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Marketing (Dotdigital™) Integration Guide

Presented by Exchange Solutions | September 9, 2025

Table of Contents​

Dotdigital™ Integration Overview​

Dotdigital™ is a digital marketing tool that includes a wide range of marketing functions, including email communications, messaging, marketing automation, and ecommerce personalization. ES Loyalty™ is integrated with Dotdigital's standard and transactional email functionality. This means that ES Loyalty can use Dotdigital as an Email Service Provider (ESP) to deliver emails to members, informing them about changes to their data or events and transactions occurring on their loyalty program account. This gives members an electronic record of changes and transactions, lets them review their transaction history, and helps reduce fraud by enabling members to take action when they receive unexpected emails.

Exchange Solutions can also synchronize data from ES Loyalty to Dotdigital, including account updates, promotional level data (such as promotional templates and targeted offers used to support email campaigns), and member email preferences. ES Loyalty profile data is used to create Dotdigital contacts.

Contacts can be created in bulk through a "lift and shift" of Exchange Solutions' data, including transaction history to support personalization and segmentation in Dotdigital. However, synchronization of a single contact is acceptable, and initial loading of contacts is not required. Exchange Solutions has a method for mapping IDs for initial contacts with accounts.

Flow of Events and Data​

The following is a high-level system diagram showing the synchronization of account data to Dotdigital and the triggered email function (from transaction data). A REST API client/service is required for Dotdigital. It handles basic authentication (required for Dotdigital) and the business logic for creating requests for the related API calls and handling responses. A configuration is required to set Dotdigital as the marketing provider.

  1. Member data flows from a Point of Sale (POS) system or a Customer User Experience (CUX, such as a website or application) into the Exchange Solutions Loyalty system via the appropriate REST API.
  2. Transaction and account data are sent to the correct tables in the ES Loyalty backend. For each, an event is triggered that sends the required data to Dotdigital.
  3. For transactional emails, the MarketingProfileSyncProcessor triggers an email send through the Dotdigital service. The email uses a template designed to provide the member with relevant information about the transaction.

Transactional and Redemption Email​

For transactional emails, Dotdigital is used as an email service provider and can be integrated with the Exchange Solutions loyalty platform.

The integration facilitates two types of email communications:

  1. When changes (additions, deletions, or modifications) occur to specified member data in the loyalty program, the member receives an email noting the changes. The email contains all contact data for the member.
  2. If a rewards redemption has been performed on an account, a transactional email (using a triggered campaign) is sent to the account holder. The email includes the redemption amount, store number, and date-time stamp for the redemption.

The processor that handles triggering in ES Loyalty can distinguish between channels for clients who send redemption information through different channels. This prevents the same email from being triggered multiple times.

The following event and transaction types support transactional emails:

  1. Partner card link / unlink
  2. Points transfer (from one member account to another)
  3. Purchase
  4. Member household balance
  5. Membership tier update
  6. Gameplay (CataBoom integration required)
  7. Badge earned

Account Data Synchronization​

The first requirement is to synchronize member information to Dotdigital. The assumption is that using the single contact creation/update API is acceptable in place of the bulk import APIs. This approach is more aligned with how Exchange Solutions handles the equivalent requirement for client SFMC account integration synchronization. It is also more direct and avoids the complexity of batching updates and making multiple API calls (upload, status check, get report) required by the bulk import API collections.

Account information is synchronized to Dotdigital when any of the following attributes are modified:

Attribute in Member Marketing FeedInternal Account Attribute
loyaltyOptInDateAccount.RegistrationDetails.registrationDate
isExpiredAccount.IsExpired
isSuspendedAccount.IsSuspended
tiersEndAccountTiers.benefitEndDate
lastActivityDateAccount.LastActivityDate

All attributes except tiersEnd exist in the Account document. Changes to tiersEnd do not trigger a profile synchronization. Account data is synchronized through an Account Event Stream Processor for Dotdigital. The Dotdigital ID is stored in the Account document.

To capture transactions and trigger an event, there is a Transaction Event Stream Processor for Dotdigital. Retries are handled by first implementing exponential backoff and delay. If the call to Dotdigital fails with a recoverable error (an I/O error or a 429 error), the request is requeued and retried without implementing exponential backoff. There is a buffer for integration with Dotdigital.

Examples of Use Cases​

The following are examples of use cases that result in the member receiving an email notification:

  1. Member registration — An email is sent to confirm enrollment and welcome the member into the loyalty program.
  2. Account suspension — The member is notified and can contact the client's customer service team for more information.
  3. Redemption transaction — For example, a redemption occurs at a gas station and the member receives an email showing the details.

Reference​

For additional technical details on how to send transactional emails triggered by events through Dotdigital, refer to the Dotdigital developer documentation:

Send transactional email using a triggered campaign

Conclusion​

The Exchange Solutions integration with Dotdigital provides a fast and efficient way to ensure that members are informed about changes to their data and transactions on their account. It helps keep members up to date with some of the most important information about the loyalty program.

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