Quick-Start Guide to SparkInfluence

Jump into SparkInfluence with confidence and ease using this guide for getting projects up and running smoothly from start to finish.

How to Use This Guide

This quick-start guide includes information on logistics and the specifics needed for how to get new projects and campaigns off the ground. It also provides context and answers to FAQs as well as the platform features & functionality most commonly used for Dewey Square Group projects.

For More Information

For task-specific how-tos (like how to set up an action or draft an email), head to our general Knowledge Base. You can get there by clicking on the link in the nav menu above or by clicking here.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Starting a New Project

Getting a new project up and running is easy. Once our team has all the information we need, we can have your new instance online within hours of a contract being signed.

For new projects, please send the information below to the SparkInfluence team via email:

  • Project Name & Acronym: Name of project and an acronym we should use as a reference

     

  • Timeline: When does the project start? How long will it last? Please note our contract periods run in monthly increments. 

     

  • Database Size: How many advocates do you currently have to upload? How many do you expect to have throughout the project?

     

  • Actions: What actions will you be rolling out (call, write, tweet, petition, sign-up, etc.)?

     

  • Action Targets: For letters, calls, tweets, etc. – who are you targeting? (Ex: federal legislators, state legislators – which state(s), local and/or custom targets, etc.)

     

  • Key Dates:  Is there a rough date for a key vote? Is there a comment deadline?
Example Start-Up Checklist:

The easiest option is to copy and paste the template below into an email, update the details and send over to our team. We can’t get started without this information. 

  • Project Name & Acronym:  Save the Whales  /  STW
  • Timeline: August 1 start date. Goes for 3 months.
  • Database Size: Starting from 0. We expect ~5,000 people to respond / take action.
  • Actions: Write their legislators. Submit a comment. RSVP for a meeting.
  • Action Targets:  Targeting MA State Legislators.
  • Key Dates:  Unclear, but we expect a vote this session.

Ready to get started?

Email support@sparkinfluence.net with the details above to kick things off.

Quick Note:  These answers are just a starting point to get things off the ground. Other than the project name, once the project is up and running you can update the timeline, database size, actions and more quickly and easily. This information just helps us better understand what you’re looking to do and have things set up accordingly as you get started. 

Project & PO Numbers

As required by DSG, all contracts must include details on both a project number and PO number. Please be sure to include these details with your signed contract as your accounting team will not accept invoices without this data. If project or PO numbers change throughout the course of the contract, please be sure to let us know so that we can update our records accordingly.

Build-Out Checklist Once a System is Up & Running

Once we have a contract in place, we can spin up an instance for the project in a matter of hours. The next steps, which can be sent over with the Getting Started Checklist above, help us focus on the build out.

  • Administrators: Who needs admin access to the system? For each admin we’ll need name and email address (you can specify up to 5 to start).

     

  • Training: Do you / the DSG team working on the project need training on how to use the platform? Who should be included?

     

  • SparkInfluence Landing Pages vs. Existing Website: Will DSG be building landing pages within SparkInfluence, or is there an external website already set up for the project?

     

    • Landing Pages: If you’re building landing pages in SparkInfluence, do you have a custom URL for the project? If so, purchase the domain, and read more in the Managing DNS section below.

       

    • Existing Website: If the client already has a website, send us the URL of where you’re hoping to put SparkInfluence widgets.
 
  • Sending Emails: Is DSG going to be sending emails from the SparkInfluence instance?
    • If so, let us know what the email address(es) you plan to send from, and we’ll send over the necessary details to verify the domain.
Example Build-Out Checklist:

Here’s a quick example of a build-out checklist you can copy and paste into an email to send to the SparkInfluence team.

  • Administrators: 3 Admins
    • Morgan Stevenson  mstevenson@orgname.com
    • Sarah Langer  sarah.langer@orgname.com
    • Andrew Gallagher  agallager@orgname.com
  • Training:  We may need one training on spinning up actions and embedding a widget on our site.
  • Existing Website: We’ll be embedding widgets into this site: https://savethewhales.example.org.
  • Sending Emails: We’ll be sending thank you emails and a newsletter from info@savethewhales.example.org

Need to Add Administrators / Change Domains?

