A marketing plan is simply a set of tracking codes linked together to make up a promotional campaign. You create a promotional campaign by using the 'Marketing Plans' screen. While you're in this screen, QuickFill also lets you define the tracking codes you'll use with the plan.
Many of QuickFill's reports can provide statistics broken down by plan, so you can see which of your promotions were most effective. You can also use the plan code as a filter to exclude specific groups of tracking codes when you run reports. Say that you have several tracking codes that are used only for complimentary subscriptions or temporary free subscriptions that you give to your authors. By linking all of these tracking codes to a plan named 'COMPS', you can easily exclude them from your reports so that they don't distort the results.
Defining marketing plans
If you're planning a new promotion, start with the 'Marketing Plans' definition screen. When you select 'Marketing' under 'Definitions' on the main menu, and then select 'Plans', you'll see one of two screens. If you select 'Plans' for the first time after installing QuickFill, you'll see a screen with a blank form for defining the plan.
If you've already defined some plans, you'll see a list of the plans you've defined in the upper portion of the screen and the "New," "Change," and "Delete" options running along the bottom.
If you haven't yet defined any plans, fill in the four fields in the top part of the screen (we describe how below). Then move the cursor down to the "Tracking Codes" section and click on "New." When you do, a 'Tracking codes' definition screen where you can define the first tracking code you'll use for this promotion will appear. (Click here for details on filling in the fields in the 'Tracking codes' definition screen.)
After you've defined the first tracking code and clicked on "OK" to save your changes, the code definition appears as a single line in the "Tracking Codes" section of the 'Marketing Plans' definition screen. Now you can define another tracking code by clicking on "New." If the tracking code you want to define next is similar to a code you've already defined, you can replicate this existing tracking code by moving the cursor to the code you want to replicate and clicking on "Replicate." Use "Replicate" to quickly create a group of tracking codes with common features. You can also change the definition of a tracking code by moving the cursor to the code you want to change and clicking on "Change." You can delete a tracking code by moving the cursor to the code and clicking on "Delete."
Once you have added, changed, or deleted tracking codes for a plan, click on "OK" from the 'Marketing Plans' screen to save your changes to the plan definition.
Plan code
Enter a code to identify this plan.
Plan date
Enter, if you like, the date you're creating this plan. The data in this field is for your information only. QuickFill doesn't use the information.
Plan description
Enter a brief description of the plan. QuickFill uses the plan code and description to identify this plan when you're in the 'Tracking codes' definition screen. The code and description also appear on your reports when you run them by plan.
Mail house
Enter, if you like, the mailing house you'll use for this promotion. The data in this field is for your information only. QuickFill doesn't use the information.
Tracking codes
As mentioned above, the "Tracking Codes" section of the plan definition is used to link tracking codes to the plan. You can link the plan to tracking codes in two ways: (1) create the tracking code on the 'Plans' screen (as described above), or (2) right click in the 'Marketing Plan' field of the 'Tracking codes' definition screen and select from the plans previously defined. We recommend the first procedure.
Click here for details on entering tracking code definitions.
You can also change the definition of a plan by moving the cursor to the plan you want to change and double clicking on it, or clicking once on "Change." You can delete a plan for which the tracking codes are not being used by moving the cursor on the plan you want to delete and clicking on "Delete."
To delete a plan to which tracking codes are linked, you must first remove the tracking codes from the plan definition.
Click here for information on how to merge marketing plan codes.