There are two sets of steps involved in sending your contacts discount codes; adding the coupon codes to your list and sending your contacts the coupon codes.
Adding coupon codes to your Mailchimp list
In the instructions below I assume that you want each subscriber to receive their own unique coupon code. Also, adding the codes via an integration is the simplest way of transferring coupon codes between your software and Mailchimp however this is sometimes costly and isn’t always possible. The steps therefore assume that you’ll add the coupon codes to each of your subscribers manually (i.e. not through an integration).
- Generate your codes in your sales platform (e.g. Eventbrite, Shopify, Blackboxx, WooCommerce etc.).
- Export your Mailchimp list contacts.
- In the Subscribers CSV file that you exported above, delete all columns except the email address (this will make the import quicker).
- Create a new column in the CSV file called e.g. Discount Code.
- Add the coupon code for each contact in the Discount Code column.
- Import the CSV file, that contains your subscriber email addresses and coupon codes, into your Mailchimp list. Upon importing you’ll need to create a new column to import your Discount Code column. The video below shows the default Mailchimp import however keep in mind that you’ll have fewer columns.
You will now have a coupon code associated with your contacts in your Mailchimp list.
Sending coupon codes to your Mailchimp subscribers
Now that the coupon codes are in your Mailchimp list we can send each contact their individual code. Here are the steps:
- Create a new Mailchimp campaign.
- In the Design stage of building your campaign, add the merge tag for the Discount Code field of your list where you want each persons coupon code to show.
- Test and send your campaign.
Each subscriber will now receive an email message with their associated coupon code.
If this helped you then please share or let me know in the comments below 🙂
Gary – this is excellent! Just what I was wanting to do. Do you need to create a new list separate from the one you already have OR does this one overwrite the existing (even what was there before – except for the email addresses)?
This uses your existing list (unless you set it up to use a different list).
Hi, This was very helpful. Just one question: How to do the same i.e. add a unique coupon code to an existing Mailchimp campaign? I want to add a referral code to all my emails.
Add a column to your list and place the coupon code against each subscriber (in the new column). You can then send the coupon code for each subscriber by using a merge tag in your campaign.
This is good. But how do I automate it please? So a new subscriber to my list receives a confirmation/thank you with a unique coupon attached as an automated routine.
Yes, I need it to happen on signup too! We do not use shopify or anything like that — we need to insert codes pulled from a .csv file.
I’ve build a Shopify app that automates the process of creating unique discount codes for new subscribers. You can find out more at https://personaldiscount.me
Did you managed to do it?
We’ve also built an automated solution for WooCommerce.
where can we find your woocommerce version ?
@Mitch
Hey Mitchel, sorry for the late reply.
You can find the version for WooCommerce here https://app.personaldiscount.io
It’s not a plugin. It’s a standalone app which you can connect to your store.
Thanks Gary this was a very useful workaround.
Glad it helped Chris 🙂
Hi Gary,
is there a way to do this and share more than one unique code? Say I want to send out three coupon codes for customers to send to their friends or colleagues…
Sure. Merely add two more fields into your Mailchimp Audience then fill those fields with the additional coupon code. Then you’ll need to add the merge tags to your email campaign to send the additional coupon codes.
Hi Gary,
i am a Mailchimp beginner – however i understand the principle of your advice. But let me explain my case: i have an audience of 20.000 users and growing. 6 and more new subsribers each day. when i do the export-import thing it could be that i miss the latest subscribers. And if i send the Email those subscribers would receive an empty merge tag, right? How can i solve this ?
Maria
Hi Maria,
There are two possible resolutions:
I would like to find out, like Erin, if you could send/generate a discount code without using of the apps and other platforms. I am looking to send a discount code to each new member signing up, so I don’t yet have their email addresses. At the moment I only have a CSV file with codes.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
Hi Amore,
If you are happy to send every new subscriber the same discount code then:
More about Customer Journeys may be seen at https://youtu.be/qP2e9fpGnbo
If you want to send each new subscriber a unique coupon code then you’ll need to combine a Zapier Zap (Zapier.com) with a Mailchimp Customer Journey.
Is there a way to send every new subscriber a DIFFERENT discount code without using zapier? thank you!
Yes. As long as the discount codes are in Mailchimp you can send different codes to different contacts. There are many integrations that will allow coupon codes to be transferred to Mailchimp. You can also import coupon codes via CVS or add coupon codes manually into an Audience.