For the latest version of Commerce Server 2007 Help, see the Microsoft Web site.
Commerce Server 2007 Marketing Manager lets business managers personalize the customer buying experience with targeted merchandising by determining the type of content that the customer will see and when to deliver the content. You can create an ad campaign, a discount campaign, or a direct mail campaign, and then specify when to deliver the content to a targeted group of customers.
You can perform the following tasks by using Marketing Manager:
Create and manage customers, campaigns, advertisements, discounts, coupons/promotion codes, expressions, direct mail, and lists.
Personalize the buying experience with targeted merchandising.
Create and schedule campaigns for customers who compete in the same industry. The competing ads never appear on the same page.
Create direct mail to distribute e-mail message ads to a targeted group of users. Direct mailings can include attachments, such as pictures, discounts, or URLs.
Marketing Data
You use Marketing Manager to define and update the following information:
Advertisements. A piece of content that Commerce Server delivers on the Web site based on a specific formula for delivery. An advertisement typically has a delivery goal, date ranges, and target attributes.
Campaigns. A marketing program that represents one or more contracts or orders from an advertiser.
Campaign expressions. A condition that Commerce Server evaluates against profiles to determine whether to deliver content, or perform another action. Expression-based marketing is the process of creating expressions that define the customers or context that you want to target and the type of content that you want to deliver.
Customers. An owner of a marketing campaign such as an advertiser, an agency, or a business manager that is using Commerce Server.
Discounts and coupons/promotion codes. A type of marketing promotion in which you invite shoppers to save money on specific products or product groups.
Direct mail. A service that you use to send bulk e-mail messages to a specified group of users by using mailing lists.
User lists. A collection of user records that you use to send a direct mail message for targeted marketing purposes.
Reference tables. Reference data that specifies limits or describes information that you use to manage the size and placement of advertisements on your Web site, and also associate advertisements with specific industries.
Features Overview
The following table summarizes the tasks that you can accomplish by using the Marketing Manager.
Feature
Description
Manage data
Create, edit, and delete marketing data. Create, modify, and delete the following objects:
Campaigns, campaign expressions, and customers.
Advertisements, discounts, and coupons/promotion codes.
Lists of users for direct mail and direct mail.
Create new marketing object wizards. Use the following wizards to create new campaigns and campaign items:
Create New Advertisement Wizard. Create a new ad campaign item.
Create New Campaign Wizard. Create a new campaign collection.
Create New Customer Wizard. Create a new owner of a marketing campaign.
Create New Discount Wizard. Create a new discount campaign item.
Create New Direct Mail Wizard. Create a new direct mail campaign item.
New List Wizard. Create a new list to support a direct mail campaign item.
Manage campaigns
Set campaign goals. Set campaign goals by the number of clicks on an advertisement, by requests for an advertisement, at the campaign-level, or at the advertising item-level.
Set targets for advertisements and discounts. Define the pages or target groups where you want advertisements to appear.
Activate campaigns. Campaigns become active when they are approved by a Marketing Approver.
Schedule campaigns. Specify the start and end dates of a campaign.
Clear campaigns and customers. Remove inactive or expired campaigns or customer items.
Manage advertisements
Create different types of ads. Select between house and paid ads. Define advertising content from the following choices: Clickable and non-clickable Image; Text; HTML; Buy Now; Windows Media Services; Left, Right, and Top vignette; and No Display.
Schedule ads. Specify the start and end dates of an ad.
Approve/disapprove ads. Ads do not become active until approved by a Marketing Approver.
Preview ad. Preview ads in Microsoft Internet Explorer before activating the ad.
Copy ad. Copy an existing ad and then modify its properties to quickly add new ads to a campaign.
Purge expired ads. Delete inactive or expired ads.
Manage discounts and coupons
Create different types of discounts. Define discounts from the following choices:Simple Discount, Minimum Purchase Discount, Buy N/Get 1 Free, Paired Discount, Paired Set Discount, and Order Discount.
Create coupons. Define coupons as private, public, or restricted.
Create coupon-enabled discounts. Add coupons to discounts.
Define discount interaction policies. Define combination, prioritization, and exclusion for campaign items.
Approve/disapprove discounts. Discounts do not become active until approved by a Marketing Approver.
Preview discount. Preview discounts in Microsoft Internet Explorer before activating the discount.
Copy discounts. Copy an existing discount and then modify its properties to quickly add new discounts to a campaign.
Import/export coupon codes. Export and import coupons.
Coupon wizards. Use the following wizards to manage coupons:
Add Coupons Wizard. Add coupons to a discount campaign item.
Export Coupons Wizard. Export a batch file of private coupons to send to vendors so that they can distribute them to their customers.
Manage user lists
Create simple and expression lists. Create static user lists manually or through import, or lists that meet the criteria of an expression.
Copy a list. Copy an existing list as the basis for a new list that you operate on.
Look up a user. Find a user in a list.
Add/remove a user. Add or remove users from a list.
Merge or subtract lists. Merge two lists or subtract one list from another list.
Import user records. Import a flat text file that contains user records or specify an expression to generate a list of users based on the conditions of the expression.
Export a list. Export a list as a text file or a CSV file.
Manage direct mail
Create different types of direct mail. Define direct mail content from four formats: Text, MIME, HTML, and MHTML.
Personalize direct mail. Invoke an ASP page to personalize each message before sending it to the user.
Add attachments. Add any file that contains information as an attachment.
Set global opt-out. Choose to ignore global Opt-Out lists when you send direct mail to users.
Copy direct mail. Copy an existing direct mail object and then modify its properties to quickly add more direct mail for a campaign.
Schedule direct mail. Specify the start and end dates of a direct mail item.
Send test mail. Direct mail can be sent to a test list and personalized pages reviewed for accuracy.
Approve/disapprove direct mail. Direct mail does not become active until approved by a Marketing Approver.
Search
Basic search. Find advertisements, customers, campaigns, or discounts based on selected filters and full or partial name or property.
Expression-based search. Find advertisements, customers, campaigns, or discounts based on custom based on Boolean expressions.
View
List views. View search results or data objects. Sort objects based on a selected property.
Preview pane. View the properties of an object selected in the List View.
Status view. View summary of information for selected object.
Task views. View and select tasks available for the selected object.
Tree views. View and explore the marketing data hierarchy.
International
Multilingual subject line. Specify the text for display in the direct mail subject line for each language supported.
Basket display multilingual text. Support for displaying text on the Web page that explains a discount in the user's selected language.