Creating a Web activity to advertise a coupon promotion

You can create activities to specifically advertise coupon promotions at your store. You can also create an advertisement that adds the coupon to the customer's coupon wallet if they click the advertisement. Creating these activities ensures that promotional messages are seen by the desired audiences. Once the coupon advertisement displays on a storefront page in an eMarketing Spot, customers can click on the advertisement, causing the server to issue a coupon ID, associated with the customer. The customer can later apply the coupon on the shopping cart page if the order qualifies for the coupon promotion, until the coupon expires. A Web activity does not check the status of promotion, ensure that promotion that you want to advertise is active. If the promotion is not Active, then you should deactivate the Web activity.

About this taskTo advertise a coupon promotion, and to issue a coupon when the customer clicks on the coupon content, create the advertising content, and then create a Web activity. Follow the steps listed below as they modify the task so that it is specific to creating an activity to advertise the coupon promotion:

  1. Create content that specifies a click action with a URL similar to the following: CouponsIssue?PromotionName=CouponPromotionName&catalogId=10001&storeId=10001&URL=OrderCalculate?URL=OrderItemDisplay&calculationUsageId=-1, where

    CouponPromotionName

    Is the name of the coupon promotion to be advertised.

    storeId

    Is your Web store ID.

    catalogId

    Is the Master Catalog ID for the store.
    If you are not using Feature Pack 4, create this content using the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator.

  2. Open the Marketing tool.

  3. Click the Create New icon, and select Web Activity. The New Activity from template dialog displays.

  4. Select the Content Recommendation template as the base of your new activity. The Activity builder displays at the top of the screen, with the Activity properties editor beneath it.

  5. In the properties editor, set the following properties for the activity:

    Option Description
    Name Enter a meaningful name in the field. This name displays in the Activity list page, and identifies the activity.
    Description Enter a meaningful description in the field. This description displays in the Activity list page, and should explain what the activity is intended to do. This description helps users understand the activity at a glance without having to open the editor.
    Priority Optionally, assign the recommendation a priority using this list. The priority can be assigned using a number between zero and one thousand. The higher the number, the higher the priority. When multiple recommendations and display content are scheduled for the same e-Marketing Spot, the one with the highest priority is the one that will be displayed.
    Start Date Define a start date and time for the activity. You can either enter a date in the field, or select a date using the calendar tool. Similarly, you can enter a time directly into the field, or you can select one using the clock tool. If you do not specify a start date, the activity will be applicable once it is published. Ensure that this date matches the start date of the target promotion.
    End Date Define an end date and time for the activity. You can either enter a date in the field, or select a date using the calendar tool. Similarly, you can enter a time directly into the field, or you can select one using the clock tool. If you do not specify an end date, the activity will run indefinitely. Ensure that this date matches the end date of the target promotion.

    The promotion and activity are not tied together in the database. If the promotion ends before the activity, customers could see the advertisement for a promotion that is no longer active.

    Repeatable Specify whether or not the activity is repeatable. Repeatable activities allow a customer to enter the activity multiple times. This behavior is generally desirable for Web activities.
    Campaign Select the campaign to which this activity belongs. You can either enter the name of the campaign and click

    Find and Add, or click the

    Show utilities view icon to open the utilities view, and then search or browse for the appropriate campaign.

  6. Select the e-Marketing Spot in which to display the content.

    1. Click the e-Marketing Spot element in the builder. The e-Marketing Spot properties dialog displays.

    2. Select the e-Marketing Spot in which to display the content. You can either enter the name of the e-Marketing Spot and click

      Find and Add, or click the

      Show utilities view icon to open the utilities view, and then search or browse for the appropriate e-Marketing Spot. When you select an e-Marketing Spot, the content is effectively scheduled to display in that e-Marketing Spot for the specific customer. It displays the next time that the e-Marketing Spot is rendered, and each subsequent time until either the content is removed from the e-Marketing Spot as part of the marketing activity, some other recommendation or content with a higher priority is scheduled for the same e-Marketing Spot, or the marketing activity expires.

  7. Select what the activity is displaying. Since this example uses a content recommendation, in the configure the properties as follows:

    Option Description
    Display Content Select the content to display. You can either enter the name of the content and click

    Find and Add, or click the

    Show utilities view icon to open the utilities view, and then search or browse for the content created in step 1.

  8. Optional: Drag an additional customer filter onto the flow connector in the storyboard. The selected filter defines what additional criteria a customer must meet before the activity is displayed.

  9. Click

    Save to save the Web activity, or click Save and Close to close the Web activity builder and return to the updated Activities - List page or Activities - Calendar page. The Web activity is displayed in the Activities - List page or Activities - Calendar page.

ResultsThe new activity is created in the Inactive state.