You have two different possibilities to individualize articles in eMailings. You can also combine the two options and receive a two-stage article individualization.
The one-step individualization describes the assignment of articles with relevant contents for a target group with corresponding profile characteristics. This means that the recipients are only shown articles on whose topics they have expressed interest, e.g. via an online survey or via profile tagging. For example, if a newsletter recipient has indicated sport as an interest and this is stored in his profile, he will receive a sports report in the newsletter - if a recipient has indicated culture as an interest, he will receive a culture report. Provided when individualized articles are available in the newsletter.
With the two-stage individualization, you can define in the article individualization for which target group an article is selectively intended. You can set up special variants of such an article by making an entry in the article individualization in the article itself, provided that the article is displayed. For the article to be displayed, the profile must be in the "Sports" target group.
Depending on whether you define the article individualization directly in the article in the Individualization tab or in the eMail via the gear symbol (target group...), you will achieve a different effect.
A fallback target group can only be defined directly in the article if the profile does not fall into any other target group. There is no automatic fallback target group for article individualization in eMailings. If the profile does not fall into any target group, the article is not displayed.
Example:
You only want to display the article "Golf games" to the target group "Athletes" (interest = "Sport"). Profiles of the target group "Culture" (Interest = "Culture") this article should not appear. If the article is displayed to the target group athletes, the two-stage individualization of the respective article for individual sub-target groups should be automatically displayed, e.g. for "hiker", "swimmer", "climber".
Procedure
eMailing-individualization (1st step)
Create a new eMailing or select an existing one, see article: eMailings.
The articles for the various target groups are inserted in this mailing.
Create a target group for the different topics "Culture" and "Sport".
In the target group, the interest for which the article was individualized must be queried. In this case it is the field Interest and the entry Sports.
In the "Articles" folder, create all the articles you need for the eMailing and insert the content (culture, sports).
After you have created the articles, switch to the prepared eMail.
Open the eMailing and insert the articles for an individualization.
In the visual editor, click on the gear symbol in the article on the right and select your prepared target group for the article (Culture -> Culture, Sports -> Sports) under Target group.
After you have assigned the intended target group to the article, this article only appears to the recipients who are in the assigned target group.
Article individualization (2nd step)
Create a neutral main article in the Articles folder (Sport), then create the target group-specific alternative articles on a similar topic (e.g. hiking, swimming, climbing, etc.).
You now have two articles on sports: a general article and an alternative article.
Now create a target group (hiking, etc.) for the alternative article for which this article is to be displayed.
In the Interest field, a "Hiking" option must first be created in order to be able to select this option in the target group.
In the Individualization area of the main article, assign all alternative articles - with definition of the target group for each alternative article - you can also assign several alternative articles with their own target group.
Also check the box "If no target group applies, show this article" so that an article is shown as fallback, even if a recipient is not in a target group for an alternative article.
Please note!
If the article was individualized with an alternative article, the article should either not be assigned to a target group in the mailing or each profile must be in one of the main target groups of the articles. Otherwise, fallback will not work if one of the recipients is not in a target group for the main article, but only in the target group for the alternative article.
Insert the main article in the eMailing, this has the individualization directly in the article.
If the recipient of the eMailing is not in any target group of individualization for the alternative article, the main article "Sport" will be displayed.
The main article with the individualization directly in the article is exchanged with the article "The most beautiful hiking trails" for recipients who are in the target group "Sports" and the target group "Hiking".
Recipients in the target group "Sports" and the target group "Hiking" are presented with the article "The most beautiful hiking trails".
This type of individualization makes sense if you want to send a general article to recipients with a general interest in a topic and recipients with a special or advanced interest in a topic want to send a special article.
Tip:
Duplicate the main article (several times if necessary) and adapt the content to the individual target groups.