Tutorial: How to create a Product Recommender – Easypromos - Online Helpdesk

The “Product Recommender” app lets you ask the participating users a series of questions and depending on their preferred answers, you can show them which of your products fits them best in a customized final message where you can give them information about the recommended product.

To create a Product Recommender, please follow these steps:

Step 1. Create the promotion

1. Access the Easypromos Control Panel and log in with your email address and password to manage and create your promotions.

2. Create a new promotion using the green button.

3. You’ll be presented with the products available. Choose “Product Recommender" to create a promotion which consists of a list of questions that participants must answer in order to suggest them one of your products.

4. As a next step, set up the following options:

Organizing brand. As a first step, you should select or create an organizing brand for your promotion. This organizing brand is independent of any social network and works as a folder within your Easypromos account, in order to help organize the promotions that you create.
Template version. Select which template you want to use to create your promotion: Premium or White Label.

Note: Compare here the features and functionalities included in each template.

5. When clicking on the Continue button, you'll be taken to the promotion management page, where you can find all the options for setting up your promotion. We've outlined the most important sections below:

Header. This displays the title of the promotion, the platform version (Premium or White Label), and other relevant information such as the promotion ID number. The Promotion status indicates if the promotion is a Draft, Active or Expired, as well as if it’s about to start. Once the promotion has ended, this field will be marked in red saying: Status: Expired. You can choose what to show on an expired promotion page.
Link to the promotion. Use this URL whenever you share the promotion. Learn more about sharing here. The copy link button automatically copies the link, to make sharing even faster.
Activate Promotion. When the promotion is ready to launch, click this button to activate it. You'll be taken to the activation page, where you can review billing information and make payments.
Side menu. All your promotion settings in one place.
View tutorial. This tutorial guides you step by step through the creation and management of your promotion.
Promotion dates and time zone control the promotion phases.
Languages indicates the default language of the promotion. You can edit this if you wish.
Localization allows you to limit participation to one or several countries. Learn more about country restrictions.
Next steps: Practical recommendations that will guide you in the creation and management of your campaign.

Top tip: the promotion ID number (#) is a unique identifier for each promotion. Quote this number if you need to contact the Easypromos support team with any issues. This will make it easier for us to review your settings and help you out.

Step 2. Create test questions and answers

Next, create the questions that you want to ask the participants.

1. Access the ‘Editor’ of the promotion:

2. Access the section Pages > Quiz, which is the place where you will create your questions and answers. As you can see, you will have 6 questions already created, so you can see examples of different questions:

3. Once you know the questions you want to design, click on the pencil icon to edit the contents of the question:

Next, we indicate the options that you must modify to create your question:

a) Contents of the Question:

You will see the options for editing the question, which you must complete with your own content:

You'll find the following options:

Question text: Type the question you want to ask users here.
Upload Media: Decide if you want to accompany the question with an image or video.
Position: If you upload an image for the question, choose between a horizontal or vertical display.
Answers: Click on the pencil icon to rename each answer. Click on the "Add answers" button if you need to add more, use the copy response option to duplicate the answers or use the trash can icon if you need to delete answers.

b) Advanced options:

Here you will find the options to set up your question:

Feedback message text: You can present an informative text with the correct answer after users answer the question. You can customize different feedback messages for correct and incorrect answers.
Container columns: It will allow you to indicate how many answers you want to show per row.
Question type: In case you need to modify the type of question you have initially created.
Hide Continue button: Check this option if you want the user to move to the next question by just clicking on the answer buttons. By default, the Continue button is displayed in closed answers to allow users to move forward to the next questions of the quiz.
Allow users to change their answer.

4. If you wish, you can also create a new question and configure it to your liking. To do this, click on the "New question" button:

5. For each question that you create, you will see the following window with the different answer types but for the Product Recommender, you should use the ‘Single answer’ option because they allow you to give the same score in each question and connect them with a certain final message.

