When speaking with ExactTarget clients about integration, it’s rare that we discuss email design best practices.  Typically, our focus is on how, why, when, and where to integrate ExactTarget with other business processes.  In general, I leave the email design questions to our talented Design and Strategy teams! 

However, there is one situation I’ve encountered where email design enters the integration conversation: the question, “What has to be done for me to change the email that is being sent out via an automated process?” 

In the past, there were two solutions for this situation.  The first was to stop the existing automated process, which had to be completed by a developer.  Then, the marketer could modify the existing email and work with the developer to start the process up again.  This was cumbersome for most companies, because developer resources are typically scarce and it takes too long to coordinate the effort. 

The second option was to create a new email (producing a new unique email ID) which was then provided to the developer to update the automated process code.  This second solution was usually the path clients took in order to get the switch scheduled at the correct time.  While the solution worked, it was certainly not ideal – especially to the marketers, whose changes are typically time-sensitive.

ExactTarget listened to the pain this situation caused and solved it with our triggered email interactions.  Triggered emails are typically the emails that are automated and they’re usually the emails that change frequently.  To address this issue, we give creative and automation change control to the marketer. 

After the initial API call is written and in production, the developer has completed his/her part of the process.  With triggered send interactions, the marketer has the ability to pause, modify, and restart their automated email sends – all within the ExactTarget user interface.   Here’s the beauty of the solution that developers will appreciate: while the email is paused and being modified, the API calls are queued up so no email sends are lost. When the definition is started again, the queued API calls are processed and sent using the new email creative, and any incoming API calls also send the updated email. 

In other words, this entire modification / redesign process can be completed without any development resources. This allows marketers to focus on email design and not have to worry about coordinating time with a developer in the process.  As you can imagine, this solution makes marketers and developers extremely happy!

Jessica Koch
Integration Consultant