Best Practices
How Events Help Businesses
When tracking user actions (events), there are a few things that will make all the difference in the area of relevant messaging and hyper-personalized communication, and we will cover them here.
Before moving on to implementation ideas, it is important to figure out which events would you want to capture to bring communication with customers to another level. Think of the user actions on your mobile app or website as a story involving meaningful interactions between customers and your products, and then pick only those interactions that reflect critical points in the customer journey. Including too many events can overwhelm the communication.
Key Events of the Customer Journey
Acquiring new customers and nurturing relations with the existing ones is a challenging and often rewarding process. If you do it right and they like how they are being treated, your customers will tell others about you. And what do events have to do with that?
We will use the customer activation scenario to explain the role of events. Let`s say that the new user of a ridesharing app has just ordered their first ride, i.e. the user has been activated. What would be the sequence of user actions here? They will open the app, link a credit card to their account, insert personal information, confirm the order, and rate the driver after the trip.
When selecting events that will serve as triggers in your communication with customers, focus on the most significant ones, and on relevant goals for that specific campaign. You don`t have to use every single event in the sequence. For example, to make sure the customer is activated soon after registration, you can remind them of your services using the registration event: the event triggers a welcome message prompting them to order a ride.
Fuel Engagement With Events
The measurable goals your business is working to achieve will serve as another excellent guide for events-based communication. If your goal is to improve retention, then you need to think about all the moments that you can create for your users to keep them happy. Or maybe you are focusing on win-back campaigns. Are those campaigns based on user’s interests/behavior or are they just reassurances at critical points where the customer sometimes gives up in the middle of the journey?
If you are unsure about what user behavior would be crucial to fuel customer engagement, create a few test campaigns to get a better idea, and test different events. The image below could give you a very general idea where to start. Soon we will get to specific industry-based tables with a variety of relevant events.
The Logic Behind Event Tracking
As of now, Infobip Moments tracks the events of known users – those who have logged in to your app and have an identifier. We don’t work with anonymous persons (for example, people who come to your website to read a blog), but with Web SDK we do store the last 24 hours of the event activity for anonymous people in case they do log in and become ‘known’ users. Keep in mind that such events can also trigger engagement campaigns.
How to Name Your Events
Once you decide which events to use in communication with your registered users, you can start thinking about names – they are as important as the events themselves.
The event has a name and an event ID. The name is used on the Infobip web interface and can be written in any language, while the event ID helps developers to implement tracking.
We suggest that you keep the names simple and stick to the same form: if you use a present tense verb and a noun in an event name, use the same logic for each event in your communication. For example, choose between “Play Song” or “Song Played.” Always think about what might be a more logical choice for people in your organization who will be using Moments to create communication with customers.
What Event Properties Should You Track?
Event property is additional information about an event. For a music streaming web company that wants to use the event “Play Song” in their scenario, the event properties could be “songName,” “artist,” “genre,” “length.”
Event properties should start with a lower case letter (or any number).
Sometimes this additional information has even more significance, in a way, than the event itself. This is especially true when you want to start an engagement campaign based on a specific amount of money. Say you create an event property involving a purchase amount of 1000 USD because you want to offer something extra to that customer. That amount becomes the event property around which you build the communication.
Again, try to go for the event properties that will be essential for the campaign. Think through what you really need for the engagement campaigns, segmentation, and analytics.
There are also person properties (attributes) that describe your user, and they are not to be confused with event properties.
Tasks for Developers
Besides creating events, event properties, or person properties, you will need to consider the integration method that best serves your use case. Therefore, we built a table (opens in a new tab) to help create tasks for developers so they can efficiently track events and update user properties.
Events in Different Industries
In addition to the templates from the previous section that should help developers, check out the tables at the end of this document for some initial ideas. These tables have been designed to help you with the very first events that you might want to track in your line of work. Keep these suggestions in mind when brainstorming and creating events of your own.
