Events

Use Events to promote specials, occasions and announcements on your website.

You can create as many Events as you desire; they will automatically appear on your website during the date range you specify.

Getting Started

1. From the Marketing tab, click "Events" on the left side of the page, then "Add Event".

Type

Choose the type of event that you want - there are eight (8) types:

  • Specials highlights your services, optionally at a discount, with links to Instant Gift Certificates and Online Booking for that service. Very handy for highlighting featured services or just giving out great promotions or schwag to your clients.
  • There are additional options available when you choose a "specials" type of event (these will show below the date range fields):

    GC Category
    lets you pick a group of GC designs to highlight for this special. Choose Mother's Day, for example, and some Mother's Day designs will be shown first when your client purchases an IGC using these featured services.

    Type of Special:
    Featured Services
    - highlight and discount particular services with this special. You can optionally enter a special price, which will only apply during the date range for the special. Enter an offer description, which will be used for the website snippet and will appear in your menu of services in Instant GCs and Online Booking.  Each featured service will have a link in the website snippet that goes directly to that service. In other words, if you choose "Couple's Massage" as a featured service, the default website snippet will include a link to Instant GCs that not only goes to Instant GCs, but already has that service selected. Neato!
    Percentage Discount - Sell all of your Instant Gift Certificates for a limited time at any percentage discount you choose!
    Buy One, Get One  One of the coolest specials you can run will get your purchaser back into your business for themselves!  You can create offers that give the purchaser an additional promotional GC when they buy an IGC at a certain dollar threshold.  You have complete control of the details of the offer, and we've even set up some default ones to get you started.  Read our help file on "Buy One, Get One" here!
    Instant Offer - Send immediate goodies to your clients and future customers. Create a one-time offer for bonus gifts, dollars-off the next visit, even product discounts. The sky is the limit. You create a new Offer that your client can print and bring in to claim their promotion. We have a whole help topic on Instant Offers - read up!
  • BoomTime Deals puts group buying back in your hands - offer fantastic limited-time deals to your clients, set minimums, limits, and control every step of the process.

    See our dedicated Help Topic, all about BoomTime Deals!

  • Sweepstakes builds your exposure and brand by promoting awareness of your business through a one-time giveaway contest. By promoting the Sweepstakes on your Facebook page, you can entice people to Like your business page and invite more of their friends to also join in - and if one wins, the other does, too!

    See our dedicated Help Topic, all about Sweepstakes!

  • Referral Code allows you to send a special code to select groups of customers. 
  • There are additional options available when you choose a "Referral Code" type of event (these will show below the date range fields):

    FIRST, type in a name, description, and the code you'd like to use.  That code is what you can give to your clients.  If you're sending via email or the web, a weblink is also created in the text box below, ready to copy & paste.

    Featured Services selects the services that you would like to highlight with this special. You can optionally enter a special price, which will only apply during the date range for the special. And, you can enter an offer description, which will be used for the website snippet and will appear in your menu of services in Instant GCs and Online Booking.  Each featured service will have a link in the website snippet that goes directly to that service. In other words, if you choose "Couple's Massage" as a featured service, the default website snippet will include a link to Instant GCs that not only goes to Instant GCs, but already has that service selected.
    Percentage Discount - Sell all of your Instant Gift Certificates for a limited time at any percentage discount you choose!
    Buy One, Get One  One of the coolest specials you can run will get your purchaser back into your business for themselves!  You can create offers that give the purchaser an additional promotional GC when they buy an IGC at a certain dollar threshold.  You have complete control of the details of the offer, and we've even set up some default ones to get you started.  Read our help file on "Buy One, Get One" here!
  • Occasion and Announcement types give you additional types of events that you can use however you desire to include time-sensitive information of any type on your website.
  • News events are the only type that don't require an end date. The latest three news events will always be shown. Perfect for updates about what's happening at your business.
  • Default "Special" move along now, nothing to see here.... (these are system Events, don't worry about needing to create these)

Headline

A short descriptor for the Event - this will appear as a headline on your website or as the title for social media posts.

