What's New in PeopleStage
Note: For more detailed PeopleStage release content, see Release Notes.
The following area provides an overview of Apteco PeopleStage™ release content development.
Added in Q2 2023 - Campaign preview
Campaign preview
Preview is now available for campaign channels even when you are not in edit mode. This means that you can continue to create email previews as standard while continuing to work within live campaigns.
Added in Q1 2023 - Volume constraints using a percentage
Adding a volume constraint using a percentage
You can now apply a volume constraint as a percentage, alongside setting quantities via PeopleStage. You can add a percentage volume constraint at the Audience level or Segment level.
See Adding a volume constraint using a percentage.
Added in Q4 2022
N/A
Added in Q3 2022 - Push pull marketing and real time triggers
Pull marketing and streams
Apteco now support Apache Kafka message streams as a method to pass data to, and trigger, Apteco PeopleStage campaigns in real-time.
See Pull Marketing and Streams.
Real Time Triggers
Apteco now integrates with Apache Kafka to allow Real Time Triggers. We outline how to setup and configure Pull Marketing and Streams.
See Real Time Triggers.
Added in Q2 2022 - Single Sign On (SSO) and WhatsApp preview/test
Single Sign On (SSO)
Users can now access Apteco PeopleStage through their integration with their 3rd party SSO provider.
See Single Sign On.
WhatsApp preview and test
In collaboration with Syniverse, you can now Preview and Test within the Delivery Step of our WhatsApp integration.
Added in Q1 2022 - WhatsApp for Business Integration
In collaboration with Syniverse, we are increasing our integration portfolio with the addition of the WhatsApp. PeopleStage can now send Business initiated messages directly to a WhatsApp conversation initiated by the user, with the user having given their consent to receiving communications from WhatsApp.
The integration supports the following use cases.
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Once a user initiated chat has commenced, and with the proviso that an Opt-in
An "Opt-in" can generally be defined as a situation where contacts themselves submit their contact details to an organization, with the expectation that they'll receive marketing communication as a result. has been captured, commercial business-led messaging can be sent directly into a WhatsApp conversation during a 24 hour window. -
Message sent at any time with approved templates in business-initiated chats for opted-in recipients only.
These messages are pre-approved by WhatsApp, and can be enriched with personalised content using the data held within your Apteco system.
WhatsApp Business API campaigns can be set up in PeopleStage and scheduled to run as part of a single stage - single channel campaign, or as part of a multi stage - multi channel customer journey.
Recipients can Opt-out An Opt-out is a request to be removed from an marketing communication deployment list for a specific group of messages, or all lists owned by the sender. at any time, and be automatically excluded by PeopleStage, if required. Statistics such as opt out, seen, and delivered can be gathered and reported on within PeopleStage to understand engagement with the Business message.
Download the Syniverse WhatsApp Business API overview.
See the Integrations Matrix for the Syniverse configuration help.
See for WhatsApp
Added in Q4 2021 - Support for Apache Kafka Message Streams (this is a beta feature)
Apache Kafka is a widely used high performance message queuing system designed to provide information flows between applications. It is often used as part of an enterprise information architecture to enable data to be shared and events to be triggered. See https://kafka.apache.org/
Apteco now support Apache Kafka message streams as a method to pass data to and trigger Apteco PeopleStage campaigns in real-time. A PeopleStage campaign triggered by an event on an Apache Kafka message stream can use data from that event, optionally enriched with data from a pull marketing data store to deliver campaign output in seconds. These real-time event-triggered campaigns are therefore not restricted to the existing data loaded into your Apteco system, but can process new registrations etc. The data output from the real-time campaign is retained for subsequent load into your master data stores (single customer view or operational systems, etc.).
The definition of the Apache Kafka message streams you wish to use to trigger real-time campaigns is done in the Apteco FastStats administration suite. Once defined, the Apache message stream will appear in your Apteco PeopleStage library as an Audience segment
and as a set of fields available for use in the content step:
Added in Q4 2021 - Improved support for Pull Marketing database
Improved support for the Pull Marketing database
We have enhanced our support for simple high-performance databases such as MongoDB and other NoSQL products used to store limited data for real-time access. We previously provided the Pull Marketing database to enable users to prepare data for access on demand when a somebody interacts through the web site, point of sale, app, web site, etc. In each case, that interaction ‘pulls’ the pre-prepared data from the database and uses it to inform the interaction, hence the name.
