobile device and an app (such as Google Authenticator available on the App Store or Play Store).

To set up 2FA on your account, simply head to the Account details section and enable two-factor authentication by toggling the switch. Scan the QR code using a compatible mobile device and an authentication application. Ensure you download your recovery codes and either print or save the codes in a secure place.

When logging in to Taguchi^® v5, you will be asked to input a 6-digit code (or recovery code) to authenticate before continuing. Simply open your authentication application and input the current code displayed to continue logging in before redirecting to your Dashboard.

The correct timezone (date and time) have an impact on whether the authentication application will display the correct code on your mobile device. Ensure you have the correct date and time on your mobile device, ideally set the timezone to 'Automatic'.

User Interface

The user interface on desktop consists of the left side menu (containing links to the Dashboard, Campaigns, Subscribers and Settings) and the top header bar (consisting of a global search input, links to support, your user profile and the notifications panel).

Global Search

Taguchi^® v5 introduces global search to your organisation. You can search for subscribers, campaigns and activities. This makes searching for particular items or subscribers easy.

Examples of what you can search for could be:

• Activity, campaign or subscriber ID (e.g. 14213)
• An activity, campaign or subscriber list name (e.g. March eDM Subscribers)
• A subscriber's email address (e.g. johndoe@sample.com)
• Subscribers' in a list (e.g. subscribed lists 1234)
• A target expression (e.g. subscribed lists 1234 and sent activities 14213)
• Any standard field (e.g. phone = "0400000000")
• Any custom field (e.g. company = "Taguchi")

Notifications

The notifications panel slides from the right of the UI and shows current activity status, approval updates and extract download links. It can be found by clicking the notifications icon located in the top-right corner of the header bar.

The notifications panel will slide from the right and display information such as:

• Currently sending activities
• Completed activities
• Extract and report download links (when a requested extract or report has completed processing, you will receive a notification to download it)

The notification icon may also have a coloured dot which symbolises the type of unread notifications requiring action. A red dot alerts you of any unread error notifications (such as reports or extracts failing to generate), whereas a green dot symbolises any general unread notifications. The dot will disappear after clicking on the notification icon and expanding the notification panel.

Filtering Notifications

You can filter the notifications displayed in the notification tray by clicking the filter icon.

Filtering options include:

• From Me (Notifications generated by yourself)
• This Organization (Notifications related to the current organization you are in)
• All Organizations (Notifications from all organizations you are a part of)

Further filters per notification type include:

• Proofs
• Extracts
• Checks
• Approvals
• Sends

UI Icon Definitions

Below you will find a list of important icons in the Taguchi user interface and their definitions.

Icon	Type/Status	Definition
	Email	Indicates Email activity type
	Email Draft	Email activity is in draft
	Email Approved	Email activity is approved
	Email Scheduled	Email activity has been scheduled for send
	Email Deploying	Email activity deployment in progress
	Email Deployed - Broadcast	Email activity has been deployed for one off broadcast
	Email Deployed - Trigger	Email activity has been deployed as a trigger
	Email Error	There is an error with the email activity
	SMS	Indicates SMS activity type
	SMS Draft	SMS activity is in draft
	SMS Approved	SMS activity is approved
	SMS Scheduled	SMS activity has been scheduled for send
	SMS Deploying	SMS activity deployment in progress
	SMS Deployed - Broadcast	SMS activity has been deployed for one off broadcast
	SMS Deployed - Trigger	SMS activity has been deployed as a trigger
	SMS Error	There is an error with the SMS activity
	Webpage	Indicates Web activity type
	Webpage Draft	Web activity is in draft
	Webpage Approved	Web activity is approved
	Webpage Deployed	Web activity is deployed (live)
	Webpage Error	There is an error with the Web activity
	LINE	Indicates LINE activity type
	LINE Draft	LINE activity is in draft
	LINE Approved	LINE activity is approved
	LINE Deployed	LINE activity is deployed
	LINE Triggered	LINE activity has been deployed as a trigger
	LINE Error	There is an error with the LINE activity
	Image	Indicates an Asset
	Asset Draft	Asset is in draft
	Asset Published	Asset is published
	People	Indicates Subscribers or Subscriber List
	Briefcase	Indicates a campaign "folder"
	Power	Indicates integration
	Integration Not deployed	Integration is not live in production
	Integration Deployed	Integration has been deployed and in production
	Display Ad	Indicates Display Ad activity type
	Display Ad Draft	Display Ad is in draft
	Display Ad Approved	Display Ad is approved
	Display Ad Deployed	Display Ad is deployed
	Display Ad Error	There is an error with the Display Ad activity

Predictive Modelling

Predicted numbers used within Taguchi^® are derived from a hybrid BG/NBD + Weibull model with parameters optimized daily via L-BFGS-B; they indicate the expected number of engagements (opens/clicks) or conversions from current subscribers over the coming 3-year period assuming the communication frequency and effectiveness remains in line with current performance.

The predictions Taguchi^® make are directionally quite accurate, but limited in absolute accuracy. For example, if today it's saying your estimated future conversion is $50M, and next week it says $55M, that's measuring a real increase in the conversion performance of your database, either due to your email strategy (communication frequency etc) or your acquisition quality.

For example, if either the predictive engagement or predictive conversions line is trending up in your activity, campaign or list reports, you can be confident that your strategy is working. Keeping in mind the assumptions that go into the absolute conversion value are not going to be replicated in reality, because you may change your strategy and you will acquire new subscribers over time that could potentially change the predictive outcomes.

Dashboard

The dashboard is your first point of reference when logging in to Taguchi^®. It contains a general overview of all operations within your organisation.

The interactive graph at the top of your dashboard gives you a year-to-date overview of your subscriber engagement. The shaded area represents one week, click and drag this shaded area along the graph to see statistics relating to that weekly range.

To the right of the interactive graph, you will find a schedule. This schedule shows you a date arranged layout of any scheduled activities (activities that are due to broadcast).

Further down the page you will find a tiled (or list depending on your display preferences) layout which shows recent activities. Click the dropdown box in the top left corner to change the view from 'Recent activities' to either 'Recently deployed', 'Recently modified' or 'Recently archived'.

