Create a Triggered Email Message Interaction

Create a triggered email interaction in Email Studio to respond to a subscriber action with an email message. Create your email content before creating the interaction. After completing this procedure, start the interaction.

When an event triggers an email in Marketing Cloud Engagement, it creates a copy of the email. The copy includes content blocks called from AMPscript functions such as ContentBlockByID, ContentBlockByKey, and ContentBlockByName. To change the email, pause the trigger interaction, edit the email, and restart the interaction. Triggers that occur during the paused state queue until you restart the interaction.

Note You can create up to 500 email triggered send definitions plus email transactional send definitions in a 7-day period for one business unit. This limit applies to send definitions created in the Engagement application and via API. It doesn’t apply to the Journey Builder email activity triggered send definition.

1. In Email Studio, on the Interactions tab, select Triggered Emails.
2. Click Create.
3. Complete the fields in the Properties section.

   Properties

   Property	Description
   Name	Name or title of this email message interaction. Use this name to identify the message in the application. Subscribers can’t see the name.
   External Key	Unique identifier for the message. Use this value to identify the message when using the API.
   Description	A brief explanation of the email’s content and purpose.
   Send Classification	Sets a send classification to use for this interaction.
   Override Sender Profile	Determines whether the interaction uses a different sender profile than indicated in the send classification. If selected, select an override sender profile to use.
   Override Delivery Profile	Determines whether the interaction uses a different delivery profile than indicated in the send classification. If selected, select an override delivery profile to use.

4. Complete Content.

   Content

   Property	Description
   Email	The message content sent by this interaction. Select a Content Builder email to use.
   Subject Line	Subject or title of the email message. The subject line is automatically generated based on the email you choose.

5. Complete Subscriber Management.

   Subscriber Management

   Property	Description
   List	List that holds Subscriber data, including status, for Subscribers who trigger this email interaction. If you don’t select a list, the Triggered Send Managed List, a hidden system-defined list that doesn’t support all triggered send functionality, is used.
   Triggered Send Data Extension	The data extension to update with data from requests to trigger this email interaction. Select a value in this field if you use a data extension created using the TriggeredSendDataExtension template. You can’t remove the data extension after a send occurs.
   Add subscribers to this list	Determines whether the list accepts new subscriber information of subscribers who trigger this email interaction. This setting only applies to the selected list and isn’t related to the selected data extension.
   Update Subscribers	If you pass in new data for a preexisting subscriber attribute via the API call, it updates that subscriber’s attributes. This setting applies to the selected list and isn’t related to the selected data extension.

6. To include a suppression list that prevents certain addresses from receiving triggered email messages, select that list.
7. To use a data extension or exclusion script to prevent email from going to selected domains, select the data extension or enter the AMPscript.
   For multiple AMPscript lines, separate the lines with an OR. For example: ROWCOUNT(LOOKUPROWS("Case_16733436", "SubscriberKey", _subscriberKey)) > 0 OR ROWCOUNT(LOOKUPROWS("Case_15537702", "SubscriberKey", _subscriberKey)) > 0
8. Complete optional Send Options.

   Send Options

   Property	Description
   CC Email Address	More email addresses you want to receive a copy of this email. These addresses are visible to email recipients. You can also use the Lookup() function in AMPscript to retrieve email address information.
   BCC Email Address	More email addresses you want to receive a copy of this email. These addresses aren’t visible to email recipients.
   Track all links found within this email	Determines whether the system collects tracking information on the links in this email.
   Send as Multipart MIME	Determines whether you send the message as multipart MIME to provide a text version of the email to subscribers whose email client doesn’t support HTML email. Use multipart MIME format for international sending because it allows character sets other than US-ASCII.
   Suppress the send from Reports	When selected, reports exclude sends from this interaction. Use this option to prevent test sends from appearing in reports.
   Priority	Determines how quickly a triggered email is sent. High: Queued immediately. Medium: Queued up to 3 minutes by default. It then takes up to 1 minute to send the email. Low: Queued every 5 minutes. It then takes up to 5 minutes to send the email.
   Keyword	Categorizes the interaction. If you enter a value in this field, that value is available to API calls.
   Send Logging	Log the send in the SendLog data extension.
   Disable API calls to the triggered send when an email build error threshold is reached	Set a threshold of errors before API calls are disabled and the send process is stopped. By default, the send process stops when an error occurs while building an email for a subscriber. These errors can occur for several reasons, including an API call passing in bad data or an AMPscript runtime error. However, the system continues to accept API calls even after an error occurs. If you want to use a back-up system when the threshold is reached, this option allows visibility at the API layer to the error. Use Disable API calls to this triggered send when an email build error threshold is reached if your account uses the asynchronous API.