This enhancement promotes the Pull Marketing database to a full output channel and makes the data fields held in the Pull Marketing database available as values to output from a campaign. This means you can now use Apteco PeopleStage campaigns run on a schedule or triggered by an Apache Kafka event to write data into a NoSQL pull marketing database. That data might be model scores, or segments or aggregations or best next product details, etc. calculated using the wide-ranging techniques in Apteco FastStats. That same data may then be used by scheduled or real-time campaigns triggered by Apache Kafka events. Real-time campaigns triggered by Apache Kafka events can only use data from the event message payload and optionally from the Pull Marketing database (and not from the FastStats data store).
Pull Marketing database as an output channel for use in the Delivery step
Pull Marketing database fields as values for use in the Content step.
Added in Q1-2021 - Social Media Exclusion Audiences
Introducing Exclusion Audiences in PeopleStage
When creating Social Ads, PeopleStage users can utilise the data held in FastStats in the creation of a tailored Custom Audience. This list of customers/prospects can be uploaded as part a Social Ad campaign as either the Target Audience or the Audience for the platform to base their lookalike processing on.
When selecting lookalikes to be targeted, the platform will consider individual users who meet the demographic and interests of the Audience uploaded. However, an exclusion list is usually required to be uploaded to the platform to ensure that complainers, opt outs, or even recent purchasers are not included in this lookalike selection.
PeopleStage can create a file from multiple selections built in FastStats and apply it to the Exclusion area on the Delivery step of a Social Ad campaign.
See the following topics on how to use the Exclusion Audiences in each of the Platforms:
Added in Q4 2020 - Mult-Social Campaigns
Multi-social campaigning in PeopleStage
Added in Q4 2020 - PeopleStage Social Audiences
The Audience step in PeopleStage is where you define who you wish to communicate with, typically, we target People from within the FastStats database.
Social Audiences are different in that you are targeting social pages (Brands) within a social Platform (Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter), rather than specific people.
Example Campaigns
PeopleStage includes example campaign templates for you to use as starting point in creating a new Campaign
Added in Q4 2020 -Example Campaigns
Open the Campaign's Notes view for more information about the example
Added in Q2 2020 - Multiple Campaigns
Campaign Optimisation now supports the allocation of an individual across multiple campaigns over a span of time. It can reserve up to 5 campaigns per person ensuring that they are included in their “best” campaigns.
Added in Q4 2019 - URN ordering variable as part of Campaign Optimisation
A variable can now be specified to score all URNs in your optimised campaigns. When a campaign has more URNs available to it than its constraint would allow, we now order the URNs and take those that score highest. This allows us to not only prioritise campaigns with common audiences, but prioritise the URNs that are allocated to those campaigns.
Added in Q4 2019 - Choose if high/low is best for fixed priority Optimisation
When using a fixed priority optimisation, users now have the option to choose whether a higher or lower value signifies a more important campaign.
Added in Q4 2019 - Handling of deactivated Campaigns
Deactivated campaigns are now clearly marked on the strategies view and the publish dialog. They are now forcibly deselected when planning optimisation and can’t be selected as part of the Publish step.
Added Q4 2019 - Publishing unloaded Campaigns
Unloaded campaigns are now correctly shown and can be published as part of an optimisation.
See Publish
Added in Q3 2019 - Campaign Optimisation Improvements
Optimise over a longer Time Window
The optimisation process can now evaluate campaigns due to run within a window of up to 3 months and reserve records for the best campaign as determined by the optimisation criteria. Previously the Optimisation Window was fixed at 24 hours.
The Plan and Live views can be toggled using the control on the optimisation screen.
There is now a wider range of schedule options, so that the frequency of the optimisation task can be chosen in conjunction with the optimisation window.
Added in Q2 2019
Campaign Optimisation enables you to prioritise the Campaign an individual should receive in an Area where a particular Contact Strategy Constraint is in place. See Introduction to Campaign Optimisation