Step 3. Create the final messages to show the recommended product

One of the special features of the Product Recommender is that it lets you set up customized final messages based on the preferences in the answers, or based on the “majority of answers” if using this system.

This option will let you show each user a different final message recommending one of your products, depending on the answers in the quiz.

Click here to see our Cheese Recommender and try the user experience.

To create different final messages depending on the answers, you should follow these steps:

1. Go to the Editor> Pages> Quiz > Final messages section. As you can see, you have 4 final messages already created, each with a specific score, so you can better see how to configure each final message. Click on the pencil icon to edit the final messages:

Tip! We recommend that you start by designing the messages that you want to display on the final page since they vary depending on the number of products you want to show in the recommender. Each final message will represent one of the products that you want to recommend to the participants.

Example: To write this tutorial, we’ve invented a recommender quiz with questions about cheese (which type do you like the most, how do you prefer to eat it, etc.) and depending on the answers, on the final page of the promotion, the user will receive a recommendation about the kind of cheese that best match their preferences.

To do so, to each final message you should assign the value: 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., to define the different products.

2. Assign points to the answers. Once you have defined the final messages for the different products you want to recommend, you must give a score to the answers to the different questions. Assign a value to each answer that corresponds to each product, for example, 1, 2, 3, or 4, etc. in order to link each response to a specific final message.

Practical example:

The following question “How do you prefer cheese?” has three possible answers:

a) Fresh or soft-ripened

b) Semi-soft or semi-hard

c) Hard

So we connect each answer with the product that matches this characteristic. To do so, in the “Number of points” we put the value of the final message (= product) that matches each answer:

Advanced option:

You can assign more than one value to each answer so that you can connect one answer with more than one product. This option is useful if, because of the characteristics of a product, this can be connected with more than one of the possible answers.

Example: If in the question “Type of milk used…”, the answer “Sheep’s milk” can be connected with different cheeses, you can write the values of the different cheeses made with sheep’s milk to create the connection:

And this is how the final message that recommends a specific product is displayed:

Note: In order to configure the final messages follow this tutorial and do not miss any steps.

Step 4. Enable the Summary page

The Questionnaire Summary page shows users a new page with the details of their answers before registering their contact details. This screen is presented after answering the last question of the questionnaire, just before accessing the registration form. You can choose to allow users to repeat the questionnaire before they register.

Note: Learn how to enable and customize the Questionnaire Summary Page here.

Step 5. Customize the text and images for each page

Configure the text and images of each page of the promotion:

A) Welcome.

Change the provisional title for one which highlights the key points of your promotion.
Format the texts, and upload an image to make the page more dynamic.
Use the description to explain what participants must do to take part.
You can also customize the “Participate” and “See Participants” buttons.

B) Entry Form.

Adapt the Entry Form to your needs by using the predefined fields and checkboxes. You can also customize the text and header image of this page. Read more about how to set up the Entry Form.

C) Other pages.

Additionally, you have some general customization options for navigating the promotion pages:

Customize the name and icon of each section in the promotion menu. For example, you can change the default name of "Welcome" page to "Start", with an icon to match.
Add new sections to the promotion menu for additional content. This new section can be set up in two different ways:
- New page, for example, to present and explain the prizes of the promotion.
- External link, to drive traffic to your website or microsite.

Step 6. Customize the design

Use the Design menu to customize the look and feel of the promotion for your brand, product or aesthetic.

The Design menu features the following options:

Colors: Change the colors of texts and action elements (such as buttons) in the promotion.
Typographies: Select the font used for texts and action elements.
Container: Completely customize the container by setting the style, opacity, height or position.
Background: Customize the background of the promotion with your own image or choice of colours. The background will be the same for each page of the promotion.
Other: Set the style of the promotion buttons (outlined or solid), as well as the color of the button text. Also from here you can customize the background color of the pop-up windows of the promotion (for example: window that opens the terms and conditions, My Networks window, etc.)
Advanced (White Label only): Use your own CSS styles to completely customize the template.

Discover all the creative possibilities offered by our Design Module.

