A quick overview of the Blox Offer Builder tool within the Access Control Application. Offer Builder provides a customizable paywall for your readers with one-touch subscriptions.
Providing Offers to readers is a great way to bring in new traffic and convert long-time lurkers into valuable visitors. Creating an Offer involves creating an Access Offer Group, assigning it to a Rule and then a Method Group.
Establish Subscription Rates
Prior to creating an offer, subscription rates should be setup accordingly within either BLOX Subscription or a 3rd-party circulation payment system, such as NewzWare or Brainworks.
Create an Offer Group
An Offer Group is is where the various promotions are created.
To create an Offer Group, select the gear in the upper-right to reveal the Application Settings. Within the Access Offer Groups panel, select +New to populate the Create Offer Group panel.
General tab
The General tab is where basic information, imaging and messaging can be configured for the offer group.
Name: Enter a Name, Title and Message. Name will be displayed in the Admin only.
Title: Title will be displayed as the “headline” on the paywall for that Offer Group. Keep it short, such as “Please subscribe or log in to continue reading.”
Promo Image: Select the Magnifying Glass icon to locate an image within BLOX Media Library to represent the offer group.
Redirect URL: The page will be redirected to this URL upon first visit. Going back to the page during the same session will then show the offers if access is still required.
Message: The Message will be displayed beneath the Title.
For best results, keep this short or leave it blank.
Offers tab
The Offers tab is where the rates that will be displayed within the paywall are created. Offers can be added either manually or directly from a services within BLOX Subscription.
The best practice is to show 1 offer, but you may create up to 5. Showing more than 3 offers is not recommended.
To Create an offer using a rate attached to BLOX Subscription, select +New > Offer From Subscription. Next, select the service and the rate you want to show within the paywall and then choose select.
Sites using 3rd party circulation systems (instead of BLOX Subscription) will need to use the Manual offer option.
Edit Offer
Here’s your opportunity to customize the paywall display.
If you’ve chosen a Rate attached to a Service, the Title, Rate and Link will automatically populate for you. You can edit those fields however you like to best position your offer.
If you’ve chosen a Manual offer, there are prompts in each field to help guide you. Each field is freeform, and can be used at your discretion to help customize your subscription offer.
For a breakdown of this offer and information where it will appear, please view the following table:
For examples and ideas on positioning your offers for success, check out our Best Practices.
Targeting tab
The Targeting tab is where the a 3rd party subscription link may be added, in addition to defining a promo schedule for the offer.
If you’ve chosen a Rate attached to a Service, the service will already be linked.
If you have chosen a Manual offer, you’ll need to paste in your link in the URL field. You also have the option to enter custom Javascript.
By default, the Offer will be live right away, but you may choose to disable or schedule it to make it live at a later time.
If you are creating a digital offer and you use TownNews for your digital subscription purchases, the 1-Page Subscription Workflow will be displayed to maximize conversions. An experimental setting must be applied to your site to activate this functionality.
Click Create to complete your Offer. If you wish to display more than one offer, repeat the same process for the next offer. If you have more than one offer, drag and drop the offers in the list to prioritize them. The first offer in the list will display on the far left of the paywall.
Assign Offer Group to a Rule
To assign an Offer to a rule, double-click on a rule within the Search Results panel. Next, within the Access Offer Group dropdown menu, select the newly created Offer Group. The Message set up in your Offer Group will override the Message field in this panel.
You can apply an Offer Group to all of your rules - or customize your journeys by creating a group for each rule. Only one Offer Group may be applied to each rule, but you may display 1-3 offers in each Offer Group. You can display up to 5, but more than 3 is not recommended.
Add Offer Groups to Access Method Groups
To add an Offer Group to an Access Method Group, open a Method Group within the Application Settings panel. Next, select +Add > Subscription to populate the Select Subscription Methods panel.
Select each one that should be included and then choose the Select to complete your selections. Select Save within the Method Group to finalize your changes.
Live Examples
To see this example in action, please view the e-Edition asset located within the following page:
