Content Feeds

Content feeds allow you to create a reusable email template and use a structured data file to provide specific content at send time. This feature is very helpful for content publishers who use email to distribute their syndicated content.

Maropost for Marketing uses the Liquid scripting engine for content personalization. You will use the same scripting language to display elements from the content feed in the email body.

The only requirements regarding the structured data file are that:

1. The URL of the structured data must not be a re-direct to the actual resource.
2. The data must be either XML or JSON-formatted.
3. If you are passing in data as an array, then the array must be passed as a named element.

How to add a content feed to the Content Feed library:

1. Hover your cursor over 'Email', scroll to 'Content' and click ‘Content Feeds’
   
   
   
   
   
   
   NOTE: If you do not see the 'Content Feeds' menu option, notify Success@maropost.com and we’ll activate it for your account right away.

    

2. Under ‘Content Feeds’ there are the options to add either a single feed or a merge feed.
   
   
   
   
   
   

   Select 'Single Feed' when you are using only one content feed for your email. Select 'Merge Feed' when you will be combining multiple content feeds into your email.

3. Enter the name you want to use for the content feed. This is the name of the feed that will appear in the Content Feed library. Enter the URL of the feed.
   
   
   
   
   Select the option to update the content feed only if you will be using it for Workflow Messages or Transactional Messages. For normal broadcast messages, Maropost for Marketing pulls the data from the source URL and caches it when sending to all contacts targeted to receive the email. Workflow emails and Transactional emails are different types of emails. These types of emails are 1-to-1 emails hence would be hitting your content server every time a Workflow email or a Transactional email is to be sent. Under certain circumstances, this scenario could put unnecessary load on the content server. The 'Update' option refreshes the cached version on a periodic basis to avoid repetitive hits to the content server.
   
   
4. Click the 'Preview' link to open the content feed in a new browser tab.
   This action is helpful to reference the elements in the feed when writing the Liquid script in the email content.

How to use content feeds in email content:

Since you will be combining Liquid scripting with your HTML code to display the elements of the content feed in the email, it is recommended that you use the 'Upload HTML File' content editor. This is a pure code editor that gives you the best control over your HTML and Liquid scripting code.

In the Content editor, click the 'Advanced' tab and then click the 'Content Feeds' option.

Select the name of the content feed from those you’ve created in the Content Feed library.

Let’s say your JSON-formatted Content Feed is similar to the one shown below:

Note that each news article is passed as a combination of elements in an array, and that the array is named 'Content'

The HTML code in your email content will look similar to the one below:

<h1>Newsfeed: {{newsfeed.newsfeed_name}}</h1>
{% for feed in newsfeed.content %}
<p><strong>{{feed.headline}}</strong></p>
<p>Author : {{feed.author}}</p>
<a href={{feed.url}}> Click here to read the full article</a>
<p><a href="{{feed.social.facebook""">Follow us on Facebook</a></p>
<hr />
{% endfor %}

Click the 'Preview' link on the Advanced tab to preview what the fully-assembled email will look like when it is sent to the contacts.