This article describes Templated Experiences, what they are, and how to use them to enable your revenue teams to create engaging digital experiences for marketing campaigns, customer engagement,  and sales outreach. 

Templated Experiences are digital experiences that are easy-to-build, design and configure using a WYSIWYG (i.e., what you see is what you get) editor. 

A Templated Experience is composed of a Theme file, a Content and/or a Landing Page Template, and content assets. Theme files are master files that dictate the brand, styling, and layout of a digital experience within any Templated Experience you create. Please make sure you have set these up in advance before continuing to the instructions below on creating Templated Experiences. Please see the product support documents Introduction to Themes and How to Build Content Page Templates and Landing Page Templates for detailed instructions on how to do this. 

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How to Create or Configure a Templated Experience

Follow these instructions to follow through the process of creating a Templated Experience or Content Playlist. 

To use this feature, follow these steps.

1. Open a Templated Experience in edit mode. To do this, follow these navigation instructions depending on which version of PathFactory your organization is using.
   

• In the legacy interface, on the top navigation click Content Activation and then select Templated Experiences. 

• In the latest interface, expand the panel on the left side and then in the Content Experiences section, select Templated Experiences. 

2. To edit or clone an existing Templated Experience, in the list that appears select the checkbox for the Templated Experience you want to edit, and then select the edit icon, as shown below. 

3. If you want to build a new Templated Experience, click Create Experience.

4. If you select Create Experience, a popup menu appears, for you to select Content Playlist or Templated Experience. There are two types of experiences you can create: 

• Content Playlist – This type of Experience is useful for presenting a list of content for your visitors to consume. The image below shows an example of a content playlist.  

• Templated Experience – This type of Experience enables you to create digital Landing Pages that contain curated and personalized content that can be presented in a variety of easy, flexible and customizable design layouts. Templated Experiences can be used for any type of digital experience, including advertising landing pages, content marketing, campaigns, or anything you would create a web page for. Below is an example of just one Templated Experience layout you can create: 

5. To create an Experience, click Next. 

6. The Experience Details menu appears, for you to enter the details for the Experience. 

• Status – Select Active (available for distribution) or Sandbox (save as draft).
• Theme – Select a Theme from this dropdown list of approved and available Themes that have been created by your organization (this will determine the colors, fonts, and general styling and layout of your Templated Experience).
• Experience Name – Enter the name of your choosing.
• Parent Folder – Specify the folder in which you want to save the new Templated Experience.

7. Save your progress by clicking the Save button, or if you would rather start over and create a different Experience type, click Previous.

8. If you have decided to edit an existing Template, on the Templated Experiences list select the file from the list of Templated Experiences and then click the edit icon as shown below.

9. Regardless if you clicked Create Experience or selected a Templated Experience to edit or clone, you will then be taken to  the Templated Experiences page where you will build your digital experience. There are 5 tabs here.

1. Details 
2. Content Configuration 
3. Content Page Settings
4. Landing Page 
5. Navigation

1. Details – Define Your General Settings

The Details tab holds all of the settings for your Templated Experience. Here you see the page with no parameters added or defined. Click Edit to define these parameters, as shown below. Once you have edited the settings here and saved them, this view will update with the details you have defined. 

• In the General section you can perform the following tasks:
  
  • Edit the Experience Name. If you change the name, adjust the URL Path to match.
  • Access the Theme on which this Templated Experience is based. Click the name of the Theme to open the Theme File Editor. Once there, select the Landing Page Template tab.
    
• Search Engine Directive is where you set up direction for search engine crawlers. In this panel you can also turn on Cookie Consent toggle, and add up to three External IDs for tracking your Content assets in the Templated Experience.
  
• Access Protection is where you can set up protection for  your Content Page and Landing Page so that only a select external audience can access it. You can set the Protection Type, and then Allow Groups and Disallow Groups. For more information about groups and Access Protection, click here. 

2. Content Configuration – Selecting Your Content Assets

The Content Configuration tab is where you add the content assets you want to use in your Templated Experience Content Pages and/or Landing Pages. When you add content assets to this tab, you are copying all of the attributes and settings associated with that asset from your PathFactory Content Library, such as content tags and other content identifiers.

