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 Intro to Themes and Intro to Building Content Page and Landing Page Templates for detailed instructions on how to do this.
How to Create or Configure a Templated Experience
Follow these instructions to follow through the process.
- On the main menu, select Content Activation and then click Templated Experiences. Here you see a list of completed Templated Experiences that have already been built by you or your team and that you can modify to suit your needs. You have the option to Edit an existing Templated Experience, Clone one, or Create a new one from scratch. If you want to build a new one vs. edit or clone an existing Templated Experience, click +Create.
- If you select +Create, a dialog box will appear with a Theme field where you will select from a 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). Below that, enter the Experience Name of your choosing. Also specify the folder in which you want to save the new Templated Experience. Save the new file by clicking the Create button.
- If you decide to edit an existing Template, select it from the list of Templated Experiences and then click the Edit icon on the right side of the Templated Experience you just clicked.
- Regardless if you clicked Create 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.
- Details
- Content Configuration
- Content Page Settings
- Landing Page
- 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.
- The General section is where you can edit the Experience Name. If you change the name, adjust the URL Path to match.
- 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.
- In the Content Configuration tab, click Add Content. You will see a popup window that displays 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.
Note: When you delete Content assets from the Content Configuration tab, you are not deleting them from your Content Library.
- 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
Once you have added assets through the Content Configuration tab, it’s time to create a Content Page by clicking on the Content Page Settings 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. 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
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.)
- 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.)
- The Landing Pages tab updates to display your newly created Landing Page in a list of any/all Landing Pages that have been created to date.
- 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.
- To continue setting up the Landing Page for your Templated Experience, click its associated Customize Page link.
- 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.)
- To see a section preview on the left, add or edit info for its corresponding item on the right side panel.
- 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.
Using Field Merge Snippets to Personalize Landing Pages
When placing copy on your Templated Experience sections, you can insert field merges to dynamically personalize the text for each visitor, based on your visitor’s industry, location, IP address, and more. Each field merge provides a space to add alternative text in case the visitor’s details can’t be identified by 6sense. Accounts are identified using default 6sense segments within PathFactory – or your custom segments from your own 6sense setup.
Field merges allow you to create customized views that display relevant information from multiple fields in a unified manner.
To add field merges to your Landing Page, follow these steps.
- Navigate to the Templated Experience you want to edit, and then select the Landing Page Setup tab as usual.
- On the Landing Page Setup tab, beside the Landing Page you want to edit, click its associated Customize Page link.
- In the Header section, for example, you may want to add dynamically changing text to display the visitor’s company name (based on their IP address), as shown below.
4. To achieve the look in the screen capture above, you would add {{company.name | default: PathFactory}} in the Header section, as shown below.
5. You will want to add alternative text as well, as shown below, in case 6sense is not able to extract the information you are requesting. You can skip adding alternative text if you want, which will result in nothing being displayed there.
6. Copy the appropriate merge snippet from the section below, insert it, along with alternative text in the sections you wish to personalize. Remember to click Save when you are finished, to lock in your changes.
List of Available Field Codes
{{company.name | default: default text goes here}}
{{company.naics_description | default: default text goes here}} North American Industry Classification System
{{company.country | default: default text goes here}}
{{company.address | default: default text goes here}}
{{company.city | default: default text goes here}}
{{company.country_iso_code | default: default text goes here}}
{{company.phone | default: default text goes here}}
{{company.domain | default: default text goes here}}
{{company.state | default: default text goes here}}
{{company.region | default: default text goes here}}
{{company.zip | default: default text goes here}}
{{company.employee_count | default: default text goes here}}
{{company.employee_range | default: default text goes here}}
{{company.industry | default: default text goes here}}
{{company.sic | default: default text goes here}}
{{company.revenue_range | default: default text goes here}}
{{company.naics | default: default text goes here}}
{{company.annual_revenue | default: default text goes here}}
{{company.sic_description | default: default text goes here}} Standard Industrial Classification
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.
- To add links or text to your navigation, click Add Menu Item as shown below.
- A popup menu appears, for you to enter specific information about the menu item.
- If you choose to add a link, enter its destination URL as well. To finish adding the item, click Save.
- 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.
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.
To clone a Templated Experience, hover your mouse over that area of the screen as shown below.
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.
Ready to Share
Sharing 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.
Click on the Landing Page tab and then you see a share icon associated with each of your Landing Pages, as shown below.
After you click this link a popup menu appears with more options.
Need a refresher on Query Strings? Click here.
Sharing 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.
Reporting and Sharing Reports
Templated Experiences Reports tab
This page displays detailed insights into visitors and account engagement on the content that has been shared via the Templated Experience.
Here is a high level view of how Templated Experience reports workflow.
There are 2 sub-tabs on the Reports tab/page: Visitors & Accounts and Performance.
Note: You can customize the data presented on these sub-tabs by using the filters provided on each of the sub-tabs.
You can view analytic reports to see how your Templated Experiences are performing. This allows you to view engagement metrics such as total engagement time, total views, bounce rate, and more.