Email support@sparkinfluence.net to request new admins be added or to add a new sender email address.

Sending Email? You Must Verify Your Domain!

Are you planning on sending an email through SparkInfluence?  Whether it’s a newsletter, an automation, a call-to-action or just a thank you message for completing an action, if you’re sending email through SparkInfluence, you need to verify your domain.  The process is quick and easy:

  • Inbox Setup: Before we can verify the domain, the inbox for the email address(es) you’ll be using must be created/set up to receive messaging. Please involve DSG IT on this step, as there may be a series of DNS records involved (MX) that are set up on the DSG side.
 
  • Send SparkInfluence the Email Address: Send the SparkInfluence team the email address (domain) you’ll be using for email messaging.
    • Example:  jessica@savethewhales.org

       

  • DNS Changes: The SparkInfluence team will share DNS changes that need to be made on the DSG side to verify the domain. (We’ll be sending 3 CNAME records that’ll need to be added. Your IT team will need to assist).

     

  • Confirmation: Once added on the DSG side, let the SparkInfluence team know and we’ll verify on our end.

     

  • DONE: Once confirmed, you’re all set to use that domain to send out email through the SparkInfluence system.

why does a domain need to be verified?

For more information, check out this article in the knowledge base: https://kb.sparkinfluence.net/article/verifying-sender-domain

Managing Website DNS For the Project

If you plan to use a custom domain/URL for the project, it’s important to know whether or not the domain host/provider you use can support the records that are needed in order to point your custom URL to the SparkInfluence platform.

Certain DNS providers, like GoDaddy and Google, do not allow CNAMEs as the apex record — and this is what is needed in order to properly set up your custom URL. If you are using one of these providers, you will need to take one of the following two next steps:

  • Use another DNS service that does support either CNAME flattening or alias records (like Cloudflare), OR;

 

  • Let the SparkInfluence team manage the website’s DNS. It’s important to know that our team managing DNS does NOT require a domain ownership transfer, it’s a simple migration of nameservers that allows the needed settings and records to be put in place. Please note that there is a one-time setup fee charged to the project if you elect to have the SparkInfluence team manage DNS.

Actions

As you’re setting up the back end of the SparkInfluence platform for your project, it’s important to choose the right Actions to help you achieve your goals. Below are some notes on the most frequently-used action types:

 

  • Register User: Use this action type to allow people to sign up to receive communications about the effort
  • Petition: Use this action type to allow people to sign up for the effort. The Petition action type does NOT deliver messaging to any targets.
  • Write Legislator/Person: Use this action type to deliver messages to:
    • Legislators (federal, state)
    • Custom action targets with an Email Address
  • Comment on Regulation: Use this action type to submit comments to a docket on Regulations.gov
 

For more information on how to set up an action, check out our knowledge base: https://kb.sparkinfluence.net/article/how-to-create-an-action/

Important Notes on Custom Mapping:

Please note that not all forms can be mapped to by our team due to security restrictions that may be in place on the form.

SparkInfluence is not responsible for the delivery of any confirmation emails generated by the third party form and sent to individual stakeholders.

Additionally, custom form mapping will be charged an additional fee. If you have custom mapping needs, please email support@sparkinfluence.net with the URL for the form, and we will provide a timeline and cost.

Widgets

Widgets are the key to embedding your SparkInfluence actions/forms on any website, regardless of whether you’re using SparkInfluence landing pages or the client has an external website.

Embedding a widget only takes dropping in one line of code. You can find that code under Actions -> Action Widgets in the back end of SparkInfluence.

A widget must have an action assigned to it in order for a form to display on a webpage.

A widget is also where you will assign thank-you messaging for those who take action. Thank-you options include:

  • Select a Follow-Up Email: If you’d like stakeholders to receive an email after taking action, first create an AutoResponder email in the Communications area. Once the email is ready, you can assign it to the action in your widget.

  • Thank-You Message: Whatever you add to this field will display on-screen once a stakeholder has completed the action. You can achieve any/all of the following within the Thank-You Message area.

    • Simple thank-you text (i.e. “Thank you for taking action on this important issue. We appreciate you taking the time to make your voice heard. Be on the lookout for more information about how you can stay engaged with us on this issue.”)

