Normal Tags and Auto Tags

This article is about Normal Tags and Auto Tags. You’ll find information on how to set up Tags and apply Normal Tags to Customer Records. Before you read this article, you should be familiar with:

• Understanding the Customer Record

VIDEO: If you're new to Tags, take a look at our Contact Preferences, Tags and Customer Attributes concept video.

What is a Tag?

You can think of a Tag as a label which can be applied to Customer Records. You can use Tags to group customers together who share the same information or characteristics.

• Normal Tags: Can be manually added to and removed from a Customer Record. This includes Tags that can be added by the Customers themselves.
   
• Auto Tags: Are dynamically applied to Customer Records depending on the criteria you have set. This includes Tags that can be automatically added or removed after a Customer confirms a transaction.

Examples of Tags you could use:

• No email address
• Local Resident
• Regular Donor
• Wheelchair user
• Potential Member

Tags are unique to your system and can be configured to suit your requirements.

Why should I use Tags?

Using Tags can help you understand your Customers and collect information about them. You can use Tags to:

• Segment Customers in a Customer List
• Collect information about customer’s Access needs
• Send Integrated Emails
• Power Customer Groups
• Power Dynamic Content in Integrated Emails
• Control Eligibility for Offers, Priority Booking, Customer Groups and more
• Identify potential duplicate Customer Records

For example, you could create an Auto Tag which is applied automatically to Customer Records without an email address. This Auto Tag can then be used as eligibility criteria in a Customer Group which will prompt your box office team to ask the customer for their email address.

What do I need to set up Tags?

To set up Tags, you’ll need to complete the following steps:

1. Create a Tag Group
2. Set up a Normal Tag or Auto Tag
3. Add Criteria (Auto Tags only)

How to set up a Tag Group

Before you create any Tags, you’ll need to create or choose an existing Tag Group. Tag Groups are used to gather your Tags in one place under their relevant headings. For example you might have an ‘Accessibility Requirements’ Tag Group containing all of your access Tags.

TIP: To set up Tag Groups in the Admin Interface, you’ll need the General Administrator Role. If you don’t have this Role, ask the Spektrix administrator in your organisation to add this Role to your User Account.

To add a new Tag Group, follow these steps:

1. In the Admin Interface go to Customers > Tags:

   

2. Click Add

You’ll see a New Tag Group screen: 

Complete the following and click Save:

• Name: Give your Tag Group a clear, descriptive name. The Tag Group name will be visible online if you check the On web box.

   

• Description: Add a clear description explaining the purpose of the Tag Group. The Tag Group description will be visible online if you check the On web box.

   

• On web: Check this box to display this Tag Group online. This will be visible in the Other Preferences section of the account creation process. This enables Customers to add or remove their own Normal Tags during account creation or when updating their online account.

   

TIP: Tag Groups you make available On web must only contain Normal Tags. It isn’t possible to make Auto Tags in a Tag Group available online. Unlike Normal Tags, Auto Tags can't be manually applied to, or removed from, a Customer Record.

Once you’ve created your Tag Group, you can move on to creating a Normal Tag or Auto Tag.

How to create a Normal Tag

To create a new Normal Tag, follow these steps:

WARNING: The name of the Tag must be 16 characters or fewer. Tags with more than sixteen characters will not sync with Dotdigital. Furthermore, Tags with more than sixteen characters will stop any data being synced to and from your Dotdigital account.

1. In the Admin Interface, go to Customers > Tags:

2. Select the Tag Group you want to add the Normal Tag to:

3. At the bottom of the Tag Group screen, click Add Normal Tag:

   

   REMINDER: If the Add auto tag button is greyed out, this is because the Tag Group is set to display online. You can only create Normal Tags in a Tag Group available On web.

4. Enter the Tag Name (mandatory) and Description (optional). Make sure the name and description you enter clearly describe the purpose of the Tag. Click Save:

   

   TIP: Tag names must be 16 characters or fewer.

How to create an Auto Tag

To create a new Auto Tag, follow these steps:

WARNING: The name of the Tag must be 16 characters or fewer. Tags with more than sixteen characters will not sync with Dotdigital. Furthermore, Tags with more than sixteen characters will stop any data being synced to and from your Dotdigital account.

1. In the Admin Interface, go to Customers > Tags:

2. Select the Tag Group you want to add the Auto Tag to:

3. At the bottom of the Tag Group screen, click Add auto tag:

   

   REMINDER: It isn’t possible to create Auto Tags in a Tag Group which is available On web. Unlike Normal Tags online, Auto Tags can't be manually applied to, or removed from a Customer Record.

4. You’ll see an Auto Tag creation screen. Enter the Tag Name (mandatory) and Description (optional). Make sure you enter the names and descriptions you enter clearly describe the purpose of the Tag.

   

   TIP: Tag names must be 16 characters or fewer.

Adding Criteria to an Auto Tag

Once you’ve entered a Name and Description (optional) for your Auto Tag, you’ll need to add the criteria for that Auto Tag by creating a Local Segment.