Narrative

This is the main text for your event. 

Edit website snippet

Do not do this until you have set up the event entirely. If you want to get fancy, you can click Edit Website Snippet to bring your event up in the website editor. When you Edit Website Snippet, we build the website content based on the settings on the event. In the website editor, you can then format the event to your heart's desire. However, we need to lock the content of an event once you have edited the website snippet. So once you've done this, you can't change the PDF attached (if any) and you can't change any featured services. If you change the Headline, the website snippet won't update.  You can, however, click Cancel Edits to lose any changes you've made in the editor and go back to changing the Headline and Narrative.  

Link to PDF File

For Occasions, Announcements and News events, you also have the option of attaching a PDF file. Select "New file" to upload a new PDF.

Link Text is what your website visitors will click on to view the PDF file. Enter something descriptive, like "March Newsletter".

Start Date: The first day you want the event to appear on your website.

End (or Event) Date: The last day for which the event will appear.

Time (optional): If your Event has a set time period, say 3 to 6pm.  Enter the time in "03:00pm" format.

Send to Social Media? 

If you'd like to promote this Event on your Social Media fronts, we'll help you do it with some automated tools.  (First, you must have set up integration with at least one Social Media account, so get started with our help topic on Social Media Integration)

Just click the checkbox and a few new fields will show up - allowing you to edit your Social Media posts and determine their time, as well.  By default, we set up one post at the beginning of the Event's time frame, and one more shortly before the end of the Event (or the Event Date).  Click on "Content" to open up an editing window for the posts, but we do a pretty good job of summarizing your Event for the world, so usually this is just a optional step.

That's it!  Your posts will appear on schedule, and you've just interacted with your clients without lifting a finger!   Read our blog post on Events via Social Media.

Prioritize Event?

Prioritize Event is a handy new feature that lets you "float" an event to the top of your list, even if it is not the most recent item going on and you'd like to highlight it, even if temporarily.

Add a Text Message to Your Event After Saving

  • After you save or update an event with a start/end date, there will be an Add Text Message option for the event. This option appears for the type of events for which you can Add Email (Special, Sweepstakes, Occasion, Boomtime Deal).
  • When you click "Add Text Message" the Add post page will appear. The Text Message check box will be marked and there will be no Facebook/Twitter options.
  • The date and time will have default data - you SHOULD change the date and time to whatever you want.
  • The link field will include a link to the event. The Post text will default to the headline for the event.
  • Additionally, at the bottom of the form, above the save button, a link to the related Event will also appear. Do not click this link while you are initially creating the post or it won't save.
  • You can optionally select which marketing lists receive the post (just like any text message).
  • If you change the dates of the event, the pending text messages will be unaffected. You will need to change the date on those independently.
  • Deleting the event will also delete the pending text messages.

Copy event

Use Copy Event to create a new event based on an old one.

When you copy an event, most of the information from the original event will be copied. There are two exceptions.

1. The dates on the copied event will be blank.

2. For news, occasion and announcement events, copying the website snippet from the original event (if you had edited it) is an additional and optional step.

Special handling for Website snippets

News, occasion and announcement events allow you to attach a PDF to the event. Once you edit the website snippet, you can't change the PDF. But let's say that you want to copy one of those events and use a different PDF.

When you copy it, you should be aware of two things. The PDF field will default to new file so that you have the opportunity to pick another PDF and enter the link text. Then, and only then, you should click the Copy Original Website Snippet button. This action will copy the original content over and replace the link to the PDF with the new file and link text.

The Copy Original Website Snippet will only appear when you copy a News, Occasion or Announcement event that had an edited website snippet.

If you do not copy the snippet before you save your new event you will miss your chance to copy it and you will just have to edit the website snippet from scratch.

For Specials, the edited website snippet will copy automatically. If the special was for Featured Services you will not be able to change the services featured in the event without canceling the website edits.