Operate > IBM Management Center for WebSphere Commerce
Marketing tool
Use the Marketing tool in Management Center to create and manage activities that support the site's marketing campaigns. Marketing Managers can use the tool's extensive features to deliver targeted marketing messages to customers on store pages, or using e-mail or mobile text messages.
The following screen capture provides a quick look at some of the Marketing tool's capabilities:
- 1 The left pane lists the types of marketing objects you can create and manage using the Marketing tool.
- 2 The right pane shows an example of how you can display a targeted ad on a store page using a graphical editor called the Activity Builder.
Show Me videos about the Marketing tool
To get started quickly, watch these short videos that demonstrate how to use key features of the Marketing tool:
Show Me video Description function popup_window( url, id, width, height ) { popup = window.open( url, id, 'toolbar=no,scrollbars=no,location=no,statusbar=no,menubar=no,resizable=no,width=' + width + ',height=' + height + ',left=,top=' ); popup.focus(); } Creating a Web activity (7:03 minutes)
Demonstrates how to display an advertisement on a store page and then preview the result. function popup_window( url, id, width, height ) { popup = window.open( url, id, 'toolbar=no,scrollbars=no,location=no,statusbar=no,menubar=no,resizable=no,width=' + width + ',height=' + height + ',left=,top=' ); popup.focus(); } Creating a Dialog activity (4:53 minutes)
Demonstrates how to send a marketing e-mail to a customer when the customer places an order with the store. function popup_window( url, id, width, height ) { popup = window.open( url, id, 'toolbar=no,scrollbars=no,location=no,statusbar=no,menubar=no,resizable=no,width=' + width + ',height=' + height + ',left=,top=' ); popup.focus(); } Creating a marketing experiment (6:21 minutes)
Demonstrates how to perform A/B testing with two advertisements on a store page and then select the most successful advertisement to use going forward.
What you can do with the Marketing tool
Here is a summary of tasks you can perform to support the site's marketing campaigns:
Tasks Details For more information Display personalized marketing information to customers on the store pages
- Create Web activities to control what customers see in the places on the store pages that are reserved for marketing, without involving IT. Web activities can display:
- Advertisements for promotions and featured products
- Recommendations for products and categories, including merchandising associations
- A list of a customer's recently viewed products or categories
- Display targeted marketing information that changes dynamically depending on which customer is viewing the store page. Do so by adding targets to Web activities. You can target customers based on:
- The customer segment to which they belong
- Their shopping cart contents and purchase history
- Their behavior while shopping on the site, for example, their catalog browsing behavior, their searching behavior, or their participation in social commerce
- Manage the spaces on the store pages that are reserved for marketing, called e-Marketing Spots. Specify default content to display in the e-Marketing Spot when there are no Web activities currently running, or when the customer viewing the page is not targeted by the Web activities that are currently running.
Create a Web activity Create marketing experiments (A/B testing and multivariate testing) Experiment with the Web activities to maximize the effectiveness of the marketing messages. For example, you can experiment with different content, different locations on store pages, different customer segments, or different targets. Then choose the best option to use going forward. Work with marketing experiments Create e-mail marketing campaigns
- Create E-mail activities to send targeted e-mails to specific customer segments.
- Create e-mail templates with dynamic content that changes according to who receives the e-mail message.
Work with e-mail activities Create marketing activities that are triggered by specific customer behaviors or events
- Create Dialog activities to wait for a specific customer behavior or event, and then respond to the customer with timely and relevant marketing messages. For example:
- When a customer registers, send the customer a thank-you e-mail message containing some promotional advertisements.
- When a customer has abandoned a shopping cart for 3 days, send the customer an e-mail message as a reminder of their recent shopping visit. Issue the customer a coupon for 20% off their order.
- Target specific customers with Dialog activities according to:
- The customer segment to which they belong
- Their shopping cart contents and purchase history
- Their behavior while shopping on the site, for example, their catalog browsing behavior, their searching behavior, or their participation in social commerce
Create a Dialog activity Create customer segments Define customer segments by selecting a group of attributes that are relevant to marketing activities. The Marketing tool supports over two dozen attributes covering demographic data, registration status, purchase history, and so on. You also have the option to build customer segments based on specific customer behavior, such as catalog browsing or search behavior. You can then use these customer segments as targets for advertising, promotions, and suggestive selling. Work with customer segments Organize and manage marketing campaigns
- Create campaigns to organize related Web, Dialog, and E-mail activities.
- Manage the scheduling of marketing activities in a calendar tool.
Work with campaigns View statistics related to marketing activities Analyze the progress and results of the marketing activities by viewing statistical data, such as impressions and click-through rates. Work with activity statistics Preview marketing information on store pages View the effect of advertisements, recommendations, and other marketing content you have just created on the store pages before these activities go live into production. Options include previewing the store:
- At a virtual date and time
- As a specific customer, for example, a customer who belongs to a specific customer segment or who exhibits a target online behavior
You can also use the store preview to determine where on the store pages the e-Marketing Spots are located.
Preview a store Create templates for marketing activities that you use repeatedly To save time, create templates of the Web and Dialog activities. Then use the templates as starting points when creating new activities. Work with custom activity templates Manage the support material created for the campaigns Manage ad copy, mobile text messages, and other types of marketing content. Optionally, specify click actions for any content that displays on store pages. Work with marketing content Search Search for the campaigns, activities, activity and e-mail templates, e-Marketing Spots, marketing content, and customer segments. Find objects
Related concepts
Targets in marketing activities