   

   Note The default error threshold is 10. The first error stops sends, but the system continues to accept API calls. To change the error threshold, contact your Engagement account representative. When that number changes, the system disables API calls after reaching the threshold.
9. Save your changes.

Edit a Triggered Email

Understand the process of editing a triggered email in Email Studio after you start the interaction.

Note If you revised the email that's used in a triggered send, you must pause the trigger interaction, edit the email, and restart the interaction. Any triggers that occur during the paused state queue until you restart the interaction. Once the triggered send is resumed, the send will not send expired messages and proceed with logging an error 138.

1. Pause the interaction. While the interaction is paused, messages that subscribers trigger are queued until you restart the interaction.
2. Edit the email's content under Content.
3. Under Interactions, publish the triggered send with your content changes.
4. Restart the interaction.

Triggered Sends Queue Options

Use the triggered sends queue in Email Studio to view, export, clear, and delete specific subscribers that were added to a paused triggered send. The queue is useful for testing new triggered sends, troubleshooting triggered sends, or for using journey builder email activity triggered sends that paused after exceeding the error threshold.

Note Enabling Auto-Suppression Lists republishes all triggered sends in the account. Clear your triggered send queues before enabling Auto-Suppression Lists. Subscribers in a triggered send queue when this feature is enabled aren’t auto-suppressed. The auto-suppression isn’t applied to the send already in the queue.

Allowed Actions

The triggered sends queue allows these actions. View queue is enabled when a paused triggered send is selected. It remains disabled if multiple triggered sends are selected unless they're all paused.

Allowed Actions

Action	Meaning	Notes
Clear Queue	Clears the entire queue of subscribers that were added to a paused triggered send created in Email Studio.	When the triggered send is started, cleared subscribers don’t receive an email.
Export Data	Exports the contents of the queue.
Delete Individual	Removes only the selected subscribers.
Refresh	Updates the queue grid to show latest content.

Note The triggered sends queue requires the View Subscribers permission, which is automatically assigned to the Administrator role. Ensure that you haven’t created custom roles that deny this permission.

Administrator Options

Administrators can use the Clear Queue permission to control which account users can view queue. Users without this permission can’t clear the queue or delete subscribers from it. The Clear Queue permission is available for these Marketing Cloud Engagement roles: Administrator, Viewer, Editor, Publisher, Channel Manager, Security Administrator.

Queue Export Columns

Export the triggered send queue to a .csv file via FTP, which includes these columns.

• Job ID
• Triggered Send Subscriber ID
• Triggered Send Subscriber Request ID
• Created Date
• Member ID
• List ID
• Full Name
• Email Address
• Subscriber Key
• Request Data

Note Users must have Export Subscribers permission to perform an export.

Note If a subscriber is part of the queue for more than 14 days, their subscription automatically expires and they’re removed from the triggered send queue.

Triggered Emails Example

Review this example to learn how to send a thank you email to any subscriber who makes a purchase on your website. Create a triggered email interaction from start to finish in Email Studio.

A marketer at Northern Trail Outfitters sends a thank you email to any subscriber who makes a purchase on their website. The marketer creates a triggered email message interaction to automate the email send.

1. Create the email message content. As with any email message, you can use advanced features, such as dynamic content, personalization, and international character encoding.
   
2. Create the send classification, which contains the CAN-SPAM classification, sender profile, and delivery profile used for this triggered email interaction.
   
3. Bring email message content and send classification together into the triggered email interaction.
   
4. Associate a send classification with the interaction. You can override the sender profile or delivery profile.
5. Choose the email to send when this interaction is triggered.
6. Optionally, update a list or a data extension for the subscriber who triggers this interaction.
7. Start the email interaction, making it available for trigger by customer activity.
   

   

   Note The events that trigger this interaction are determined using the API to create code outside of the application interface. To create API components so the triggered email interaction works as intended, coordinate with your IT department.

The interaction is available to send the email message when triggered. Any customer who makes a purchase on the Northern Trail Outfitters website receives the thank you message.