Page last modified 13:03, 3 Nov 2009 by Admin

Live Offers

1. 1. 1.1.1. Audience
2. 1.2. Creating Coupons Using Live Content
3. 1.3. What Is a Coupon
4. 1.4. How a Basic Coupon Campaign Works
5. 1.5. Why Use a Coupon
  1. 1.5.1. Ease and Efficiency of Distribution
  2. 1.5.2. Performing Market Research
    1. 1.5.2.1. Viewing Data Extensions
    2. 1.5.2.2. Viewing Reports
2. Procedures
1. 2.1. How to Create a Data Extension of Coupon Codes
2. 2.2. How to Create a Data Extension of Coupon Redeemers
3. 2.3. How to Import Data to the Data Extension
4. 2.4. How to Create the Email Message
5. 2.5. How to Create Your Images
6. 2.6. How to Build Your Coupon
  1. 2.6.1. Properties
  2. 2.6.2. Image Properties
    1. 2.6.2.1. Microsite Options
    2. 2.6.2.2. Test Options
    3. 2.6.2.3. Coupon Code
    4. 2.6.2.4. Expiration Date
7. 2.7. How to Use Coupon Codes
8. 2.8. How to Insert Your Coupon into Your Email
9. 2.9. How to View the Data in a Data Extension
  1. 2.9.1. CouponCodes
  2. 2.9.2. CouponRedeemers
10. 2.10. Viewing Reports
  1. 2.10.1. Campaign Summary
  2. 2.10.2. Campaign Redemption Summary

This guide contains conceptual and procedural information for using the live offers for coupons feature provided by the ExactTarget application.

Audience

This document is intended for marketers who want to manage the creation and distribution of live content coupons sent to their subscriber base.

Creating Coupons Using Live Content

One of the exciting features of live content is its capability to help you create dynamic coupons that will better serve your customers' needs and keep your management tasks to a minimum-giving you content, expiration, and inventory control over coupons. Live content coupons are specially designed images that render every time a subscriber opens the email (each time the email renders)-not when the email is created. In your folder navigation pane, you should have a Live Content folder with a Coupons subfolder below it.

See How to Build Your Coupon for more information.

What Is a Coupon

Coupons are email landing page offers that render when the recipient opens them. You associate a coupon code with each offer. These coupons are dynamic images-what appears depends on when the image is rendered (or opened).

Using coupons with live content offers sophisticated availability control. For example, you may have a list of 1,000 subscribers but only 500 coupon codes available. The first 500 subscribers to open the offer will see the offer and coupon code. The next 400 subscribers who open their email will see an alternative image that you specify, informing them that no more coupons are available and perhaps using that as a list acquisition strategy. The remaining 100 subscribers may never open their email or just delete it.

You can set an expiration date on your offers. A subscriber may view your offer before the expiration date and see an offer and coupon code. However, the same subscriber may open the same email two weeks later (past the expiration period) and see an image and a message that the offer has expired.

When creating your offer, you may decide to auto-assign it. This means that receiving an offer simply depends on who opens their email first. If there is a total of 200 coupon codes and a person is number 201 to open their offer, they will not receive a coupon code. Instead, they will see an alternative image informing them that no more coupons are available.

You may decide to auto-assign your coupon codes based on inventory, pre-assign your codes based on subscriber segments, or assign your coupon codes based on a transaction.

The next page shows a very basic example of how an auto-assigned coupon offer campaign would work. Suppose that you have a total of 10 subscribers and five coupon offers to distribute. Who gets a coupon offer depends on when that offer is rendered, or opened.

Using the couponing solution encompasses four components:

A data extension of coupon codes to render in the email. (See How to Create a Data Extension of Coupon Codes and How to Use Coupon Codes.)
An optional data extension of coupon redeemers (for reporting purposes).
An email message to contain your coupon code. (See How to Create the Email Message.)
Images to include in the coupon under varying circumstances. (See How to Create the Email Message.)
A coupon definition identifying the coupon. (See How to Build Your Coupon)

How a Basic Coupon Campaign Works

Why Use a Coupon

Back when coupons were "clipped" from newspapers or flyers, marketers issued them to promote their stores. The coupons served as an advertisement and incentive to come in to the store and purchase items.
Since then, we have evolved to the coupons discussed here: live content coupons. These coupons offer many advantages to a variety of businesses.

Ease and Efficiency of Distribution

You know your company won't be bombarding your customer with extraneous information and materials they have to wade through or are not interested in. Your subscriber has asked to be on your email list and has likely been to your store (or website), so they will not be surprised to receive a coupon from you.

You may have many more customers than you have coupons. This means the first people who open their emails are the ones who get the coupons. People who open their emails later will see that an offer went out, but all the coupons were used. This may encourage them to open their email from you sooner the next time. Eventually, those who want a coupon from you will seek out your emails and get those coupons, and you will have a greater chance of targeting the people who are truly interested in purchasing items.