Step 7. Insert legal texts

In this section you can upload legal texts to display them in the promotion. Specifically you can upload the terms and conditions to explain all aspects of the promotion, contest or sweepstakes. Additionally you can also upload your privacy policy to explain how and for what purpose you will treat the data of the users that register in the promotion. It's also possible to upload your own Cookies policy.

To insert the terms and conditions, go to Editor > General > Legal content, where you will find the following sections:

Terms and conditions
Privacy Policy
Cookies Policy

Note: Check here how to set up the consent of the legal texts of the promotion.

Step 8. Configure My Networks and the promotion footer

Use the My Networks module to customize the screen which invites users to like your Facebook page. My Networks can be set up for Facebook pages, as well as Twitter, Instagram and Youtube accounts. Learn how to customize My Networks here.

To customize My Networks, go to Editor > General > My Networks:

You can also customize the promotion’s footer text, or deactivate it if you prefer. The footer is a banner that’s displayed at the bottom of each page of the promotion.

To enable the promotion footer, go to Editor > General > Footer where you'll see the following options:

"Created by" field which will allow you to customize the name of the brand or company organizing the promotion.
Decide what elements you want to show in the promotion foot.

Step 9. Customize viral content

This section is very important to make your Personality Quiz go viral. The viral content is the message displayed when participants share with friends or encourage them to take part. You can customize the share message to suit the different social media channels which your followers use.

To customize the viral content of the promotion, go to Editor > General > Share:

We recommend completing the following sections:

A) Generic.

Set up the generic viral content here:

Viral image: This is the image which accompanies the share text. To optimize for social networks, we recommend dimensions of 1200px by 630px. The same image will be shared via Facebook, Pinterest and Google+. If you don’t upload a specific image for this section, the main promotion image will be displayed when participants share the promotion.
Generic content: This is the viral text that will be displayed when participants use the share button on the main page or the entry form. Learn how to edit this text.

B) Recruitment.

This content is shown when participants share from the final page of the promotion. This is what participants will show their friends, so take the opportunity to encourage them to join in! Learn how to set up recruitment content here.

C) Viral content of the quiz.

In promotions with questions and answers that have customized final messages according to the answers, the final page can be configured so that users can share the product that has been recommended to them. To configure the viral content of the quiz follow the instructions in this tutorial.

Step 10. Advanced settings

Check the settings in Pages > Form > Options to review the following options:

Let's look at those settings in more detail:

Max. users: Decide if you want to limit the promotion to a maximum number of participants. By default, there is no limit on participation.
Maximum entries per user: this option defines how many times each user can participate. For Product Recommender, you should set the value to 1 (1 entry per user).
Notification of new entrant: Enable this feature if you want to receive an email every time a new participant registers for the promotion.
Disable autofocus in first form field. By default, the “Name” field in the entry form has the autofocus activated so that the participants can begin to write without having to click on the field first when the page loads. This option allows to disable this effect to avoid that the autofocus scrolls down the page, which is useful in promotions that have a big header image.
Anonymous registration: If you don't want to collect personal information, you can disable the entry form altogether. This also makes the test more agile. Find more information here.

Then go to Editor> Pages> Form> Social Login. From here you can enable identification with Facebook as a way to identify users and decide if you want it to be mandatory for the user to identify with this social network to participate.

Step 11. Set entry restrictions

You can restrict access to the promotion for certain users. Specifically, the platform offers you 2 forms of restriction:

Restriction by country: You can limit the promotion to a specific country or countries. Only users who connect from the selected country or countries will see the promotion. Learn how to enable country restriction here.

Restriction by age: Limit the promotion to users whose age is higher than the one indicated by the administrator. This establishes a minimum age for participation. Learn how to enable the age verification window here.

Step 12. Communicate with participants via the email platform

If you need to communicate with participants during and after the promotion, you can use this tool to create, customize and send automated emails.

This tool is especially useful for Product Recommender. You might need to email participants for any one of the following reasons:

Find out how to create an email with the platform, establish great communication with your followers, and increase your viral reach.

