Campaign Structure Explained

How the Reach campaign hierarchy fits together, from departments and category groups down to programs, notification types, and templates.

Overview

Before you can send a notification in Reach, you need a campaign set up. A campaign is not a single thing: it is a hierarchy of components that sit inside each other. Understanding that structure is the first step to configuring everything correctly and knowing where to find things when you need to change them.

The Campaign Hierarchy

From top to bottom, here is how campaigns are structured in Reach:

1. Department

Everything lives inside a department. When you open the Campaigns tab as a Reach Administrator, you select a department first. All the programs and templates you see belong to that department.

2. Notifications folder

Inside each department, the Campaigns Configuration tab shows a Notifications folder at the top of the left-hand tree. This is the root container for all notification programs. There is also a Confirmations folder for file-based campaigns (see How confirmation campaigns work) and a Two-Way Flows folder.

3. Category Group (Program Category)

Inside the Notifications folder, you create Category Groups. These are organizational folders. They help you group related programs together. For example, a Water Department might have Category Groups called 'Outage Alerts', 'Billing', and 'Water Quality'. Category Groups have no effect on who receives messages; they are just for organization.

4. Program

Inside a Category Group, you create Programs. A program represents one ongoing notification effort. For example, 'Water Main Break Alerts' or 'Monthly Billing Reminder'. Each program has a name and a sequence number. Programs are where you configure channels, quiet hours, and hold status.

5. Notification Type

Inside a program, you create Notification Types. Each one represents a distinct message event within that program. For example, within 'Water Main Break Alerts' you might have notification types called 'Initial Alert', 'Progress Update', and 'All Clear'. Each notification type needs its own templates.

6. Templates

Inside each Notification Type, you create Templates for each channel: SMS, Email, Voice, and Push. A template is the actual message content. Templates go through a draft and approval workflow before they go live. Only live templates can be used in a campaign launch.

How It All Connects to a Send

When you go to Launch Campaign System, you pick a Department, Category Group, Program, and Notification Type. Reach then uses the live templates attached to that Notification Type to send messages to all active subscribers in the matching category. That is the full chain from structure to delivery.

Confirmations vs. Notifications

Feature	Notifications	Confirmations
Where they live	Notifications folder	Confirmations folder
Subscriber setup	Requires pre-loaded subscribers	Recipients provided at launch in a file
Launch type	System campaign	File campaign
Best for	Ongoing subscriber-based messaging	One-off sends to variable recipient lists
Template setup	Same: SMS, Email, Voice, Push	Same: SMS, Email, Voice, Push

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How many notification types can a program have?

A: There is no hard limit. Create as many as your messaging scenarios require.

Q: Can the same template be used in multiple notification types?

A: No. Templates are specific to a notification type. If you need the same content in multiple places, you create the template separately in each.

Q: Does a program need to have all four channels set up?

A: No. You only need templates for the channels you actually use. If a program only sends SMS, you only need an SMS template.

Q: What is the Confirmations folder for?

A: Confirmations are messages sent to recipients who are not stored as subscribers. They are used in file-based campaigns where recipient details are provided at launch time. See How confirmation campaigns work.

Q: Can I rename or delete a Category Group or Program?

A: You can rename programs and category groups. Deleting them removes all notification types and templates inside. Use caution before deleting anything that has been used in a live campaign.

Need More Help?

For your convenience, please find the relevant articles listed below.

• Create a Campaign Category How to create a Category Group inside the Campaigns tab.
• Create a Program Step-by-step guide to setting up a new program.
• Create Notification Types How to add notification types inside a program.