Within Alto, you can create adverts that include details of properties that are to be included in an advertisement publication.
Any publications are identified as a contact type in Alto.
This article includes:
Creating a publication type contact
To create a new contact record:
- Click Contacts on the main toolbar
- Click Add Contact
- Select the Type of contact using the dropdown menu, i.e. Publication
Once you've done this, there are some unique attributes that can be set for that contact type such as the Publication day and Publication cut off dates - Enter a Company name
- You can allocate this contact to a specific Branch and Negotiator
- Within the First Person section, enter a contact Name and E-Mail address
- Within the Publication day section, specify which Week days that the publication is published. When selecting this publication when creating an advert, only dates that match the publication Week days will be available to select
- Within the Publication cut off section, specify if you'd like a cut off day (Days prior) and time (Time of day) for each of the publication days.
Setting these values will then only allow a date to be picked for that publication where the current date is within these boundaries - Click Save
In the above example, the publication contact is being created with the publication days as a Monday and Friday, with a cut off for the Friday as 2 days.
Creating an advert
All adverts an be managed from the Adverts tab.
- Click Tools on the main toolbar
- In the dropdown menu, click Templates and admin
- On the side menu, under System Tools, click Adverts
- The advert configuration page displays, and, by default, the latest created advert will open.
In order to create a new advert, click Create New Advert -
A new, blank form opens on the Advert Details tab.
Select a publication from the Publication dropdown menu. This contains all contact records that have a contact Type of publication - Set a Publication date (you might find that not all dates are available for selection. This'll be due to the Publication days set on the contact record)
Once a date for the publication has been selected, the Cut off Date will be calculated according to the dates of the Publication days set on the contact record - Content Type allows you to configure what type of content will be required on the advert, i.e. Main Details, Advert Details, or Bullet Points. Each option will display different information available on the property record
- Specify the number of Advert Units to configure for the advert. Advert units relate to the maximum number of spaces that can be assigned to the advert
- Specify the Address Format for the property records (a default format is pre-selected and can be configured and saved when you edit the format - this can only be done after you've saved the advert configuration)
- Within Notes For Publisher, you can add any general notes that will be included in the information emailed to the publication
- Click Save. An Address Format Picker form appears, allowing you to drag and drop the fields that are required for the Address Format and you'll be given the option to save the current settings as the default setting for future adverts
- Click Save
You can now select the properties that you want to include in the advert.
- Click the Property Selection tab
- A list of search filters display along with a list of properties that meet the search criteria. Once you've selected your required filters, you can then scroll through the listed properties and add them to the advertisement by selecting Add against the property row
- You may encounter a warning icon and text against your Selected Properties that states Click to resolve advert details. This is shown because the selected property doesn't have the required information that was specified to be included in the advert, i.e. it might not have any Main Details.
To rectify this, click on the warning text and a Property Advert Details form will display showing the information that exists against the property record for the three areas that can be included in adverts (Main Details, Advert Details and Bullet Points). Add the relevant information in and click Save - this will also update the property record with the information entered - With the form now closed, click the property row to expand it if it isn't already, and click Save to save those changes
- You may encounter a warning icon and text against your Selected Properties that states Click to resolve advert details. This is shown because the selected property doesn't have the required information that was specified to be included in the advert, i.e. it might not have any Main Details.
- Click the property row to expand it if it isn't already.
Here you can add unique Flashtext for the property - this'll be prominently displayed for the specific property in the advert - You can amend the displayed Property Content Type from the default to any of the three options available, if necessary
- You can also specify how many Property Units of the advert you'd like the particular property to occupy
- You can use the Sort by field to amend the order that the properties will appear in the advert. Alternatively, the properties can be manually sorted by clicking and dragging their position
Once you're happy with the Selected Properties and their ordering, click the Advert Details tab once more to proceed with the advert workflow.
You can now proceed with the workflow steps to complete the advert.
At this stage, you can still edit the properties included in the advert via the Add Properties option, but if you're happy that the advert is ready, click Confirm Selection.
Note
At this stage of the workflow, no further changes can be made
There are now four options:
- Unconfirm selection - This'll take you back a step and unlock the advert so that you can edit any details or properties included
- Download - This will download the advert files in a zipped format
- Send to Publication - This is the next step in the workflow where the information is prepared ready to send to the publication
- Move to complete - This can be used if the advert is no longer needed to be published and can just be completed. The other option here is to delete the advert via the Delete option
Click Send to Publication to proceed to the next step in the workflow. A preview of the advert is shown, displaying the selected properties and the information for those properties in the order previously specified.
There are four options at this point:
- Download - Download the files to a zipped folder
- Cancel - Return to the previous step in the workflow
- Complete - If you want to cancel sending this advert to the publication and move it to complete
- Send - This'll send the advert to the publication contacts email address with the advert files sent as an attachment
Click Send to proceed, and you'll receive a confirmation prompt confirming that the email has been sent.
The workflow will now be at the Details Sent to Publication stage with an icon indicating that the email has been queued to be sent.
When the email has been sent, a timeline entry will be added to the publication contact record and the property records included in the advert. It'll state when the advert was sent and the properties that were included in the advert.
Navigating back to the Advert Details tab and the workflow, once the draft copy of the advert has been approved, you can click Approve Draft Copy. This opens up the final stage of the workflow.
There are now two options available:
- Withdraw Approval - This'll revert the workflow back to the previous stage
- Complete - When it's confirmed that the publication has been printed, you can select this option to complete the advert workflow and update the status to Completed
Once you click Complete and update the status to Completed, an additional timeline entry will be added to the publication contact record and property records included in the advert, to indicate that the advert has completed and published.