SendGrid setup with existing account
What SendGrid is a cloud-based service for email marketing and transactional emails. This service can be used to send bulk emails for marketing campaigns, track email open rates and clicks, manage subscriber lists and ensure that emails are not marked as spam. Where Admin: Store > Global store settings > Email accounts > New mail account. |
SIDES offers an interface to SendGrid for sending marketing emails, via which customer data can be constantly synchronized and kept up to date. This ensures that the newsletter reaches all possible recipients.
The prerequisite for using the interface is an established SendGrid account, which is associated with additional costs. All information about these costs and how to set up the account can be found on the SendGrid website: https://sendgrid.com/resources/guides/
The connection between SendGrid and SIDES takes place in 4 steps:
Set up the connection
Configure the connection
Configure the synchronization of customer data
Perform initial synchronization of customer data
1. Set up the connection
First, log in to your SendGrid account.
If you do not yet have a SendGrid account, please follow these instructions: https://support.simplydelivery.de/portal/en/kb/articles/sendgrid-setup-with-new-account.
As a starting point for sending newsletters, a list is first created which will later contain all recipient emails (this step can be skipped if customer data has already been imported into the SendGrid account and this recipient list is to be used further).
In the navigation bar on the left-hand side, select "Marketing" and its subitem "Contacts".
The overview of all recipient lists, which is still empty, opens. Click on the blue "Add Contacts" button at the top right and select the "Manual Add" option.
Select the third item "Add contacts to a new list" at the top to add the recipients to a new list.
Give this list a meaningful name, for example "Marketing Newsletter SIDES".
As the list cannot be saved empty, at least one recipient must already be added now. Simply use your own name and email address. This way you will receive all future newsletters directly.
Enter your first name, surname and email address in the corresponding fields below under "Contact information". Then click on the "Save contact" button at the top right.
The API key that provides the connection to SIDES is now created. To do this, select "Settings" in the navigation bar on the left-hand side and its subitem "API Keys".
The dialog for creating API keys opens. Press the blue "Create API Key" button at the top right.
Now give the API key a unique name, for example "SIDES Marketing" and select the "Restricted Access" option. This creates an API key with restricted rights. The API key only requires certain authorizations, and no more should be assigned for security and data protection reasons.
The required permissions are set in the lower part of this dialog. Click on the dot on the far right of the blue line for each of the options shown in the image to activate the full authorization. The required options are:
- Event Notification
- Marketing Campaigns
- Suppressions
- Tracking
Then save this setting.
Attention! If, for example, the "Mail Settings" section is clicked and opened to agree to the "Event Notification", this must be left open when saving. If this is not the case, the customized setting is automatically deleted again without any further notice!The API key is now generated and displayed.
Please copy this key and save it elsewhere if necessary.
After you have closed the display, the key can no longer be displayed for security reasons and would have to be recreated.
2. Configure the connection
Now open the SIDES admin interface.
Go to Admin: Store > Global store settings.
The global store settings will open. Select the "Email accounts" tab at the top. Click on the "New mail account" button at the bottom left.
The screen for creating an email account opens.
Give the account a meaningful name, for example "SendGrid Marketing" and select the option on the right that it is a marketing account (and not a system account).
At the bottom, enter the "Sender address" (sender email address) that should be displayed when your customers receive the newsletter, for example "newsletter@myrestaurant.com". Next to it, enter the "Displayed sender name" that will be displayed to the recipients, for example "My restaurant newsletter".
As a final step, enter the API key that you previously created in SendGrid in the "API key" field. Now click on "Save" at the bottom and the connection to SendGrid will be established.
3. Configure the synchronization of customer data
Your new account is now entered in the "Email accounts" tab. To select the data to be synchronized, select the "Edit" button with the pencil icon on the right.
The upper part corresponds to the screen in which you have just entered the API key.
Below this, you will see the information that SIDES has already retrieved from your SendGrid account.
At the top left, first select the recipient list you created earlier, to which all customer data should be transferred.
(If you do not see the list, the connection to SendGrid probably could not be established, and you should check the previous steps).
Below this, select the so-called suppression list. All customers who have unsubscribed from the newsletter are saved there. If your SendGrid account does not yet have a suppression list, a new list will be generated automatically.
On the right-hand side, you will find all the fields that can be transferred to SendGrid. Each recipient must have a first and last name and an email address. All other data can be added as required.
If you have selected an old recipient list on the left-hand side that already contains customer data, you can now compare the data from SIDES with these fields. You will find the SIDES data on the left-hand side under "Customer data" and the SendGrid data fields next to it. For example, select the "Postcode" field and then search for the corresponding field from your old SendGrid list in the dropdown.
If you have selected a new or empty recipient list, simply tick all the data you want to synchronize and select "Create new" in the dropdown under "Field at the mail provider". The required fields are then automatically created in SendGrid.
The data of the corresponding store can also be transferred in the same way to the right. This can be useful, for example, if an email should only be sent to customers of a certain store.
Once you have selected or assigned all fields, click the "Save" button at the bottom.
4. Perform initial synchronization of the customer data
The last step is the initial synchronization of the data. The fields of your customer data are transferred to SendGrid according to the settings you have just made.
To do this, select the "Synchronize" button with the double arrow symbol in the "Email accounts" tab in the line of the marketing account on the right (Admin: Store > Global store settings > Email accounts > Synchronize customer data with mail provider).
The upper section of the window contains information about the connection with SendGrid or any previous synchronizations. Below this, select the options for transferring the data.
If you use several suppression lists in your (existing) SendGrid account, you can select them here and thus also store the unsubscribed from the newsletter in SIDES for the corresponding customers of all lists.
Please note that customers who are later unsubscribed from the newsletter in SIDES will only be written back to the previously selected "main" suppression list in SendGrid.
On the right, select which information should be transferred during the initial synchronization.
If you select “Synchronize suppression lists”, all unsubscribes from the lists just selected on the left will be retrieved from SendGrid and the data in SIDES will be updated accordingly. This means that all customers who are marked as “do not want newsletters” in SendGrid will also be noted as such in SIDES. We strongly recommend this selection in order to avoid dissatisfaction with and possibly (legal) disputes with customers.
Select the third option "Synchronize customer data". This will transfer all customers marked as newsletter recipients in SIDES to SendGrid (after the suppression lists have been synchronized). The fields selected in the synchronization configuration will also be transferred.
The middle option "Allow newsletter for all other customers..." can also be selected and would also transfer all customers who have not explicitly unsubscribed but for whom no subscription is visible. This serves to completely synchronize the data, but should be used with caution, as the existing customer data may not have been collected in accordance with data protection regulations and may not be used to send newsletters.
Once you have made all the desired selections, click on the "Start synchronization" button below.
Please note that the initial synchronization may take a few hours, depending on the amount of customer data. All further, newly added customer data will be automatically synchronized with SendGrid and unsubscriptions will be synchronized with SIDES.
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