Messages

A message is a communication sent to an individual subscriber or a collection of individuals, such as a list, group, or data extension. In Marketing Cloud Engagement, you can send emails and SMS messages.

Note Understanding the Web Service API is required to implement most instances of triggered email messages and SMS messages.

A message has two components: content and interaction. Content controls what appears in the message. An interaction defines information necessary to send the message.

With Automation Studio, messages can perform many recurring processes automatically. A message send can be user-initiated or triggered.

• A user-initiated message send goes to subscribers you identify at a specified time. For example, you can send a monthly newsletter to a list of newsletter subscribers. You can manage the entire process of a user-initiated email message through the application interface. You can associate one or more user-initiated messages sends with activities to make an automation.
• A triggered send responds to a subscriber action. For example, you can send a confirmation message after a customer makes a purchase. After you define the content and interaction for a triggered email message, you can send Welcome email triggered sends and Triggered Sends via Smart Capture pages.

All other events that trigger an interaction are defined using API calls.

Note If your account is integrated with Salesforce and your application user is mapped to a Salesforce user, you can select a Salesforce campaign or report as the audience of your email message interaction.

• Triggered Emails in Email Studio
  Use triggered emails in Email Studio to respond to email replies and to send email list opt-in confirmation messages. To use triggered emails for other needs, you must implement the Email Studio app and SOAP API. This guide covers the tools in the application interface.
• User-Initiated Email Messages
  Use Email Studio email message interactions, also referred to as send definitions, to determine how an email send occurs.
• Transactional Reconciliation in User-Initiated Sends
  Transactional Reconciliation helps you track the final delivery status of each transactional email sent through a user-initiated send. When enabled, Marketing Cloud Engagement monitors messages and assigns a final disposition (Sent or Not Sent) based on delivery signals during the expiration window.
• Messages Example
  A marketer at Northern Trail Outfitters sends a welcome email message to subscribers who opt in to the newsletter mailing list through their web page. The marketer creates a triggered email message interaction in Email Studio to automate the process.
• Email Send Error Codes
  Review error codes generated in Email Studio triggered emails.