When we first launched Fomo as a Shopify plugin, there was only one type of notification: recent orders.
They looked something like this:
However, after adding over a hundred native integrations, we realized Fomo users need a separate message structure for each app they connect.
Here's an example for Instagram:
To accomplish this, we created Events and Templates.
For the visual people (click for a closer look):
Events
Events are basically Fomo notifications (1 event generates 1 Fomo notification) and represent an instance of customer behavior that you want to record (1 sale, 1 click, 1 subscription, etc.).
Each time one of your connected services sends us data, such as a customer's purchase, or a new Instagram photo, this is turned into an event.
Templates
Templates allow you, the Fomo user, to create unique messages for a group of events.
Want your recent orders to say "{{ first_name }} just bought our product!" and your recent tweets to say "We just tweeted: {{ tweet }}?" No problem.
Templates contain the structure for each Event. The content itself (first name, product title, location, etc.) for each individual notification is an Event.
Benefits of separating Events and Templates
Beyond the ability to connect multiple services, separating Events from Templates lets you do things like:
Update the dynamic variables in a template at any time, which in most cases will retroactively update all previous Events associated with that template
Delete groups of Events you don't want anymore, with a simple dropdown filter
A/B test how different content gets clicked on and engaged with on your site
Fine-tune which Templates and messages show on different pages of your website, using Page Rules
Hopefully this helps explain why there are 2 similar concepts, Events and Templates, available inside your Fomo account.
If you still need more help, chat with us live on fomo.com or send us an email.