Personalise any Link with customer data

This is, quite possibly, the most exciting feature we've released to-date, as we take a significant step forwards on the Action Links development roadmap.

As part of our recent updates to the underlying architecture of Action Links, we’ve been able to introduce what we call the ‘pre-action layer’. It’s a layer that sits on top of your Action Links and does two things:

1. Allows you to set limits on who can access your Links (e.g. based on a customer attribute or similar from Tessitura)
2. Surfaces data that you can then use in your content (e.g. the customer’s name or membership details)

Restricting who can access your Links

Let’s say you want to give your members access to some exclusive content. Well, the pre-action layer allows you to do this by giving you the ability to configure ‘authorisation rules’ that validate whether a user should be able to access a specific Link. 

For example, you can set a rule that says the user must have a particular constituency on their constituent record in Tessitura. If they don’t meet the criteria to access the Link (i.e. they don’t have that constituency), you can either display a message to let them know, or you can redirect them to your memberships page and encourage them to buy a membership to gain access.

You can use a huge range of data points to base this validation on – memberships, ticket orders, interests, attributes… the list goes on.

Personalising your Links with customer data

Perhaps even more exciting than limiting access to individual Links is the ability to use data about a customer to personalise the content of your Links for individual users. There are two ways you can do this:

1. Interpolating the data into your content
   For example, you could address the user by their name as part of an RSVP for a fundraising event, or you could show the user their current Gift Aid status and encourage them to opt-in.
2. Applying logic to vary the messaging for different users, or to create a template for items in a list
   For example, you could display different messaging to a donor who has given at a certain level, or you could apply a template to a list that pulls out a specific data point for each item and displays them in a certain way (e.g. a comma-separated list of a customer’s interests).

Action Links uses the {{handlebars}} convention to allow you to seamlessly include this data in your content (e.g. to include a user’s first name from Tessitura you would use {{tessitura.firstName}}). You can explore more of the options in our documentation. 

We also provide you with additional ‘helpers’ that you can use when interpolating data,  making it simple to apply formatting to dates, or to display a list of terms in a sentence. And if you want to take it to the next level, you can use this interpolation and logic in combination with markdown and even HTML, enabling you to create incredibly powerful interfaces without limits.

Use it with any action

A significant part of the power of this functionality is the separation of the layers in the Action Links architecture. The pre-action layer is action- and integration-agnostic, allowing you to apply your authorisation rules and interpolate data into the content of any Link, whatever its action or integration. For example, you could display a list of the events a customer has booked for (from Tessitura) alongside an interactive map of your building, creating a delightfully intuitive experience for users.

The potential use cases for this functionality are wide and varied, and we’re really keen to hear about how you might use this in your organisation. 

If you want to find out more about Action Links and its features, book a demo or get in touch.