Campaigns

Campaigns

Oniva campaigns are used to send targeted messages to a defined group of contacts. Unlike notifications, campaigns are sent to multiple contacts simultaneously and are not tied to an action such as booking an event. Instead, they are either sent directly or scheduled to be sent to all recipients of the campaign.‍

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Types of campaigns and sending methods

Campaigns can be sent either as part of an event (event invitation, reminder, e-ticket dispatch, thank-you email, etc.) or independently of events through a standalone campaign group (event-independent campaigns are only available with the premium licence).

You can send campaigns as either emails or SMS. Note that for SMS campaigns, the contact's mobile phone number must be stored, and SMS can only be sent as plain text.

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Editing a campaign

Once you have created a campaign, you can customise it under the options menu. The display (logo, brand colour, and font), email template, available languages, and the sender of the campaign are inherited from the event settings and can be adjusted in the campaign settings as needed.

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Layouts and content

In the campaign editor, you have various layout and content options available. These can be dragged and dropped into the campaign and sorted as needed.

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Layouts

• Section: Adds a new section. Content fields (image, text, etc.) or additional layout fields (two columns, card) can be added to the section. Each section can have a colored background.
• Two Columns: Adds a two-column layout to the selected section. New layouts (e.g., card) or content (e.g., text) can be dragged into the columns.
• Card: Adds a card layout to the selected section. A card has a white background with a branding-colored line above the content.‍

Content

• Image: Adds a placeholder for an image.
• Text: Adds a placeholder for text.
• Button: Adds a placeholder for a button. The button text can be customised. A link can be added in the settings on the right side, and the link can be customised for each language.

Tip: Email address on button
‍To place a contact on a button, an email address can be linked. The email address in the link field must be preceded by 'mailto:', e.g., 'mailto:support@oniva.events'.

Tip: The personal event link
‍The personal event link is an individual link for each contact. When the contact is invited through the personal event link, all imported information in the registration form is pre-filled. If a contact is already registered, the personal event link will take them back to their personal booking. For online events, it is recommended to send the personal event link shortly before the event as a reminder so that participants can easily access the virtual event and check in digitally. See article on personal event link.

• Divider: Adds a separation section. This can be used with or without a dividing line.

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Placeholders

Placeholders can be used to insert personalised content into your campaigns. Here is a list of available placeholders and their descriptions.

• [First Name]: Displays the stored first name of the contact. Works only if the name is known (import or after entering it in the registration form during registration).
• [Last Name]: Displays the stored last name of the contact. Works only if the name is known (import or after entering it in the registration form during registration).
• [Formal Salutation]: Displays the salutation of the contact. The contact's gender must be known (through import of gender (M/F), otherwise the neutral salutation is used).
  German salutation: Sehr geehrter Herr / Sehr geehrte Frau / Guten Tag
  French salutation: Monsieur / Madame / Bonjour
  Italian salutation:  Gentile signore / Gentile signora / Buongiorno
  English salutation: Dear Mr / Dear Ms / Hello

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Campaign settings

Email Information

• Campaign name: This title is only visible to the event admin and helps distinguish between campaigns.
• Subject: The subject line as it will appear in the email.
• Title: The title displayed above the title image.
• Edition: Edition, if available.
• Email header image: The title image of the email.
• Email footer: The sender information of the email.
• Display: Allows overriding the branding from the event settings for this campaign.‍

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Contacts

In event campaigns, the following automated contact groups can be selected as recipients for campaigns. These contact groups are based on the current status of the contacts in the event and are automatically generated from the existing event contacts:

• All contacts: All contacts under event contacts.
• Added guests: All contacts under event contacts with the status "open."
• Guests with requested booking: All contacts who have created a booking with status requested (see article on bookings on request)
• Guests without confirmed booking: All contacts under event contacts with the status "open" or "accessed" (i.e., not registered).
• Guests with confirmed booking: All contacts under event contacts with the status "registered."
• Guests with started booking: All contacts under event contacts with a booking status of "abandoned."
• Checked-in participants: All contacts under event contacts with the status "participated."
• No-shows: All contacts under event contacts with the status "registered" (did not participate).

Additionally, both campaign groups and event campaigns can create custom contact groups. See the article on contacts for more information.

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Send campaign

Once your campaign is ready, you can send it. You can choose between immediate sending, scheduled sending, or sending a test email. All three options can be accessed via the action menu (···) → open.