Campaign

Campaigns are the primary tool Taguchi^® provides to enable organisations of online marketing activities. Similar to the campaign structures offered by Google AdWords or OpenAds, Taguchi^® campaigns represent a grouping of individual email broadcasts, triggered email messages, and web pages. The individual elements grouped within are referred to as Activities (this is explained further in Part 2).

A Campaign can include a mix of activity types; for instance, a Newsletter Campaign might contain a series of weekly broadcast emails, a web page to manage subscription status, and a triggered email to provide confirmation of sign-up. Other Campaigns could include a series of triggered emails sent periodically to new subscribers, with broadcast emails in support of those.

This structure provides roll-up reporting of performance — including conversion and subscription rate data, across a set of marketing activities.

Create a new Campaign

Campaigns are created by clicking the ‘New Campaign’ button.

A simple light box form is opened and the Campaign’s display name (the name given to the Campaign in the UI) must be provided. This name can be changed later using the Campaign Detail view.

Select a date and time for easy identification post campaign. This date may not be the date the activity is actually broadcasted or scheduled.

Campaign naming convention
We recommend using a logical description, as well as any marketing reference codes, job number codes that will help identify the campaign in future e.g. J1257 Launch Campaign.

When the ‘Create’ button is clicked, the detail view for the newly created Campaign is shown. The Campaign dates and title can be edited later by clicking the ‘Setup’ link under the Title.

Every campaign created displays a unique Campaign ID which is a simple way of referencing.

Campaign Actions

Click the 'Options' menu in the lower right corner of a campaign tile to access the campaign actions. From here, you can access campaign specific actions such as deleting or archiving the campaign.

Setup

If you wish to edit the campaign name or dates, click the 'Setup' link. A modal will appear where you can edit the required fields.

Delete

To delete the campaign permanently, click the 'Delete' link. This will delete the campaign. If you accidentally deleted the campaign, simply click the 'Undo' button in the bottom left corner of the screen after deleting the item.

Archive

To change the campaigns status from active to archived, simply click the 'Archive' link. This will place the campaign under the 'Archived campaigns' filter. You can access your archived campaigns by changing the view from 'All Campaigns' to 'Archived Campaigns' in the top left corner of the campaigns view using the 'Filter by' function. To Unarchive a campaign, filter campaigns by 'Archived campaigns', click on the activity you want to un-archive and click the 'Archive' link, then the 'Undo' button.

Campaign Reports

Click the 'Actions' gear icon in the lower right corner of a campaign tile to access the campaign actions. From here, you can access multiple campaign report options.

Campaign reports display the entire history (date range) of the campaign. To view date specific report data, please use the online report with the interactive graph. Custom reports may also be acquired (subject to scoping and requirements), please contact Taguchi^® Support for more information.

View online

To see a quick interactive overview of your campaign, click the 'View online' link under 'Reports'. This will launch a modal with an interactive graph displaying:

• Sent

  The total number of email/SMS messages sent via all activities in this campaign.

• Unique opens (%)

  The number of messages opened across all activities in this campaign, expressed as a proportion of the number of messages sent. Note that a recipient can open a message multiple times, but this will only be recorded as a single unique open.

• Unique clicks (%)

  The number of messages clicked, expressed as a proportion of the number of messages sent. Note that a recipient can click on links in a message multiple times, but this will only be recorded as a single unique click.

• Converted (%)

  Total number of conversions that resulted from all activities in this campaign, expressed as a percentage of the number of messages sent.

• Conversion value ($)

  The total conversion value of all activities within this campaign (all conversions).

• Value / send ($)

  The average conversion value per message sent.

PDF

To download a PDF report for your campaign, simply click the 'PDF' link under 'Reports'. A PDF file should start downloading shortly to your computer.

CSV

To download a CSV report for your campaign, simply click the 'CSV' link under 'Reports'. A CSV file should start downloading shortly to your computer.

Activity

An activity is an individual broadcast email, a triggered message, or a web page - a stand-alone marketing message to which a subscriber can respond. Activities form the building blocks of a campaign, and can be linked together to create a logical sequence of related messages to maximise engagement.

Activities are designed to be re-useable with little modification and Taguchi^® provides a number of systems to enable content and images to be updated quickly and easily.

The activity types supported by Taguchi^® are email (triggered and broadcast), web page, and SMS (triggered and broadcast).

Create a new Activity

Activities are created within the Campaign detail view. Activities are created by clicking the 'New Activity’ button.

A popup modal will appear with the following options:

Name

When selecting a name, we recommend using a logical eDM description. This can be followed by the broadcast date or reference job number.

Distribution channel

The distribution channel can be: Email, SMS and Web, Display Ad

Campaign

The campaign name where the activity is located

Distribution type

Select the distribution type for your activity

If Broadcast or API trigger is selected, add a schedule date and time for the activity to be deployed

If scheduled trigger is selected, add a start date and time for the activity to be deployed. Select a trigger interval; hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly and a subscriber send frequency. See 'Basic Scheduled Trigger Set-Up'

If event-based trigger is selected, add a start date and time for the activity to be deployed. Select a trigger event e.g. being sent an activity, select the activity, and a time delay between event and send and a subscriber send frequency. See 'Event-Based Trigger Set-Up'

Send Limit

You can use this field if you know how many recipients the trigger should be sent to each time and you don't want to send the trigger if there are more recipients than expected. If you leave this field blank, then this won't apply to the trigger.
Note: send limit should only be used for triggers and not immediate or scheduled broadcasts

Notes

Add relevant notes about your activity

Target

See 'Activity Targeting'

Once the ‘Save’ button has been clicked, the Activity is created. Click the Activity tile and the Activity page will load where the setup process begins.

Every activity created displays a unique Activity ID which is a simple way of referencing.

Activity Actions

Click the 'Options' menu in the lower right corner of an activity tile to access the activity actions. From here, you can access activity specific actions such as targeting, editing, deleting or archiving the activity.

Setup & Target

If you wish to edit the activity details, schedule your triggers or broadcasts, add notes, or edit the activity subscriber targeting options, click the 'Setup & Target' link. A modal will appear where you can edit these settings.

