Adding a Discount Coupon to Emails

Including a discount coupon in newsletters is a simple yet effective marketing strategy that can increase customer loyalty, boost email engagement, drive sales, create a sense of urgency, and attract new customers to your business.

Adding a coupon is now possible in the MailPoet Email Editor, let’s get started!

Requirements to use the coupon widget

  1. Install and activate WooCommerce on your site.
  2. Enable the use of Coupon codes in WooCommerce. Go to:  WooCommerce > Settings > General > Enable coupons. Then, tick the checkbox to Enable the use of coupon codes. You can find the detailed steps in this WooCommerce guide.

Adding a discount coupon to your MailPoet emails

The first step is adding the Coupon Widget to the Editor in the desired location.

After adding it to the editor, by clicking on the “cog” icon, you’ll see the Settings options for it. At this point, you will be able to select an already existing coupon (if you have any) or create a new one directly from here.

1. Selecting an Existing Coupon

If you have already created a coupon that you want to use in your email, you will be able to use the Search box, and to use the Discount type dropdown to filter the results.

2. Creating a New Coupon

If you haven’t already created the coupon, you can create it right here in the editor:

It’s possible to choose from:  percentage discount, fixed cart discount, or fixed product discount. You’ll also be able to set the settings for usage restrictions and usage limits.

Please note: The coupon expiry days refer to the number of days when the coupon is valid.

You can find the detailed steps and the list of all the different options for the discount types in this WooCommerce guide.

Single Coupon vs. Specific Coupon

Automatic emails (e.g., Welcome Email, WooCommerce emails, Post Notifications) generate a unique new coupon for each email sent to an individual subscriber. For instance: KIFGW22W is a coupon that would be unique for each subscriber. 
When editing the email, it’s expected that you’ll see  xxx-xxx-xxx for the coupon code in the email content editor, as this is a placeholder for the real coupons that will be individually generated for each new subscriber.
After the emails are sent and the unique coupons are generated, you can see them created on the WooCommerce > Coupons page.
If you want to ensure that only the intended subscriber can use their unique coupon, you can enable the Restrict to subscriber email option in the coupon block’s usage restriction settings. See the Restricting a Coupon to the Subscriber Receiving the Email section below for details.

For Standard Newsletters, the same generated coupon code (e.g., Holidays2023) will be sent to several subscribers (a list). 

Restricting a Coupon to the Subscriber Receiving the Email

When you include a coupon in an Automation email, each subscriber already receives a unique coupon code. However, by default, anyone who obtains that code could use it at checkout — not just the subscriber it was generated for.

To prevent coupon sharing, you can restrict usage so that only the subscriber the email was sent to can redeem the coupon. This adds the subscriber’s email address to the coupon’s allowed emails list in WooCommerce, meaning the coupon will only work when that specific email address is used at checkout.

Note: This option is only available in emails sent through Automations. It does not appear in Standard Newsletters or Post Notifications.

How to Enable the Restriction

  1. Go to MailPoet > Automations and open the automation that contains your email.
  2. Click the Send email step, then click Design email to open the email editor.
  3. Add or select the Coupon block in your email content.
  4. Click the coupon block to open its settings in the sidebar.
  5. Scroll down to the Usage restriction section.
  6. Below the Allowed emails field, enable the Restrict to subscriber email toggle.

Once enabled, when the automation sends the email, MailPoet automatically adds the subscriber’s email address to the WooCommerce coupon’s email restrictions. You can verify this by going to WooCommerce > Coupons and checking the generated coupon’s Usage restriction tab.

Combining with Additional Allowed Emails

You can specify additional email addresses in the Allowed emails field alongside the subscriber restriction. When the Restrict to subscriber email toggle is enabled, both the subscriber’s email and any additional emails you enter will be allowed to use the coupon.

For example, if you add admin@example.com to the Allowed emails field and enable the toggle, the generated coupon will be redeemable by both the subscriber and admin@example.com.

Styling the Coupon

Once the coupon has been selected, it’s time to style it up by clicking on the Display Options link.

Please note that you can apply the selected style to all the coupons by clicking on the Apply styles to all coupons button.