Intro to Promotion Tools
Localist offers several tools to help you promote your events. These tools include Channels, Widgets, Bulletin and the Localist API - each of which provide different approaches to event promotion, and user discovery.
What's a Channel?
Channels are a separate page from your homepage (which is a Channel too!). A Channel will generate a new page on your platform. Channels pull events based on existing Classifications or date ranges to showcase in one place. This tool should be used when you want to display a custom layout, make an umbrella page with several event lists, short-term event series, and topical themes.
Channel Management
- A Channel can only be added and edited by a User with the Channel Manager role.
What's a Widget?
Simply put, a Widget is an ambassador for your calendar. This tool enables you to 1) publish your events anywhere you'd like, and 2) using the Public Widget Builder, anyone, at any time, can generate an embed code and add your list of events to their own website that return web traffic to your main calendar page. A Widget's content can be curated around any of the Classification types, which means flexibility and customization options for your end user!
Widget Management
- As long as the Public Widget Builder is visible on your platform, any User can create a custom Widget using the Classification types.
- On the backend, to build a Custom Widget Template, a User must have the Platform Admin or Calendar Manager permission level.
What's Bulletin?
Bulletin is Localist's event email engine, giving you the ability to send newsletters, manage contacts, and track analytics as a part of your event marketing strategy. Our out of the box template offers drag-and-drop components including Event Listings, Event Spotlight, Hero Image, RSS Feeds and an HTML Component. With the Digest feature, a User can even build their own personalized event updates email.
Bulletin Management
- Anyone with the Bulletin Manager role can create and edit Bulletins.
What's the Localist API?
The Localist API is our most tech-heavy promotion tool. Events are pulled with standard HTTP calls, and the Localist API returns raw JSON data that is not formatted or styled. Your team will be responsible for styling the presentation, as well as building the application that can ingest and parse the JSON data.
Localist API Info
- The Localist API is read-only and publicly accessible.
Channels vs. Widgets
Below is a Venn Diagram and breakdown of the similarities and differences between Channels and Widgets.
Differences
Adding
- Channels: A User with the Permission levels of Channel Manager can edit and add Channels.
- Widgets: Anyone can add a Widget, as the Widget builder is publicly available as long as you are linking to it. By default, the -- Share Events Box -- Add Event Block is turned on, but can be manually turned off.
Unique Features
- Channels
- A Channel can be given a custom URL (ex. yourcustomdomain.com/summer_events)
- A Channel offers several components like the Event Spotlight and a Hero image that you can drag and drop in the Channel Layout Editor to create a unique look and feel!
- Widgets
- Widgets adopt the style and URL of whatever page they've been embedded on.
- Once a Widget is generated, it will continue to update without any further changes from the User.
Commonalities
- They are customizable, meaning they can be built off of any of the Classifications on your platform!
- Neither require technical skills to implement
- Both fill the purposes of event marketing and event automation, saving you time, and helping drive web traffic back to the platform