Settings
These are the overall settings for all Communications within Core iQ. Almost all of these settings will be the same across email, letter, and postcard templates. Here you can name your template, decide on its Communication Category, see an estimated price per item, and if you have the Compliance role checked, you can mark templates as either Active (ready to send) or Inactive. Below we will outline some of the more specific settings:
- COMMUNICATION CATEGORY
- This is the most important part of the Communications Settings area. This field will tell Core iQ exactly why you are sending out your chosen communication, giving you access to additional settings and opportunities.
- Mandatory Communication
- This setting is used for items that are mandatory for all customers in your audience to receive. This can be federally mandated notifications, bank closure information, or other important messages that all customers are legally required to obtain. Mandatory communications will override exclusions within your audience as well, so be aware that this communication type should only be used sparingly.
- Product Offer
- This setting is used for items that are related to specific product offers relating to your Service areas. Once you choose this setting, you will be expected to tell Core iQ exactly which one of your Service Groups this communication is related to using the Offer Pertains to the Following field.
- Offer Pertains to the Following
Using this field is important if you want to accurately track conversions for product offers across the Core iQ platform. By correctly mapping a communication to a specific Service Group, Core iQ can help you track the effectiveness of your electronic and direct marketing campaigns.
Conversion Days Offset
This particular field allows you to set the number of days that Core iQ should track a communication to see if the customer converts. If the customer follows through on that communication during that period, Core iQ will mark that as a success. Finding the correct number of days to offset your campaign can be tricky, but most banks stick to a 30, 60, or 90 day window.
- Offer Pertains to the Following
- All other categories listed below contain no additional settings or functionality. Their purpose is to segment communication types for those customers that choose to opt out of a certain group of communications coming from your financial institution. It’s important to correctly label your template, even with these categories, as grouping them together can help you keep information relevant for your customers. These categories include:
- Courtesy Follow-Up
- Debt Collections
- News & Interests
- Warnings & Alerts
- Surveys
- This setting is used for items that are related to specific product offers relating to your Service areas. Once you choose this setting, you will be expected to tell Core iQ exactly which one of your Service Groups this communication is related to using the Offer Pertains to the Following field.
- Mandatory Communication
- CUSTOMER RECEIVES NO MORE THAN ONCE WITHIN
- This field will allow you to add another layer of protection to ensure that your customers are not being overwhelmed by the number of communications they are receiving from you. Core iQ will honor the date amount in this field when considering whether to send out a given communication to a customer.
Electronic Alternative
This section allows you to set a fallback communications method for your email and physical mail campaigns. If correctly configured, Core iQ will attempt to email a customer first with the relevant information for your campaign. If the customer does not have an email on file, Core iQ will automatically send out a physical communication to that customer. Currently, Core iQ does not support sending a print alternative if an email experiences a soft or hard bounce. These settings need to be set on the email template, with a letter/postcard templates as an alternative.
Desktop/Mobile Preview
In this area, you can preview what your campaign will look like once the data is correctly merged. We do insert a bit of stock data, but this is the best place to check to make sure that your content is being correctly populated by Core iQ. If your campaign template is being sent as an email, you will be able to see what it will most likely look like on a user’s desktop and/or mobile device. All of our digital campaigns are fully responsive, so your communications should look great no matter what a person is viewing them on. For physical campaigns, the Desktop Preview will give you a good idea what the populated version of the communication will look like.
Front/Back
These areas will allow you to edit the front and back of your communications piece. Our template editing interface is similar between emails, postcards, letters, and other communication types. To learn the differences between these various template editing areas, take a look at our How-To articles relating to each campaign type.
Merge Fields
Under this area, you can find all of the relevant merge fields for this communication. Adding a merge field into your communication is as easy as clicking the merge field name and pasting the bracketed name into your template. This tells Core iQ to dynamically populate the given information, which could be a banker’s name, branch address, or a customer’s first name. This allows you to further customize your communications and even add changeable information like interest rates, which can be updated in one place for all communications.
Template Artwork
This is the section of the Communications Settings area where all of your logos, photography, and other imagery will be housed. You can either choose from the bank of artwork provided by Core iQ, or upload your own items.
Proofs and Review
Here you will be able to receive a proof of your communication for review by your internal team. You are able to both Email and Download your communication, which is useful for electronic and physical items, respectively. We highly recommend downloading all letters and postcards as PDFs, as you will get a better understanding of exactly what they will look like when a customer receives them. In this area, you will also be able to send a proof directly to Onovative’s Client Marketing team for review. While they cannot speak to any Compliance details, they can give you feedback on both the design and content of your marketing materials.