What is an attribute
Make a step towards understanding the attributes - one of the main elements of the User.com application.
Definition
User.com enables you to collect comprehensive data from your website, send data via REST API or upload it with the help of the CSV import organising this information into what are known as attributes. So, an attribute is a characteristic of the object that is stored in its profile.
Attributes can refer to various objects in the User.com platform:
User attributes
Company attributes
Product attributes
Deal attributes
Activity attributes
Event attributes
Product event attributes
Ticket attributes
Coupon attributes
Campaign attributes
Each of these objects can be described using the attributes.
For example, for users you can have "First name", "Email", "Lifetime value", "Marketing consent" and many more.
For the product: "Name", "Colour", "Price", "Price after the discount", "Product url' etc.
Attributes are essential for creating more tailored and relevant marketing campaigns, automating communications, and improving the overall user experience by ensuring that users receive messages that are aligned with their interests and behavior.
Standard and Custom attributes
When you create an application you already get the list of standard parameters for each object in the system. These are the basic fields you can start sending/importing information to straight away. They are called standard attributes.
Check full list of standard attributes here.
Examples of the standard attributes for the users:
First name (string)
Last name (string)
Email (string)
Phone number (string)
Browser language (string)
First seen (datetime)
Last seen (datetime)
...
In addition you can create own parameters to collect extra details about the object. These are the custom attributes, that offer you the flexibility to tailor the data collection to your specific needs.
This can include a wide range of information, for example marketing consents or some e-commerce related information like aggregated transaction statistics. Custom Attributes allow you to go beyond the basics, giving you the ability to track and analyze specific data points relevant to your business objectives, enhancing your understanding of customer behavior and preferences.
Examples of the custom attributes for the users:
Marketing consent (boolean)
UTM source (and other UTM tags) (string)
Last purchased date (datetime)
Birthday (date)
...
Check the instruction about custom attribute creation here.
Attribute Types with Examples
When you create an attribute you need to define its name and choose the type. Attributes can be categorized by various data types, each serving a unique purpose in capturing and representing information accurately.
Management and Organization
So, how is the data collected and sent to the attributes?
This is the question your implementation team needs to answer to. There are several options of attributes update:
CSV import: you can always upload a CSV file with your database to create the objects and fill the attributes or to update the existing data. Read more about CSV imports here.
Automations: there are several modules that can help you to update the attributes within your automation flow. For example: "Update Company Attribute"
REST API: your tech team can also send data via REST API and enrich the profiles with the data this way. This is the link to User.com API docs.
Javascript: it's option to send the data via FrontEnd. Please, check the documentation.
NOTE! Please, remember that we recommend to create the attributes inside the application in prior and start sending the data only after it. Thanks to this you will be able to define the type of a custom attribute (otherwise, the system will automatically choose "string" option) and keep the naming and descriptions in order.
Use Cases
You will meet the attributes all around the application, so it's important to understand what benefits you can get out of the them and what are the most popular use cases.
Data Sections and Filters
When you enter any Data section like People section yon see the columns with attribute values. It's the first view you can personalize for your own convenience. Go with "Select Columns" option and choose the ones you feel necessary to see from the very first moment.
This customization is specific to each agent, allowing you to prioritize the data most relevant to your daily tasks.
Later on on the right side you will find the "Filters" icon that opens the filtering panel full of all the attributes and other parameters connected with the object (users/companies/deals etc.).
Attributes commonly serve as filters to segment your database according to particular details. Depending on the type of the data within the attributes different filtering options are available to refine your search and organize your data effectively.
Automations
There are several action modules that involve attribute:
Client's attribute change - automation can be initiated whenever there is a change in a client's attribute.
Filters - an action can be triggered when an attribute meets a specified value
Compare attributes condition - an action can be executed when the value of one attribute surpasses that of another.
Update an attribute - you can change a value of a specific attribute.
Change custom attribute - you can increment or decrement the value of an integer attribute.
Content Creation
You can use attributes to personalize any kind of content you create in User.com. Each email or SMS messages can include the snippet tags - variables that relate to specific attributes. Using this method you can pint unique data for every user in your database. This level of customization not only enhances user engagement but also significantly boosts the effectiveness of marketing campaigns by delivering content that is directly relevant to each recipient.
More info about snippet tags can be found in this article.
To find full list of snippet tags please go to Tools > Snippet Tags section.
Important note
Please note that it's generally permissible to assign empty values to user attributes, which results in the attributes being set to empty.
There is one exception and it is user_id, which we do not allow to be set to empty. We use user_id as an identifier and you could by one rather minor mistake break down your database which would be extra troublesome to fix.
In our JavaScript integrations, while you are free to assign a new value to 'user_id', you should not attempt to empty it. To associate data with a new user, you should use the UE.resetAuth(data) method. Attempting to set 'user_id' to an empty value will trigger a 400 error, and the user's timeline will not record a page hit.