Crafting a great promotional message—one that grabs consumer attention and translates it into a conversion—is something of an art. Sometimes, however, it’s not enough to simply dazzle someone with a pithy turn of phrase, as much as those of us who live by our skills at the keyboard might wish it were so. In these instances, it’s advantageous to give customers an incentive to engage so that they immediately and palpably see the benefit of doing so.

Promo codes, that’s your cue to step into the spotlight. More than just a digital version of your old-fashioned clip-and-save coupons, promo codes are actually a versatile tool for deepening engagement with consumers. Managing promo codes across a large customer base can be a daunting prospect, but thanks to Braze Promotion Codes, it’s possible to wield them like a marketing ninja.

Let’s take a look at how, and why that might be so important.

Putting Promotion Codes to Work

Defining promotion codes is fairly simple: They’re unique identifiers sent to individual customers that can be redeemed in some way with the brand that sent them. Their most obvious application, and the one in which most of us have likely encountered them in the wild, is the granting of discounts to reward certain behaviors. But that’s not their only application—for example, content-based brands can use them to grant access to gated material as a way to thank users for engaging in a particular way, such as leaving a review or providing an email address.

Since promotion codes are typically singular, they offer a point of personalized interaction with consumers. What’s more, they provide a way to drive engagement by creating a reward structure that offers consumers immediate material benefits. They’re great for incentivizing dormant consumers, offering an opportunity to catalyze reengagement at previous activity levels. It’s not just about reaching the lapsed, however, as promo codes can also be used to reward loyalty, or to capitalize on specific moments such as holidays.

Coordinating the distribution of codes at scale might seem daunting, but Braze Promotion Codes makes it very straightforward. When a new campaign is created, the system generates a unique “code snippet” which can be inserted into messages via Liquid personalization to send users individual codes pulled from a list. From there, it’s easy to keep track of how many codes have been used, and update your list as needed over the course of the campaign.

sweetgreen Brings Customers Home With Promotion Codes

Looking for an example of how promotion codes can benefit a brand? Consider leading fast-casual restaurant chain sweetgreen. The company, looking to encourage customers to utilize their app for online orders instead of using third-party services, partnered with Braze on a promo code campaign through SMS messaging. Customers who downloaded the app and opted into SMS first received a welcome email inviting them to order through the app. Those who didn’t respond were then sent a promo code for a $2 discount on in-app orders, thus incentivizing them to order through the sweetgreen app rather than taking advantage of another delivery service.

This direct, high-impression outreach yielded quantifiable results. First of all, sweetgreen saw a 10% conversion rate for customers who received the promo code, meaning an increase in purchases through their app. They also garnered 10,000 new SMS subscribers, demonstrating the effectiveness of the coded discount as a means to lead customers to a new messaging channel, one that could then be utilized for further promotions.

Final Thoughts

As the sweetgreen’s campaign illustrates, promotion codes can be a powerful method of guiding customer behavior while deepening their relationship with your brand. Braze Promotion Codes makes exploring this avenue a simple, pain-free process that allows you to reward your audience in the moments that matter.

For more on how to meet consumers where they are in their relationship with your brand, be sure to check out the Braze Lifecycle Marketing Guide, and go deeper into the customer journey than ever before.