How to Set Up a Discount Coupon on Blinko

A Discount Coupon is the most flexible campaign type on Blinko — four discount structures, a targeting system that lets you aim at all followers or a specific segment, and a date window you control. Whether you're running a seasonal promotion, launching a new menu item, or trying to drive traffic during your quietest shift, the Discount Coupon is the tool that gives you the most precision. Here's how to use it.

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What is a Discount Coupon?

A Discount Coupon is a promotional offer you send directly to your Blinko followers — no email, no phone number needed. Followers receive the coupon as a push notification and can redeem it in-store by showing the Blinko app.

Unlike Today's Special, which is a same-day impulse tool, a Discount Coupon runs over a date range you define — a week, a weekend, a full month. It's the right campaign for planned promotions where you want to give customers enough time to act.

The four discount types:

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When to use it

A Discount Coupon is the right choice when:

• You have a planned promotional period — a holiday, a seasonal event, a new menu launch
• You want to drive traffic during specific times — a slow weekday lunch, a quiet afternoon slot
• You want to segment your audience — reward loyal regulars with a better offer than general followers
• You're launching something new and want existing customers to try it first
• You want to run a BOGO to double the number of people in the door

If the urgency is today only, use Today's Special instead.

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What you'll get

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How to set it up

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Option 1: Mobile App

Time to complete: ~3 minutes

Step 1 — Open Campaigns and tap +

Tap Campaigns in the bottom navigation bar, then tap the + icon. Select Discount Coupon.

Step 2 — Choose your discount type

Select from:

• % off — enter the percentage
• Fixed amount — enter the dollar value
• BOGO — configure what is bought and what is free
• Tiered — configure two spend tiers and their corresponding discounts

Step 3 — Write the offer and set the date range

• Offer title: A short, punchy headline the customer sees ("Weekend Deal: 15% Off")
• Offer description: What exactly they get and any conditions ("Valid on all menu items, dine-in only")
• Start date: When the coupon becomes active. Leave as today for immediate activation.
• End date: When it expires. Setting a specific end date creates urgency.

Step 4 — Choose your audience

Select who receives the coupon:

• All followers — your entire Blinko audience
• Active followers — those who have visited within the last N days
• Inactive followers — those who haven't visited recently (overlap with Win-Back, but with more offer control)

Step 5 — Publish

Tap Publish. Followers receive a push notification and can access the coupon in their Blinko app until the expiry date.

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Option 2: Web Portal

Time to complete: ~4 minutes

Step 1 — Go to Campaigns → New Campaign → Discount Coupon

Log in at local.blinko.ai, click Campaigns, then New Campaign, then Discount Coupon.

Step 2 — Select discount type and configure

Choose your discount structure and fill in the relevant fields. The web portal shows a live preview of how the coupon will appear to followers.

Step 3 — Set offer details, date range, and audience

• Offer title and description: What the customer sees
• Validity window: Start and end dates
• Target audience: All followers, recent visitors, or lapsed visitors

Step 4 — Publish Campaign

Click Publish Campaign to send the coupon immediately, or set a future start date to schedule it.

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Option 3: AI Copilot

The Copilot excels at Discount Coupon campaigns — just describe what you want to achieve and it handles the mechanics:

"Create a 20% off coupon for all followers, valid this weekend only."

"Send a BOGO offer on lattes to everyone who visited in the last 30 days."

"Launch a summer promotion — 15% off orders over $30, running for the next two weeks."

"Give inactive followers a $5 off coupon to bring them back — expires in 10 days."

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What your staff need to do

Discount Coupons require the most careful staff handling of any campaign type — because the discount has a direct effect on the transaction amount, validation before applying it is important.

At redemption — staff action required

1. Customer shows the active coupon in their Blinko app — it displays the offer title, discount value, and expiry date
2. Staff open the Blinko Business app → tap Redeem
3. Customer holds up their in-app QR code
4. Staff scan it — the app confirms whether the coupon is valid, expired, or already redeemed
5. If valid: staff apply the discount at the POS exactly as shown in the app, then complete the transaction
6. The coupon is marked as redeemed automatically — it cannot be used again

What the app tells staff at the scan

When staff scan the customer's QR code, the Blinko Business app displays the full coupon details:

• Offer title and discount value (e.g., "15% off — all menu items")
• Validity status — green for valid, red for already redeemed or expired
• Any conditions set when the campaign was created

Staff should apply the discount exactly as shown in the app — not as the customer describes it. If a coupon shows as already redeemed, the staff should not re-honour it regardless of what the customer says.

Don't apply discounts without scanning first

The QR scan is the validation step. Applying a discount based on a customer showing the Blinko app screen without scanning creates a gap that customers can exploit (showing an expired or already-redeemed coupon from their screenshots). The scan is the proof.

Brief your team: "If a customer shows a coupon in their Blinko app, always scan their QR code first. The app will tell you exactly what discount to apply. Don't apply anything until the scan confirms it's valid."

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Tips for better results

Match the discount type to the outcome you want

Use percentage off when you want customers to try your best or highest-margin item — a 15% discount on a $40 service feels more substantial than $6 off. Use fixed amount off when you want to increase basket size — "$5 off orders over $25" reliably lifts average transaction value because customers add items to hit the threshold. Use BOGO when you want to bring in groups — couples, coworkers, friends. It doubles the number of bodies in the room.

Set an end date — always

A discount coupon with no expiry is a standing discount, not a promotion. Setting a 7–14 day window gives customers a genuine reason to act now rather than "sometime." The last two days before expiry consistently generate the highest redemption rates, so include a follow-up Today's Special on the final day as a reminder.

Don't discount the same category twice in a row

If you ran a 20% off coffee deal last month and you run it again this month, you start training customers to wait for the discount instead of paying full price. Rotate your offer category: coffee one month, food items the next, service upgrades after that.

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Frequently asked questions

Can I limit how many times a single customer can redeem the coupon? By default, each coupon is single-use per customer — once redeemed, the customer cannot redeem the same campaign again. If you want to allow multiple redemptions in the validity window, you can configure this in the campaign settings.

Can multiple coupons be active at the same time? Yes. You can run multiple Discount Coupon campaigns simultaneously — for example, a general promotion for all followers and a better deal targeted at lapsed followers. Customers will see all active coupons they're eligible for in their Blinko app.

What's the difference between a Discount Coupon and a Win-Back campaign? The mechanics overlap, but the intent is different. A Win-Back campaign is a permanent automated rule that fires whenever a follower crosses a lapse threshold — it runs forever without manual input. A Discount Coupon is a deliberate, date-bounded promotion you create for a specific purpose. For targeting lapsed customers with a planned seasonal push, use a Discount Coupon. For continuous, always-on lapse recovery, use Win-Back.

How do staff know whether to honour a coupon? Staff tap Verify & Redeem in the Blinko business app when a customer shows the coupon. The app confirms the coupon is valid and marks it as redeemed. No manual judgement required.