Important! The Platform has a "smart tags" feature to make customizing emails even easier. Use the "smart tag" {{user_recruiting_url}} and it will be replaced by each participant's unique recruiting URL when the emails are sent out.

Step 13. Publish the winners page (optional)

Before publishing the promotion, or during the participation period, you can choose to show the prizes which you are going to award. The same page will display the promotion winners, once there are winners. You can decide whether to publish the prizes page from the beginning of the promotion, or to wait until the winners have been selected. To customize and publish the winners page, go to Editor > Pages > Winners.

Check out the prize management tutorial to learn about your options for displaying and awarding prizes.

Step 14. Carry out a real test of the promotion

Before launching a promotion, it's important to make sure that the promotion shows and works correctly. To do so, all promotions includes the tool "Test Mode" which allows the administrator to carry out real tests of the promotion. This means that they can participate in the promotion just like the participants will do once the promotion is activated, and test that the promotion works as expected. That way, they can make changes to the promotion if necessary before launching.

Check out this tutorial where we explain how to test your promotion before activating it.

Step 15. Activate the promotion

Once you have configured all aspects of the promotion, you can activate it from the management page. You can also review billing information and make payments from this page. Find more information here.

Step 16. Publish the promotion

Although your promotion is now active, you still need to take the final step: publishing it.

When you created your promotion, a microsite with a unique URL was generated. This URL is the main link to the promotion. By default, it leads to the welcome page, but you can edit this. You can also, and not exclusively, publish the promotion on a Facebook Page or embed it in your blog or website. You can control where you wish to publish the promotion URL via "Publish" section. You’ll find all the information about this step here.

Step 17. Share the promotion

It’s important to share the promotion on as many different channels as possible. Always use the main promotion link, as it's uniquely compatible with all devices.

You can share the promotion via the following methods:

The main promotion link.
With the “Share” button on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
Use Facebook Ads to give more visibility to the promotion. One of the most effective ways to improve the visibility of the promotion is through the Facebook advertising service, which will allow you to create an advertisement to promote the contest and generate traffic to the promotion. To do this, you must access the Facebook advertisers page and create an advertisement to promote the contest.
Featuring your promotion. This option adds your campaign to the list of Easypromos Featured promotions. Featuring a promotion carries an additional cost, calculated per day of the campaign. If you want to Feature your promotion, check out this tutorial.

We also recommend you read these articles:

Step 18. Manage the active promotion

While the promotion is active, you can monitor entries from the management page. Click on Participants in the left-hand menu. You can also access a list of entries from the Statistics section:

From Participants, you will be able to view information about all participants and download it to an Excel file.

Note: Information about participants will be available even when the promotion has finished.

Step 19. View promotion statistics

Access Statistics to view participants and see how they interact with the promotion app.

This information will become available as soon as the first entry is made. It will remain accessible from your account after the promotion has finished. Learn more about the information you can access in this section.

Step 20. Manage prizes and publish the winners

When the participation period of the promotion ends, you can use the prize management system to list prizes and configure how they will be assigned. Once the promotion has finished, you can assign prizes randomly or manually.

Randomly: You can run one or more sweepstakes among all participants, or a segment of participants, and obtain a certificate of validity with the results.
Manually: You can assign one or more prizes manually. This is useful for contests with voting and skills tests. We also recommend this option when winners are selected by a jury, notary public, or the organizing brand.

Learn how to create prizes and select winners with the prize management tutorial.

Start your winner selection process from the "Winners" menu:

Step 21. Finishing up the promotion

The end of a promotion is controlled by the dates set up in the promotion Editor. When the "End of publication date" is passed, the promotion status changes from active to expired. By default, the promotion is unpublished and is no longer visible. If users try to access the promotion link, a screen with the message "promotion expired" is displayed.

As administrator of the contest, you can edit the content of this "promotion expired" screen. You could republish the promotion and manage the visualization of the expired promotion.

Follow this link to learn more about your options for expired promotions.