Offers are a powerful tool that enables operators to increase guest engagement by incentivizing them with discounts on their orders. With the improvements in our new Incentivio Dashboard, creating new offers is now easier than ever.
This article provides an in-depth, step-by-step guide to creating a new offer in the Dashboard.
Contents
Video Tutorial
Creating an Offer
To create a new offer:
- In the Incentivio Dashboard, navigate to Communications > Offers.
- Select + Create Offer.
The Create Offer template is divided into six sections to help guide you through the process: Basics, Discounts, Target Audience, Redemption, Availability, and Look.
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Enter the Internal Title and select the appropriate Campaign and select "Create Offer" at the bottom of the drawer
The offer title and campaign now appear in the page header, editable via a pencil icon drawer.
Discounts
- Select the discount type:
- BOGO - Buy one item, get a second of the same item for free.
- Dollar Amount - Fixed dollar amount off a check or specific group/item.
- Percentage - Fixed percent off a check or specific group/item.
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Custom - An open template for creating a discount exactly how you'd like.
- For Dollar Amount, Percentage, and Custom: Set the Discount Amount
- Select whether it will be applied to the entire order or specific product(s). (See Communications Product Search for details on our new improvements to product search and selection)
- For BOGO: Select the Product(s) that this discount can be applied to.
Use the BOGO template for "true" BOGO discounts (buy one, get a second of the same item free). For other BOGOs (buy one, get a different item for free; buy one, get a second of the same item 50% off), use a Percent or Dollar Amount with Qualifying Products
- Connect a discount from the external POS for brands using an integrated POS (Toast, Revel, Qu, etc.). If the discount ID is shared at all locations, enter it under All Stores; if it is unique, or if the discount is only applicable at some locations, map the IP Per Store.
For guidance on creating external discounts, refer to the following articles:
Target Audience
This section will control who will receive this offer in their inbox.
- If this offer should be Always Available in customer inboxes, toggle on Always Available Offers.
This will default to sending to Everyone, which cannot be turned off. Do not enable this selection if this offer is only going to select customers. - Click Next in the bottom-right corner to move to the Discounts section.
- If this offer should be sent based on the customer completing a specific activity (e.g., completing a transaction, entering a promo code, etc.), toggle on Activity Based. Otherwise, it will be sent automatically to users based on the Targeting Rules.
- Select whether this offer targets Customer Tags, Custom Targeting Rules, or Segments.
- Customer Tags - Target specific customer tags so this offer will only be sent to loyalty accounts with the desired tag.
- Custom Targeting Rules - Target pre-set rules (such as Everyone, Average Basket Value, or Journey Stage) to control who receives this offer.
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Segments - Pre-set groups of targeting rules that can target the same group of customers across communications. For more information about creating Segments, refer to this guide: Creating a Segment
- Creating separate Targeting Rule Groups using custom targeting rules is now possible, allowing for more flexibility and reducing the need to create duplicate offers targeting different groups.
For example, you can create two targeting groups within a single offer if you'd like to target users who have at least 5 orders per month and are considered Sliders OR users who have at least 3 orders per month and are considered Churned: -
Store Targeting: If you would like to target distribution based on customer location data, toggle on Store Targeting
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Please note: If you select Specific Stores, it will only be sent to customers who have an existing ordering history at those stores. It will not be sent to new customers who have not purchased yet, as that is how they are attributed to specific locations.
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Please note: If you select Specific Stores, it will only be sent to customers who have an existing ordering history at those stores. It will not be sent to new customers who have not purchased yet, as that is how they are attributed to specific locations.
Redemption
This section will control who can redeem this offer, separate from who is eligible to receive the offer.
- Select whether this offer is redeemable based on Customer Tags, Custom Targeting Rules, or Segments.
- Customer Tags - Target specific customer tags so this offer is only redeemable by loyalty accounts with designated, manually-added customer tags.
- Custom Targeting Rules - Target pre-set rules (such as Everyone, Average Basket Value, or Journey Stage) to control who can redeem this offer.
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Segments - Pre-set groups of targeting rules that can target the same group of customers across communications. For more information about creating Segments, refer to this guide: Creating a Segment
Please note: Make sure your redemption rules are more general than your targeting rules. For example, the most commonly used redemption rules are Everyone, Basket Subtotal, or Day of Week. Remember - customers cannot redeem offers they do not receive (based on the Target Audience section), but they should be able to redeem offers they do receive.
- Select whether this offer is redeemable Online and In-App and/or whether we should Show Bar or QR Code for in-store redemption.
If you use a POS with integrated loyalty (Toast, Qu, or Revel*), only select Online and In-App as offers can be redeemed through account lookup on the POS
*Revel clients: If you are not using the new Open Loyalty feature, continue to use the Show Bar Code or QR code option. Contact our support team or your Customer Success Manager if you are interested in using our new and improved in-store loyalty flow.
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Store Redemption: Enabling this toggle will only allow redemption at selected locations. Keeping this disabled will allow redemption at all locations.
Availability
- Select how often customers can receive this offer:
- One time only - Customers will only ever receive this offer once. It cannot be manually re-sent to them, and once it has been used or deleted, they will not receive another copy.
- One active offer at a time - Customers can only have one copy of this offer in their inbox at any given time. Once it has been used or deleted, they will receive another copy if the message is still active and they still qualify, based on the rules set in the Target Audience section.
