We recently announced our latest ShopSite ® add-on module:

The LexiConn Coupon Creation Module

It allows ShopSite merchants to easily create any number of unique one-time use coupons. There are many uses for this including promotions like Groupon or Living Social.

The module can also be used to create coupon codes that can be emailed to a newsletter (or a segment of a newsletter’s subscribers). In fact, it can be easily integrated with our mailing list service to include personalized coupon codes.

Here is a quick tutorial…

Step 1: Download your subscriber email addresses

In the mailing list system, export the email addresses subscribed to your list and open this file in Excel:

Subscribers -> Export Subscribers

Export email addresses (click to enlarge)

Once you’ve downloaded the file, open it in excel, and you should have one column with an email address in each row.

Step 2: Create a custom field for coupon codes

Lists -> Subscriber Fields -> Add text field

Create custom field (click image to enlarge)

Make sure you enter a Personalization tag like “couponcode” so you can reference it in your newsletter.

Step 3: Create the coupons in the module

Use the module to create your coupons (the same number of coupons as subscribers you exported into Excel previously). On the last screen, copy and paste all of the coupon codes into the Excel file with the email addresses. Put them in the second column, one code per row.

Step 4: Save the Excel file (as CSV)

Save your Excel file as a CSV (comma separated value) format. This is needed in order to import the file.

Step 5: Import the Excel file into the mailing list

Subscribers -> (choose list) -> Import

Import subscribers (click image to enlarge)

Make sure you click the link “Advanced options” under the text box and check the checkbox:
“Update existing subscribers while importing”

This is needed to update the coupon code field.

On the next page:

Import – Match up fields (click image to enlarge)

Here, you want to make sure the first column is set to “Email Address” and the second column is set to your custom subscriber field “Coupon Code”. Then just click “Import Now” and on the next page, view the report to make sure there were no errors.

Now all subscribers should have a coupon code.

Step 6: Insert the custom field in your email message

Campaigns -> Email Messages

When creating / editing your email message, you can insert your coupon code by clicking the “Personalize Message” link near the top of the editor, choosing “List-Related Fields” in the popup, and then clicking “Coupon Code”. This will insert the code needed to output coupon codes in each email.

Insert Coupon Code tag (click image to enlarge)

Alternatively, you can just type the personalization tag you entered when you created the field (for example: %couponcode%)
(The percent “%” signs are needed for the tag to work.)

…

That’s it. Your email message is now set up to send a personalized coupon code to each subscriber.

I’d highly recommend testing this with a test list before sending it out to a live list to make sure you got all the steps correct.

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