1. In the Content Configuration tab, click Add Content. You will see a popup window that displays two sub tabs: Content Assets and Collections.  

• By clicking Content Assets, you see all of the assets contained in your organization’s Content Library. Select as many assets as you want, and then click Insert Content. If you add any assets  in error, just click the associated Trash Can icon for the asset on the Content Configuration tab to remove it. 
• By clicking Collections, you will select (if there are any Collections already created) or create a pool of assets for  your Templated Experience to draw from. To find out more about the types of Collections and how to use them, read Introduction to Collections for Templated Experiences. Note: The process for adding a Collection is very similar to adding individual assets. 

Note: When you delete content assets from the Content Configuration tab, you are not deleting them from your Content Library. 

2. Click the Insert Content button to save your changes. You will now see the list of content assets you just added from your Content Library.
   

3. Content Page Settings – Build a Content Page Experience

Once you have added assets through the Content Configuration tab, it’s time to create a Content Page by clicking on the Content Page Setup tab.

When the page loads, select a Content Page Template from the dropdown list on the left side of the screen. For more support, see How to Build Content Page and Landing Page Templates.

You will notice you can edit the appearance of the Content Page here, including sidebar position, logo, CTA ID, CTA size, CTA text, CTA overrides and background color. When you set up the CTA, you can specify how you want the CTA to be presented: in the Same Tab, in a New Tab, or as an Overlay.

As you change settings in the left panel, you will see a preview of those changes appear on the right side of the page. 

Note: If you are planning to create calls-to-action (CTAs) for your campaign, you must complete the CTA fields. CTA ID is especially important for enabling tracking for your CTAs.

Below is an example of a completed Content Page. Content Pages look similar to campaign content tracks. 

4. Landing Pages – Build a Landing Page Experience 

However, if you want to create a more customizable / web-page layout like experience, you can create configurable Landing Pages that leverage the content assets you defined in the Content Configuration tab. (For PathFactory customers familiar with Microsites and Explore Pages, the Landing Pages in Templated Experiences offer similar functionality but are easier and faster to create using the built-in WYSIWYG editor.)

1. Click Add Landing Page to create a new Landing Page for your Templated Experience. A popup menu appears, so you can assign a name and select the starter template from the list of available Templates. (You will be able to modify the Template you select in later steps.)

2. The Landing Page Setup tab updates to display your newly created Landing Page in a list of any/all Landing Pages that have been created to date.

3. Click the Settings link associated with your Landing Page if you want to edit the Name, URL Slug, Thumbnail Image, Page Title, Page Description and Visibility. If you plan to share this experience with anyone, you must set the Visibility to Public. The following popup appears.
   
   Note: If you set the visibility to Private, you will not be able to share the Templated Experience or view a preview. 

4. To continue setting up the Landing Page for your Templated Experience, click its associated Customize Page link. 
5. When you click Customize Page, the Landing Page Editor opens. Here you see the default sections and layout that was configured for the selected Landing Page Template in Themes. (See How to Build Content Page and Landing Page Templates for more details.)
   
   Note: To view the Template on which this Landing Page is based, click the View Template link at the top of the page.
   
   
6. To see a section preview on the left, add or edit info for its corresponding item on the right side panel.
7. To set up a content asset (including video) to display as a single featured asset to be displayed in full width on the Landing Page, go to the Content List section and then select a single tile in the Carousel as highlighted in the screen capture below.
   
   Note: This feature lets you embed a full-sized featured asset or video in the page while still capturing all of the engagement data.
   

8. When you are finished setting up/editing your Landing page, click Save. You will see a save confirmation message at the bottom of the screen. 

Here is an example of a completed Landing page.

5. Navigation 

To customize the Templated Experience and guide the visitor further, you can define the navigation within the Templated Experience on the Navigation tab. To do this, follow the steps below.

1. To add links or text to your navigation, click Add Navigation Item as shown below. 

2. A popup menu appears, for you to enter specific information about the menu item. 

3. If you choose to add a link, enter its destination URL as well. To finish adding the item, click Save.
   
4. You are returned to the Navigation tab, where you can reorder the menu items via drag and drop, or delete them by clicking an associated Trash Can icon. 

