Add a JSON Web Feed to a Campaign

Use the web to inject dynamic content into your messages

Here's an exciting feature that offers clever marketers all sorts of product promotion possibilities. You can inject custom content from an outside web feed source into a tinyEmail campaign template. 

What can you do with this tool? Here's one time-saving idea.

• Create a campaign template with an HTML block that promotes one product. Before tinyEmail sends the campaign, it grabs the production information from your external web feed and adds it to the message's HTML block.
• Next week, clone the campaign and promote a different product by changing the web feed (that takes about three clicks). Everything else is the same. Because you cloned a campaign, you can reuse the settings and content (e.g. audience, branding, etc.). 

Before you start

To create an external web feed source, you need one or more JSON files with links to images (if applicable). Be sure to copy the URL of each JSON file.

Each JSON file must be hosted in a place that can assign a URL. If you work for a big company, the IT team will know how to set that up. If you are a small to medium-sized operation, one cheap and (sort of) easy solution is to create a free GitHub account. You can create JSON files and store images in the same repository (i.e. folder).   

Adding a JSON feed

You add the JSON web feed URL in the middle of the campaign creation workflow. I'll skip most of those steps because we covered that work in a different article.

While creating a campaign, you'll come to the Details page. This is where you insert the JSON web feed URL.

1. Scroll down the Details page to the RSS URL (optional) heading.
2. Click the Edit button.
3. Paste the JSON file URL into the field.
4. Click Save.
5. Go to the top of the page and click Continue.

Adding HTML to a template

On the next page, select a campaign template. Click Use. The template editor displays. 

1. Make sure the Content tab is selected.
2. Click the HTML block and drag it to the canvas.

Double-click the HTML block to open the editor.

Add an HTML tag and label for each JSON property (e.g. title, description, etc.) you want to display in the campaign message. For image properties, be sure to include src attributes. 

tinyEmail adds property placeholders to the template canvas.

Optionally, send a test message to review the design and style of the HTML block. Go to the top of the editor and click Send test. Learn more about test messages.

Adding an audience

When the coding is complete, go to the top of the page and click Continue. On the next page, select an audience and click Continue.

Setting a schedule

On the Preflight checklist page, scroll down to the Schedule heading and click the Setup link. You can:

• send the campaign now
• set a day and time to send the campaign, or
• set a recurring schedule for the campaign

The beta version of the Recurring Campaign tool is live. Click to learn how to send the same message multiple times in a week.

Reviewing the results

When subscribers open the campaign, they see a seamlessly constructed message with your branding and product information. 

Cloning a campaign

Now, it's time to leverage the time-saving potential of JSON web feeds. With just a few clicks, you can:

• clone a campaign
• retain the core branding and content
• insert a different JSON URL with new product information
• send or schedule the campaign

Even crazier - don't change the JSON web feed URL. Instead, update the product information inside the existing JSON file. When you send the cloned campaign, tinyEmail automatically fetches the JSON file and pulls the new content into the campaign message.  

For this example, I show you how to place a different JSON web feed URL into a cloned campaign.

Here we go.

1. Go to to Email Campaigns page and locate a campaign to clone.
2. Click the three-dot icon and select Clone.

Locate the cloned campaign, click the three-dot icon and select Edit.

On the Preflight checklist page, locate the Details row and click Edit. 

Optionally, change the name of the campaign at the top of the page. 

Scroll down to the RSS URL (optional)heading and click Edit. Paste in the URL for the new JSON feed. In this example, the product is an iPad. Click Save and then Continue.

You can skip this step if you update the existing JSON file.

Scroll down to the Schedule heading and click Setup. Same as above: send now, schedule the campaign, or set up a recurring campaign.

Done. 

When customers open the message, they see the same branding with different production information.

That's it.

Now you know how to add dynamic content from an external web feed to a tinyEmail campaign.