Edit

This will launch the activity edit interface where you can edit the activities content.

Delete

To delete the activity permanently, click the 'Delete' link. This will delete the activity. If you accidentally deleted the activity, simply click the 'Undo' button in the bottom left corner of the screen after deleting the item.

Archive

To change the activity status from active to archived, simply click the 'Archive' link. This will place the activity under the 'Archived' filter view. You can access your archived activities by changing the view from 'Recent Activities' to 'Archived Activities' in the top left corner of the campaign folder. To unarchive a campaign, in the 'Recently archived activites' view, click the name of the activity, click the 'Archive' link, then click the 'Undo' button.

Clone

If you wish to copy the contents of the activity to a new activity, you may clone the activity by clicking the 'Clone' link, this will create a new activity with the name prepended with 'Clone of'.

Download

You may download a HTML file of your activity by clicking the 'Download' link under the 'Content' title.

If you click the 'Related' icon in the lower right corner of the activity title in the 'Actions' state, you will find a new tile with the campaign, target expression and template used.

Activity Reports

Click the 'Actions' gear icon in the lower right corner of an activity tile to access the activity actions. From here, you can access multiple activity report options.

Activity reports display the entire history (date range) of the activity. To view date specific report data, please use the online report with the interactive graph. Custom reports may also be acquired (subject to scoping and requirements), please contact Taguchi^® Support for more information.

View online

To see a quick interactive overview of your activity, click the 'View online' link under 'Reports'. This will launch a modal the following information...

Overall Performance

The first graph you will see is the 'Overall performance' graph. This graph is handy in displaying a general overview of your activity over the entire duration (from send date, to present).

The following fields are displayed above the graph:

• Sent

  The total number of email/SMS messages sent.

• Bounced

  The total number of messages that bounced (were undeliverable).

• Bounce rate (%)

  The number of messages that bounced, expressed as a percentage of the number of messages sent.

• Unsubscribed

  The total number of subscribers that have unsubscribed through this activity.

• Unique opens (%)

  The number of messages opened, expressed as a proportion of the number of messages sent. Note that a recipient can open a message multiple times, but this will only be recorded as a single unique open.

• Total opens (%)

  The total number of times messages were opened, expressed as a percentage of the number of messages sent. If messages were opened more than once on average, this number will exceed 100%.

• Unique clicks (%)

  The number of messages clicked, expressed as a proportion of the number of messages sent. Note that a recipient can click on links in a message multiple times, but this will only be recorded as a single unique click.

• Total clicks (%)

  The total number of times links in this message were clicked, expressed as a percentage of messages sent. This counts individual clicks on multiple links within a message, as well as multiple clicks on a single link within a message. If an average of more than 1 click has resulted from each message, this number will exceed 100%.

• Converted (%)

  Total number of conversions that have occurred as a result of this activity, expressed as a proportion of messages sent.

• Average value ($)

  The average value of a conversion resulting from this activity.

• Total value ($)

  The total conversion value of this activity (all conversions).

• Value / send ($)

  The average conversion value per message sent.

Performance Over Time

This is an interactive graph allowing you to expand and contract the selected area using your mouse. The numbers shown above the graph reflect the selected date range. This graph is useful for seeing how well your email performs after the send date.

The following fields are displayed above the graph:

• Sent

  The total number of email/SMS messages sent during the selected date range.

• Bounced

  The number of messages that bounced (were undeliverable) during the selected date range.

• Unique opens

  The number of messages opened during the selected date range. A subscriber can open a message multiple times, but this will only be recorded as a single unique open.

• Unique clicks

  The number of messages clicked during the selected date range. A subscriber can click links within a message multiple times, but this will only be recorded as a single unique click.

• Converted

  The number of conversions that resulted from this activity during the selected date range.

• Total value ($)

  The total conversion value of this activity during the selected date range (all conversions).

Clients and Devices

This graph shows the email clients and devices used to view the eDM. This graph is represented by a pie graph and the colour values are assigned to the right of the graph.

The top clients are displayed above the graph for desktop, mobile and overall. A percentile is displayed to show the device spread between mobile and desktop. This is a useful statistic to know if you wish to cater your template/activities to be more mobile friendly.

Click-through Performance

This section shows you the click-through performance for each of the links contained in your eDM. Each link is listed with a percentage representing the total clicks.

Additional statistics are availailable above the list including:

• Unique clicks (%)

  The number of unique, individual recipients who clicked on at least one link in the eDM, divided by the number of emails which were accepted by the recipient's mail servers.

• Total clicks (%)

  The total number of times links within the emails were clicked by recipients.

• Click-to-open (%)

  The number of clicks on the message, expressed as a proportion of the number of unique opens. This measures the average number of clicks per recipient who opened the eDM.

• Conversion-to-click (%)

  Conversion-to-click is the percentage of clicks that resulted in conversions.

• Average value per click ($)

  Average value per click is the average conversion value per click.

Optimisation Performance

If your eDM has multiple content or subject line versions/combinations, this section will display the performance of each variation and compare the best and worst percentile. Percentiles consist of those who received the full send (or defined combination), split into ten equal percentiles (100% ÷ 10). When broken down, each percentile is split using it's key performing metrics such as engagement metrics and conversion metrics.

The charts at the bottom show how each combination performed across the engagement deciles of those who received it. To decline on the left, bottom on the right.

You can use these percentiles in future sends using target expressions. Say for example you would like to target the first 4 percentiles (40%) of the send (e.g. activity ID 123) in terms of engagement. You could use the following target expression in a new activity for a send target:

sent activities 123 most engaged 40%

To read more about using value predicates in target expressions and to see the full syntax, please read the full target expression reference.

Optimisation Performance Row Key

      Row 1 - The green coloured row corresponds to the green graph line and represents the percentage of total sent within that 10%.

      Row 2 - The blue coloured row corresponds to the blue graph line and represents the percentage of unique opens within that 10%.

      Row 3 - The yellow coloured row corresponds to the yellow graph line and represents the percentage of unique clicks within that 10%.

