Overview - Creating syncing ThruText campaigns


You can integrate your ThruText account with your VAN instance and bring your Activist Codes, Survey Questions, Events, and Canvass Results into your ThruText campaigns when creating surveys. Responses to these surveys will be written back to your VAN data file.


TABLE OF CONTENTS


What can sync to VAN?

You can sync the following data:

  • Survey Questions and Activist Codes are available for sync through both MyVoter and MyCampaign.
  • Events are only available through MyCampaign.
  • Canvass Results are only available through MyVoters.


NOTE - Freeform surveys cannot sync back to VAN. Information typed in by message senders will need to be bulk uploaded to your committee as "notes." 


VAN contact history will be updated when contacts are first texted within the campaign (only if the "Texted" status is enabled) and when survey responses are logged. If you haven't set up your VAN integration yet, this guide will help get you started with your VAN integration. 


After that, you'll need to follow these three steps:


Step 1: Upload groups with VAN ids or VAN Campaign ids

When we enable your VAN sync, we will create two important custom fields in your group uploads, van_id (from the voter file) and van_campaign_id (from MyCampaign or your EveryAction/NGP8 instance).


If you want to sync information from ThruText to VAN for a particular group, you must upload your list and create your group with your VAN IDs mapped. 


If you are importing the group from an external contact list, only one type of ID can be mapped. To VAN, a list will only need to sync back to the committee it was created in. To sync back to MyVoters and MyCampaign simultaneously, upload your group manually and map both ids.


If groups are not mapped with their IDs at group upload, admins can manually add the IDs to their survey exports using an Excel vlookup. 


Step 2: Set up ThruText survey questions by importing from VAN  

On the Survey Questions page, campaigns that mapped target groups will have additional options in the "Survey Type" drop-down.


ALL groups in your campaign must have their VAN ID or Campaign ID mapped to be able to bring in survey questions from VAN. If just one group is not mapped to a VAN field, then you will not see the "VAN Question Type" option.


NOTE - If you do not see the "VAN Question Type" subsection in the Survey Type drop-down, it likely means the IDs were not properly mapped in the group upload process. (Refer to Step 1 above.)


Step 3:  Collect your data

As your message senders answer surveys, the data will be automatically sent to your VAN.


A few notes about contact history updates:

  • This synchronization of the "Texted" result code will only occur when the initial "scripted" messages are sent in a campaign that has valid VAN ID (voter) or VAN Campaign ID custom fields attached, or both.
  • If multiple initial script messages are sent in ThruText on the same day to a contact with the same VAN Voter ID or VAN Campaign ID within your committee, VAN will only reflect the "Texted" contact history once for that day per file in VAN.
  • If VAN-integrated survey question(s) are answered for that contact on the same day, it will change the contact history result code from "Texted" to "Canvassed" and update the timestamp.
  • Contacts opted out within a VAN-integrated campaign will sync a contact history record with the result code 'Do Not Text' (if this status is available in your VAN committee). It is important to note that this sync will only occur if the opt-out occurs from within a campaign itself and not if the opt-out is added manually from the account drop-down at the administrative level.


If you have properly set up your ThruText Survey Questions by importing from VAN, the sync will happen automatically as your texters send initial messages and record data. You do not need to press any special "sync to VAN" button at the end of the campaign. Just check your VAN account, and you'll see the data recorded in ThruText show up!


Please reach out to [email protected] with any questions or concerns about your VAN sync.