Transactional (one-off) emails can be sent through Dotdigital using Donorfy Triggers. This allows you to send personalised acknowledgements (for example for form submissions or donations) using your Dotdigital templates whenever a trigger runs.
📌 Note: Before you start, you must already have a Triggered Campaign set up in Dotdigital that uses @some_text@ style placeholders.
Use Triggers to Send Transactional Email with Dotdigital
Prepare the Triggered Campaign in Dotdigital
In Dotdigital, create or open the email you want to use as a Triggered Campaign.
Add personalisation placeholders in the format
@some_text@instead of using standard Dotdigital data fields.If Dotdigital shows a warning that it does not recognise the placeholder format, click Save anyway as per their documentation.
Check the layout of your campaign and ensure it only uses blocks that are allowed in triggered campaigns, according to the Dotdigital documentation.
Save and activate the triggered campaign so it is available for Donorfy to use.
📌 Note:
Not all Dotdigital content blocks are supported in triggered campaigns. Check Dotdigital’s own documentation for the current list of supported blocks.
Create the Trigger in Donorfy
Go to Data Management, then click Triggers.
Click the plus button to add a new trigger.
Enter a descriptive Name for the trigger.
Select the appropriate Trigger Type from the drop-down list, depending on when you want the email to be sent (for example, transaction-based or activity-based).
Add one or more Lists as conditions so that the trigger only runs for the records you want (for example, certain campaigns, amounts, or forms).
Click Save Changes to store the trigger.
Add the “Email Constituent Using Dotdigital” Action
Open your trigger, then scroll to the Actions section.
Click Add Action.
Choose Email Constituent using Dotdigital, then click Add.
Enter a clear Name for the action.
Donorfy connects to Dotdigital and retrieves a list of available campaigns.
From the Campaign drop-down, select the Triggered Campaign you prepared in Dotdigital.
📌 Note:
You can only send transactional emails to Triggered Campaigns. If you select any other type of campaign, Donorfy will prompt you to choose a different one.
Map Personalisation Values
After you select the campaign, Donorfy scans it for any
@some_text@placeholders.Any personalisation values found in the campaign are shown in a list.
For each placeholder, choose the Donorfy data field that should populate it when the email is sent (for example, constituent name, amount, date, or other relevant details).
Repeat this mapping process for each placeholder you want to use.
Click Save Changes to store the action configuration and mappings.
📌 Note: The email is sent to the constituent associated with the trigger whenever the trigger runs and its conditions are met.
How Transactional Emails Behave in Dotdigital
When Donorfy sends a transactional email via Dotdigital:
The constituent is not added to any Dotdigital account or address book.
The usual mappings between Donorfy and Dotdigital (for audiences, fields, or address books) are not applied for that transactional send. The email uses only the data you mapped to the placeholders in the trigger action.