      Row 4 - The red coloured row corresponds to the red graph line and represents the percentage of conversions within that 10%.

Click-through Heatmap

To see a more visual representation of clicks, a heatmap and clickmap (total or %) is available. A colour injected heatmap will display on top of your activity content and will reflect the eDM activity recorded.

You can change the version/combination and change any test account variables in the top right corner. The top right corner contains a dropdown to switch between desktop and mobile views, along with a dropdown to change the map type (heatmap or click map).

Activity Targeting

To begin targeting subscribers for your activity, select 'Setup & Target' from either the activity card or within any activity window. This will launch the activity target modal.

Taguchi^® uses target expressions to accurately target relevant subscribers from within your subscriber database. The target expression is very powerful in targeting the subscribers you wish to refine. You have the option of using the step-by-step targeting options by selecting relevant values in the dropdown boxes, or you can manually type a target expression in the top text field.

To read more about target expressions and see the full syntax, please click here.

Manual validation

If you enter in a target expression manually and it does not match any target expression syntax, an error message will appear and you will be unable to save the target expression until it is fixed.

Activity Edit Interface

The Activity Edit Interface is shown next to a preview of the activity. The preview pane is updated each time the content is saved, so when the view first loads the preview will not be displayed. In the case of especially wide email templates, one edge of the view might be cut off.

Depending on the template and activity type, different fields will be displayed in the Activity Edit Interface. The content blocks developed vary across your all of your templates.

Template Selection

Template selection is the first step of the web page and triggered message setup process, and the second step of the broadcast setup process.

Usually when setting up an activity, you will select a template during the setup phase. If you wish to change the template within the activity edit interface, you can also use this interface (pictured).

The interface shown simply lists the Templates available for the current activity type. To select a Template click on the template panel.

A pop up box appears. Simply click on a template’s preview image or title to select it.

Please note that old XSLT templates are not supported by Taguchi^® v5. Please contact Taguchi^® Support to discuss upgrading to a JS Template.

Activity Check Icons

In the preview section of the activity editor, you will notice icons next to the sender address, subject line, and email size. These icons represent live versions of what the activity check verifies.

• Sender Address:
  • ❌ Indicates that the email domain is not registered on our sending domains page,
  • ✅ Signifies that the email domain is registered on our sending domains page.
• Subject Line:
  • ❌ Indicates that the email is missing a valid subject line,
  • ⚠️ Indicates that the subject line length is greater than 60 characters,
  • ✅ Signifies that a valid subject line is present.
• Size:
  • ❌ This indicates that the email size exceeds 200kb, which is the maximum recommended size for an email,
  • ⚠️ This indicates that the email size is within the maximum recommended limit, but it exceeds the recommended 100kb threshold,
  • ✅ This indicates that the email size is below 100kb, which is considered the optimal size.

Changing the Subject Line

Just below the Activity Edit Timeline area, in the grey panel there is a cell called ‘Subject 1’. For example the subject line has entered as “Spring getaways from $358 per couple”, but this can be changed by simply re-typing the subject line copy that currently appears in the ‘Subject 1’ cell.

When the subject line is present, the ‘optimize’ link can be clicked to display multiple subject lines; additional subject line alternatives can be added or removed. Taguchi^® will automatically split-test these alternatives as it sends the broadcast, or as messages are triggered.

Unless your SMART Template has been customised to do otherwise the Taguchi^® optimizer will try and send more of email containing the most subject line (as determined by the open or click through rates). The optimizer’s ability to respond to subscriber open and click behaviour will vary according to the variation in subscriber response, size of the email and speed of the broadcast.

Adding Content to the Activity

In the grey-bordered section called the ‘Main Content section’, you can use the ‘add item...’ dropdown menu at the top-right corner of the content block, to add the previously mentioned content item blocks.

Once an item has been added, its details can be modified, and its position relative to other items can be changed by ‘dragging and dropping’ the item header bar (between the item type on the left and the ‘delete’ button on the right).

Items can also be dragged to other content blocks (for example, between a Main Content area and a Sidebar area), provided the item type is available in both.

After updating item details, or re-ordering items within the email, click any of the orange ‘Save’ buttons (top or bottom of the page) to save the changes, and the content is then updated in the preview pane.

Please note that if multiple users are editing an activity simultaneously, the changes made by each user will overwrite any previous changes.

Adding Copy Manually to a Content Block

To enter marketing copy in the respective Content Blocks such as Intro Articles or Article Blocks, it is a matter of simply typing this directly into the cell in the Wizard Editor.

If you copy and paste directly from MS Word, MS Word styles its text with invisible XML and as a result may cause the font to render incorrectly. This is because it carries over ‘junk’ code. To ensure your intended copy renders correctly, paste the copy into a Text File or a Note Pad Editor first, before importing in the copy cell in the Content block.

Taguchi^® has added a new ‘sanitize’ filter to the Content text fields. This should automatically clean out any junk code from MS Word, Photoshop, Dreamweaver etc. It does a fairly good job, however it’s not 100% perfect. If you do encounter this problem, then the easiest way to fix this is to click on the ‘HTML’ view button </> in the Content section of the affected Intro block, and delete everything except for the actual content you require.

Adding Images to a Content Block

To add an image to an Article Block, click on the grey ‘Select’ button next to the ‘Image’ cell in the content block. The following pop-up box appears. Click on the ‘Choose File’ button and select the appropriate image from your image library. Then ‘Save’ your changes. Supported image formats are JPEG, GIF and PNG.

Adding Hypertext Links to a Content Block

Adding Hypertext Links to the articles enables you newsletter subscriber to click on a link which will automatically directed them to another website, landing page, microsite or online information portal.

To create the link, type in the description of the article you would like the reader to see in the newsletter. In the Editor section of the article block, make sure that you highlight the ‘article copy’ with you mouse and at the same time click on the icon with the chain and the green plus sign.

Fill in the following details:

1. The URL link of where the article appears
2. Give the link a name

Click on the grey ‘Update’ button.

Adding an Email Address Link to a Content Block

To create a RTE pop up in a newsletter article for an email address, the email format that needs to entered in the product content cell will need to be the following: mailto:email@example.org The next step is to turn off link tracking for that email address. To do this, they need to go into HTML mode.

