The Coupon Codes feature does not generate coupon codes, but rather allows ingestion of them into the platform.  You can include merge tags into your content using a merge tag.  Also, thresholds can be set per category of coupon codes to avoid the complete depletion of a coupon code for a category.

Setup

Coupon Codes are enabled for all accounts; however, a BME setting on the backend (which requires a CUST ticket) enables the better management of coupon counts/thresholds for alerting purposes.  By setting minimum thresholds on coupon codes, you can help ensure that your external coupon code store is not depleted. Minimum Thresholds should be set for any Category of coupons so that we can fire activities to create notifications.  Currently, Coupon Category Thresholds must be requested from the Backend Engineering team.

Coupon Code Import

Coupon Code Imports must be in CSV format and can be dropped onto the account FTP in the designated folder. Below are the standard fields that we can expect (only some are required.

Field

Description

category

String that classifies the coupon as a certain type for the customer. Thresholds can be set per category on the backend.  Example: WelcomeSeries could be the category and then these coupons will only be used when a user calls the WelcomeSeries coupon. Trimmed spaces and case-insensitive.

coupon_code

String of the coupon code itself.  Trimmed spaces and case-insensitive.

start_date

(optional) An ISO-8601 formatted timestamp, start_date can be used for personalization.  Coupons will only be assigned if after the start_date.

end_date

(optional) An ISO-8601 formatted timestamp, end_date can be used for personalization.  Coupons will only be assigned before the end_date, otherwise they will be pruned.

expiration_date

(optional) An ISO-8601 formatted timestamp, expiration_date can be used for personalization.  Coupons will only be assigned before the expiration_date, otherwise they will be pruned.  Some coupons have a separate end date to expiration date and so this field is needed.

description

(optional) additional detail that can be used for personalization.

Tracking the Import can be done on the Settings > File Imports page.

Coupon Code Insertion

The merge tags for Coupon Code Insertion require a user to determine the category from which to pull. See the example:

{% coupon my_coupon | category: 'test' %}

You can use {{my_coupon.coupon_code}} to get a discount of {{my_coupon.description}}. The coupon expires on {{my_coupon.expiration_date}}.

Codes Running Out

If coupon codes run out for a particular category, we will fail those sends with a campaign_skipped event with a reason of coupon_allocation.

Bar Codes

We also have a Bar Code solution that can work with this Coupon Code. Here is an example of the barcode IMG Tag:

<img src=”http://app.ed4.net/bc/?X=0.06&N=2&CODE_TYPE=CODE128&BARCODE=%%BARCODE_GOES_HERE%%&CODE128_SET=Auto&CHECK_CHAR=Y&BAR_HEIGHT=2&HEIGHT=90&WIDTH=240“>

Post-Sending

The Coupon assignment should be added to the BI Data Export as an event.