Creating Promotions in StoreSuite
- By Mitchell Harper
- Published 11/5/2007
- StoreSuite Features , StoreSuite Updates
-
Rating:
I've spent the last few days working on banners for StoreSuite, and let
me tell you that these aren't any old ordinary banners. Banners can be
setup for the home page, search page, and also on a
per-category/per-brand basis. You can also show a banner at the top or bottom of the page, and if you have more than one banner in any particular spot then it will rotate between them.
First up, here's how the "Create Banner" page looks in the control panel:
You'll notice that I have DevEdit (our WYSIWYG editor) enabled, so my banner doesn't just have to contain an image. It can contain images, links, JavaScript (such as Google AdSense code), text, etc.
The "Show on Page" field is how you tell StoreSuite where the banner should appear. It can appear on the home page, for a specific category/brand or on the search results page. If you click the "For a Specific Category" radio button you'll then be able to choose the category where it should appear:
You can also specify a date range as to when the banner will appear on the site. For example, it's coming up to Christmas so you might only want to run a banner in December, which is easily accomplished by clicking the "Only display this banner between specific dates" radio button:
You can also choose if the banner appears at the top or bottom of the page. If you have more than one banner in the same spot (such as 3 home page banners set to appear at the top) then StoreSuite will rotate between them when choosing which to display on your site.
Here's how a sample banner looks on the home page of my copy of StoreSuite:
(Click to enlarge)
I've also added 2 sample banners a category page so you can see how they look. The first is a normal banner but the one at the bottom of the page is a link, which in this case could link to a knowledge base or support desk:
... and the bottom "banner":
There really is an unlimited number of ways you can use banners in StoreSuite. On a category page you could use JavaScript or an iFrame to display popular articles or an RSS feed relating to products, you could include a live chat box, links to videos, or even embed videos right in the banner using DevEdit's media manager.
First up, here's how the "Create Banner" page looks in the control panel:
You'll notice that I have DevEdit (our WYSIWYG editor) enabled, so my banner doesn't just have to contain an image. It can contain images, links, JavaScript (such as Google AdSense code), text, etc.
The "Show on Page" field is how you tell StoreSuite where the banner should appear. It can appear on the home page, for a specific category/brand or on the search results page. If you click the "For a Specific Category" radio button you'll then be able to choose the category where it should appear:
You can also specify a date range as to when the banner will appear on the site. For example, it's coming up to Christmas so you might only want to run a banner in December, which is easily accomplished by clicking the "Only display this banner between specific dates" radio button:
You can also choose if the banner appears at the top or bottom of the page. If you have more than one banner in the same spot (such as 3 home page banners set to appear at the top) then StoreSuite will rotate between them when choosing which to display on your site.
Here's how a sample banner looks on the home page of my copy of StoreSuite:
(Click to enlarge)
I've also added 2 sample banners a category page so you can see how they look. The first is a normal banner but the one at the bottom of the page is a link, which in this case could link to a knowledge base or support desk:
... and the bottom "banner":
There really is an unlimited number of ways you can use banners in StoreSuite. On a category page you could use JavaScript or an iFrame to display popular articles or an RSS feed relating to products, you could include a live chat box, links to videos, or even embed videos right in the banner using DevEdit's media manager.
Register for Your Beta Invite
Be the first to test drive StoreSuite. Fill out the form below to receive an exclusive beta invite when StoreSuite's ready to test.
Spread The Word
Comments
Comment #1 (Posted by JC)
Rating:
Can this be used for content articles (of which is great for educating customers and also great for search engine rankings)?
Comment #2 (Posted by Richard Koeleman)
Rating:
Hi Mitch, does this promotion come with its own statistics? Or for that matter with its own banner / advertising management section? That would make the whole store suite super super great. If not, please put that on the wish list.
Kind regards,
Richard
[From Mitch: Hi Richard. Because you can add whatever you like to a banner - text, links, images, etc it's impossible for us to track a click, however StoreSuite can integrate into TrackPoint or any other analytics package so you could create your links in the analytics application and use them in your banners, thus making them trackable. Hope that helps]
Kind regards,
Richard
[From Mitch: Hi Richard. Because you can add whatever you like to a banner - text, links, images, etc it's impossible for us to track a click, however StoreSuite can integrate into TrackPoint or any other analytics package so you could create your links in the analytics application and use them in your banners, thus making them trackable. Hope that helps]
Comment #3 (Posted by Johan)
Rating:
Mitch, have u considered using code from open-source softwrae Openads!? I belive that bthis is worlds best open source AD software!!
[From Mitch: Hi Johan. I'm very familar with OpenAds and used to use it to run DevArticles.com before I sold the site in 2003, however I decided against it for StoreSuite]
[From Mitch: Hi Johan. I'm very familar with OpenAds and used to use it to run DevArticles.com before I sold the site in 2003, however I decided against it for StoreSuite]
Comment #4 (Posted by Ryc Brownrigg)
Rating:
Mitchell,
I like this feature. It looks like because the banners are specific to a section of the site they could be used to promote or target goods from that section.
My question, can the banners change based on the user state? What I mean, if a cookie is set or a user is logged in and we know that they returning customer, can we can the banner?
Thansk
Ryc
[From Mitch: Hi Ryc. That's not possible at the moment but I think it's a good idea and something we can add in a future release.]
I like this feature. It looks like because the banners are specific to a section of the site they could be used to promote or target goods from that section.
My question, can the banners change based on the user state? What I mean, if a cookie is set or a user is logged in and we know that they returning customer, can we can the banner?
Thansk
Ryc
[From Mitch: Hi Ryc. That's not possible at the moment but I think it's a good idea and something we can add in a future release.]
Comment #5 (Posted by Chris,)
Rating:
Does this feature support embedding flash?
Many thanks,
Chris
[From Mitch: Hi Chris. It sure does. The WYSIWYG editor's media manager allows you to upload your flash movie and it can be inserted straight into your promotion]
Many thanks,
Chris
[From Mitch: Hi Chris. It sure does. The WYSIWYG editor's media manager allows you to upload your flash movie and it can be inserted straight into your promotion]