Click on the blue HTML button which is the forth icon from the left hand side.

Once you are in HTML editing mode the next step is to add {onclick:notrack:} to the end of the ‘href’ attribute: In the code this will look like: <a href=”mailto:email@example.org{onclick:notrack:}”>Email address</a>

Adding an Asset to an Email

To add an asset to an email, open the activity editor and navigate to the content block. Select the add item drop down menu and choose Dynamic Asset. You should now see a block called 'dynamic asset'. If you expand this block, you can then add the asset by choosing the corresponding tag configured in the assets metadata. Then you can configure its width and also choose which segments you want to select, if applicable.

Activity testing

Testing email and SMS activities to ensure they appear and function as desired is a crucial step prior to approving and deploying an activity. The activity editor provides two tools for this purpose. The first tool is the proofing function, which enables you to send your email/SMS content to a selected email address or phone number for review. This allows you to verify that the appearance and functionality meet your expectations. To learn more about proofing, please refer to the article on Sending email proofs. The second tool available is activity checks, which perform a comprehensive assessment of various aspects of your activity to identify potential issues. For additional information, please consult the article on What are activity checks and why should I use them?. Utilizing both of these tools is essential to ensure a smooth deployment of your email/SMS activity.

Asset Library

The asset library is where Dynamic assets are created and managed. Dynamic assets are image/s that can be modified and targeted. Modifying the asset is to edit the values within the image, such as changing the title and adjusting the price displayed. Targeting an asset is creating an expression that filters who can view it, for example only subscribers who are located in Victoria should see this asset. Having a dedicated place to manage all dynamic assets helps to improve asset management efficiency, and allowing for easier email personalisation.

For more information about the Asset library please refer to this article here.

Subscribers

The subscribers tab area contains the functionality associated with adding, managing, reporting and extracting subscriber data.

Your subscriber records in the Taguchi^® system are managed in a single customer database for your organisation. For marketing and communication purposes, this single database can be divided into multiple separate target lists referred to as ‘Subscriber Lists’.

A single subscriber record can be associated with multiple Subscriber Lists. An activity broadcast from Taguchi^® can be targeted to;

• Single Subscriber List
• Multiple Subscriber Lists
• Subsets of either of the above

Create a New Subscriber List

Subscriber Lists are created within the Subscribers section. You can create a new subscriber list by clicking the 'New List' button.

The 'Create new list' screen will launch with the option to add a list name and define the list type.

The list types you can choose from are:

• Public

  These lists are ideal for uploading your main subscribers.

• Proof

  This list type is used for when you send activity proofs, you may create a proof list and add subscribers to it. When you initiate a proof and select the proof list, all of the subscriber within that proof list will receive the email proof.

• Approval

  Approval lists are ideal for requesting approval from coworkers or managers within your company. You can request approval within an activity and nominate an approval list to which the request should be sent.

• Notification

  Notification lists are used for receiving custom extract, report and other notifications via email. Please contact Taguchi Support if you wish to utilise a notification list for a custom extract/report/other.

Subscriber Actions

Click the 'Options' menu in the lower left corner of a subscriber list. This will show the Actions menu where you can control and manage your subscriber list easily.

• Setup

  If you wish to change your list name or change the list type, you can do so by clicking 'Setup' which will launch the edit window.

• Delete

  To permanently delete your subscriber list, simply press the 'Delete' link. This will remove the subscriber list itself but will not delete the subscribers within your subscriber list. If you accidentally delete a subscriber list, this can be easily undone immediately after deleting the subscriber list by clicking the 'Undo' link in the notification popup in the bottom left of your screen.

• Archive

  To change the subscriber list status from active to archived, simply click the 'Archive' link. This will move the list to your archive. You can access your archived lists by changing the view from 'All Lists' to 'Archived Lists' in the top left corner of the subscriber section. To unarchive a subscriber list, in the 'Archived Lists' view, click the subscriber list that you want to unarchive, click 'Archive' and click the 'Undo' button.

Importing Bulk Subscribers

If you wish to import subscribers from an external file, Taguchi^® supports multiple file types including XLSX (Microsoft Excel), CSV (Comma Separated Values) and TSV (Tab Separated Values). Your subscribers must contain at least one email address, phone number or a unique ID as these fields are used as a primary unique identifier for the subscriber.

Your file may contain any number of fields, these fields can be matched up with Taguchi^® standard subscriber fields or can be assigned as either a new or existing custom field.

You can also bulk unsubscribe subscribers via the UI import, however you cannot bulk re-subscribe profiles.
Refer to the Knowledge Base Article : Can I upload a list of unsubscribed users? for more information.

Step 1

To begin importing your subscribers, simply navigate to the Subscribers section and locate the subscriber list you wish to upload the subscribers into. Click the 'Upload' icon in the lower left corner of the subscriber list tile.

A file explorer dialog will appear where you can navigate your computer's file directory to locate the file where your subscribers are contained. Select your file and click 'Open'.

Alternatively, simply drag and drop your file on the Subscriber list card.

Supported filetypes are:

• XLSX (Microsoft Excel)
• CSV (Comma Separated Values)
• TSV (Tab Separated Values)

Step 2

A popup screen will show displaying the data within the file you selected. The data is displayed in a table where you can scroll left-to-right to see all of the available columns.

Each column has a dropdown box at the top of the column title, this is where you assign a column to a Taguchi^® standard field or custom field. Ensure you assign each column to a field, otherwise the column will be ignored when the import occurs.

Step 3

After assigning each column with a Taguchi^® standard field or custom field, click 'Import' to begin the import process.

A progress bar will appear showing the total amount of subscribers that have been actioned. The green number and section simulates the total number of new subscribers that have been added to the database. The blue simulates subscribers that already exist in your database, but have been updated with the data included in this import. Any red simulates an error with a subscriber and the subscriber has not been imported. Purple signifies no change (where the subscriber is already in the subscriber list and database and the data has not been changed).

After the import is complete, you may close out of the import window by clicking the 'X' in the top right corner.

