Operate > IBM Management Center for WebSphere Commerce > Promotions tool > Work with promotions > Raise customer awareness for the promotions
Creating a Web activity to advertise a promotion
You can create Web activities to advertise promotions at the store. Creating these Web activities ensures that promotional messages are seen by the right customers. Optionally, you can specify click actions for the content that advertises the promotion.
Before you begin
- Read Options for advertising promotions on store pages. If you are going to specify a click action for the content, understand the options and how they relate to coupon promotions and promotions that require promotion codes.
- Verify the promotion to advertise already exists in the Promotions tool.
To advertise a promotion, create the content for the advertisement and then create a Web activity.
Procedure
- Open the Marketing tool.
- Create content to advertise the promotion. When completing the properties for the content, if you want the content to have a promotion-related click action, select one of the following predefined click actions:
- Display promotion description
- This click action redirects the customer's browser to the promotion details display page. For the starter stores, the promotion details displayed on this page are the Customer viewable short description text and the Customer viewable long description text, as defined for the promotion. This click action applies to promotions with any redemption method.
- Add coupon to customer's coupon wallet
- This click action redirects the customer's browser to the shopping cart page and displays the coupon in the coupon list. This click action applies only to promotions for which the redemption method is Coupon promotion.
- Add to shopping cart and apply promotion
- This click action redirects the customer's browser to the shopping cart page, adds the specified SKU to the customer's shopping cart, and applies the promotion to the customer's order. This click action applies only to promotions for which the redemption method is Requires promotion codes. Make sure that the promotion has only one promotion code defined; if it has more than one, then we will not be able to activate any Web activites that reference the promotion.
Alternatively, for the click action, you can select Custom URL as click action and supply the own custom URL.
- From the toolbar, click the arrow on the right side of New; then select Web Activity. The New Activity From Template window opens.
- In the left pane, click the Standard Templates folder.
- In the right pane, click Promotion Recommendation.
If you are not specifying a click action for the content, then you can select Content Recommendation instead so that you do not have to specify the promotion later in this procedure.
- Click OK. The Activity Builder opens. The top half of the page is the work area. The bottom half of the page is the properties view.
- In the properties view, set the following properties for the activity:
Option Description Name Enter a meaningful name in the field. This name displays in the Activities - List page, and identifies the activity. Description Enter a meaningful description in the field. This description displays in the Activities - List page, and it should explain what the activity is intended to do. This description helps business users understand the activity at a glance without having to open the Activity Builder. Priority Optionally, assign the activity 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 activities are scheduled for the same e-Marketing Spot, they are evaluated in priority sequence. Start date Define a start date and time for the activity that corresponds to the associated promotion. 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 as soon as it is activated. End date Define an end date and time for the activity that corresponds to the associated promotion. 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. Repeatable Specify whether the activity is repeatable. A repeatable activity allows the activity rules to be evaluated for a customer more than once. This means that a customer who views an e-Marketing Spot multiple times may have content displayed each time. 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, or click the search icon to open the utilities view, and then search or browse for the appropriate campaign.
- Select the e-Marketing Spot in which to display the content.
- Click the E-Marketing Spot element in the work area. The properties view for the e-Marketing Spot displays in the lower half of the page.
- Select one or more e-Marketing Spots 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 content. When you select an e-Marketing Spot, the content is effectively scheduled to display in that e-Marketing Spot for any qualified customer. It displays the next time that the e-Marketing Spot is rendered, and each subsequent time until some other activity with a higher priority is scheduled for the same e-Marketing Spot, or the marketing activity ends.
- In the work area, click the Recommend Promotion element to display its properties.
- In the Promotion table, specify the promotion that to associate with the content that this Web activity displays. You can either enter the name of the promotion in the search field 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 promotion.
- In the Content table, specify the content to display. You can either enter the name of the content in the search field 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 content. You can assign multiple content to display in a single Web activity.
- Optional: Add target elements to the activity. Targets define what additional criteria a customer must meet before they see the content in this e-Marketing Spot.
- Drag a target element from the palette onto a flow connector in the work area to the left of the Recommend Promotion element.
- Click the target element to display its properties in the properties view.
- Complete the properties for the target element.
- From the File menu, select Save to save the activity.
Results
The new activity is created in the Inactive state.
What to do next
- You must activate the Web activity before it displays in the storefront to customers. In addition, ensure that the promotion that to advertise is in the Active state. If the promotion is in the Inactive state, then the Web activity will not run.
- You can also test the Web activity to make sure it works as expected before moving the changes to the production environment.
Related concepts
Related tasks
Raise customer awareness for the promotions
Activating or deactivating promotions
Browse for promotions using lists and calendars
Related reference