Access codes and promotion codes: Discounted tickets for your participants

- available for and  customers -

You would like to grant discounts to your participants or make certain ticket categories or even your entire event accessible only to selected persons? Then we recommend the use of promotion or access codes. This article will show you the differences between the codes, explain how to set them up, and provide important tips to keep in mind.

1. Difference between promotion codes and access codes

2. Promotion codes

3. Access codes

 

1. Difference between promotion codes and access codes

With the help of promotion codes you can give your participants discounts on their bookings: After the booker selects the tickets they want and enters a valid promotion code, an amount or percentage you specify will be deducted from the full invoice amount.

Suggested use cases for promotion codes:

• An open group of people is to receive a discount that is communicated publicly (e.g. trade fair promotion or Christmas discount) → Promotion codes that can be used multiple times.
• A specific group of people should receive a discount on regular ticket prices: e.g. member discount → one-time promotion code

With the help of access codes, you can hide individual or even all ticket categories of an event from the public booking screen: Only after the booker has entered a valid access code, he can see and book the corresponding ticket category.

Recommended application examples for access codes:

• Exclusive event for invited guests only (closed group of participants) → One-time access code.
• Only selected persons are allowed to book certain tickets (e.g. free tickets for trade fair exhibitors, sponsors, members or VIPs) → Multiple access code
• Recurring events where access codes are distributed as one-time redeemable vouchers → Multi-event access code

2. Promotion codes 

2.1 Types of promotion codes 

You can choose between multiple-use codes and one-time codes.

• We recommend multi-use codes e.g. for discounts that are to be made available to an open group. There is a possibility that the recipients, pass the code to third parties and it will be redeemed accordingly several times and by any bookers for your event. If you want to limit the number of uses, you can set this individually. In case of multiple-use promotion code, the name of the code (e.g. STUDENTRABATT), represents the promotion code itself, which must be entered at the time of booking.
• One-time codes are recommended for personalized discounts that you want to send to selected people, e.g. via a doo email message. Unlike multiple-use codes, one-time codes do not require bookers to enter the internal code name you assign when booking, but generate individual letter codes (e.g. PHVP-QPGI-SCLZ) that can be redeemed once for the event.

2.2 Properties of promotion codes 

• The discount can be given as a percentage or as an absolute value.
• To control the number of tickets for which a promotion code is valid, you can limit the maximum number of tickets per booking. You can set this in the second step of event creation.
• Promotion codes are event specific and are only valid for the event for which it was created. However, in the case of promotion codes that can be used multiple times, you can manually create codes with the same names for additional events.
• When copying an event, the promotion codes are also copied.
• The codes can be sent by e-mail message.
• The promotion code used will be displayed in the billing documents and booking overview with the corresponding booking.
• The doo transaction fees are always calculated on the original booking amount before deducting the promotion code value.
  

2.3 Redeeming promotion codes

• Promotion codes can be redeemed in the booking process below the ticket selection.
  

• The discount of a promotion code is always calculated on the total amount of a booking, including any VAT and transaction fees. It cannot be limited to a specific ticket category or number.
• On the part of the booker, only a maximum of one promotion code and one access code can be entered per booking.
  

2.4 Creation of promotion codes

To set up promotion codes, please proceed as follows:

1. Go to the settings of the event for which you want to create a promotion code.
2. Click Promotion Codes at the bottom left to go to the overview page of promotion codes for this event.
3. Go to Add new promotion code.
4. The following dialog opens:
5. Choose between a multiple-use code and one-time code. For one-time codes, you can define the number of codes to be created in the next step.
6. Assign a name for the promotion code.
7. Specify the amount of the discount to be granted (as a percentage or absolute amount).
8. If necessary, limit the time period or the number of uses to restrict the code redemption.

After you have saved the code, it will appear in the overview.

For one-time codes, you can download the created codes, each consisting of a 12-digit combination of letters, as an Excel file by clicking on "Download code list". Both promotion code types can be distributed via doo e-mail message.

 

2.5 Editing of promotion codes

At any time in the overview via the corresponding icons you can do the following to promotion codes:

• edit them, e.g. to increase the number of one-time codes
• stop, if you want the code to be unredeemable
• reactivate stopped codes
• delete via the recycle bin icon (only possible if the code has not been redeemed yet)

3. Access Codes 

3.1 Types of access codes 

You can choose between multiple and one-time codes for the access codes.

