A “campaign” at Iteras is the term for a subscription type—essentially a combination of duration and price, i.e., how often and how much to charge. It doesn’t have to be a sales campaign—it can simply be a standard annual subscription.
Campaigns are created under Sales > Campaigns. On the right side of the page, use the New campaign button to create campaigns.
If you want to create a campaign that largely resembles an existing one but, for example, should run longer, you can copy the existing campaign. Remember to change the campaign’s name and ID in addition to adjusting the settings. Campaigns can be copied under Sales > Campaigns. In the list of campaigns, there is a copy button on the far right of each campaign—click it to copy that campaign.
You can create an unlimited number of campaigns.
Explanation of Fields
Campaign
Products in the campaign: Select one or more products to associate with this campaign. Note: if customers should receive both physical and digital products, add both here.
Campaign name: The campaign’s overall name, visible internally only. If you have multiple campaigns, use a descriptive name so you can tell them apart wherever a campaign is selected—on order forms, when switching a subscription’s campaign, etc.
Customer facing campaign name: The name shown to customers on order forms, in the self-service portal, and on invoices. For example: “Annual subscription to Journal X.” This does not have to be unique.
ID (internally): The campaign’s identifier (can be alphanumeric, i.e., include numbers, letters, and some symbols). If you have many campaigns, it’s helpful to encode information in the ID so you can distinguish them. For example, a digital monthly subscription could be D_1M, and a physically distributed newspaper (print) could be P_1M.
Active: You can deactivate the campaign by clearing this checkbox. Do this if the campaign is no longer in use, so it doesn’t appear in the overview.
Use settings from: Choose which business policy should apply to this campaign if it needs to differ from the standard policy.
Period
Period length determined by: Choose whether the subscription runs on calendar time or by a set number of allocated products (issues).
If you choose “number of allocated products,” you sell the subscriber a specific number of issues, e.g., 12, and the system deducts one issue at each publication (note that the publication schedule must therefore be entered in Iteras).
If the subscription runs on “calendar time,” you sell a time period, e.g., 1 year. This is especially useful if you sell digital services (e.g., access to a website where there are no discrete issues but each day is effectively a publication) or if you have weekly or daily issues.
NOTE: If the product is purely digital, you MUST choose calendar time to ensure subsequent invoicing is handled correctly.
Period length in time/issues: Enter the number of issues in the campaign or the campaign’s duration measured in time. You can also think of this as the billing frequency.
If the campaign length is determined by allocated products and you have multiple products in the campaign (e.g., a physical and a digital one), choose which of these products takes precedence—i.e., which product is the primary one and which is the “add-on.”
Next campaign: Specifies which campaign takes over when a subscription based on this campaign ends. In many cases, you simply continue with the same campaign by choosing “(continues on same)”. It’s also possible to tailor, for example, an introductory period that starts with a special offer and then continues as an annual subscription.
If you change this setting to a different campaign or to “(None — do not continue),” you’ll be able to set “Number of times the period repeats.” This field is intended for installment plans or to define how many times this campaign should repeat before the current subscription cycle stops or optionally transitions to another campaign.
Campaign Switching
The features in the following section are optional; they are not required.
Allow switch to: Specify which campaigns the subscriber can switch to via self-service. For example, a subscriber who currently pays semi-annually could be allowed to upgrade to annual payment (possibly with a bigger discount). You might also allow a “downgrade” to paying more frequently, which some subscribers may prefer.
Offer switch instead of cancel: Specify which campaigns the customer can switch to when they cancel the subscription via self-service. This is a place to present an especially attractive offer to retain the customer.
Offer switch to from invoice: As above, define which campaigns (subscription options) are offered to the customer on the invoice. For example, shorter terms so each payment is smaller, or the opposite—longer terms with a larger discount.
Invoicing
Invoice lines: For each invoice line, specify a description and a price. In addition, a number of extra options are available:
Option to add extra information to the line, e.g., the subscription period, the value of custom fields configured to appear on invoice lines, or the subscription ID.
Which accounting category the line should be posted to (e.g., subscription, one-off sale, discount, etc.).
Option to multiply the price by the number of allocations (issues) in the campaign (e.g., to bill a postage fee × the number of magazines you send).
Option to make the line conditional—for example, only add it if certain country criteria are met.
Option to control the line’s effective date range (from/to). This lets you define multiple invoice lines, each covering a different period.
Allow change of base price: This feature is being phased out. We therefore recommend using a custom field instead to override the invoice line.
Recipient
Product assignment: If the campaign is time-based, you can choose whether the subscriber should be allocated products. If the campaign is issue-based, you must allocate products.
You can run a campaign without allocations—for example, when collecting a donation for an association without sending a member magazine; for a “pause” campaign where the subscriber can skip some issues; or if you sell time-based access to a website while also publishing a print or digital edition that subscribers on this campaign should not receive.
The “Product allocation” field is being phased out. Instead, create multiple distinct products—for example, one product for print and one for digital subscriptions.
On distribution lists for: “Physical distribution” indicates the subscriber should appear on the addressing list for print issues. “Digital distribution” means the subscriber is included in the export for delivery of digital issues.
The “On distribution lists” field is being phased out. Instead, create multiple distinct products—for example, one for print and one for digital subscriptions.
Access to previous products: Controls whether customers receive access to the digital product archive, e.g., past digital issues. This is most relevant when integrating with external systems.
Pro forma subscription: Controls whether a subscription on this campaign is a real subscription (the customer receives the products included in the campaign) or a pro forma subscription, where the customer only receives invoices. This is used in group subscriptions where the group administrator manages the subscription but is not themselves a subscriber.
Quantity
Quantity: Use a fixed quantity to create campaigns where subscribers receive more than one copy per delivery — a "box" of magazines (e.g., 5, 10, 25 copies). Many magazines have bulk recipients who either receive the magazine for free or pay more for bulk delivery. Use optional quantity if you want to let subscribers choose how many copies they receive per delivery. In most cases, the fixed quantity is set to 1
Add-on subscriptions
Use this feature when you want to sell bundles. Here you can define which subscriptions the customer can—or must—add when purchasing a subscription in this campaign.
Note: Any add-on campaigns you want to include must be created before they can be selected as an option.
Group Subscriptions
Group subscriptions are used to jointly invoice and manage a group of subscribers under one payer. Read more about group subscriptions here.
Miscellaneous
Discount text: A free-text field displayed on the signup form when multiple options are available.
Signup gift: Check this box if the campaign includes a referral gift. Subscribers will be added to the gift list once their payment is received — the gift is sent after payment.
Unit price: Typically used for newspapers. Enter a unit price that is credited in case of complaints (e.g., missed delivery). Pauses and stops don’t use the unit price but instead rely on time intervals to calculate compensation.
Custom campaign fields
In addition to the standard fields above, you can add custom campaign fields tailored to your business unit’s specific needs. Learn more about how to create custom fields for the campaign.