Expiration dates are much easier to deal with. The subscriber may decide to finally use that coupon they received, but this time, when they open it two weeks later, there is a message that the coupon has expired. This will be very obvious and not in tiny print along the bottom of the coupon.

Performing Market Research

Viewing Data Extensions

Data extensions store valuable information marketers can use to plan their next campaigns, estimate the success of their current or most recent campaign, and issue reports about their campaigns.

You choose the data extension you want, such as CouponCodes, which contains information about the specific coupon codes issued for a campaign. The data extension creates the required columns, and you can include additional columns as well.
You can use the CouponRedeemers data extension to view information about redeemed coupons. The value of using CouponRedeemers is the ability to report on offers distributed, versus those opened, versus those redeemed. © 2008

You can also use your CouponRedeemers data extension to store redemption data captured in your POS (point of sale) system, which you can then download to your system for reporting purposes.

For more information, see How to View the Data in a Data Extension, later in this document.

Viewing Reports

The ability to track coupons and all sorts of actions means that you can gain a great deal of information about your customers and your coupon campaigns. As you receive feedback on who bought what where, you can continually make adjustments to get the most out of your campaigns.

Later, you will see in the Viewing Reports section of this document that you can view custom reports to give you feedback for analysis and planning future campaigns.

You can view a Campaign Summary report, which displays one row for each campaign you run. Each row may include information such as Total Coupons Uploaded, Total Coupons Assigned, and Number Remaining. You get to choose the attributes shown.
You can also view a Campaign Redemption Summary report, which again displays one row for every campaign. This summary is based on information about people who redeemed their coupons, and again, you can choose which attributes to track, such as Total Redeemed, Redemption Rate, and Average Redemption Lag.

Procedures

This section contains information on the procedures you need to perform in order to create and render a coupon. Here is an overview of the process:

How to Create a Data Extension of Coupon Codes

Follow these steps:

Select the Subscribers tab.
Navigate to Data Extensions -> My Data Extensions.
In the My Data Extensions toolbar, choose Create from Template.

A screen appears listing several template names.

Select the CouponCode box and then choose Select in the toolbar.
In the screen that appears, enter a Name for your coupon codes extension-for example, Coupon Codes for Promotion 3456.
Enter an External Key, such as 3456.
Enter a Description, such as Coupon Codes for May Promotion.

You will see a screen similar to the one on the next page.

Click Save. You will see a data extension has been saved message.

How to Create a Data Extension of Coupon Redeemers

Follow these steps:

Select the Subscribers tab.
Navigate to Data Extensions -> My Data Extensions.
In the My Data Extensions toolbar, choose Create from Template.

A screen appears listing several template names.

Select the Coupon Redemption checkbox and choose Select from the toolbar.

A screen similar to the one on the following page appears.

In the Name field, enter something like Redemption Data for Coupon #3456.
Enter an external key, such as 3456.
Do not select the Used for Sending checkbox.

Note: You can add or remove fields by using the Delete and Add links at the far right.

Click Save. You will see a data extension has been saved message.

See Viewing Reports to see what happens after the campaign is tracked.

How to Import Data to the Data Extension

Before the coupon campaign, you must import your coupon codes into your data extension.
After the promotion, you will (optionally) upload the names of the people who redeemed their coupon codes.
Create an import activity to import data to a data extension. You can also populate a data extension with the results of a query activity.

You can schedule activities or include them as part of a program. See the Activities Guide and the Data Extensions Guide for more information.

Using coupons gives you the opportunity to obtain a wealth of information about your clients, stores, and efficiency of campaigns. Data extensions and reports gather this information for you so that you can analyze the results and plan for the next campaign.

How to Create the Email Message

Note: See the Messages Guide when working with user-initiated email message.

Follow these steps:

Create your email by first selecting the Content tab on the navigation bar.
Navigate to my emails.
Click Create in the my emails toolbar.
Complete the forms to create an email. Important: Be sure to leave a "no content" area in your email where you will be inserting you coupon.

How to Create Your Images

You must have images prepared and stored in your Portfolio folder before you can define your coupon offer. This can be clip art, photography, fancy text, or charts in image form. You can import PowerPoint pictures, or you can use images that were used in your previous campaigns.

These are the images that will be used for alerting recipients of an out-of-stock offer, an expired offer, or the image used while previewing / editing your content (coupon code placeholder).

The next section explains how to position and define these images.

How to Build Your Coupon

To build your coupon, open the ExactTarget application. Select the Content in the bottom left-hand corner. Then navigate from your Live Content folder to your Coupons subfolder. Click Create on the toolbar to see the New Coupon screen.

Properties

The first field you must fill out is Name. Enter the Name you specified earlier in the How to Create the Email Message.