• We recommend multiple codes e.g. for events or individual ticket categories that are to be made available to a specific group (e.g. members). It is possible that the recipients, pass on the code to third parties and it is accordingly redeemed several times and by any bookers for your event. If you want to limit the number of applications, you can set this individually. In the case of multiple access codes, the name you assign to the code (e.g. MEMBER), corresponds to the code that must be entered when booking.
• One-time codes for an event are recommended for personalized ticket access that you want to send to selected people for your event, e.g. via a doo email message. In contrast to multiple-use codes, bookers do not have to enter the internal name of the code assigned by you when booking. Instead, individual letter codes (e.g. PHVP-QPGI-SCLZ) are generated, which can be redeemed once for the event.
• One-time codes for multiple events can be created using the "Multi-Event" function. This allows the created access codes to be redeemed for a selection of up to 50 events. As soon as the code is redeemed for an event, it loses its validity.

3.2 Properties of access codes 

• Apart from the one-time codes with multi-event function, all access codes are event-specific and always apply to exactly the event for which they are created.
• If you want to control the number of tickets that can be booked with an access code, you can define a maximum number of tickets per booking in the ticket category settings in event editing.
• When copying an event, the access codes will also be copied. A new access code list with identical name and settings will be created accordingly for the new event. However, the codes themselves differ: the access codes from the list of one event are therefore not applicable to the other event, unless it is a multi-event code.
• To avoid confusion between the different code lists, we recommend choosing individual code names for the different events in the case of one-time access codes.

3.3 Redeeming access codes in the booking process

By creating access codes, the corresponding ticket categories are hidden from the public booking screen and only become visible when a valid access code is entered above the ticket selection.

After the booker enters a valid code in the "Access code" field, the corresponding ticket categories are displayed and can be booked normally.

 

Only one access code and one promotion code can be entered per booking.

3.4 Creation of access codes

To set up access codes, please proceed as follows:

1. Go to the settings of the event for which you want to create an access code.
2. Click on Access Codes at the bottom right to go to the overview page of your promotion codes.
3. Go to Add new access code.
4. The following dialog will open (example):

 

1. Internal name: Name the access code list, e.g. "Code-list-01/22".
2. Use: Choose here between a code that is only valid for a single booking or an access code that can be used multiple times.
3. Number of codes: Set the number of access codes to be created (up to 5,000 per list).
4. Ticket categories: Select whether only certain or all ticket categories should be visible by entering access codes.
5. Limit time period: If desired, limit the validity period of the access codes. The encrypted ticket categories can only be unlocked within the specified time period and are not available outside of this period.
6. Personalize: You can use this function to assign an access code to specific contacts (see 3.5).
7. Multi-Event: The Multi-Event codes can be redeemed for different events (max. 25 events per code). After a code has been redeemed at one event, it will lose its validity at all subsequent events.
8. Email notifications: Optionally enter an email address here to receive a notification for each access code redemption.
9. Save your settings via Save.

After you save the code list information, it will appear in the overview.

You can edit, start and stop or delete your access codes here.

An access code is inactive if it cannot currently be redeemed due to a restricted validity period. To activate it, adjust the settings under Limit period.

Codes that have already been redeemed cannot be deleted. However, it is possible to deactivate them. Deactivated codes can no longer be redeemed and are marked as "Stopped" in the overview.

For multi-event access codes, you have the option of deleting the codes only for the currently selected event or for all events for which this code is valid.

3.5Personalizing and prefilling one-time access codes

Personalized one-time access codes allow you to pre-populate the existing data of your contacts when redeeming them in the booking form. For this purpose, the generated access codes are assigned to individual contacts. If a booker enters his personalized code in the booking form and selects the desired ticket, his personal data can be automatically pre-filled in the booking form.

To personalize an access code list, click on the pencil icon of the corresponding code list in the overview. Here you now have the option to assign the access codes to individual contacts or a contact group. If you download the code list afterwards, you can see which code was assigned to which contact and distribute them accordingly. You can find out how to create a contact group in advance here.

If you then check "Prefill with contact data", you can choose whether the data should be prefilled for the participant questions, the booking questions or both.

You can find all information about pre-filling data here.

 

3. Overview of redeemed codes 

To find out which codes have been redeemed, how often, by whom and for which booking, you can download the corresponding code list at any time via the event settings. Also in the Excel booking overview, which you can download via the event details page, any promotion and access codes used are listed.