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Cloning a Landing Page or a Templated Experience

You may want to create a number of Templated Experiences or Landing Pages that are very similar to each other. You can save a lot of time by cloning the originals.

How to Clone a Templated Experience

To clone a Templated Experience, hover your mouse over that area of the screen as shown below. 

How to Clone a Landing Page

Within a Templated Experience, you can clone a Landing Page if you want to rapidly build Landing Pages with the same or similar layouts instead of starting over completely each time you create one. 

To clone a Landing Page, open the Templated Experience here and on the Landing Page Settings tab, click the Clone icon next to the Landing page you want to copy, as shown below. 

One scenario where you might want to create multiple landing pages within a single Templated Experience is to create “Level 1” and “Level 2” pages for a website like experience. For example, one Landing Page serves as the main destination page that you will point audiences to wherever you promote the experience. Any additional Landing Pages you add to the Templated Experience) could be “Level 2”  pages that you link to links from the main Level 1 page.

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How to Share Pages

How to Share a Landing Page

You are now ready to test your new Landing Page. Return to the Landing Page tab and click on the Share icon. You can open your completed Landing Page in a new tab to preview it, and then copy the link to your clipboard from there (you can paste that link directly in an email message or use wherever you want to drive traffic to the experience. You can also copy the link sharing icon to send to others that way. Similar to PathFactory’s other activation experiences, you can also append the query parameter that you have defined in the organization settings if needed.

1. Click on the Landing Page tab and then you see a share icon associated with each of your Landing Pages, as shown below. 

2. After you click this link a popup menu appears with more options. 

3. On this menu you can specify which asset you want to visitor to see first, as an overlay on the Landing Page. To do this, select a Source Type from the dropdown menu, and follow the prompts to select the starting asset. See the example in the screen capture below.

4. When you are ready to share the link, click the clone icon on the bottom left of the menu, which copies the link to the clipboard. You may then paste this link in an email or other message type and send to your recipients.

Need a refresher on Query Strings? Click here. 

How to Share a Content Page

To preview and share your Content Page, select the Content Configuration tab and you see the URLs in your list of Content Assets. Click on any of the URLs here to see your Content Page preview. 

Note: If you designated your content as restricted, you may see a window asking for your email address. Follow the instructions to proceed.

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How to Organize Experiences in Folders

You may wish to rename a folder, create a new folder and move Experiences into it for easy reference, or delete an outdated Experience. 

Move or Delete an Experience

To move an Experience to an existing folder or to delete an Experience, follow these steps.

1. With the list of Templated Experiences and Content Plays open, select the checkbox associated with each of the items you want to move or delete. You may select as many items at a time as you wish. 

• To move the items, click Move To. 

• The following prompt appears. Use the dropdown menu to select the destination folder.

• To delete Experiences, select Delete Multiple. 

• The following confirmation prompt appears. To proceed with the deletion, click Yes. To close the menu and exit the deletion process, click Cancel. 

How to Create a New Folder

To create a new folder and populate it with existing Experiences, follow these steps. 

1. Open the master list of Experiences by selecting Content Activation, then Templated Experiences.  Or, if you are using the new user interface, on the side panel select Collections. 
2. On the screen that opens, on the left panel click Add Folder as shown below.

3. At the prompt, enter a name for the new folder and then click Create Folder.
   Note: You may easily rename the folder later if needed.

You’ll notice the new folder in the list of folders. 

4. Next, in the panel on the right where the Templated Experiences and Content Plays are listed, select the checkbox associated with the items you wish to move to the new folder. 

3. At the top of the screen, click Move To. 

Note: You may also use the Delete Multiple button to delete Experiences that you no longer use. 

4. At the prompt, use the dropdown list to select the folder you created in the previous step. 

You’ll notice the newly created folder is now populated with the Experience you had selected. 

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How to Create and Share Performance Reports

You can create, analyze and share reports on visitor consumption of content assets by clicking on the Reports tab within Templated Experiences. 

The Reports tab displays detailed insights into visitors and account engagement with the content that has been shared via a Templated Experience. To learn more about reports for Templated Experience performance, read Creating, Sharing & Analyzing Reports for Templated Experiences.