Programmatic and Custom Imports

Taguchi's Subscriber API gives you a programmatic approach to add subscribers to your database. The API can be used to automate subscriber additions and to assist in larger imports of over 150,000 records.

API documentation is available via the Documentation section of our support portal. Additional wrappers in multiple programming languages are also available for easy integration to existing systems.

Taguchi^® can also set up custom import processes to pull files from a FTP/FTPS/SFTP server. These import processes need to be specified, scoped and implemented directly with Taguchi^® Technical support services. This type of import is ideal for larger imports of over 150,000 records.

Manually Adding a Subscriber

If you wish to add a small quantity of subscribers, you may add a subscriber one at a time using the 'Add' link under the Subscriber List Actions.

This will launch a popup window with the fields:

• Email
• Phone
• External ID

You must populate at least one or more of these fields in order to add a subscriber. After the subscriber has been added, their profile will automatically load allowing you to edit the standard and custom fields and personalise the subscribers list subscription.

Exporting your Subscribers

If you wish to export a subscriber list for reporting or external use, you can do so by clicking the 'Export' link under the Subscriber Actions tile.

A popup modal window will appear with the target expression engine visible and the list pre-populated in the target expression.

Taguchi® uses target expressions to accurately target relevant subscribers from within your subscriber database. The target expression is very powerful in targeting the subscribers you wish to refine. You have the option of using the step-by-step targeting options by selecting relevant values in the dropdown boxes, or you can manually type a target expression in the top text field.

To read more about target expressions and see the full syntax, please click here.

You may also choose the extract type:

• Subscriber Profile

  This extract will display all subscriber profile fields within the extract.

• List

  This extract will display all subscriber profile fields along with a list subscription column detailing the date and time when the subscriber was added to the assigned list.

• Activity

  This extract will display all subscriber profile fields along with additional metrics relating to the activity selected in the extract (e.g fields such as click count, purchases, send timestamp, bounce timestamp etc..)

Subscriber Reports

Click the 'Actions' gear icon in the lower right corner of a subscriber list tile to access the Actions tile. From here, you can access multiple subscriber list report options.

Subscriber list reports display the entire history (date range) of the list. To view date specific report data, please use the online report with the interactive graph. Custom reports may also be acquired (subject to scoping and requirements), please contact Taguchi® Support for more information.

View online

To see a quick interactive overview of your activity, click the 'View online' link under 'Reports'. This will launch a modal the following information...

List Engagement

The first graph displayed is the List Engagement graph. This graph is interactive which means you can drag the shaded area on the graph left-to-right to manipulate the statistics shown by week.

The following fields are displayed above the graph:

• Contactable subscribers

  Subscribers who have a valid and active email address or phone number within this list.

• Contacted subscribers

  Subscribers who were contacted via a broadcast or triggered activity over the selected time period.

• Engaged subscribers (%)

  Subscribers that have opened, viewed and/or clicked within the selected time period.

• Converted (%)

  Subscribers that converted within the selected time period.

• Conversion value

  The total conversion value over the selected time period.

List Growth

This graph shows the growth if the list over the entire history of the subscriber list (from when it was created, up until today). This graph is also interactive which means you can slide the shaded area, and expand/contract the shaded area to specify a date range.

The following fields are displayed above the graph:

• Contactable subscribers

  Subscribers who have a valid and active email address or phone number within this list.

• Predicted engagement

  The predicted total engagement (clicks, opens, views) of the subscribers within this list over the coming 3-year period.

• Predicted conversions

  The predicted total conversion count over the coming 3-year period.

• Predicted total value

  The predicted total value of this list (using predicted conversion counts and average conversion values) over the coming 3-year period.

• Subscribers added

  The number of subscribers added to the list over the selected time period.

• Subscribers removed

  The number of subscribers removed (unsubscribed, invalid) from this list over the selected time period.

Contactable Subscribers by Acquisition Source

This section details the acquisition sources of the subscriber list and which sources contribute the most of the subscriber list growth. The pie chart on the left gives you a visual representation of the acquisition sources, whilst the tables on the right outline the acquisition sources by campaign (web forms) and by import files.

The following fields are displayed above the graph:

• Acquisition types (campaign and import percentiles)
• Top sources (source types)

Acquisition Source Performance

This table gives you a detailed overview of each acquisition source's performance over the duration of the subscriber lists existence. Each source is listed in the table and displays the following columns (which can be filtered and sorted):

• Contactable

  Total number of subscribers from this acquisition source who have a valid and active email address or phone number.

• Invalid

  Total number of subscribers from this acquisition source who do not have a valid email address or phone number.

• Unsubscribed

  Total number of subscribers from this acquisition source who are unsubscribed either globally or from this list.

• Engaged

  The predicted number of opens, clicks and page views resulting from messages sent to subscribers from this source, over the coming 3-year period.

• Converted

  Total number of conversions from subscribers from this source.

• Value

  Total value of all conversions from subscribers from this source.

• Predicted Value

  The predicted total value of all conversions from subscribers from this acquisition source (using predicted conversion counts and average conversion values) over the coming 3-year period.

• Average Value

  The average total conversion value per subscriber from this acquisition source.

• Predicted Average Value

  The predicted average total conversion value per subscriber from this acquisition source, over the coming 3-year period.

The following fields are displayed above the table:

• Sources

  Total number of sources used to compile the subscribers of this list.

• Total value

  The total value of all conversions from subscribers to this list.

• Average value

  The average value of a conversion from subscribers to this list.

• Predicted total value

  The predicted total value of all subscribers to this list (using predicted conversion counts and average conversion values) over the coming 3-year period.

• Predicted average value

  The predicted average value of a conversion from all subscribers to this list over the coming 3-year period.

Decile Performance

The decile performance graphs give you stats on the best (most engaged) 10% of the subscriber list, all the way down to the worst (least engaged) 10% of the subscriber list. Deciles consist of those who are subscribed to the subscriber list, split into ten equal deciles (100% ÷ 10). When broken down, each decile is split using it's key performing metrics such as engagement metrics and conversion metrics. These are represented in the graph below.

The charts at the bottom show how each combination performed across the engagement deciles of those who received sends using the subscriber list. To decline on the left, bottom on the right.