After you enter the name, you must enter the External Key. This is a value that uniquely identifies the coupon. Next, enter a Description for your coupon.

The Coupon Code Type includes a drop-down list. These choices are currently supported coupon code symbologies that tell ExactTarget how to render your coupon codes. You can use various classes of 2D coupon codes, coupon codes, or just rendered code text that serves as a coupon code.

In What Is a Coupon, you learned that you can pre-assign coupon codes or auto-assign coupon codes. The Coupon Code section onscreen lets you specify the data you want to use and how you want to assign your coupons:

Inventory-Based: You must upload a set of coupon codes into a data extension and select that data extension in the window below the Coupon Code section. The subscriber receives the same coupon code each time the email message is rendered.
Segment-Based: You must upload a set of coupon codes into a data extension and associate those codes with a subscriber key. Select that data extension in the window below the Coupon Code section. The subscriber receives the same coupon code each time the email message is rendered.
Transaction-Based: You must upload a set of coupon codes into a data extension and associate those codes with a transaction key. Select that data extension in the window below the Coupon Code section. The subscriber receives the appropriate coupon code or series of codes for each transaction. Using this method, subscribers can claim multiple coupon codes per transaction.

Redemption is a drop-down list where you can choose to select the data extension containing your coupon redeemer information. The Redemption data extension is an optional data extension for saving store redemption information for the purposes of reporting. A customer would typically capture redemption information in their POS (point of sale) system and periodically upload it back to ExactTarget. Some of the information they may want to capture includes the campaign code, the coupon code, and the date the offer was redeemed. See the Viewing Reports section.

Note: If using the Redemption reports, you will want to include a unique campaign code (user-specified) when uploading your coupon codes so the system can tie the offer to the number of redemptions.

Remember that data extensions must be created before you can use them. This is why they are presented in drop-down lists. See the Data Extensions Guide for information on creating a data extension.

The Coupon Period lets you specify your beginning and end dates for the coupon campaign. Note that pop-up calendars are available to help you choose. If you do not want your coupon to expire ever, leave the End on checkbox disabled. If you do not specify a start and stop date, ExactTarget will not render coupons as expired after your promotion ends.

Note: You can change expiration at any time, affecting coupons already sent.

Image Properties

Here you see three boxes:

Displayed for preview in editor: This is an image that is used as a placeholder when designing your email or previewing it in the editor.
Displayed for invalid requests: This image is displayed when there are no more coupon codes assignable to a recipient.
Displayed for expired requests: This image appears, stating that the coupon has expired, if the email is opened after the coupon period.

All images can be changed even after you have selected an initial image. Just click the change link below each image box.

Width (px) x Height (px) allows you to specify how large you want your coupon code images to display. Note that measurements are in pixels.

Alt Text lets you add any an alternative text tag for the coupon code image.

Microsite Options

You can optionally configure a microsite to render a coupon when designing your microsite. If you select the Use Microsite Page checkbox, you enable a text email to render a link to a microsite URL where the coupon resides. If you select this option, a Site drop-down list appears, allowing you to specify a microsite and corresponding landing page.

To embed a URL in your text email, enter this format somewhere within your email message where you reference the coupon:

%%=LiveContentMicrositeURL(LiveContentType, ExternalKey)=%%

For example, if you have a coupon with an external keyof September Offer, you would embed the following in the text version of your email:

%%=LiveContentMicrositeURL('Coupon', 'SeptemberOffer')=%%

For more information on microsites, see the Microsites Guide.

Test Options

You can define a test collection of coupon codes for test sending. This option enables you to preserve your valid coupon codes for production sends.

Coupon Code

Select the Coupon Code checkbox. Then select from the dropdown the name of the data extension you set up previously and populated with test codes.

Expiration Date

Select the Expiration Date checkbox and specify a date when you want your test sends to expire. In this way, you can ensure that your expiration image displays correctly as specified.

How to Use Coupon Codes

When you create a coupon definition, you indicate the encoding to use as well as the start and end dates to specify the timeframe during which the coupon is valid. The system uses standard coupon code symbologies to create the coupon code that appears in the subscribers' email when they open the message. The coupon code is the coupon code from the data extension, encoded according to the standard selected. Many standards are available. You can choose to use text offer promo codes. This is just the actual code to select the text-this code outputs as numbers but is used as code. Or, you can choose to use 2D coupon codes, such as PDF 417 or ActiveMatrix.

You choose the content to appear in the email message in three situations:

When the subscriber opens the message early enough to receive a coupon code and the coupon code has not expired. In the Image Properties section, this is the preview image.
When the subscriber opens the message after all the coupon codes have already been assigned. (There are no remaining coupon codes to serve to subscribers.) In the Image Properties section, this is the invalid request.
When the subscriber receives a coupon code but the coupon has expired. In the Image Properties section, this is the expired coupon.

