Get Started with Marketplace, Orders, and MDF

Overview

Your partner portal provides email and social media marketing. There are some services that it does not offer in-house, such as event planning, broadcast advertising, and website development. These activities can still be managed in your portal using custom activities. Most such activities require help from an external provider. When your supplier makes these marketing activities available to you, they may also provide a Marketplace to connect you with their partner providers in your area who can complete these services. If not, you can order the services from specified suppliers as part of a campaign activation.

Fore more information, see About Provider Orders.

You may have access to different types of funds (in currency, points, or credits) to support these marketing efforts. You might use marketing development funds (MDF) to pay for meals, entertainment, social outings, sports outings, team meetings, or conferences. These engagements allow you to interact with customers and build relationships.

MDF funds come from different budgets and are used for purposes defined by your supplier. They can be made available to partners in one of two ways:

• Via a Pre-Approval (request/authorization for expenses) and Claim (reimbursement) process - your supplier may not require both of these
• Distributed regularly

This article will help you get started with Marketplace and using MDF to pay for marketing services. It assumes your supplier requires a full pre-approval and claim process to be reimbursed from MDF.

Note: It is also possible to order services from Marketplace without using MDF to pay for them. This is out of scope of this article.

For more information about the Marketplace, see About Marketplace.

Get Started

Step 1	Step 2	Step 3	Step 4	Step 5	Step 6	Step 7
Set up MDF Notifications	Check Funds and Submit Pre-Approval Requests	Browse for Full-Service Activities	Get a Quote Request (optional)	Select and Pay for Activities	Monitor Your Order Status	Submit Reimbursement Claims

1. Set up MDF Notifications

Configure your portal's settings to ensure you receive notifications about MDF transactions. This ensures you stay informed if your supplier needs more information about an MDF request, or updates its status. You can update your notification settings yourself, or the portal administrator can do it on your behalf.

1. Go to My Settings > Notifications (or Settings > Notifications, if you're the administrator)
2. In Notification Type, go to Marketing Funds Activity.
3. Toggle the Active setting to On.

 Learn more at Notification: Marketing Development Funds Activity.

2. Check Funds and Submit Pre-Approval Requests

Check Your Funds

Before you start shopping for campaigns and marketing activities, check how much money you have in your MDF account.

1. Go to the wallet icon in the top menu bar of the portal. The current MDF value available to you is listed next to the wallet.
2. You can get more detailed information about your MDF value, and which funds it comes from, in the Marketing Funds page (or equivalent, if your supplier has provided that page in your portal).

Submit a Pre-Approval Request

If you know which campaign or activity you want to pay for, submit a pre-approval request for funding from your supplier before you start ordering and paying for provider services.

1. Click to open the Marketing Transactions page (or equivalent in your portal).
2. Click New Pre-approval.
3. Provide a name that uniquely identifies the pre-approval request, the requested amount, and any additional information your supplier might need. 
4. Click Save. The new pre-approval now appears in your list of MDF requests under Manage Marketing Funds.
5. Click the name of the claim to open it.
6. Upload any necessary attachments.
7. Add any necessary comments to further explain the request.
8. Click Submit for Approval. The request is sent to your supplier for them to approve/reject. You will receive email notifications when the status of the pre-approval is changed by the supplier, or if they request more information.

 Learn more at About Funding Details and About Marketing Transactions.

3. Browse for Full-Service Activities

A full service activity (FSA) is one that is provided by a 3rd party (agency/provider) and often, but not always, executed outside of your partner portal.

You can browse for activities and place orders for them in two places: from campaigns or in the Marketplace (if provided by your supplier). Note that 3rd party services are usually represented by custom activities.

From a Campaign

1. Navigate to Campaigns > Browse Campaigns.
2. Click Details next to a campaign you want to activate.
3. On the right of the campaign details view, find a list of marketing activities available in this campaign.
4. Review the pricing details, reimbursement rates, and funding types offered on each activity.

From Marketplace

1. Navigate to Marketing > Providers (or equivalent in your portal).
2. Filter the list of providers by the service you want to order, for example Custom Activity = Events, required budget, or whether you've worked with them before.
3. Click Details next to a provider that provides the service.
4. In the Activities list, find a list of marketing activities available from this provider.
5. Review the description and cost of each activity.

 Learn more at About Browse Campaigns and About Marketplace.

4. Get a Quote Request

Some activities are based on a fixed price cost. Some activities allow you to request quotes from available providers, so you can shop around for the best price.

For example, your supplier wants you to build a new website. Your supplier offers this as a custom activity and assigns three different providers that can perform the task. You reach out to these providers and get quotes on services.

If an activity requires you to request a quote from the provider, it includes the label You will receive quotes for this activity in its details.

For more information on getting a quote for an activity, see How to Request and Accept a Quote for Provider Services.

 Learn more at Manage Provider Orders.

5. Select and Pay for Activities

If the 3rd party service offering has a fixed price, and you're happy with it, or if you've reviewed the quote received and want to proceed, you can add it to your order.

The activity might have multiple options. For example, for broadcast media advertising, your supplier might offer options for different amounts of advertising time. You could select 15 seconds, 30 seconds, or 1 minute of airtime on your local radio station. These different options often come with different price points and reimbursement rates. Before adding the activity to an order, review the list of pricing options available. Click the radio button next to the option you prefer.

When you place an order for a service, you can choose to pay by MDF, and select the fund, if your supplier provides that option. You can also elect to self-fund the activity.

For information on how to create an order for a service, and specify how you'd like to pay for it, see How to Order Services from a Provider.

 Learn more at Manage Provider Orders.

6. Monitor Your Order Status

Once a full-service activity is up and running, you can monitor its status and progress in your My Orders page. You can also communicate directly with the provider by adding comments to the order.

For more information, see How to View Details of an Order and How to Communicate with a Provider about an Order.

 Learn more at Manage Provider Orders and About the My Orders View.

7. Submit a Reimbursement Claim

Once the activity you ordered has been completed, you can request reimbursement from your supplier.

1. Click to open the Marketing Transactions page (or equivalent in your portal).
2. Click New Claim.
3. Provide a name that uniquely identifies the claim, the requested amount, and any additional information your supplier might need. 
4. Click Save. The new claim now appears in your list of claim requests under Manage Marketing Funds.
5. Click the name of the claim to open it.
6. Upload any necessary attachments.
7. Add any necessary comments to further explain the request.
8. Click Submit for Approval. The request is sent to your supplier for them to approve/reject. You will receive email notifications when the status of the pre-approval is changed by the supplier, or if they request more information.

 Learn more at About Marketing Transactions.

Related Topics

• About Marketplaces