View what's in this topicCreating an Audience
Audiences let you personalize your document — different recipients see different content based on the segment they belong to. For example, you can show one image to Single Males and a different one to Young Families. Creating an audience involves dividing your target market into segments, each defined by a condition.
Working with audiences has three steps: build the audience, link a content object to it, and define a value for each segment.
Build the audience
You build an audience in the Rule Editor, in Rule Designer mode. The Rule Designer lets you name the audience and define each segment with a condition. An audience must include at least one segment.
Every audience also has an implicit Default case for recipients who don't match any segment. You don't define it here; it appears as a (Default) row only when you set per-segment values for a linked content object or variable.
Behind the scenes, the audience is expressed as a conditional rule with the Default segment at the end. You can view this rule by switching to Code Editor or Rule Builder mode, but those views are read-only.
To create an audience:
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On the Audiences panel, click the + (plus) button at the bottom of the panel.
The Rule Editor opens in Rule Designer mode.
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In the Audience name field, enter a name for the audience.
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Click Add Segment. A new row is added to the Segments table with its Name field focused. Type a name for the first segment (for example, Single Males).
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In the Definition column, click to open a menu and build the condition that defines the segment. The menu lets you insert input data fields, variables, constants, operators, functions, and special characters.
In the following example, the Single Males segment is defined by the condition [Gender] = Male.
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To add more segments, click Add Segment again and repeat steps 3-4 for each one.
Note that the order in which you enter segments matters. Use the up (↑) and down (↓) arrows on a segment row to rearrange the order of the segments, if needed. For more information, see Segment order below.
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To delete a segment, click the trash icon next to its row.
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Click OK to save the audience and close the Rule Editor.
The new audience appears on the Audiences panel with its segments listed underneath.
To edit an existing audience later, right-click it on the Audiences panel and select Edit Audience — the audience opens in the same Rule Editor.
Segment order
The order of segments in the Rule Designer matters. When uCreate evaluates which segment a recipient belongs to, it checks segments from top to bottom and assigns the recipient to the first segment whose condition is met. Lower segments are not checked.
To reorder segments, use the up (↑) and down (↓) arrows on each segment row; these arrows appear once a segment has been added. The ↑ arrow is disabled on the first row and the ↓ arrow on the last. Place more specific segments higher in the list so they take precedence over broader ones.
Link a content object to the audience
Linking a content object to an audience makes its content vary by segment. For example, a content object named Home Image can show one image to Single Males, another to Young Families, and so on — each recipient sees the image meant for their segment.
You can link a content object when you create it, or link an existing content object at any time.
To link a new content object when you create it:
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Open the New Content Object dialog box (from the Dynamic Content panel menu).
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Fill in the content object's Name, Type, and other properties.
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From the Link to Audience dropdown, select the audience.
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Click OK.
To link an existing content object:
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On the Dynamic Content panel, right-click the content object and select Other Actions > Link to Audience.
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Select the audience from the submenu.
If the plan contains more audiences than fit in the submenu, click More Audiences at the end to pick from the full list in the Select Audience dialog.
A linked content object shows a yellow person icon next to its name in the Dynamic Content panel:
To unlink a content object from its audience, right-click it on the Dynamic Content panel and select Other Actions > Link to Audience > None.
Caution: Unlinking discards the per-segment values you defined. uCreate prompts you to confirm before unlinking.
Tip: You can link or unlink multiple content objects at once by selecting them all on the Dynamic Content panel before right-clicking.
Note: Variables can be linked to an audience the same way as content objects — right-click the variable on the Dynamic Content panel and select Other Actions > Link to Audience.
Define values for each segment
When you open a linked content object, the Rule Editor opens in Rule Designer mode with a Linked to Audience: <name> header. Below it is a two-column table: the audience's segments on the left (read-only) and a Value column on the right, where you set what each segment sees.
To define segment values:
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On the Dynamic Content panel, right-click the linked content object (marked with the yellow person icon) and select Edit Rule NG.
The Rule Editor opens in Rule Designer mode.
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For each segment, click in the Value column and enter the value. Use the menu to insert input data fields, variables, constants, functions, and other elements (see the Rule Editor topic for more on building expressions).
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Click OK to save.
The Code Editor and Rule Builder modes are available but read-only — values can only be set in the Rule Designer.
At delivery time, each recipient sees the value defined for the segment they belong to. For example, a recipient in the Young Families segment sees the image defined for Young Families.