How to Insert Your Coupon into Your Email

Earlier you created an email message, and then you defined you coupon. Now you must insert the coupon into your email. Follow these steps:

Select the Content tab.
Navigate to my emails.
Click the name of the email you created for this campaign.

The email you created earlier appears.

Click your curson in a "no content" area of your email.
The following Type menu appears:

Choose Create Content.
You will see thumbnails of designs for your content. Double-click Custom.

The following email editor appears.

From the Insert menu, click Live Content.
The Insert Live Content screen appears. In this case, your Live Content Type is coupon. In the Live Content field, select your coupon from the drop-down list.

After you choose your coupon name, more fields appear onscreen (see the figure that follows):

External Key
Description
Dimensions
Alt text (you can change this is you want)

Make any adjustments you would like and click OK.
A preview of your email appears. In the email editor, make any edits you would like and click Save.

The name of your coupon is added to your list, which you can view by selecting the Coupons subfolder.

How to View the Data in a Data Extension

The CouponCode is the only field required. CampaignCode is a unique ID or text to associate with the promotion. CampaignCode is optional but recommended so that you can tie specific campaigns back to their redemptions.
You choose the data extension template you want, such as CouponCodes, and the extension automatically creates the required columns. You can choose to include additional columns as well if you want to track more information about your coupons.

To view data collected in a data extension, follow these steps:

Select the Subscribers tab in the navigation pane.
Navigate to Data Extensions -> My Data Extension.
Select the checkbox next to the data extension information you want to view-in this case, Web_Trends_Data_Feed.
Click the View Data icon in the My Data Extensions toolbar.

You will see a screen similar to the following:

CouponCodes

Data extensions store valuable information that marketers can use to plan their next campaigns, estimate the success of the current campaign, and issue reports about the campaign.

The CouponCode data extension contains information about the specific coupon codes issued for a campaign. CouponCode is the only required field when uploading data. SubscriberKey is optional if you want to pre-assign coupons. All others are system generated.

LiveContentInstanceID
CampaignCode
CouponCode
SubscriberKey
JobID
BatchID
DateAssigned

CouponRedeemers

This data extension contains information about redeemed coupons. The CouponRedeemers data extension contains these fields:

CampaignCode
CouponCode
DateRedeemed

As an optional use, you could use the CouponRedeemers data extension to contain redemption data captured in your POS system you upload from your system for reporting purposes.

The value of using coupon redeemers is the ability to report on offers distributed versus those opened and those redeemed. This data, along with other, such as value of coupon, store location, etc., can provide invaluable information to marketing departments when planning their next campaign.

Viewing Reports

You can view two types of reports based on the information you gather in your data extensions: a Campaign Summary and a Campaign Redemption Summary. These reports are presented in Microsoft Excel format. To run the reports, go to the Tracking tab and navigate to my reports -> Custom Reports.

Campaign Summary

You can generate this report to display one row for each campaign you run. Each row may have the following columns (you may choose to filter out some columns):

Campaign Code
Campaign Name
Start Date
End Date
Total Coupons Uploaded
Total Coupons Assigned
Number Remaining
% of coupons distributed
Date/Time of First Coupon Served
Time Since First Coupon Served
Avg. Coupons Severed per Hour
Max coupons Severed per Hour

You will be able to filter based on Campaign, Campaign Start, and Campaign End.

A sample Campaign Summary Report follows.

Campaign Redemption Summary

This report displays one row for every campaign. This summary is based on information about people who redeemed their coupons. Each row may include these columns:

Campaign Code
Campaign Name
Start Date
End Date
Total Assigned
Total Redeemed
Redemption Rate
Avg. Redemption Lag

A sample Campaign Redemption Summary Report follows.

The example below shows an offer with several types of live content, including the coupon code.

You may forward this email-for example, using Forward to a Friend. The offer will containthe name of the subscriber who forwarded the email and the coupon of the forwarding subscriber.

Was This Page Helpful

Retrieved from "http://wiki.memberlandingpages.com/Live_Offers"

Tag page: Edit tags
What links here

Files 1

Attach file or image

	Size	Date	Attached by
UG!.psd No description	254.29 kB	13:02, 3 Nov 2009	Admin	Actions
UG!.psd No description	254.29 kB	12:56, 3 Nov 2009	Admin
UG!.psd No description	254.29 kB	12:36, 3 Nov 2009	Admin
UG!.psd No description	254.29 kB	15:37, 27 Oct 2009	Admin
UG!.psd No description	254.29 kB	15:29, 27 Oct 2009	Admin
UG!.psd No description	254.29 kB	15:18, 27 Oct 2009	Admin
UG!.psd No description	254.29 kB	11:09, 27 Oct 2009	Admin
UG!.psd No description	254.29 kB	14:02, 11 Aug 2009	Admin