Channels are the visitor touchpoints that you want to monitor with BlueConic or interact on with your customers. BlueConic will only recognize and process touchpoints in channels that are defined.
There are several different types of channels, each allowing for different types of usage within BlueConic.
Website channel
Use a website channel for customer interactions with your website. A website channel is defined by a hostname and its aliases. It is very common for websites to have hostname aliases, e.g. "www.taylorshop.com", "taylorshop.com", "shop.taylorshop.com" or "m.taylorshop.com". Make sure that all hostnames and hostname aliases where customers can touch the channel are added as a website. BlueConic will only recognize customers landing on URLs of defined website channels. Also be sure to place the BlueConic script on your website pages to be able to use it as a channel.
Email channel
Use an email channel when you want to send emails from BlueConic or from an integrated external emailing system, and you want to be able to track traffic from those emails to your other channels.
Mobile App channel
Use a mobile app channel for a native Android or iOS app. To interact with this app, this app needs to contain the BlueConic mobile SDK for Android or iOS.
Adding a new channel in BlueConic
To add a new channel, choose "Channels & BlueConic hostnames" from the BlueConic Settings menu. When you click on the green Add channel button, you are prompted to select which type of channel you want to add.
If you select Website, you can follow a step-by-step wizard interface that guides you through these steps for setting up a channel:
- Add the web address of your channel. This is typically the hostname or an alias of your channel, e.g. "www.taylorshop.com", or "taylorshop.com".
- Select which domain the channel belongs to, or add a new one.
- Add a BlueConic hostname to ensure that web browsers and ad blockers correctly identify this channel as first-party. Select whether to send DNS setup instructions to yourself and/or members of your IT team. Learn more about BlueConic first-party hostnames.
- Either confirm that the BlueConic script is already on the site, or get instructions on how to install the BlueConic script.
- Verify or optionally add connections to other systems.
- Create the channel.
If you select Email or Mobile, you will be taken to a screen to configure the channel name, the domain that it belongs to, and the App ID for mobile apps.
Channel Identifier
The BlueConic tag offers the option to explicitly define a channel instead of using the hostname from the URL. To help BlueConic recognize the channel identifier of your explicitly defined channel, follow these steps:
- Set up a Website channel for the regular website as described above. Use the hostname of your website, e.g. "www.taylorshop.com", and finish the wizard.
- Change the Hostname of the created channel to the channel identifier, e.g. "extrachannel.www.taylorshop.com"
For help or additional information, contact your BlueConic Customer Success Manager.
Channels REST API
BlueConic application developers can refer to the BlueConic REST API documentation for information on accessing channels in BlueConic applications.
Learn more: Visit BlueConic University
See the Setting Up Channels video in the BlueConic University.