• Open sending: Opens a dialog box with a preview of the contact distribution in the languages of the send. Here, the send can be triggered directly via "send."
• Schedule sending: Opens a dialog box for scheduling the send. Here, the send can be scheduled for a specific time. The send will then occur automatically at that time.
• Send test email: Opens a dialog box for sending a test email. The first entry specifies the recipient of the test email, and the second specifies which contact should be used for the test data. This allows different language and salutation combinations to be tested.

Note: Test email without contact and variables
If no contact is specified for a test email, the button to download e-tickets or the personal event link will not be active.

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Campaign status

• New: The campaign has been newly created and is ready for editing or sending.
• In queue: After the send has been triggered, your campaign is being prepared in the queue. The queue is processed sequentially.
• Sending: The campaign has been released for sending from the queue. Oniva's sending speed is approximately 40 emails per minute.
• Sent: The campaign has been successfully sent from Oniva.
• Incomplete: The campaign was sent but could not be delivered to all contacts. You can restart the send to the open contacts via the action menu (···) → Open resend.
• Failed: The send has failed. The campaign must be resent.

Note: Queue
Sending with the status "In queue" starts automatically as soon as your campaign can be sent by the system.

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Frequently asked questions

• How many characters can SMS have when sent through campaigns?
  SMS campaigns can have a maximum of 255 characters.
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• Can the buttons at the bottom of email campaigns (Unsubscribe / Contact, etc.) be removed or renamed?
  No. These buttons are fixed and cannot be disabled or renamed.
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• Can attachments be sent with campaigns?
  No. Sending campaigns with attachments is not possible (and is also not recommended due to potential spam filters!). Alternatively, attachments can be uploaded to Oniva or other platforms and linked, for example, as a button.
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• Can placeholders/variables be placed per contact in campaigns?
  The following placeholders are available in Oniva campaigns: [First Name], [Last Name], and [Formal Salutation]. Instructions for using placeholders are provided in the article above. No other placeholders can be used in campaigns.
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• My send failed or is incomplete. What happened?
  There are various factors along the email sending process that can have an impact on the receipt of messages. In individual cases, there may be interruptions between senders and recipients. Interruptions cannot be completely ruled out, as it is not possible to directly influence the systems and settings of the recipients. Full inboxes, security settings or filter rules can lead to individual emails not being delivered. These problems are usually temporary and must be resolved by the recipient themselves. If your email delivery has an Incomplete status, you can use the subsequent sending feature to initiate a retry.
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• My send is in the queue. What can I do?
  Due to high demand for sends through campaigns, the campaign has been placed in the queue. The campaign will be sent as soon as possible. The queue is processed sequentially.
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• How quickly will an email campaign be sent?
  Oniva sends a maximum of 60 campaigns per minute. This number includes the sending of all campaigns in an instance (excluding notifications such as booking confirmations).
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• How many contacts can I address with my campaign?
  With Oniva campaigns, up to 40,000 emails can be sent per 24 hours per address. If an address is used for multiple newsletters, this limit applies across all campaigns. For smooth sending, we recommend sending a maximum of 15,000 to 20,000. In some cases, sending such large volumes can result in the send being interrupted (status incomplete). If a send is interrupted, it can be restarted via "open resend". The campaign will only go to contacts who have not yet received the campaign.
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• Why is my campaign email not being delivered?
  In the following article, you will find possible causes and solutions to this problem: Why is my email not being delivered?
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• Why can't I download e-tickets or test my personal event link in the test email?
  ‍If no contact is selected when sending the test email, neither the button to download the e-tickets nor the personal event website link will work. Since no contact data is available without a contact, no e-ticket can be created and no personal event website link can be generated. To test these two functions, a contact must be used for sending.
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• The number of recipients of a campaign does not match the number displayed on the dashboard. Why is this?
  If the number of contacts does not match the number of recipients of a campaign, this can be due to the following reasons:
  - Some contacts have not provided an email address.
  - Some contacts have unsubscribed from campaigns.
  - If the number of bookings does not match the number of recipients for a campaign, it may also be because multiple bookings were made under one contact.
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• I can't send my campaign because 0 recipients are displayed, although I have contacts in the selected contact group. Why is this?
  If no recipients are displayed, even though recipients are present, this can be due to the following reasons:
  - The contacts have no email address, or the email address was linked with an incorrect identifier in the registration form.
  - There are two contact groups with the same name, and the wrong one was selected. This can be checked in the campaign settings to see if the contact group is listed twice as a selection.