    • Track conversions via Facebook Pixel (see Facebook Pixel & Google Analytics section below)

    • Direct stakeholders to a new page, instead of displaying thank-you language, upon action completion. To utilize this option, contact the SparkInfluence team for more information.

Note on widgets:

Updates to the action assigned to a widget, the follow-up email/autoresponder, and/or the thank-you messaging will NOT alter the widget code, so there is no need to adjust the code for these reasons once the widget has been embedded.

Styling the SparkInfluence Widget

SparkInfluence widgets are designed to match the look and feel of any website. With CSS, you can update the fonts, colors of the text and buttons and even choose whether or not to show the form titles.

Add CSS on either the website side or within the widget itself; SparkInfluence forms will take either and apply it to the display.

Don’t have a developer assigned to the project? We can drop in sample CSS to get you started – and, for most projects, that’s all you need.

Quick note on CSS/styling:

Making an update to the styles of a widget DOES NOT affect the widget code, so there's no need to make further adjustments once the widget is already in place.

Action Targeting Requirements

Whether you’re directing action & advocacy toward elected officials at the federal level, state level, or custom targets, there are minimum requirements for what information needs to be collected from stakeholders. Below is a list of the minimum required fields for major target groups.

  • US Congress (House & Senate): Prefix, First, Last, Email, Address, City, State, ZIP, Phone
 
  • State Government (Senate, House/Assembly): First, Last, Email, Address, City, State, ZIP. Phone varies by state.
 

Please note: Actions where the stakeholder form is missing any of these required fields will result in messaging not being delivered to targets as expected.

For any questions about required fields for your actions, please email support@sparkinfluence.net.

Custom Targeting & Ignoring Constituency

Occasionally, you may be asked by clients to target messages at a specific group of legislators, ignoring constituency.

For example, the client may want stakeholders to send a message to ALL members of the New York City Council, as opposed to only those who represent them based on where they live.

At this time, custom targeting must be put in place in the back end by the SparkInfluence team.

Please send custom targeting requests with the relevant details to support@sparkinfluence.net.

Message Delivery

Messages created by advocates may not be delivered instantaneously. Here’s a quick breakdown of the process that you can communicate to clients:

  • Tweets:  Tweets are posted immediately to the advocate’s timeline and will prepopulate with the legislator’s handle.

  • Phone Calls: The click-to-call functionality is immediate. The advocate clicks on the “Call Me Now” button and is immediately connected to their legislators.

  • Comments on Regulations: Comments on Regulations are posted to regulations.gov within 24 hours of submission – faster if submitted on the same day as the docket closing date. Please Note: all comments submitted to regulations.gov are subject to agency processing protocols and – according to the regulations.gov FAQ – may take weeks to display publicly on the site, depending upon the volume of comments received for a particular docket.

  • Letters submitted through SparkInfluence may take up to 24 hours to be delivered to targets. SparkInfluence is not responsible for email settings on the recipient end that may prevent action messaging from being received in their inbox.  Note: If submitting to a custom target, you may want to reach out to them after 48 hours of messaging being created to ensure that messages are being received. Please email the SparkInfluence team if you suspect any issues with delivery.

Facebook Lead Gen

Using Facebook for acquisition? Setting up a Facebook Lead Gen integration is easy.

As of April 2021, we use a Google Sheet sync to bring contacts in to the system (we find it’s a great way to have a backup and audit trail of everyone acquired through FB).

Here’s how to set things up:

  1. DSG creates the Facebook Lead Gen form and hooks it up to the Google Sheet where leads are funneled;
  2. DSG shares the Google Sheet with a SparkInfluence team member ensuring Editor privileges are assigned when sharing.
  3. Once setup, let the SparkInfluence team know:
    1. Confirmation of spreadsheet shared with our team
    2. How often we should sync systems (default is weekly)
    3. Is there a specific action required?

      Should we just be adding the leads to to the database, or is there a specific action?

      If the latter, please let us know which action in the SparkInfluence back end these leads should be assigned to.

