Configure an offer group
Last updated
Last updated
The goal of this guide is to show you how Offer Groups work, as well as how to configure them in Solicitor.
An Offer Group is a collection of offers, and an individual offer is a combination of a specific division at a certain price.
You construct an Offer Group with the inventory items you've created previously (sales products, marketing text templates, etc). The diagram below indicates which components are mandatory and which are non-mandatory. It also illustrates which components are needed for successful synchronization with both Subscribe and circulation systems.
Though you can publish an Offer Group with the minimum components, we suggest you create robust Offer Groups using as many components as you can.
Best practice note: We suggest creating Offer Groups as collections of Sales Products and divisions (publications). Creating them in this way allows you to still add unique prices, but minimizes the amount of duplication.
Each component of an Offer Group can be applied everywhere (to all) or be limited by either price plan (use for price plan) or individual divisions (select division). This gives you flexibility with how you apply your components.
Use the exceptions button to exclude particular divisions. Alternatively, limit by division and choose the specified division from the drop-down menu.
Make sure you meet the following pre-requisites before starting the tutorial steps:
Create your inventory items (available areas, sales products, marketing text, and terms and conditions), being sure to configure defaults for marketing text, sales team and terms and conditions
Have payment methods, sales platform and market place configured in Solicitor application. Reach out to an implementation manager for this.
In this section, you will learn how to create/edit/delete an Offer Group. The guide divides the steps into smaller, manageable chunks.
Offer Group can be saved as draft or published.
For the Draft offer group all the fields can be edited but the offer group cannot not be consumed by Subscription Panel. Published offer group can be used for Subscription Purchase but some fields cannot be edited, e.g. Product, Billing plan, Billing system codes, Term, Complimentary flag
The option to delete divisions that is available for Marketing Admin, Client Admin, MG2 Admin, MG2 Developer starting from Release 3.14.0.
Select the Offer Groups menu in the Solicitor dashboard. Any existing Offer Groups will display on the right.
Select the + button. The creation screen will appear.
Choose a name for your Offer Group.
Select save draft if continuing. Otherwise, select publish.
Select the products box. Your sales products will appear to the right. Double-click or drag all corresponding sales products (e.g. 7 Day Delivery, Sunday Only, or Friday Only). Starting from 3.16.0 no more than one Base product is allowed in the Offer Group.
Select the divisions box. Your divisions will appear to the right. Double-click or drag all corresponding divisions (e.g. publication's name).
Select the price box. The price creation screen will appear to the right. Enter a price for the Sales Product+Division combination. NOTE: To price divisions differently, select the + tab directly to the right of the price box. This creates a separate tab for a new division/set of divisions. Add a division, then adjust it's price accordingly.
Select save draft if continuing. Otherwise, select publish.
Starting from Release 3.14.0 onwards for Marketing Admin, Client Admin, MG2 Admin, MG2 Developer we developed an option to remove a division from an already published offer group.
If you belong to one of the Roles mentioned above then if you open a published Offer Group that has more than one division you will see an 'X' icon near every division. If you want to delete a division then hit the 'X' icon near the division you want to delete and click 'Update button'. The division will be deleted along with the related priceplan and all the related offers
Use this feature to determine the domain/URL on sales platforms where the offer will be sold. A default selection will use the division's default domain. You can add multiple URLs if you wish. Note: if nothing is used, your default marketplace will be used.
Select the marketplace box. Your maketplace options will appear to the right.
Choose how you wish to apply your sales platform:
-all - applies everywhere
-price plan - allows you to limit by price plan, then select which Markets for which Sales Platform
-division - allows you to select which Markets for which Sales Platform on any division
Select a sales platform from the drop-down menu.
Double-click or drag your desired sales platform to add to the Offer Group.
Select save draft if continuing. Otherwise, select publish.
Note: you can also adjust the sales platform from the additional options box.
Use this feature to add the a T&C template to your Offer Group. Note: if nothing is used, your default terms and conditions will be used.
Select the terms & conditions box. Your T&C options will appear to the right.
Choose how you wish to apply your T&C (for all, by price plan, or by division).
From the drop-down menu, select the sales platform you wish to apply your T&C to.
Double-click or drag your desired T&C to add it to the Offer Group.
Select save draft if continuing. Otherwise, select publish.
Note: You can edit and create new T&C templates from the terms & conditions box. To do this, select unlink, make your changes, then select save as new.
Use this feature to add a Marketing Text template to your Offer Group. Note: if nothing is used, your default marketing text will be used.
Select the marketing text box. Your marketing text options will appear to the right.
Choose how you wish to apply your marketing text template (for all, by price plan' or by division).
Double-click or drag your desired marketing text to add it to the Offer Group.
Select save draft if continuing. Otherwise, select publish.
Note: You can edit and create new Marketing Text templates from the marketing text box. To do this, select unlink, make your changes, then select save as new.
Use this feature to add related Offer Groups as upsell options to this Offer Group (e.g. the addition of a digital subscription to a Sunday Only subscription).
Choose how you wish to apply your related offers (for all, by price plan, or by division).
Select save draft if continuing. Otherwise, select publish.
The Upsell V3 component must be added to the presentation in the CMS for this feature to work properly.
Use this feature to add premiums to your Offer Group. Premiums are individual additions to a Sales Product, like a free mug or $5 gift card.
Select the premiums box. The premiums screen will appear to the right.