You can use these deciles in future sends using target expressions. Say for example you would like to target the first 4 deciles (40%) in the subscriber list (e.g. subscriber list ID 123) in terms of engagement. You could use the following target expression in a new activity for a send target:

subscribed lists 123 most engaged 40%

To read more about using value predicates in target expressions and to see the full syntax, please read the full target expression reference.

Decile Performance Row Key

      Row 1 - The yellow coloured row corresponds to the yellow graph line and represents the number of contactable subscribers within that 10%.

      Row 2 - The blue coloured row corresponds to the blue graph line and represents the predicted future engagement within that 10%.

      Row 3 - The first red row corresponds to the combined red graph line and represents the predicted future conversions within that 10%.

      Row 4 - The second red row (relating to the predicted future conversions red graph line) represents the predicted future conversion value within that 10%.

      Row 5 - The last red row (relating to the predicted future conversions red graph line) represents the predicted future value per subscriber within that 10%.

Subscriber Profiles

Subscriber profiles within Taguchi^® allow you to see a full overview of a subscribers individual profile, custom fields, list memberships and interaction history. To open a users subscriber profile, use the global search functionality to locate the user. After clicking on the user, their subscriber profile will show (as shown).

You can manage their invalid and globally unsubscribed status at the bottom of the subscribers profile. Click these buttons to reset or mark the subscriber as either unsubscribed or invalid. These buttons are the key to resolving issues when a subscriber stops receiving emails from you, as most likely they have been marked invalid or have globally unsubscribed for one reason or another. Resetting a subscribers unsubscription status may breach the Spam Act 2003 (Cth), potentially resulting in fines of up to $200,000 per day of breaches. You may be called upon to provide written evidence that this request is made in accordance with applicable laws.

The subscriber profile consists of four main sections.

Profile

This section allows you to add/edit/remove Taguchi^® standard fields such as email, firstname, lastname, dob, state, phone, postcode. To edit these fields, simply press the pencil icon. To save a field after editing, press the save icon to the right of the selected field. To add a new field, press the plus icon and select the desired field and enter a value.

Custom

This section populates the custom fields against the subscriber. To edit these fields, simply click the pencil icon. To save a field after editing, press the save icon to the right of the selected field. To add a new field, press the plus icon and enter the field name and value.

List memberships

This section details the subscriber lists that this profile is subscribed and unsubscribed from. Subscribed lists are green and unsubscribed lists are red. You can add or remove a list subscription by clicking the plus or cross symbol next to the defined list. You can also add new lists to this subscribers profile by clicking the plus button in the top right corner and selecting a list to add this subscriber to.

Interaction History

This section gives you a timeline of the subscribers interaction history. Activities are listed in this section such as:

• Bounced

  A recent activity that was sent to this subscriber bounced and could not be delivered, the bounce status will display here.

• Sent

  An attempt to send an activity was initiated to this subscriber.

• Opened

  This subscriber opened an email sent.

• Clicked

  This subscriber clicked on a link within an email sent.

• Entered

  This subscriber was added to a list or to the database.

• Unsubscribed

  If the user unsubscribed from a list or globally.

• Converted

  This subscriber completed a purchase through an email.

• Replied

  If the subscriber has replied to the activity sent to them.

• Viewed

  The subscriber has opened and read the activity.

• Abandoned

  Occurs when someone visits your website, looks around, populates the shopping cart and gets part way through the checkout process and leaves.

• Subscribed

  When the user agrees to continue to receive more activities.

• Updated

  Occurs when at least one of the subscribers fields has been modified.

• Analytics

  This is a custom event type logged through either an app or website tracking code, the data displayed depends on how the tracking has been setup.

The Interaction history also has a search function and filter to assist in finding specific interactions. For example to find if the subscriber has been sent activity ID 123, entering 123 into the search bar will list all instances sent to the subscriber. You can also filter by interaction type, using the dropdown menu to the left of the searchbar.

If a subscriber has an issue with receiving any emails, check this section to see if any recent sends have resulted in bounces. Bounces mean that the email was rejected by the subscribers mail server, this could be due to many different reasons. Read more about bounces in our knowledge base.

Profile Anonymization

The anonymization button, located at the bottom right-hand corner of the subscriber profile, removes all personally identifiable information of the subscriber and replaces them with a random string of characters. This can be used when you want to keep the subscriber in the database, but remove any information that can reveal their identity. Please note that this is ireversable and cannot be undone.

Settings

The Settings administration section is accessed via the tab located on the left hand side of the UI after to the Subscribers tab.

The first tab allows you to set your test profile fields such as:

• First name
• Last name
• Email
• Mobile

These fields will be used and populated when you are editing an activity. For example, if you inserted a firstname variable field in to an article block, the first name field in this section will display in that email in the activity preview.

User Management

To manage your Taguchi organisation users, navigate to the 'Users' section under the 'Settings' tab.

If you don’t have user management privileges you will see your user type and role(s). If you need your privileges adjusted, please contact one of your organisation administrators to make the necessary changes.

If you have user management privileges you will see the full list of users currently in place in your organisation, and you can manage their user types and roles in that area of the user interface.

A 'security tick' is displayed next to the users who have two-factor authentication enabled on their account. Two-factor authentication can be enabled by following the steps in the article 'Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)'.

You can also add a new user to your Taguchi^® organisation by clicking the 'Add new user' link at the top of the table.

This will launch the ‘new user’ window where you can enter the new user's details and select their user type and role(s).

After a user has been added to the organisation, they will be sent an email with further instructions.

Revoke access of a user

When a user leaves from your organisation and no longer requires access to Taguchi, it's important to remove their access so you can avoid having an unauthorised person accessing your organisation.

1. Go to Settings > Users
2. Find a user you want to remove acceess
3. Click on the cog and you will have a 'Revoke Access' option.

Clicking 'Revoke Access' will remove that user from the organisation and they won't be able to access the organisation in Taguchi anymore.

You need to have user management privileges to revoke access of a user.

User Types

There are 3 different user types available within Taguchi:

1. Base User
2. Power User
3. Administrator

Each user type allows a user to perform different tasks and actions within the system. See the ‘User Type’ table below for more on privileges per user type.

