Use Promotions to issue a coupon or gift card to a group of customers. You set the value, what it applies to, and when it expires. Issue it immediately or schedule it for later.
What a promotion does
A promotion creates a coupon or gift card and issues it to every customer in a group you choose.
A coupon can be a dollar amount or a percentage. It can apply to every purchase, to one product, or to a category or item set. It can expire after a set amount of time, or never expire.
You can also include a message that goes out to everyone who receives the promotion.
Before you start
- Every promotion goes to a group. If you sell memberships, you already have groups built from your plans, so you can create a promotion for the members of any plan without setting anything up. To reach a smaller, hand-picked set of customers, create a customer group first.
- Item sets are built ahead of time. If the coupon should apply to a specific collection of products, build the item set before you start the promotion so it is available for use.
Step 1: Build the promotion
- Go to Marketing > Promotions.
- Click Create New.
- Change the promotion name if you want to. It's for internal identification only.
- Click Next. The Add a Benefit window opens.
- Choose what you are issuing:
- Coupon
- Gift Card / Store Credit
- For a coupon, choose what it applies to: All Purchases, A Specific Product, or A Category / Item Set.
- Enter the value. Switch between a dollar amount and a percentage using the dropdown next to the amount.
- Set the expiration: Does Not Expire, or Expires After Set Time and a number of days, weeks, or months from the day it is issued.
- Click Add.
- To include more than one coupon or gift card in the same promotion, repeat steps 5 through 9. When everything is added, click Done.
- Click Create Promotion.
Step 2: Choose who receives it
Pick the recipients on the next screen. Use Template / Plan Members sends the promotion to everyone on a plan you select. Submatic Customer Group sends it to a group you built on your customers page.
You can select more than one group, and you can mark a group as excluded to hold its customers out of the promotion. When your selection is finalized, click Next.
Step 3: Set the timing and message
The confirmation screen summarizes what is about to be issued and to whom. From here you control three things:
- When it goes out. Choose a date under Issue On, or check Issue Now to issue as soon as you submit.
- New members. Under Enrollment Rules, set Automatically enroll new members? to Yes so anyone who joins after this point receives the same perk.
- The message. The Promotion message card controls the email recipients get. Click Edit to write the subject line and the message itself. If you leave the message empty, no email is sent and the coupon is simply issued.
Click Submit to finish. Issuing runs in the background, so give it a few minutes to work through a large group.
Before you submit, review the customer count and the group name in the summary at the top of this screen. Once coupons are issued you can change their expiration or cancel them, but you cannot un-send the message.
After a promotion is created
Add customers one at a time
On the Promotions page, click the add-customer icon on the promotion's row. Search your customer list, then click Add This Customer and confirm. The customer receives the same coupon everyone else got. This is how most merchants handle stragglers and new sign-ups rather than creating a second promotion.
Track and adjust the coupons
Click View on any promotion to open its detail page. It shows the items included, how many customers received them, the message you sent, and how many coupons are still available.
From the Coupons card you can Update Expiration to push a new expiration date to every coupon that is still available, or Cancel All Coupons to void them. Coupons that have already been redeemed, cancelled, or expired are not affected.
Common questions
Can I add customers to a promotion later?
Yes. Use the add-customer icon on the promotion row any time after the promotion is created. You can also turn on automatic enrollment so new members are added for you.
Can a promotion include more than one coupon?
Yes. Keep adding benefits in the Add a Benefit window before clicking Done. Every recipient gets everything in the promotion.
Can I change a coupon after it has been issued?
You can change the expiration date on all available coupons, and you can cancel them, from the Coupons card on the promotion detail page. The value and the items a coupon applies to cannot be changed after issuance. To adjust those, cancel the coupons and create a new promotion.