Choose how you wish to apply the premiums (for all, by price plan, or by division).
Select the add premiums box. Your premiums options will appear to the right.
Double-click or drag your desired premium to add to your Offer Group.
Select save draft if continuing. Otherwise, select publish.
Use this feature to add, manage, or define unique codes that support your Offer Group.
Select the coding box. The coding options screen will appear to the right.
Choose the code type you wish to add (i.e. house hold levels, smart offer segments, multi-use codes, one-time use codes,custom codes, or billing system codes). The tables below define the coding options.
Select save draft if continuing. Otherwise, select publish.
House hold levels allows you to define entitlement levels (e.g. 1 typically refers to full access and 99 to no access.) You can apply house hold levels to either all or individual divisions.
Smart offer segments allows you to specify that your Offer Group will be used as a Smart Offer. Check out the Stop Saver tutorial for detailed exploration. You can apply the Smart Offer segment to either all or individual divisions.
Multi-use codes allows you to define whether a customer coupon-code can be used to access kind of special offer. These offers can be unlocked on either the Subscription Panel or in the CSR portal. On CSR portal there's a code field.
One-time use codes allow you to define whether a single-use coupon code can be used to access a special offer.
To create a code, go to coding section in an already published offer group, select one time use codes and create your code's group in the code groups created field. Name your code, determine it's length, and the amount of codes desired. Select generate codes. You can only add codes, and the difference between the number of preexisting codes and codes desired will generate.
These codes exist only in the Subscribe database and will not be passed to a circulation database. To view the codes you created go to Reference Tables -> Coding section.
Custom codes refer to circulation dependent codes. The table below shows NCS Circ example codes. You can apply these codes to either all or individual divisions.
Custom codes
Definition
Prm Sub Src
Subscription sub source from NCS Circ (optional).
Source
Source code from NCS Circ.
Campaign code 1
Campaign code from NCS Circ (optional). More details about campaign code starts can be found here
Codes 4-10
Placeholders for additional functionality.
Billing system codes refer to codes associated with the circulation system. You can apply these codes to either all or individual divisions.
For systems using NCS Circ 2018.5 or greater, choose a rate code first. The rate-code options come in real-time from the circulation system, and the rate code field is searchable. Hover your pointer over the rate code for a description. After selecting a rate code, the fields below get pre-populated.
reason code
delivery method
term
length
source
If more than one option exists, a drop-down menu with the appropriate options appears.
The table below is an example from NCS Circ. Other circulation systems can be configured differently.
Billing System Codes
Definition
Rate code
The Offer Group's NCS Circ rate code (eg: VCD7HDCA)
Bill period
The billing type used (e.g. CCAuto or BankAuto)
Reason code
NCS Circ's reason code associated with the rate code (eg: 4DayLgTV)
Term
The billing term type (e.g. weeks or months).
Billing Method
The billing method used (e.g. Office Pay).
Term length
Associated with the Term: 1 for monthly term or 13/26/52 for weekly term.
Delivery method
The method of delivery. Either Route for print offers, or Online for Digital Only offers.
The next example is for Matrix Circ system:
Billing System Code
Description
Example Value
Rate code
Matrix's circulation code indicating the price of a subscription.
IT 6 MTHS
Copies
The number of desired copies.
1
Period
The term and length of the Offer Group.
6 MONTHS
TaxID
Matrix's tax code.
1
Use this feature for miscellany such as address validation rules, and active subscription check, and payment methods.
The table below defines each section's use.
Additional options
Usage
Sales platform
Use this section to determine where the Offer Group will be sold.
Validity date
Use this section to select a start and end date for the Offer Group.
Offer Group code
Use this section to create a unique code to identify your Offer Group. This code can be referenced as a URL parameter direct customer to your Offer Group.
Term
Use this section to define the Offer Group's type of term and term length. Subscriber's will see this in their UI panel.
Pass or trial
Use this section to determine if the Offer Group is either a Free or Trial subscription.
Payment method
Use this section to determine the Offer Group's valid payment methods. Check all that apply. Note: These payment methods will apply to all divisions.
Address requirements
Use this section to determine which address type will be required of a subscriber. Billing address will require a billing address. Delivery address will require a delivery address. Run product delivery check will validate the postal code against the default available area configured in the Subscribe database.
Subscription validation
Use this section to determine other required validations for your Offer Group. No existing subscription at address would require the address to not be used for an existing subscription. No existing subscription stopped recently would require that the subscription wasn't stopped within {X} amount of days, with the amount of days configurable in MG2Control. No outstanding balance would require the subscription to not have an outstanding balance.
EZPay
Use this section to determine if your Offer Group accepts/requires EZPay (automatic payment renewal). Note: This section will apply to all divisions. EZPay required will require auto-renew. EZPay optional will allow auto-renew to be optional. No EZPay will disallow auto-renewal as a feature.
Tags
Use this section to add search tags to your Offer Group.
Old PID
Legacy promotion id.
You can preview the offers of your Offer Group with the preview button. Use the scroll arrows to navigate between offers. Select a section of the Offer Group to highlight it and preview that component. The preview will appear to the right.
Congratulations! You've created an Offer Group! To review, you've learned how to create an Offer Group, as well as explored all of the functionality of the Offer Groups menu.
Select the related offers box. The related offers screen will appear to the right.
Select the upsell box. Your related Offer Groups will appear to the right.
Double-click or drag your desired related Offer Groups to add to your current Offer Group.