Visitors & Accounts Sub-tab
On this sub-tab you see engagement data for Views, Visitors, Accounts, and Time Spent within a Templated Experience. The table below the screenshot explains the data being shown in each field.
| Total Views | This is the total number of views, no matter if the visitor is returning or viewing the Templated Experience for the first time. This metric does not discriminate between visitor types; instead, it records the number of views across all visitors. |
| Bounce Rate | This is the percentage of visitors who enter and leave a single page, e.g. a Landing Page of a Templated Experience, without taking any further action. Bounce rate is calculated by taking the number of bounces divided by the number of sessions in a given period. However, if the visitor completes a content click or fills out a form though, it is not considered a bounce. Even though the visitor only viewed one page, because they completed an action, it is not considered a bounce. |
| Engaged Visitors | This is the total number of visitors. |
| New Visitors | This is the number of initial visits that occurred within the selected date range in the filter. For example, if the first visit occurs within the selected date filter in the dashboard, then the visit is considered as coming from a new visitor. |
| Engaged Accounts | This is the total number of accounts that visited your Templated Experience for the selected date range. |
| Total Engagement Time | This is the total amount of time visitors have spent viewing the Templated Experience. Displayed in HH:MM:SS. |
| Avg Engagement Time | This is the average amount of time visitors spent with the content asset. This is calculated by dividing the Total Engagement Time by the Total Views. Displayed in HH:MM:SS. |
| Engagement Trends for the Period | This chart shows the daily total engagement for the chosen period for each Landing Page (not Content Pages) in the Templated Experience. |
| # of Accounts | This is the total number of unique accounts from which visitors accessed your Templated Experience. (See also Engaged Accounts.) |
| Most Engaged Accounts | This is a list of accounts that have engaged with the content. A session is a visit to the experience or content from a single visitor. A visit consists of clicking on Landing Pages, viewing content assets, downloading information, and form fills. This list contains your most-engaged accounts from the selected filter time frame, ranked in order by total session counts. |
| # of Visitors | This is the total number of visitors who clicked on your Templated Experience. |
| Most Engaged Visitors | This is the total number of visitors who engaged with your Templated Experience during the selected period. |
| Top 3 Industry | These are the 3 industries (based on total engagement time) that have engaged the most with your Templated Experience. |
| Top Industries | These are the top industries that have engaged most with your content, up to 20 industries. |
| To 3 Countries | These are the 3 countries (based on total engagement time) that have engaged with your Templated Experience. |
| Top Countries | These are the top countries that have engaged the most with your content, up to 20 countries. |
Performance Sub-tab
On this sub-tab you see top performing Content, Topics, and Channels for the Templated Experience. Below the screen capture read on to find out what data is being shown here.
| Known Visitors | This is the number of known visitors that have viewed your content. A known visitor is someone that has spent time engaging with your Templated Experience and is associated with an email address. The visitor either clicked an email tracking link or filled out a form (with the capture tag on it). |
| Unknown Visitors | This is the total number of unidentified visitors who visited any of your Templated Experiences. These are visitors who do not have an email address associated with their engagement data. The visitors may or may not be associated with an account but their individual details are still unknown (name, title, email, etc.). |
| Content Views Graph | This is the total number of content asset page views for all content assets in all the Landing Pages in a Templated Experience. |
| Trending Topics | These are the topics that your visitors engaged with most for the chosen period, sorted by popularity. Topics shown are Smart Topics captured in the Content ibrary. |
| Top 3 Contents | This graph shows page views for most accessed content assets. |
| Top 3 Channels | This graph shows page views from direct, internal or other channels. Channels are detected based on the UTM parameter utm_medium. If the value is NULL or empty then it is considered direct traffic, if the value is unknown, then it is considered other. Any other value detected is listed in direct or internal channels. |
| Top Performing Contents | This table provides a list of your top 20 content assets according to their total page views. This table also provides the total number of visitors each content asset had. |
| Top Performing Channels | These are the channels that have engaged the most with your content. The channels listed here are shown based on the utm_medium captured from the query string of a content URL. |
| Top Performing Campaigns | This list is based on the utm_campaign, captured from the query string of a content URL or the name of the email campaign activated in PathFactory. |
| # of Campaigns | This section displays the total number of campaigns that have used or are using this Templated Experience. |
| Performance of Template Elements | This table lists the Landing Pages for the given Templated Experience, its page views, unique visitors, # events, #CTA clicks, average scroll depth (expressed as a percentage), and the average # of events per visitor. An event in this case is a click, whether it’s on content, CTAs, or even scrolling through the Templated Experience without clicking on any of the content itself. |
Downloading and Sharing Reports
To see sharing options for your reports, click on the gear icon, as shown below.
When you click the gear icon, you see the following popup menu.
Clear Cache & Refresh: This option clears the file cache on your computer and runs the report again, using the filters you had set.
Download as PDF: When you select this option you see a popup menu for you to set up where on your computer hard drive you want to save the PDF.
Download as CSVs: When you select this option, you see a popup menu to download the comma separated values file. This is useful when you want to see this report in a Google Sheet or Excel file.
Send: When you select this option, a window opens.
As you can see, you can enter a title for the report, you have several delivery options, data formats, and you can add a custom message to go along with the report.
When you share a report, it is saved as a PDF file and is attached to an email message, webhook, Amazon S3, or sent via SFTP.
Depending on the option you choose here, the rest of the menu reflects settings for that delivery method. You also see along the bottom of this window a confirmation of the file format and the delivery method.
To precisely specify which content to send out, adjust the Filters. Click its arrow to expand the list.
Schedule – when you select this option, the following window opens.
On this window you can edit the following settings.
- Name the schedule
- Select a delivery method
- Add recipients
- Select a data format
- Trigger
- Set the Date, Time and Interval
- Filters
Within the Template for Content and Landing pages, you can add text and images for the provided sections, which you can then further customize as you wish.