Ultimately, you are the one who knows best what`s very specific about your own business and about your customers, and that should be your guide when you are ready to start building your very own events-based communication!
If you would like to start with the events suggested below, follow these guidelines:
- Create events and event properties on the Events page in People module on our web interface, as you would do with any event you plan to use.
- Pass this sheet (opens in a new tab) to your developers.
E-Commerce Events Table
| EVENT NAME | EVENT PROPERTIES | WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH IT | NOTES |
| Registration | None | Make people feel welcome. Create communication flows that require a registration date, and thus avoid sending other campaigns to newly registered users. | Update custom attribute to set registration date |
| Login | None | Re-engage inactive users. | |
| Add To Cart | itemName, itemPrice, itemCategory, fromPage | Increase the percentage of people who complete their purchases. | Update custom attribute for the abandoned cart use case. |
| Start Checkout | totalPrice, discount, itemsAmount | Increase the percentage of people who complete their purchases. | |
| Complete Purchase | revenue, totalPrice, preDiscount, discount, itemsAmount | Increase the percentage of people who finish their purchases.Tip: If there are more steps in the checkout process, these steps should be included too. | Clear Cart (the List-type custom attribute). Otherwise, the next abandoned cart communication will not work correctly. |
| Remove From Cart | itemName, itemPrice, itemCategory | Increase the percentage of people who finish their purchases. | Update Cart (the List-type custom attribute). Otherwise, the abandoned cart message will still contain the removed item. |
| View Category | categoryName | Send interest-based messages to increase purchases in specific categories. | |
| Add To Wish List | itemName, itemPrice, itemCategory, itemURL, itemImageURL | Remind users about items on the wish list - convert people who have forgotten about their wish list. | Update wishList (the List-type custom attribute) to be able to use items from the wish list in your messages. |
| Apply Filter In Category | filter | ||
| View Item | itemName, itemGender, itemPrice, itemCategory, itemURL, itemImageURL | Send interest-based messages to increase purchases of specific products. | |
| Search | query, results (type: true/false) | For query-based messages. Help people complete a purchase: send them a message related to what they were looking for. | |
| Error On Purchase | errorMessage | Engage people after they encountered an error (customer support). Mitigate negative customer experience with a warm message. | |
| View Promotion | promoName | Send interest-based messages. Increase purchases with a specific promotion. | |
| Share On Social | itemName, socialNetwork | ||
| View Cart | none | For abandoned cart scenarios. Increase the percentage of people who make a purchase. | |
| Enter Billing Info | successful (true/false) | ||
| Enter Coupon | accepted (true/false), couponCode, couponDiscountPercent | ||
| Review Product | rating | ||
| Cancel Order | reason | Send a message confirming cancelation. |
On-Demand Delivery Table
| EVENT NAME | EVENT PROPERTIES | WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH IT | NOTES |
| Registration | None | Make people feel welcome. Create communication flows that require a registration date, and thus avoid sending other campaigns to newly registered users. | |
| Login | None | Re-engage inactive users. | |
| Search | query, categoryFilter | Use it for the abandoned search scenarios - increase the percentage of people who complete a purchase. | |
| View Category | categoryName | Use it for the abandoned category situations - increase the percentage of people who complete a purchase in a specific product/service category. | |
| View Restaurant | restaurantName, restaurantId, restaurantLocation, restaurantCategory, restaurantRating | For the abandoned restaurant-page scenario - increase the percentage of people who complete their order. | |
| View Restaurant Reviews | restaurantName, restaurantId, restaurantLocation, restaurantCategory, restaurantRating | The abandoned restaurant review page - increase the number of people who complete their order. | |
| View Item | itemName, itemPrice, restaurant, cuisine | ||
| Add To Cart | itemName, itemPrice, restaurant, cuisine, orderId | Abandoned order - increase the percentage of people who complete an order. | Update Order (List-type custom attribute) in an abandoned order case. |
