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Sweepstakes

System » System settings » Client » Settings » Sweepstakes

Old: CMS & online store

This manual page describes functions that pertain to the old plentymarkets online shop Callisto. For information regarding the online store template Ceres, please refer to the Setting up Ceres page.

1. General information about sweepstakes

Sweepstakes such as lottery drawings and quizzes are a favoured means for increasing sales and are used to raise interest in certain products or to collect contact data of interested persons. plentymarkets includes a sweepstakes module that allows you to create individual sweepstakes.

2. Planning sweepstakes

First think of what you want to achieve with the sweepstakes. A well thought and solid concept will save you lots of time and work afterwards. Keep the following questions in mind:

  • Who is my target group (e.g. new customers or registered customers)?

  • What do I want to achieve with the sweepstakes (advertising offers or collecting new contact data)?

  • How often do I want to publish sweepstakes (on a weekly or monthly basis)?

  • What type of sweepstakes do I want to use (e.g drawings without any questions or quizzes)?

  • What type of questions and answers are best suited for my sweepstakes?

  • Which legal information is relevant for my sweepstakes? Please pay attention to the "Legal note" entry in Table 1 and refer to your legal adviser for further information.

3. Creating sweepstakes

Once you have a good concept for the sweepstakes, carry out the required settings in plentymarkets. The registration forms for the sweepstakes will be created according to the settings.

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Figure 1. settings in the sweepstakes menu

Creating sweepstakes:

  1. Go to System » System settings » Client » Settings » Sweepstakes.

  2. Pay attention to the explanations given in Table 1 and carry out the settings as desired.

  3. Save the settings.

The following table explains the settings in the Sweepstakes menu:

Table 1. settings in the Sweepstakes menu
Setting Explanation

Answers 1-3

Define up to three answers for your sweepstakes. Enter the answers in the corresponding fields.
Drawing without questions: You need to save at least one answer. Otherwise your customers will receive an error message when they try to register for the sweepstakes in your online store. If you want to create a sheer drawing, only save one answer with a text stating something like "Yes, I wish to participate."

Entry field: first name

Choose whether or not you want to ask the customer’s first name when they participate in the sweepstakes. You can also set this field as a mandatory field.

Entry field: surname

Choose whether or not you want to ask the customer’s surname when they participate in the sweepstakes. You can also set this field as a mandatory field.
The customer’s email address is a mandatory field that will always be requested from the customer.

Legal note

Enter a legal note that your customer has to confirm. Contact your legal adviser to discuss what would be an appropriate text. This note should consist of text and a link to the conditions of participation.
It is advised to create a category of the type content that includes the conditions of participation. Note the category ID and insert it into the link wildcard character. In our example below the number 123 has to be replaced by this ID.
Example: "Yes, I agree to the <a href="[Link_123]">conditions of participation</a> and I wish to receive the newsletter of EXAMPLE SHOP to stay informed!"

relative button URL
without http://www.domain.de

If you wish to use your own button for sending the form, enter the relative URL of the button here.
If you leave this field empty, the Send button will be displayed by default. This button is saved in the CMS » Web design » Buttons menu. You can also adapt the button there if needed.

3.1. Creating a category of the type content

After having carried out the setting for the sweepstakes you have to insert the entry form into the category. Create a new category to do so.

Creating a category:

  1. Go to Item » Categories.

  2. Click on the green plus icon in the lower left corner to create a new category.

  3. Enter the corresponding text for this category, e.g. your question, into the Description 1 tab.

  4. Insert the wildcard character [Form_-2] directly below the question.
    → The registration form for your sweepstakes will be displayed instead of this wildcard character.

  5. Save the settings.

Form ID

The sweepstakes' form ID is always -2. Therefore, only one sweepstakes can be active at a time.

3.2. Inserting a category into the online store layout

After you created the category of the type content you still have to insert it into your online store so that the sweepstakes becomes visible.

Inserting a category into the layout:

  1. Go to CMS » Web design » Layout.

  2. Select which template you want to insert the category into.
    → The PageDesignContent template is used in the example.

  3. Insert the wildcard character [Link_x] into an appropriate place in the layout (see the following code example and Figure 2).

  4. Save the settings.

Inserting the category ID

Replace x in the code example with the category ID.

