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Get Started with Square Loyalty Promotions

With Square Loyalty, you can create a digital reward program to offer customers rewards with their purchases. By creating promotions within your Loyalty program, you can incentivize your customers to return to your business to earn extra rewards. 

If you don’t know where to start, Square Loyalty offers templated promotions that are optimized for your business:

  • Slow hours: Attract customers to your business during times on days that aren’t busy by offering extra points for their visit. This promotion is calculated based on the average transaction count per hour over the past 90 days. 

  • Holidays: Reward your customers with custom points for spending with your business during certain holidays. Preset holidays include New Years, Black Friday, Labor Day, and more. 

  • Item spotlight: Offer customers extra points for purchasing featured items from your business.

  • Category showcase: Promote purchases for an entire category of items.

Square Loyalty also integrates with Square Email Marketing so you can send email or text message campaigns to your customers to drive repeat visits.

Create a Promotion

To create a Loyalty promotion, you’ll need to have an existing Loyalty program set up. Learn more about setting up your Square Loyalty Program.

Keep in mind that item and category promotion criteria are only available for visit and spend-based Loyalty programs at this time.

From Dashboard

To create a promotion from your online Square Dashboard:

  1. Log in to your online Square Dashboard and click Loyalty.

  2. Click Loyalty Promotions > Create promotion.

  3. On the Promotion Setup page, choose a templated promotion or click Create your own to create a promotion from scratch.

  4. If choosing a generated promotion, review the promotion details or click Edit promotion to change your promotion details. Click Launch to activate your promotion.

  5. If creating your own promotion, give your promotion a name. If you have multiple locations, pick the locations where you want to run your promotion. Note: Promotion names are limited to 50 characters or less.

  6. Continue to fill out your promotion information, including the promotion date range, and the times and days of the week the promotion is available.

  7. Within Promotion details, choose your promotion type and value. You can select from a point multiplier (like buyers earn double points on a transaction) or custom points (like buyers earning an extra five points on their transaction).

  8. Indicate the minimum spend amount per transaction. Note: A minimum spend amount is on top of your Loyalty program’s minimum spend amount. If your promotion does not have a minimum spend amount, any minimum spend requirements for your program will still apply to the transaction. Minimum spend amounts do not apply to item or category-based Loyalty programs.

  9. If applicable, indicate the required item(s) per transaction that the promotion will apply to, along with the reward type.

  10. Click Launch promotion.

Note: Templated promotions for your loyalty program are only available through your online Square Dashboard. 

From Point of Sale

To create a promotion from the Square Point of Sale app on iOS devices:

  1. Log in to your app and tap More > Settings > Loyalty.

  2. Scroll to the Loyalty promotions section and select Create a promotion. You can view any current promotions within your program by tapping Active promotions.

  3. Give your promotion a name and select a promotion type. Promotion types can be a point multiplier (like buyers earn double points on a transaction) or bonus points (like buyers earning an extra five points on their transaction). Note: Promotion names are limited to 50 characters or less.

  4. If you have multiple locations, pick the locations where you want to run your promotion and tap Done.

  5. Continue to fill out your promotion information, including the promotion schedule, start and end date, and the times and days of the week the promotion is available.

  6. Indicate the minimum spend amount per transaction, and if applicable, indicate the required item(s) per transaction the promotion will apply to along with the reward type. Note: A minimum spend amount per transaction is on top of your loyalty program’s minimum spend amount. If your promotion does not have a minimum spend amount, any minimum spend requirements for your program will still apply to the transaction. Minimum spend amounts do not apply to item or category-based loyalty programs.

  7. Tap Save promotion.

Once you create a promotion, you can view and edit your promotion from the Promotions tab in the Loyalty section of your online Square Dashboard. The ability to manage promotions from your Point of Sale app is not available at this time. 

No action is required from the business or the customer to apply a promotion to a sale. Promotions will automatically apply to qualifying transactions during the checkout process with your customer, and transactions that do not meet your promotion criteria will not be awarded the additional points. A buyer’s promotional points will also automatically adjust for refunded transactions. 

Note: Loyalty promotions are limited to one transaction per customer per day, and are available to all customers enrolled in your Loyalty program.

Remove a Promotion 

To remove a promotion from your Square Loyalty program:

  1. Log in to your online Square Dashboard and click Loyalty

  2. Click Loyalty Promotions and select the promotion you want to delete. 

  3. Click Cancel promotion.

Keep in mind that the ability to edit or remove promotions can only be done through your online Square Dashboard at this time.

Send Promotion Campaigns

If you subscribe to Square Marketing, you can send text message or email marketing campaigns to your customers about your promotion details. When creating an email marketing campaign, you’ll see an option to announce a loyalty promotion to reach your customers. Both templated promotions and promotions created from scratch can leverage marketing campaigns to reach your customers. If you use a templated promotion, a customized text message marketing message will also be auto generated for you to send to your buyers. Buyers must provide either their phone number or email address to check in or enroll with your Loyalty program.

You can send a text message (SMS) marketing campaign to buyers who have a phone number saved to their profile when you create a Loyalty promotion from the Promotions tab of your online Square Dashboard.

If sending an email marketing campaign, you’ll need to create the campaign from the Marketing tab of your online Square Dashboard. Email campaigns can only reach customers with an email address on file.

Customers who receive a campaign message from you can see additional details about your promotion through their online buyer status page.

Learn more about getting started with Square Marketing.

Promotions Reporting

If you are using text message marketing to reach your customers your promotion details will be reflected in your Loyalty reporting once you create your first promotion. For any promotion, you can see the following data:

  • Customers claimed: The number of buyers who triggered the promotion and the number of times they triggered the promotion.

  • Attributable transactions: The number of transactions where the promotion incentive was triggered.

  • Attributable sales: The total amount of sales from transactions where the promotion incentive was triggered.

Note: Reporting for loyalty promotion redemptions sent through a Square Marketing campaign does not appear in your campaign reporting, but does show general customer visits. All loyalty promotion information is reflected in your Square Loyalty reporting metrics.

FAQ

Are buyers able to apply rewards earned during a promotion to the initial transaction?

No. Loyalty points earned as part of a promotion will be earned during the current transaction but will only contribute to a reward in a follow-up transaction. Keep in mind that Square Loyalty promotions are limited to one transaction per customer per day.

Does a promotion replace my existing Loyalty program setup?

No. Loyalty promotions are point multipliers or additions that are layered on top of your current Loyalty program and do not replace your existing program setup.

For example, if your existing Loyalty program states that buyers earn 10 points for every visit, and a buyer qualifies for a 3x points during a happy hour promotion as part of a transaction, the buyer will earn 30 points for that transaction.

Buyers will only earn the promotional reward or points if the transaction qualifies for points.

Can I specify a minimum spend amount for my promotion if my Loyalty program is set up for item or category-based rewards?

No. Minimum spend amounts only apply to visit-based or amount spent programs at this time.

Are we able to apply multiple promotional incentives to one transaction?

No. Only one promotion incentive can be earned as part of a transaction. In an instance where two promotions are triggered during a transaction, the most recently created promotion will apply.

Can promotions award a percent amount or monetary amount off of a transaction?

No. Loyalty promotions can either be a point multiplier (like double points earned during happy hour) or a custom point amount earned (like five or ten additional points) per transaction.