| Remove From Cart | itemName, itemPrice, restaurant, cuisine, orderId | Abandoned order - increase the percentage of people who complete an order. | Clear Cart (the List-type custom attribute). Otherwise, the next abandoned- order communication will not work correctly. |
| Start Checkout | orderId | ||
| Enter Coupon | coupon, overallDiscount | ||
| Complete Payment | orderId | -Improve the percentage of people who complete an order.-Re-engage inactive buyers.-Offer a bonus after 10 orders in 30 days to encourage additional purchases. | |
| Rate Order | restaurantName, restaurantId, rating | Collect ratings. Increase trust by showing many reviews from users. |
Commercial Banking
| EVENT NAME | EVENT PROPERTIES | WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH IT | NOTE |
| View Mortgage Page | pageURL, countryFrom, mortgageDetails | Increase the conversion percentage in communication with customers. | You can contact people with a specific offer because you know they are interested in the mortgage topics. |
| Filled Mortgage Form | form parameters | Improve customer journey and explain further actions. | Welcome sequence. |
| Registered | none | Improve customer journey and explain further actions. | Welcome sequence. |
| Login To Web | none | Increase the number of daily active users / monthly active users. | Use this event for activities related to customers who haven`t logged in for a long time. |
| Install Mobile App | device, OSversion, language, | To improve the customer journey and explain further actions. | Welcome sequence and a guide involving mobile experience. |
| Login To Mobile App | location | Increase the number of daily active users / monthly active users | For activities related to customers who haven`t logged in for a long time or for onboarding users. |
| Bonus Category Chosen | categoryName | Increase the retention rate via constant helpful communication with the customer. | Send a confirmation about selected categories, and a guide involving other special offers. |
| Mortgage Approved | mortgageAmount, mortgageLength, mortgageRate | Increase the retention rate via constant useful communication with the customer. | Notification. |
| Loan Preapproved | loanAmount, loanRate, loanTime | Increase the number of conversions to exact customers. | Notification. |
| Regular Monthly Payment Made | none | Send a thank you email and an offer involving other products/services. | |
| Payment Overdue | paymentNumber, paymentAmount, dateOfPayment | Increase payment conversions. | Notification. |
| Credit Limit Extended | oldAmount newAmount | Increase loyalty and retention with a gesture that shows trust. | Notification. |
| New Credit Card Issued | last4Digits | Increase retention. | Notification. |
| Credit Card Blocked | last4Digits | Increase retention and enforce security. | Notification. |
| Support Ticket Closed | ticketId dateOfClosure | Control service quality level. | After receiving any kind of service from a business, trigger an NPS survey to the customer. |
Insurance
| EVENT NAME | EVENT PROPERTIES | WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH IT | NOTE |
| Viewed Insurance Offer | pageName offerId pageScoore | Increase conversion in communication with potential customers. | A person viewed the page with the insurance information multiple times. We consider this customer as someone who is ready to buy insurance. |
| Filled Form On Website | fieldsFilled | Improve customer journey and explain further actions. | Form filled -> send an onboarding message. Form abandoned -> send a message reminding the user to return and proceed. |
| Registered (in-app or web) | none | Improve customer journey and explain further actions. | |
| App Installed | device, | Improve customer journey and explain further actions. | Welcome sequence. |
| Logged in to the App/Web | none | Increase the number of daily active users / monthly active users. | For activities related to customers who didn`t log in for some time or those who need to be onboarded. |
| Family Member Added | dateOfBirth, age, gender | Increase retention. | Personalized offers for new members. |
| Insurance Renewed | amountPaid, insuranceType, quantity | Increase retention. | Send reminder days in advance. Remind the user that their insurance expired. |
| Insurance Policy Expired | none | Increase the percentage of renewals. | If insurance hasn`t been renewed, send a reminder with a discount. |
| Purchased Flight Tickets | travelType | Increase the average order value or the percentage of sold add-ons. | If a person purchased plane tickets, offer them travel insurance. |