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Multiple offers at once - Customers can receive multiple copies of this offer. This should only be used with Activity-based offers to prevent overcrowding inboxes with duplicate communications.
- Select when this offer will be sent:
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Start Date
- At Next Time Slot - This offer will be sent out at the next available time slot or once customers complete the necessary activity.
- Custom Date - This offer will begin sending out on the date selected at the first available time slot or once customers complete the necessary activity.
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End Date
- Never - This offer will not stop sending new copies until it has been deleted from the Dashboard or until the end date has been changed to Custom Date and a specific end date has been entered.
- Custom Date - This offer will stop sending customers new copies after the selected date, which is the last day for customers to receive new copies.
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Advanced Options - can be toggled on for additional customization, including:
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Time zone - Set the time zone that controls the time slots during which this will be distributed.
- Distribution Timing Distribution timing is not localized by store.
- Days of the week - Set which days of the week this will be distributed on (All Days will be selected by default).
- Time slots - Set which time slots this offer will be distributed during. By default, 7 a.m.—8 a.m. will be selected.
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Distribution limits - Set an (optional) maximum number of distributions.
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Time zone - Set the time zone that controls the time slots during which this will be distributed.
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Start Date
- Select when customers can redeem this offer:
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Start Date
- Immediately - This offer is redeemable immediately (once it has been distributed to use inboxes.)
- Custom Date - This offer is not redeemable until the date selected.
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End Date
- Never - This offer will be redeemable until the customer uses it or deletes it. It will not expire and be removed from their inboxes.
- Custom Date - This offer is redeemable through a specific end date. After that date, it will no longer be redeemable and will be removed from their inbox.
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Amount of Time - This offer will expire out of customer inboxes after a fixed amount of time after receiving it (e.g., 30 days after receiving it).
- Redemption respects local time zones. By default, this follows each store's open and close hours. If a time-specific window is needed (e.g., 2-4 PM), a "Time of Day" redemption rule can be applied, which will honor that store's local time zone.
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Start Date
Look
- Select how this offer will be sent to customers. Multiple options can be selected and customers will receive them through the channels they have opted into:
- Account - This cannot be unselected. All communications they qualify for will be distributed to their account (in-app) inbox.
- Push - Customers will receive a push notification if they have this permission enabled.
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Email - Customers will receive an email notification if they have opted in to email marketing communications.
Hint: Make sure you set your loyalty offer email template up in advance! -
Text Message - Customers will receive an SMS notification, if they have opted in to SMS marketing communications.
- If Text Message is selected, you can also set a distribution limit of Unlimited or Fixed Amount, which can help control costs.
- If Text Message is selected, you can also set a distribution limit of Unlimited or Fixed Amount, which can help control costs.
- Create the display content, which users will see in their inbox/email.
- Enter the display title, short description, and long description.
Please note: The short and long descriptions each have a maximum character count of 500 characters. - Upload both a small image (square, 1:1 ratio) and a medium image (rectangle, 25:14 ratio.) Our new in-page image cropping tool helps ensure that the image is displayed to customers exactly how you intended. You can upload a GIF here as well!
- Enter the display title, short description, and long description.
- If using Text Message: Set the SMS display content.
Please note: The character limit is only 70 characters per SMS when using emojis in SMS communications. Otherwise, it is 160 characters. It the character count exceeds these limits, multiple SMS will be sent, which will incur additional costs.
- Additionally, we can support displaying content in multiple languages, which will dynamically display the correct language based on the user's device language. To add content in multiple languages, toggle on Multiple Languages and add content for each language.
Review
The Review page will display each section of the communication. This page can be used to spot-check your set up, identify any missing configurations when in draft mode, and easily navigate to the section you would like to adjust.
- Each set up step is outlined in its own section. This contains a summary of the configuration for each step.
- If there is any information missing that is required to publish a communication, a validation error will appear at the top of the section, with a notice about which field is missing within the section itself.
- Selecting the edit button of a section will bring you to the page itself, where you can edit any settings as desired.
- You will not be able to publish an offer until all validation errors on the review page are addressed.
Saving an Offer
If you would like to pause during set up, you can always save your offer as a draft and continue working on it at a later time. When you're ready to go live, select Publish
Draft Mode
When you create an offer, the new record is created in Draft status by default. Draft mode gives you time to review and update the configuration before the offer goes live.
What to know about Draft offers:
- Draft offers appear in the standard offer list alongside active, scheduled, and expired offers.
- You can filter the offer list by Draft status to find and manage your drafts.
- Draft offers get automatically saved each time a field is edited. (Active offers do not have auto-save)
- A draft cannot be published and then reverted back to Draft — once published, the status cannot be rolled back.
- Complete all required fields (including distribution and redemption timing) before changing the status to Active or Scheduled.
More Resources
Additional Offer Guides
We have additional guides that walk through creating specific offer types.
- Dashboard - Creating a BOGO Offer (Buy one, get the same item free
- Dashboard - Creating a Custom BOGO Offer
- Dashboard - Creating a Check-Level Discount
- Dashboard - Creating an Item-Level Discount
POS-Specific Guides
Remember, certain POS systems require specific setups and may have additional set up requirements for in store redemption, review the guide for your POS to ensure your set up is correct!