 

Important Notes:

  • Please limit outputs to only one lead sheet per Google Document.
  • Please refrain from using special characters in the document and sheet names — stick to alphanumeric values only (e.g.  LeadSheet1, FBVideo03012021, FBAdTwo).
  • The minimum fields required for lead gen syncing are: First Name, Last Name, Email, Address, City, State, Zip, and Date. If any of these fields are missing from the sheet, the data will not sync.

Facebook Pixel & Google Analytics

Both Facebook Pixel and Google Analytics can be added to SparkInfluence in order to track various stats.

If you want to install a Pixel, or add Google Analytics account information to SparkInfluence for a project, please email support@sparkinfluence.net and we will ensure the relevant screens are activated.

For more information on Facebook Pixels, see our article in the knowledge base here: https://kb.sparkinfluence.net/article/tracking-conversions-adding-a-facebook-pixel/

UTM Codes

A nice feature about SparkInfluence is that we can track UTM codes you include in URLs so you can tell how your inbound strategy is (or isn’t) working.

What we can track: The system can track the typical UTMs you’d add to a URL, specifically:

  • Source
  • Term
  • Medium
  • Content
  • Campaign

The SparkInfluence widget will capture and store any UTM codes added to the URL where our forms are displayed.

Example URLs:

  • https://www.orgname.org/take-action/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ad_one
  • https://actionhomepage.org/?urm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social

Viewing UTM Code Conversions:

Viewing how your UTM codes performed is easy.

  • By Action:  Head to the specific action and scroll down. You’ll see a UTM Explorer box that displays aggregated stats over that timeframe.

  • By Stakeholder: Tracking how many advocates signed up from a specific UTM Code? Head to Advanced Search, search by Tags and enter the UTM Code. You can segment and search from there.

What are UTM Codes & Why Are They Important?

UTM Codes help you track where you're advocates are coming from without having to create multiple pages or actions. Use one URL, add the UTM codes to the end, and SparkInfluence will help you track conversions from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, inbound links from other pages on your website and more.

Testing Actions Prior to Launch

Testing an action in SparkInfluence is easy.  We strongly encourage and recommend all clients to test their forms once they’re in place. Here’s how to try things out in both the back- and front-end of the instance before going live:

Back-End Testing – the Action Preview:
To do your own testing at any time:

  • Click into the Action: First, head to the Action Dashboard and click into the specific Action you want to test.

     

  • Head to the Preview Screen: In the header, click on the Preview Action button.

     

  • Pick an Address or Enter Your Own: Now on preview screen, select a prefilled address or test your own. Clicking the blue arrow next to each will show you exactly what that address will see on the front-end.

Front-End Live Testing

  • To test on the frontend, head to the landing page or website where the Spark form is embedded.

  • Complete the form with the appropriate information for the decisionmakers you’re targeting.

  • For the email address:

    If you’d like your letters delivered, please use your personal email address.

    If you’d just like to test and not have your messages delivered, you can enter an email address with     @spark.example.com.  Any email address our system finds with the @spark.example.com suffix will generate action/activity and be displayed in the back end, but letters will never be delivered to targets. (This is how our team tests when asked by partners and clients.)

    Example:  sarah@spark.example.com  OR  john@spark.example.com

 

If all looks good in previews and live tests, and the actions are being recorded as expected in the database, you’re good to go.

If you find any issues in the process where you’ve submitted and the actions fail to generate the appropriate letters or register in the backend, please reach out and someone on our team will look into it.

Support Requests

Please email support@sparkinfluence.net for all support requests.

As there are multiple SparkInfluence-DSG projects live at any given time, please be sure to include the specific project name/acronym when writing in to the SparkInfluence team to help save time and avoid unnecessary confusion.

If there are specific data/reporting requirements for the client that are not easily accessible via the Advanced Search, Flash Reports, or any of the various export options from the Report Dashboard, please let our team know, and we will be happy to discuss.

At the same time, please let our team know if your or your clients (if they have direct access to SparkInfluence) run into any issues or have questions that our team can help in answering at any time.

Finally, if you’re experiencing an issue with functionality or not seeing the results you expect, please include the steps you’ve taken so that we can dive in, potentially recreate the issue and respond back quickly.