First Mobile Push Mailing
 | This tutorial will help you to create and launch your Mobile Push mailing in the Altcraft Platform from scratch. Mobile push notifications are displayed in your customers' mobile device message centre — in the upper part of the screen most commonly. They are allowed by default on application installation. That's why you can start engaging your customers right away and increase your app conversion. Push notifications are much more profitable than SMS, because sending them practically costs nothing. |
Step 1: Configure a Domain to Work with Push
If you use an Altcraft cloud account, please give the information to the support team at support@altcraft.com. They will help you to connect the integration.
If the Altcraft platform is installed on your equipment (On-premises), contact your platform administrators. Or just contact our support team!
Make sure your website is running over HTTPS. In addition, web pixels must be configured in the Altcraft system. Also, push notifications must be activated in the Admin Panel for accounts from which you plan to send:
Step 2: Set Up Your Mobile Provider Project
Depending on the provider you choose, create a project on the provider's side and obtain the data needed to configure the resource in the platform:
- Firebase Cloud Messaging — project in Firebase Console.
- APNs — key or certificate in Apple Developer.
- AppMetrica — application in AppMetrica.
- Huawei Mobile Services — project in AppGallery Connect.
- RuStore — push notifications project in RuStore Console.
Step 3: Create a Database and Subscription Resource
Altcraft mailings are received by your subscribers. Subscriber profiles are stored in profiles databases.
When you start your Push mailing, you use profile subscriptions to resources. This way, you can send notifications to different devices or to different browsers. Each client profile can be subscribed to one or more resources.
What can be a resource? A specific marketing area, a site, an application, or the type of content.
Create a profiles database if you don't have one yet. Then create a new resource with a Push channel:
In the general settings, add the database. If needed, assign a sending policy and specify the Default tracking domain. This domain will process your customers' clicks on links in messages:
In Push settings, select the platforms you are going to send notifications to and enter the provider settings obtained in the previous step:
Step 4: Integrate mSDK into Your App
To send Mobile Push notifications, you need to integrate Altcraft mSDK into your mobile application. mSDK handles push provider connection, subscription token submission, notification display, and event registration.
JWT Token Authorization
When configuring the resource, use a JWT token for mSDK authorization. The token is generated and signed on the app's server, providing security and allowing profile lookup by any identifiers (email, phone, custom ID). It supports multiple users on one device and profile recovery after app reinstallation.
For JWT to work, you need to prepare your app's backend to generate and sign tokens. For more details, see Role Token and JWT Token.
As an alternative, rToken (role token) is available, where profile matching is done only by push token. This option is less reliable and limits capabilities — the profile may be "lost" when the device changes or the app is reinstalled.
Share the resource token with your developers and follow the quick start guide for your platform:
Subscriptions to Yandex.AppMetrica can be added automatically for users of apps with the metrics service connected. For more details, see Integration with Yandex.AppMetrica.
Step 5: Prepare Content for Sending
The content for your Push mailings is created in Message Templates. The templates contain content for all available channels. When you create a new template, select the Push channel or add it for an existing one.
The template of the push notification can contain:
- A title that is similar to email subject
- Notification body is the main text part of the message
- An image or an icon that will be displayed in the notification
- A clickable link is the link that the subscriber will follow when he clicks on the push notification.
To the title, link and body, you can add the data of a specific client, as well as dynamic text content from external sources:
If you send not just push, but Rich push notifications, you'd better take a look at the special editor to create a template. In Rich push notifications, you can add not only a text and an icon, but also buttons, images, banners, and even audio and video files. What's more, the new editor will allow you to individually customize the notification for a specific OS, as well as add adaptive links and deeplinks.
To open the Rich push editor, you need to make an initial version of a push message in the usual template editor at first. We've just described how to do this above. Then click Save. Now go back to the created template and click try editor β to launch the new editor.
Step 6: Select a Mailing Type
 | If you want to send a Push message, you need to use such a tool as a Mailing. Do you want to send out a one-time mailing to all profiles
of the database or to the audience of the specific segment? Choose Broadcasts. If the mailing is periodic, your choice is a Regular mailing. In the main menu select Mailing and open Calendar. This is where you'll find all scheduled mailings. |
Decide on a date and create a mailing of the required type:
You can find details about how to set up Broadcast on this page.
You can find details about how to set up Regular mailing on this page.
Once you're done with the general mailing settings, you need to:
- Select Push as the communication channel
- Select providers and sending mode. There are two sending modes - fanout, sending to all subscriptions, or last, sending to the subscription with the most recent creation date. If there are several of these (created at the same time), then one subscription will be selected randomly. If mailings have filters by provider, custom fields or categories, then the filters are first applied, and then the most recent subscription is chosen;
- Select the subscription resource you've just configured and the audience of recipients;
- Add a message template to your message;
- Set a schedule. For example, for a broadcast the option "On specific date at specific time" is available.
Once the mailing is set up, save it. Later you can find it in the list of mailings of the corresponding type. There is a quick action menu on the right side of each mailing. Use it to test the mailing — and if everything is successful, activate it:
Step 7: Assess the Mailing Effectiveness
Do you want to assess the effectiveness of your mobile push mailings? Go to the section Analytics in the main menu of the platform.
The channel report provides analytics for one or several mailings, for one or several communication channels. For grouping, you can select Report on Push:
You can also go to the channel report for a specific mailing by following the link in the mailing editor:
Actions in the Push mailing or in the template can turn into steps in the interactive conversion funnel:
