How to test your email newsletter before you send it (BV2004)

I'm not sure about you, but before I send an email to several thousand people, I'm a little nervous. So, I always double and triple check. Here is a quick way to test it out.

Overview
We are going to create a test email list and send an email.

Creating a new list

• Log in to the administrator
• Click on the People tab
• Click on Mailing Lists in the left hand navigation
• Here you will see the page with all of your email campaigns.
• At the top you can add new lists. In the bottom section, you can click to edit or send your existing emails.
• Since we are creating a testing account, let's set up a new account.
• In the top box labeled "List Name" type in the name of your list. Example: Testing
• Place a check in the box labeled "Private". This will make sure all of your customers will not see your testing area.
• Click on the New button. This will save the list and refresh the page. You will now see your new email mailing list below with an asterisk beside it. The asterisk notes that it's private.
• Click on the Edit button next to your list.
• In the right hand section of the page, look for the section titled "Select Users to Add"
• Make sure the drop down says email.
• Type in your email address in the box to the right and click on the "Find" button.
• When your email address shows, put a check in the box next to it.
• Just to the right, click on the "add">
• Click on the "Save Changes" button towards the top.
• Next we'll see how to test.

Sending the Email

• You should be on the Mailing list page now
• Find your testing email list
• Click on the yellow "Email" button. This will take you to a new page.
• If you are sending an HTML email, click on the radio button titled "HTML"
• Type in your from address
• Type in your subject
• Now, simply copy in your text or HTML.
• Now, click on the Email button to send the email. You should receive an email within a minute or two.
• After testing several times, follow these same steps to send your email to your entire mailing list of customers.

How do I add a link to a custom page in my product description

Ok, let's say you are in a situation where you want to show more detail about your products, but don't want to clutter up your page too much. For example, if your product has a warranty, you many not want to put the entire text of the warranty on your product page. Our suggestion is to make a custom page. It's a little tricky, but you'll get the hang of it pretty quick.

This set of instructions will guide you through adding a custom page, getting the link to the custom page, then updating your product description.

IMPORTANT:
The standard WYWIWYG looks like this:















We can change your editor to look like this:
















The current settings for the FreeTextBox editor do not allow you to create links. If you want to change it, please do the following:

1. Open the file BVModules\Editors\Free Text Box\editor.ascx
2. Remove the line that states ToolBarLayout
3. Click Save
4. Contact us at 866.630.9876 if this sounds like Greek to you.

Adding a custom page

Login to the admin

1. Click on the Content tab
2. Click on the Custom pages sub navigation
3. This new screen will show you all of your custom pages. We are going to add a page, so click on the new button over on the right.
4. Type in a page name. This could be Warranty Information
5. Type in a name for the Name in Menu. We will use this temporarily.
6. Check the box "Show in bottom menu"
7. Type in all of your text.
8. Click Save changes.

Getting the link to your new page

1. Go to your website.
2. Look in the bottom menu. You will now see your new page. Click on your new page.
3. Look in your browser address window and copy the url to your new page. Ex: http://www.bluecreekweb.com/ecommerce/bvcommerce/
4. Now you have your link.

Placing the link into your custom description

1. Log in to the admin
2. Click on the Catalog tab
3. Find your product and click on the Edit button to take you to your product details.
4. Now, paste your link into your product description. If you are using the FreeTextEditor, this will automatically change into a link.

Make a user friendly link (optional)

1. As of right now, the link will show to your clients. If you want to make it more user friendly, follow these steps.
2. While still on the product detail page, look to the bottom of your description. You will see two tabs, one for Design, the other for HTML.
3. Click on the HTML tab.
4. Find your link in the code. This is the link you just pasted in.
5. The code will follow the format of destinationlink
6. You will see two references to your link. The first one defines where the link will go. It will be in a tab like this . Leave this one alone.
7. Find the next one. It will come right after the first and will show up before the tag.
8. Type over your link to make the friendly text appear.
9. Click on the Update button.

Clean Up (optional)

1. Follow this set of instructions if you want to remove the link in the footer.
2. Login to the admin
3. Click on the Content tab
4. Click on the Custom pages sub navigation
5. This new screen will show you all of your custom pages.
6. Find your new custom page and click on the edit button.
7. Uncheck the box "Show in bottom menu"
8. Click Save changes.

How can I put my change the order of my products

Yes, you can change the display order of products.

Let's say you are selling DVD Publishers like NobleHouseCD.com. They have a category already set up for DVD Publishers. Their bestseller may be the GX-1 and they don't want it to be down the list in alphabetical order. They want it to be number 1.

Here's how to do it.

• Log in as the administrator
• Click on the "Category" tab
• Click on the sub navigation item "Categories"
• Find the category with your product
• Click on the "Edit" button. This will bring up the category detail page
• Look on the right hand side. You will see the area titled "Product Selection." Click on the "Select" button in this area.
• Now, you should see a page with all of the products in that category showing on the left.
• To change the display order, simply click on the up or down arrow buttons to move your product.
• That's it!

For more information on BV Commerce, please feel free to contact us at 866.630.9876.

Cross Sells and Upsells

Ok, so what are these things.

Cross-sells: Think of cross sells as a potentially competitive product. Maybe even a similar product with more features. We recommend choosing a similar product which is slightly more expensive. As an example, if you were selling an an HP printer, you could have the HP printer deluxe as your cross sell. This will show up on your product detail page.

Up-sells: Think of up sells as something you want to sell to your customer that they may need when they purchase this product. For example, in following with the HP Printer example, an upsell may be printer cartridges. Retail companies are famous for this. A lot of times, they will reduce the cost of the main product (printer) to sell you an overpriced upsell. This is done a lot of times with printers and printer connection cables. This does not show on your product detail page.

One BIG note, the upsell will show up (if configured correctly) right after you click on "Add to Cart." So, if you add it and don't see it on your product detail page, click on the "Add to Cart" button to see your results.

Another BIG note, don't forget, you can add customer choices to your products instead of doing an up-sell or cross-sell!

Here is BV's definition: http://www.bvsoftware.com/BVCommerce5Manual/BVAdministratorGuide/Catalog/Product/Up%20Sells%20Cross%20Sells.aspx

Up Sells and Cross Sells offer the ability to market other products in your store to a customer while they’re viewing a product or attempting to add a product to their cart. Up Sells/Cross Sells can be added from the “Up Sells/Cross Sells” menu on the edit product page.

Upsells:
You can configure how the Up Sells are displayed to the customer under the Options > Orders menu. Depending on these settings, the Up Sells will either be displayed in an intermediary screen between the product and cart page or on the cart page itself. If a customer chooses an Up Sell product, the chosen product will replace the original product the customer was adding to the cart.

Cross Sells:
Cross Sells are very similar to Up Sells; however these products will not replace the product being added to the cart. These are normally “recommended” products or products that a customer may want to add to their cart in addition to the product they’re purchasing.

How to change your BV Commerce Theme bv2004

These are the instructions on how to change your theme in BV Commerce. Changing your theme will reflect a new look on your entire website. Don't forget, if you have customized your theme, those customizations won't be reflected in other themes.

If you would like to make small adjustments to your theme, for seasonal changes (Christmas), then we recommend copying your existing theme, and changing the new one. This way, you can use it each year. A discussion on that is in here too.

How to change your theme

1. Log in to the administrator
2. Click on the settings tab
3. Click Themes in the left hand navigation. This will list all of your themes. Note, the theme names are the same as the theme directory names in your BVThemes directory located on your server.
4. Click the select button next to the theme you wish to use.

If you want to create a new theme and have it list here, here's how to do it. Note, you will need FTP access to your site to complete this task.

1. First step is to obtain a copy of a theme you would like to use.
2. Using your FTP software, log into your site.
3. Browse to the directory labeled BVThemes
4. Here, you will see all of your themes you are using.
5. Download one of the directories.
6. On your local machine, change the name of the directory.
7. Make any edits you wish whether it's stylesheet changes or graphic changes. The stylesheet is called styles.css and will be found in the directory you just downloaded.
8. To allow your new theme to show up on the website, upload your newly named directory.
9. When you go back into the administrator as described above, you will now see your new theme.
10. If you would like to use your new theme, simply click the select button next to your new theme. Instructions were given above.

Google Analytics and BV Commerce

Yes, you can implement Google Analytics into BVCommerce 2004 and 5. We can help you with the details and integrating Google Analytics into your site. For specific instructions, please visit the BVCommerce Forums found here: http://www.bvsoftware.com/Forums

Google Analytics has proven to be successful for clients such as Cornerstone Cookie. Contact us to help you implement it.