[osCmax v2.5x] download sample tactics

[blackhawk]

Is there a way to send an email link to a customer for a free sample download, once they create an account?

Here are the steps I'm envisioning...
-Visitor goes to site
-Signs up for an account
-Upon signing up, they see a link in their account information page that says "click here to get a sample download"
-Once they click on that link, they receive an e-mail with a link that leads to a zip file on my server.
-They click on that link, which leads to that zip file, and they download it.

[met00]

Do you want to make sure that there is JUST that one download?

Then I suggest a different solution.

1) Create account
a) writes a record to freedownoad table with e-mail and a passcode
b) puts the welcome link and the passcode in the welcome e-mail
2) Customer goes in to the welcome link
a) it asks for their e-mail and passcode
b) if valid it removes the e-mail and passcode from the freedownload table and serves up the download

This then can be used for more than a welcome. You can run a whole number of functions against the database (say, "you spent the most with us in the last 30 days, this is a thank you!" program).

[blackhawk]

In the words of ridexbuilder - Cunning Plan!

For me, its all about the incentive or free gift download as a thank you for signing up. Once they get a feel for the free sample, then "hopefully" they'll come back and purchase a premium product! I feel this is a powerful tactic!

[blackhawk]

met I just found something relating to what we're talking about. Did you know we can create discount coupons from the admin and email them out to customer who sign up for the first time? I never noticed that before. You can include custom text for the Discount Coupon, which gets displayed in the e-mail. It also provides a link AND you can keep track of which customers used the code from the admin by clicking on report, which sorta relates to what you was talking about earlier in tracking how many times a customer uses something.

[met00]

Actually, the idea here is to provide a "product". Whether it's a download of a physical product that is "hidden" and that they can add to their cart when they come back, the goal here is to be able to offer an incentive. Yes, there is a way to do that with coupons, but you were asking for a different feature, and while it wouldn't have interested me in anything other than a thought exercise the way you wanted it, as a feature set that allows a much greater level of flexibility, I think it could meet any number of potential store owners needs.

Thus, I may consider doing it as a mod since the way I defined it the mod will have more use outside of just downloads, but also for rewards and other potential uses. Sort of like another mod I was asked to create once ("Free item to cart" - not released publicly) the initial request set me off on looking at how to extend it to a ,more useful mod.

When looking at any mod, always start with the immediate and consider how it also could be used, then extend it.