Story-Level Targeting allows you to send a single mailing with specific content targeted to different groups. Also known as dynamic segmentation, this is beneficial to your organization because you can create one mailing with one unified report on that mailing but still target different groups dynamically.

EXAMPLE: Your organization sends a monthly newsletter, and each month you include a birthday promotion for all subscribers whose birthday falls within that month. Rather than sending two different mailings (one with your regular content and one with the promotion), you decide to use story-level targeting to send one mailing to everyone. The regular newsletter target group receives the mailing, and every member within a sub-group receives the specialized birthday promotion in the same mailing. Additionally, when you look at your reporting for the mailing, everything appears in one report (the specialized content is simply denoted as a sub-group).

Story-level targeting is implemented via the Mailing Designer. Let's walk through the process.

Step 1 - Set-Up Tab

1. In the Set-Up tab, click the To field.
2. Select the Specify the Target Group for each Story option. When you select this option, you individually assign stories to different target groups.

3. Click Update.

Step 2 - Design Tab

1. In the Design tab, click a story location to create a story. The Target section displays because you selected story-level targeting in the Set-Up tab. Here, you’ll select a target group to receive this specific story. You can set different target groups for each story.
2. Click the Folder menu to select the target group folder.
3. Click the Target menu to select the target group to receive the story.

4. Additionally, you can check the Include in Online Version box at the bottom if you'd like the story to appear in the mailing’s online version.

NOTE: The online version is the same for all subscribers, so if there is content you don't want everyone to see, you should exclude it from the online version and uncheck this box.

5. Click Save.

Step 3 - Test Tab

It’s critical to test the different mailings that your subscribers receive. To test story-level targeting, you need to send a mailing to yourself or a test a group (the Preview Test shows all stories). You can do this with the Send Test.

You’ll have three different options:

• Email All Stories - Sends the mailing with all stories (this ignores targeting).
• Email Based on Profile of Recipient - Sends the mailing with only the appropriate stories based on subscribers’ target groups and profiles/interests.

NOTE: Note that if you send this test mailing to yourself, your profile may not meet the required criteria.

• Email all Versions of the Mailing - Sends each possible copy of the mailing based on every variation from your potential subscribers. For example, if there are three stories (A, B, and C), subscribers could receive any of the following seven possible configurations based on targeting. Note that if one variation is impossible based on how the mailing is targeted, Higher Logic Thrive Marketing Professional (Thrive Marketing Professional) does not send this variation as a test mailing.
• A only
• B only
• C only
• A and B
• B and C
• A and C
• A, B, and C

The Send Test always sends both Text and HTML versions of the mailing (two mailings per configuration).

When using the All Versions option, each test mailing includes the subject line for the appropriate target group.

Reporting

The Mailing Activity Report (MAR) lets you compare the key metrics for target groups used in story-level targeting to the metrics of the mailing as a whole.

1. In the MAR, navigate to the Key Metrics tab.
2. Click Target Compare and select one of the target groups used in your mailing.
3. The Select a target group to compare results pop-up opens. Use the Folder and Target menus to select the desired target group.
4. Click Compare.

The Key Metrics tab now displays columns for the selected group compared to all recipients.