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Remote widgets for e-Marketing Spots
E-Marketing Spot remote widgets are Flash-based, portable versions of e-Marketing Spots. Remote widgets provide you with a way to syndicate marketing information on Web sites outside of WebSphere Commerce. You can create a remote widget for any e-Marketing Spot in Management Center.
Just like e-Marketing Spots on store pages, e-Marketing Spot remote widgets display Web activities and default e-Marketing Spot content. The difference is that a remote widget can be embedded on any external Web site or social network to extend the brand experience and drive traffic back to the site. You can centrally control what remote widgets display by changing the Web activity using the Management Center Marketing tool.
Example of an e-Marketing Spot remote widget
The Madisons starter store demonstrates how you can let customers share e-Marketing Spot remote widgets from the storefront. In the following example, an e-Marketing Spot on the home page displays the "Deals of the Week." When customers click a Share link, they can get the "Deals of the Week" content as a remote widget that they can embed on a social network or personal Web page:
Ways to use e-Marketing Spot remote widgets
You can create e-Marketing Spot remote widgets to:
- Syndicate marketing content on affiliate and partner sites
Use remote widgets to simplify the process of distributing and maintaining marketing information on affiliate and partner sites. For example, consider the Madisons e-Marketing Spot example that displays the "Deals of the Week" ad on the home page. You might want to display that same ad on the home page of two affiliate sites, as well as the corporate Facebook page. You can create a remote widget for the e-Marketing Spot and distribute the widget embed code to the two affiliate sites. If you have access to the corporate Facebook account, you can then share the widget directly to the corporate Facebook page. When the widget is embedded on these external sites, you can centrally control the marketing information to display in the widget using the Management Center Marketing tool. When the following week arrives, you can change the list of products to display and roll out the changes to all remote widgets simultaneously. This process eliminates the need to manually distribute new marketing information to external sites.
- Let customers promote the brand by sharing a remote widget
Customers who find the e-Marketing Spot remote widgets appealing can share the widgets to social networks, blogs, and other personal Web pages. For example, consider a store that sells motorcycles and offers an e-Marketing Spot remote widget that displays a different vintage motorcycle each day, branded with the store logo. Customers who are motorcycle fans can share the widget on their social network or blog.
You can get creative with this type of widget, finding ways to connect customers more closely with the brand. Other examples are:
- A "Camping destination of the week" widget to promote camping gear the store sells
- A "Health tips" widget to get customers thinking about the health care products
- A "Quick-and-Easy Recipes" widget that highlights the kitchenware products
This type of remote widget has the potential to go viral.
Choosing an e-Marketing Spot
The e-Marketing Spot you choose for a remote widget can be:
- An e-Marketing Spot that will be used exclusively as a remote widget, that is, an e-Marketing Spot that does not display content on a WebSphere Commerce store page. In this case, create the e-Marketing Spot in the Marketing tool, but a store developer does not need to add the e-Marketing Spot to the JSP file for a store page. This option is ideal for syndicating marketing information that is different from what you display on the storefront.
- An e-Marketing Spot that displays marketing information on a WebSphere Commerce store page. For example, you can create a remote widget for the HomePageDealOfTheWeek e-Marketing Spot located on the store's home page.
If you decide to let customers share e-Marketing Spot widgets from the storefront, keep in mind that you are committed to maintaining feed data in the widget for a reasonable period of time. For example, if you let customers share a "Deals of the Week" widget, they will expect a new set of products in the widget each week. For this reason, choose e-Marketing Spots that you expect to remain on the storefront well into the future.
Create a remote widget for an e-Marketing Spot
WebSphere Commerce is integrated with KickApps, a Web-based platform that offers hosted widget services. The KickApps App Studio provides the widget editing and publishing functions you can access directly through the Management Center Marketing tool over the Internet. Your site must set up an affiliate account with the KickApps; however, there is no software to install.You can choose a widget service provider other than KickApps, or you can create and host the own widget. In either case, the widget must get its content from the Atom feed coming from the target e-Marketing Spot. This way, the widget content on the remote sites is controlled by the Web activities or default content scheduled for the e-Marketing Spot.
Distribute e-Marketing Spot remote widgets
Both you and the customers can embed e-Marketing Spot remote widgets on Web pages outside of WebSphere Commerce:
- As a marketing manager, you can:
- Add the remote widget you created directly to several social networks using the KickApps publishing functions.
- Copy the embed code for the remote widget and distribute the code in an e-mail message to affiliate and partner sites. Developers at the affiliate site can add the embed code to their Web pages to display the remote widget.
- To allow customers to share an e-Marketing Spot remote widget to a social network or personal Web page, a store developer can add a Share link to the e-Marketing Spot on a store page, as shown in the screen capture in this topic.
Related concepts
Comparison of e-Marketing Spot remote widgets and feeds
Content of e-Marketing Spot remote widgets and feeds
Personalization in e-Marketing Spot remote widgets and feeds
Related tasks
Create an e-Marketing Spot remote widget
Add a Share link for an e-Marketing Spot remote widget
Related reference
Remote widget setup and implementation checklists
Example of an e-Marketing Spot Atom feed rendered in a feed reader and a remote widget