Implementing Communication Planner

Step 1: Install the Communication Planner Package

Please see TargetX Recruitment Suite: Admin Group or TargetX Retention Suite: Admin Group for the latest package version. 

Step 2: Submit a Support ticket

You must submit a Support ticket to set up email sending for the Communication Planner.

Step 3: Configure Communication Planner Permissions

You can assign Permissions for:

  • Administrators can create and edit templates and manage and update Email and SMS Settings that impact the Communication Planner's behavior. They access these Settings using the gear icon in the Communication Planner.
  • Standard (can’t create or edit templates)

You can assign Permissions by assigning permission sets:

  1. Navigate to Setup and search for Permission Sets.
  2. Click the TX Communication Planner (Admin) permission set, then choose Manage Assignments.
  3. Assign Users to the permission set.
  4. Repeat for the TX Communication Planner (Standard) permission set.

Step 4: Grant access to the TargetX Communication Planner Images file library

When the Communication Planner package is installed, a TargetX Communication Planner Images library is automatically created. Two custom library permissions (TargetX Library Author and TargetX Library Administrator) are also created during installation.

Only the user who installs the package is automatically added to this library so the user who installs the package must add all other users to the TargetX Communication Planner Images library.

Adding users to the File Image Library 

  1. Navigate to Files.
  2. Choose Libraries and select the TargetX Communication Planner images library.
  3. Choose Manage Members
  4. Select the Users and/or Groups that will need access to images in Email Templates. Choose the appropriate Access level.

For details on Library permissions, see the Salesforce Help & Training article Create and Edit Library Permissions.

Step 5: Update Page Layout

Administrators must add the Visualforce page "Contact Activity" to see Email and SMS activity from Comm Planner.

  1. Navigate to Setup and select Object Manager.
  2. Click the Contact/Student object.
  3. Click Page Layouts.
  4. Click the Page Layout you use for Students.
  5. In the Page Layout Palette, choose Visualforce Pages.
  6. Drag the Contact Activity Visualforce page onto the page.
  7. Save your changes.

Step 6: Create and Schedule Communication Planner Apex jobs

For the initial configuration of Communication Planner, you must manually create and schedule three Apex jobs:

  1. Navigate to Setup and search for Scheduled Jobs.
  2. Click Schedule Apex
  3. Provide the following job details:
    1. Name = TargetX Communication Planner - Auto Deactivate Campaigns and Tracks
      • This job sets the Status for any Active Campaigns or Tracks to Inactive where the End Date is less than today. 
    2. APEX Class = StatusChangeBatch
    3. Select a schedule using Schedule Builder or provide a valid Cron Expression.
      1. An example cron expression that will run the job each night at 1:15 AM is:

 0 15 1 * * ?

  1. Save your changes.
  2. Click Schedule Apex
  3. Provide the following job details:
    1. Name = TargetX Communication Planner - Campaign Sync Retry
      • This job will attempt to sync any Campaigns that do not have a Sync Status of “Success” or any Campaigns with Tracks that do not have a Sync Status of “Success.”
    2. APEX Class = SyncRetryBatch
    3. Select a schedule using Schedule Builder or provide a valid Cron Expression.
  4. Save your changes.
  5. Click Schedule Apex
  6. Provide the following job details:
    1. Name = TargetX Communication Planner - Report Validator
      • This job will email all Org admins if any Tracks are found to have invalid or deleted Reports, which contain details of the Campaign, Track, and report. Reports will then need to be manually undeleted or edited to be valid reports for Communication Planner or the Tracks will need to be updated to select new valid Reports. 
    2. APEX Class = ReportValidationBatch
    3. Select a schedule using Schedule Builder or provide a valid Cron Expression.
  7. Save your changes.

Note: The recommended schedule for these jobs would be to schedule the jobs to run every day.  Your CRM does not impose a hard limit on how far into the future an Apex job can be scheduled. The start and end dates are client-specific. It's recommended to schedule daily jobs in one- to two-year intervals and set reminders to re-evaluate the job at the end of each interval. 

Step 7: Configure Communication Planner Settings

Begin by reviewing your existing Email Settings. Then you can define numerous settings for your institution within the Communication Planner tool. To display the available settings, select the gear icon at the bottom left of the tool and click the carrot next to Email.

Email Settings

The table below outlines the Email settings available in the Communication Planner tool:

Email Opt-Out Page Footer Settings

These settings are related to what appears in your Email Opt-out Page.

Setting

Description

Institution Name

The Institution Name that will display on the Opt-out Page footer.

Address 1

The Address1 that will display on the Opt-out Page footer.

Address 2

The Address2 that will display on the Opt-out Page footer.

City

The City that will display on the Opt-out Page footer.

State

The State that will display on the Opt-out Page footer.

Postal Code

The Postal Code that will display on the Opt-out Page footer.

From Email

The From Email that will display on the Opt-out Page footer.

From Vanity

The From Vanity that will display on the Opt-out Page footer.

 

Email General Settings

Setting

Description

Enable Email Groups

This enables Email Groups. Note: You aren't required to select an Email Group. If you don’t select a group; the system selects all eligible recipients in your report.                          

Alternate Email Address: Contact

 This setting allows you to select an alternate email field when choosing to use Alt Email in the Track or Element level. For example, if you have a custom field for your University email, you can select it here and when Alt Email is selected, this field will be used.

 

Step 8: Configure SMS Settings

Twilio Settings are where admins manage the Twilio settings for your SMS account.

  1. Navigate to the Communication Planner tab.
  2. Click Settings (gear icon).
  3. Under the SMS heading, click Twilio Settings.
  4. Enter the following:
    1. Twilio Account SID
    2. Twilio Account Auth Token
    3. Country code default  
  5. You can verify your Twilio API credentials and your Twilio credential sync by choosing Check Again or Try Again in the top of the screen:

Step 9: Create Email Test Lists

  1. Navigate to the Communication Planner tab.
  2. Click Settings (gear icon).
  3. Under the General heading, click Test List.
  4. Click the + to add a new Test list.
  5. Enter the following:
    1. List Name 
    2. List Description 
  6. Click the + to Add Members. You can create a New member or select from a list of existing members.
  7. Add First Name, Last Name, Email and Mobile Phone, then click Add, then Create.
  8. Choose Existing Member to select from a list of members you’ve already added in another Test List.

Step 10: Create Folders

Refer to Creating folders to begin creating your folders.

Step 11: Create Templates

Refer to Creating Email Templates to begin building your Email Templates or Creating SMS Templates for SMS Templates.

Step 12: Create Campaigns

Refer to Creating Campaigns to begin building your Campaigns.