In this example, we’re creating an Auto Tag to identify Customers who don’t have an email address in their Customer Record. This Tag will be automatically applied to a Customer Record based on the criteria set against the Auto Tag.

Follow these steps to add criteria to an Auto Tag:

1. Click New Local Segment

2. Enter a Segment Name and choose a Segment Type. Click Ok:

   

    

3. In the Edit Segment screen. Uncheck ‘Only show commonly used criteria’ and click the arrow to expand the Wrapper and view all Metrics:

   

   TIP: You can also update the Segment Name and Description in this screen.

4. Look for the Metric you want to use as criteria. In this example we’re using ‘Has email address’. Drag the Metric into the ‘Drop to add criteria box’ and set its values:

   

5. Click Ok

6. In the Auto Tag screen, drag Local Segment you’ve just created into the ‘Drop criteria here’ box:

   

7. The selected Segment will be included in the criteria. This example would include everyone who has an email address. To add an Auto Tag to don't have an email address, check the NOT box. The selected Segment will be included in the criteria:

   

8. To create another Local segment to use as criteria, repeat the steps above. 

   TIP: If you use more than one Local Segment in the Pre-Filter or Main-Filter, you’ll need to pay attention to the AND, OR and NOT rules. Read The AND, OR and NOT rules for more information.

9. Check the box Run this autotag after a customer record is created and after a transaction is confirmed. This will apply the Auto Tag immediately after it’s created, when an eligible Customer Record is created and when a qualifying transaction is confirmed. When this box is unchecked, an overnight job will run Auto Tags at 12 midnight in your local timezone.

   

   WARNING: There is a limit of 300 Auto Tags that can use the “per transaction” run setting. If you require more Auto Tags to run per transaction, please contact Support.

    

10. Click Next to add segments in the Main Filter or click Save to create your Auto Tag.

How to Bulk Update Tags

You can bulk update Tags to:

• Enable or disable per transaction run settings (Auto Tags only)
• Delete Tags
• Move to different Tag Groups

To bulk update Auto Tags, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Admin Interface > Customers > Tags. Click Update Tags and you’ll see the Review and Update Tags screen:

   

2. From the Action dropdown, you can select:
   • Disable per transaction: Auto Tags will run overnight at 12 midnight Local Time. The screen will indicate how many Per-Transaction Auto Tags are active.
      
   • Enable per transaction: Auto Tags will run immediately after confirmed transactions or when eligible Customer Records are created. The screen will indicate how many Per-Transaction Auto Tags are active.
      
   • Delete Tags: Auto Tags will be deleted and removed from Customer Records.
      

   • Move to Tag Group: Auto Tags will be moved to a new Tag Group. When this dropdown is selected, a second dropdown for the Target group will appear:
      

     

     REMINDER: Auto Tags cannot be moved to Tag Groups that are available On Web.
     

3. Select the Tags to update from the list of Available Tags on the left side of the screen, sorted by Tag Group > Tag Name. Auto Tags will only be available for Disable/Enable per transaction options and will appear under Available Auto Tags.
    
4. You can also Filter tags by Name or Tag group. If you are disabling or enabling Per-Transaction run settings, you can also filter to Auto Tags run by Per Transaction only. Select your filters and click Filter to update the Available Tags list.
    

5. To select a Tag, click to highlight the Tag. You can also select multiple Tags. After highlighting the Auto Tags to update, click the right arrow > to move them to the Selected Tags list on the right side:

   

    

6. Once the Tags are moved to the Selected Tags section, click Ok to update:

   

    

7. You will be asked to confirm your changes, click Confirm:

   

How to add and remove Normal Tags to a Customer Record

To add and remove Normal Tags in a Customer Record, follow these steps:

1. Search for a Customer Record

2. In the Details section, scroll down to Tags. Click Edit Tags:

   

    

3. To add a Normal Tag, check the box next to the Tag. To remove a Tag, uncheck the box next to the Tag:

   

4. Click Ok.

    

REMINDER: Auto Tags will be greyed out as they can't be manually added to, or removed from a Customer Record.

Adding Tags when creating a Customer Record

You can add Normal Tags when creating a Customer Record. Follow the instructions in How to create a Customer Record.

Adding or removing Normal Tags online

Any Tag Groups you’ve made available On web will be displayed when a Customer creates their account, or in the Other Preferences of their online account:

In the image above you can see:

1. Tag Group
2. Tag Name

Customers can add or remove Tags by checking or unchecking the box next to the Tag.

Adding Tags to Customer Records in bulk

It's possible to add Tags to Customer Records in bulk by:

• Applying Tags through a Customer List
• Importing Customer Data from a CSV

How to view the Audit history of Normal Tags and Auto Tags

You can view the audit history of Normal Tags and Auto Tags in the audit section of the Customer Record.

Read The Customer Audit for more information.

Further Reading

This article should give you the information you need to set up and use Normal Tags and Auto Tags.

To learn more about Customer data, visit the Understand your customers section of the Support Centre.