Creating Custom Notifications

Instead of using an out-of-the box notification, you can customize the look and feel of these notifications in Constant Contact's Lead Gen & CRM.

Understanding Notifications

There are two different types of notifications:

• Notifications display information about the lead and action group.
• Form notifications display lead information and information submitted by a form.
  Note: This notification template includes two additional merge variables: Form Name and Form Data. These merge variables are not available in the regular notification template.

Lead Gen & CRM provides a stock set of notifications and form notifications that provide the necessary information about who has done what when interacting with your tasks. However, you may want to personalize these emails to your tastes. You can use these notification types to create customized email notifications. 

Note: Lead Gen & CRM users who have not opened an email or logged into the application for 180 days will have their system notifications suppressed. This includes VisitorID, billing, and automation-based notifications.

Creating Notifications

You can create email custom notifications as necessary. To create a custom email notification, do the following:

1. Click Email in the left toolbar.
2. Click Email Templates.
3. Click the Custom Notifications folder.
   
   

   
   
   

4. Click on the notification template to create a new one.
   
   

   
   
   

5. Enter a name for the notification.
6. Enter Preheader text for the email. 
7. Click Add Email.
   
   
   
   Note: The custom notifications template provides merge variables for you by default. When the email is sent, the variable will be dynamically populated with real form, lead, and account information. However, if you want to modify the merge variables in the email—or any of the text in your email—you can do so manually. 
   
   
8. To edit the merge variables, double-click the content block to open the content editing toolbar, then click Merge Variables.
   
   
   
   
9. In the dropdown menu, select the merge variable you would like to insert.
   
   
   
   
10. Click Next.
    
    
    
    
11. Add default text, which will appear in the event dynamic data couldn't be populated for the merge variable. This default text will appear instead. 
12. Click OK. 
    
    

For example, the default notification email template has the following text and merge variables:

Hey {$recipient!"there"},

We are notifying you because {$firstName} {$lastName} triggered the task {$taskName} and was placed on the workflow {$workflowName}.

The merge variables in this email template will change based on:

• The user receiving the email
• The name of the individual who triggered the specific automation
• The automation itself
• Which workflow the individual was associated with

Next, create an action group to apply the notifications. Notification emails will come from notification@marketingautomation.services. The address cannot be changed within the notification action group, however, you might consider a modified workflow and custom email solution if you want a different From address.   

Merge Variable Definitions

The available merge variables are as follows:

Modify the subject line

The Classic Email Editor:

To modify the subject line for the notification emails, in the Classic email editor, click the Send Settings button in the left toolbar. 

The New Email Editor:

To modify the subject line for the notification emails, in the new email editor, click the  Settings icon in the top toolbar.

Then fill out the Send Settings form and click Save.

Applying Notifications

Once you have created a custom notification email, you will need to apply it to an action group in order to send it.

To apply a custom email notification to an action group, do the following:

1. Click Automation > Action Groups in the left toolbar and create or edit an action group.

   
   

    

2. Under Start, Click + Add > Action.
   
   

   

    

3. Select one of the following Notification actions:
     •    Send a notification to email
     •    Send a notification to user
   
   

   

    

4. Enter the email or the user.
5. Click the Use Custom notification checkbox.
6. Select the desired custom notification.
7. Click OK.
   
   

   

    

8. Add necessary triggers, actions, time delays, and action groups below the inserted notification action to complete the workflow.

   
   

    

Note: Custom notifications cannot be used with post-back lead info alone. That notification action will need to be paired with either of the send a notification actions to send custom notifications.

Notification emails will come from notification@marketingautomation.services. The address cannot be changed within the notification action group, however, you might consider a modified workflow and custom email solution if you want a different From address.   

Questions?