 
<ul><li><a href="$Link_x" title="Participate in our sweepstakes.">Sweepstakes</a></li></ul>

In the following example, the category was inserted into the upper navigation bar (Figure 2).

3.3. Formatting of the sweepstakes form

Go to CMS » Web design » Layout » CSS and insert the following code example in order to format the form in CSS.

Inserting the CSS:

  1. Go to CMS » Web design » Layout » CSS.

  2. Copy the CSS code below and insert it underneath the already existing CSS code.

  3. Save the settings.

#plenty_lottery_question_1, #plenty_lottery_question_2, #plenty_lottery_question_3 {
padding:8px;
margin: 6px 0px 6px 0px;
border:#999999 solid 1px;
display:block;
}

.question_select {
float:left;
display:block;

}

.question {
float:none;
margin-left:20px;
font-weight:bold;
display:block;
}

#plenty_lottery_data {
padding:8px;
border:#999999 solid 1px;
}

#plenty_lottery_data .cola,
#plenty_lottery_data .colb {
padding:4px;
}

Of course, you can choose how you want to design your sweepstakes. Using the settings above and the CSS code example will deliver the following results:

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Figure 3. example of the display in the online store

4. Confirming the registration

After the participant has registered for the sweepstakes, you can send them an email confirmation. To do so, create an Email template and select this email template as an automatic email.

Creating an email template to confirm the participation:

  1. Go to System » System settings » Client » Select client » Email » Templates.

  2. Create a corresponding Email template.

  3. Go to System » System settings » Client » Select client » Email » Automatic.

  4. Select the Email template that you just created from the Registration for sweepstakes drop-down list.

  5. Save the settings.

Saving email access data

You have to enter your email access data into the system before plentymarkets can send emails on your behalf from your email account.

5. Adding an entry in the newsletter email folder

As soon as a participant has registered, their data can automatically be entered into a newsletter email folder. One advantage of this is that the data of the participants remains in your system even after you deleted the participants (see below). Another advantage is that you can easily administer the email addresses in this menu e.g searching or exporting data, sending newsletters etc. The data of the participants can be saved either in an already existing email folder or you can create a new one and save the data in that one. Of course, you can also copy or move the participants' data from one folder to another. Proceed as described below in order to create a new email folder for the participants of your sweepstakes.

Creating a new email folder:

  1. Go to System » System settings » CRM » Newsletter » plentymarkets » Email folder.

  2. Enter a name for the folder under Create new email folder.

  3. Save the settings.
    → The email folder will be created and will appear in the overview.

  4. Select further settings for this email folder if desired.

In order for the participants' data to be imported into the right folder, you need to insert another wildcard character above the [Form_x] wildcard character in the category that contains the sweepstakes' registration (x is the ID of the form). This new wildcard character specifies which email folder the data should be imported into.

Inserting wildcard characters:

  1. Go to Item » Categories.

  2. Select the category of your sweepstakes.

  3. Insert the wildcard character [EMailDirID::x] directly above [Form_x] (x is the ID of the form) and replace x by the ID of the desired email folder (example for the folder with ID 6: {% EMailDirID(6) %})

  4. Save the settings.

6. Identifying the winner

You can see how many people have participated so far in the System » System settings » Client » Settings » Sweepstakes menu and there in the Overview area. You can identify the winner here once the sweepstakes has ended.

Identifying the winner:

  1. Go to System » System settings » Client » Settings » Sweepstakes.

  2. Click on the Identify winner button.
    → A new window will open. All participants will be listed here. The order is random.

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Figure 4. identifying the winner

The same email address can not be used twice for a sweepstakes. This means that each customer can only participate once. If a customer enters an email address that has already been used, then the form in the online store will not be sent. If a customer has several email addresses, then they can participate with every one of them.

7. Deleting participants

Proceed as follows if you want to delete the participants of an expired sweepstakes, e.g. so that they can participate in upcoming sweepstakes or simply because you do not need the data anymore.

Deleting participants:

  1. Click on the delete icon to delete the participants of the sweepstakes.

  2. Confirm your decision with OK.
    The values in the overview will be reset to zero. After this you can set up a completely new sweepstakes or run the same one again.

Once you have deleted the participants, customers will be able to reuse email addresses that were used before.

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