When setting up a new user, by default ‘Base user’ is selected. Use the dropdown to switch between the user type options.

Base User allows read-only access to Taguchi^® but you can give additional privileges to this user type.

These additional privileges are broken up into three roles; content, database and integration.

• Content roles allow users to edit, approve or deploy campaigns, activities and assets.
• Database roles allow users to view subscriber profiles, manage subscriber lists and custom fields, or generate extracts containing subscriber data.
• Integration roles allows users to manage (create, edit or delete) integrations. It does not allow the user to create, edit or delete credentials - this remains an administrator-only privilege.

You can select multiple ‘Base User’ content, database or integration roles as the user needs. For example, a Base User can have the Content Edit role and Database View + Manage roles. Or a Base User can have the Integrations Manage role.

Power User type provides all the privileges of a Base User with all Content and Database roles. Integration roles can be added to a Power User as needed.

Administrator user type provides all privileges + partitions and organisation settings, and if they have 2FA enabled they can also manage users.

Security

The settings in this section apply additional layers of security to protect your organization’s subscriber database.

You have the option to require two-factor authentication for every user of your organisation. Ensure you send appropriate documentation and instructions on how to enable 2FA to your users before enabling this option.

You can also set two-person approval for all extracts. This means an extract will require two people to approve it before it is made available to the requester.

The last option is to list IP addresses to whitelist. This will restrict all access to the Taguchi UI apart from those IP's listed in this field.

Credentials

Credentials play a crucial role in ensuring secure and authenticated connections during integrations with various third-party services and creating authentication tokens to connect to our APIs.

Different credential types are employed to uphold the privacy and integrity of data exchanges, acting as a secure passcode to verify connection authenticity. It's worth noting that not all integrations mandate credentials; their necessity depends on the nature of the integration.

For a comprehensive understanding of the Credential area, including how to set up and manage credentials for different integrations, refer to the Credentials KB article.

Theme

Each organisation in your Taguchi instance can be branded using a logo and background colour for added personalisation.

In the 'Settings' tab, simply navigate to the 'Theme' area. You will require administrator permissions to access this section.

From here, you can add a URL to a valid image file hosted either externally or uploaded via an image block in your email template (once you've uploaded the image into your banner block simply copy/paste the URL of the image from that block into the "Organization logo URI" field).

You may also opt to add a background colour (HEX) to the header (default colour is white). This is useful for logos that are transparent and coloured white, as you may opt to choose a darker background colour to make the logo legible.

An ideal logo size is anything over 240px wide and either a transparent .png or .svg file. SVG files should use paths and shapes rather than embedded images for scalability.

Once you are happy with your changes, simply click 'Save'.

Tags

Tags (Clusters) are recorded against the subscribers profile every time they click on a link. Links within email blocks or individual emails are allocated cluster key words. Overtime this information is used to understand the products or categories that the subscriber is most interested in.

Algorithms run in the background to determine if there is a particular pattern for that subscribers’ click through behaviour related to any key word. If so, that subscriber is added to a cluster. This process isn’t based after a few email sends. It may take months depending on the frequency of the communication and subscriber responsiveness.

Subscribers with similar interest categories are grouped into ‘Clusters’ that can be targeted with specific offers overtime. Unlike stated preferences, Cluster preferences are dynamic and based on what the recipient actually did, not what they said they thought they would do.

To add a new cluster tag, simply click the 'New...' link located on the top right of the table on the right.

Partitions

Partitions are sub-divisions of an organisation and are useful for segmenting and organizing your customer database. The Partitions area allows you to view, modify and create partitions in your organisation.

For example if you have multiple stores, you can create a partition for each store and assign it a set of custom fields. The entire set of partitions can be found in the settings tab, under the Partitions module.

To read more about partitions and how to create them, please click here.

Custom Fields

Custom fields represent personalized data fields that enable the crafting of highly individualized campaigns for recipients. These fields become essential when data requirements surpass the capabilities of standard, predefined data fields that may not encompass specific needs.

Custom fields empower users to tailor their communication beyond generic messaging, resulting in more personalized and relevant content for their target audience, enhancing the effectiveness of email marketing efforts by establishing a deeper connection with recipients on a personal level, that may then increase engagement.

For instructions on how to set up anad manage custom fields, see our article on How to set up Custom Fields in Taguchi

Note that creating and managing custom fields is only available for users with database permissions.

File Imports

The File Import area allows for a set of rules to be defined organisation wide or subscriber list specific. This ensures subscriber data being uploaded contains the necessary fields and/or required custom fields and stops users from mapping data incorrectly.

To create a new rule, simply add it in the text box and select save, however, note that the rules are only created in a JSON format. For example if you want all subscriber lists in your organization to contain an email field, the rule will be defined like so:

"global": {
    "email": {
            "required": true,
            "errorMessage": "Field 'email' is required"
             }
          }

The "global" field indicates that this is an organization wide rule, however, you could also replace it with a subscriber list ID which applies only to that specific list. The field required is then stated, which in this case is "email" and the rules for it are defined within the curly brackets. If the data being uploaded does not contain a field titled "email", it will return the error message: Field 'email' is required.

Note that this section is only available for users with administrator rights.

Domains

This section is used to configure custom tracking domains and sending domains for outbound emails.

Custom Tracking domains are used for tracking links in emails, SMS messages and webpages. The tracked link will pass through the specified tracking domain before reaching its final destination, whilst allowing for the tracking pixel to track the clicks/opens. To add a tracking domain, simply select "Add tracking domain" and enter the domain.

Sending domains are domains used to indicate who an email is from in the "From:" header of an email. SPF and DKIM records can also be configured for the sending domain, allowing recipient mail servers to authenticate your messages. Refer to this article for instructions on how to setup SPF and DKIM. To add a sending domain, simply select "Add sending domain" and enter the domain.

For instructions on how to set up a custom tracking domain, see our article How do I set up a custom click tracking for my template.

For instructions on how to configure sending domains, see our article How to configure sending domains

Note that the Domain section is only available for users with administrator rights.