The Basics

CrowdPower is a customer data platform with an engagement layer that runs on top of it. This is a brief overview on how it works.

1. Customers

Your customers are stored in CrowdPower in the customers section. Each customer is assigned a unique ID on the platform, but in most cases, you'll be sending in YOUR unique ID for each customer. This makes updating customer records a breeze. When you send customer data to CrowdPower, that customer will be retrieved by your unique identifier for them, or an email address if the user_id is not provided. If a customer can't be found, a new one is created.

2. Segments

Segments are a way of automatically grouping your customers by a set of rules. You can use segments to send messages to specific groups of people.

3. Events

Events are key actions your customers take, like when they sign up or purchase a plan. Events can be generic or specific to your product. When you create an event for a customer, the event is added to your project, and then added to the event timeline on the customer's profile.

4. Traits

Traits are attributes assigned to a customer. These attributes can be anything, like the name of a plan the customer is currently on. When you create a trait for a customer, the trait is added to your project, and then added to the customer's profile.

5. Tags

Tags are used to identify and group customers. You can tag customers and then use these tags to target messages to specific people.

6. Automations

Automations are used to automatically send messages to customers (or perform one more actions) when a trigger is fired. A trigger could be fired when a customer performs an event, enters a segment, or visits a page. Once this happens, the automation begins for the customer, and it runs through a series of actions until the automation ends. The most common automation is an onboarding campaign — where a customer signs up (trigger) and a series of emails are sent (actions).

7. Broadcasts

Broadcasts are used to email announcements to your customers. They are meant to be used sparingly when you release new features or have something important to say. When a customer unsubscribes from a broadcast, they are unsubscribing from all of them.

8. Templates

Templates are pre-designed ready-to-use emails that can be used in your automations and broadcasts. The default template is the starting point for every new email you create.

9. Integrations

We have a number of native integrations that work with CrowdPower, as well as an app on Zapier. Integrations can add new events, segments, traits, and automation actions to your project. The most common use cases are automation actions, like SMS.