Automated Voucher Management for
Scalable Promotion and Trade Fair Campaigns

An automated Voucher Management system was implemented for the client on the basis of a Marketing Automation solution. The aim was to stop managing trade fair, promotion and campaign codes manually through lists, exports, external enrichment and re-imports, and instead integrate them directly into existing campaign, mailing and form processes.

Voucher and promotion codes are frequently used in marketing and sales to activate target groups, prepare trade fair visits, trigger registrations or make response to specific campaigns measurable. In practice, however, significant operational effort quickly arises as soon as codes need to be assigned uniquely, documented clearly and distributed in a controlled manner across larger target groups.

The entergon Voucher Management therefore extends the Marketing Automation solution with a central, automated code management capability. Codes can be personalised and embedded in mailings for serial and bulk sends, or assigned automatically after a web form is submitted. Marketing Automation remains the leading system for target groups, mailings, forms and campaign logic. The actual code assignment takes place automatically in the background.

The client uses digital campaigns and trade fair communication to activate contacts in a targeted manner and convert prospects into concrete interactions. This includes, for example, invitations to trade fairs, promotions, campaigns with limited quotas, form-based requests or personalised codes for specific target groups.

Before the introduction of automated Voucher Management, assigning such codes involved typical manual process steps:

• Code lists had to be managed outside the Marketing Automation solution
• For campaigns, recipients were exported from the Marketing Automation solution, enriched externally with codes and then re-imported
• For form-based campaigns, automated one-time code assignment was only possible with workarounds or additional manual effort
• The assignment of individual codes to specific recipients was not consistently transparent
• Already assigned codes had to be protected against duplicate assignment
• Remaining stock had to be monitored manually to avoid campaign stops or empty quotas
• With large volumes of codes, the risk of errors, coordination effort and operational risks increased significantly

Particularly critical was the combination of uniqueness, traceability and scalability. A code may only be assigned once, must be uniquely linked to a recipient and must not be inadvertently issued multiple times in bulk sends or form processes. At the same time, the marketing team needs full transparency at all times regarding how many codes have already been assigned, which quotas are still available and whether new codes need to be reordered in good time.

This made Voucher Management a process that should appear simple from a marketing perspective, but operationally places high demands on data quality, process reliability and system integration.

The entergon Voucher Management was integrated into the client's existing Marketing Automation environment. The solution extends Marketing Automation with a central logic for the secure, unique and traceable assignment of voucher, trade fair and promotion codes.

The solution covers two core use-case scenarios:

Serial and bulk sending of codes

Target groups are selected in the Marketing Automation solution as usual and addressed via mailings or campaigns. The individual code is personalised and inserted into the respective mailing, with assignment handled automatically in the background. After sending, the code is uniquely linked to the respective recipient and blocked from further assignment.

Form-based code request

Contacts can request a code via a web form – for example as part of a trade fair campaign, promotion or registration. After the form is submitted, an available code is automatically selected from the stored quota, assigned to the contact and delivered in the follow-up communication.

The operational logic includes in particular:

• Central management of code quotas
• Automated assignment of a free code to the respective recipient
• Personalised embedding of the code in mailings
• Unique assignment of code and contact
• Automatic blocking of assigned codes after sending or form request
• Transparent overview of assigned and remaining codes
• Audit-proof documentation of all code assignments
• Automatic alerts when stock levels are low
• Timely reorder capability without interrupting ongoing campaigns
• Integration into existing campaigns, target groups, forms and mailings

The Marketing Automation solution remains the leading system for communication management. Target groups, mailings, campaign logic and forms continue to be managed within the Marketing Automation solution. Voucher Management adds the missing specialist logic for code inventories, one-time assignment, blocking and traceability.

This eliminates manual exports, external processing steps and re-imports entirely. Code assignment is no longer treated as a separate list process, but as an integrated part of Marketing Automation.

Result

The client now has a scalable, secure and traceable process for voucher and promotion campaigns. Codes can be assigned automatically both in larger serial campaigns and in form-based individual requests.

A formerly list-based and error-prone process has become a stable, automated campaign component. Marketing teams can plan, execute and evaluate campaigns with limited code quotas without having to manually export lists, assign codes and re-import data into Marketing Automation for every campaign.

At the same time, process reliability improves: each code is assigned only once, the assignment to the recipient is documented and remaining stock is always transparent. This makes voucher campaigns more plannable, more reliable and significantly more scalable.

With automated Voucher Management, the client was able to significantly improve operational efficiency, campaign security and transparency. Particularly relevant is the fact that code assignments no longer need to be managed outside Marketing Automation, but are directly integrated into existing campaign and form processes.

The concrete benefits:

• Significant reduction in manual work steps for voucher and promotion campaigns
• Elimination of export, enrichment and re-import processes
• Secure one-time code assignment without duplicate assignments
• Personalised embedding of individual codes in mailings
• Automated code delivery after form submission
• Unique assignment of each code to a recipient
• Automatic blocking of already assigned codes
• Full transparency over assigned and available code quotas
• Automatic alerts when stock levels are low
• Better planning reliability for marketing, events and sales teams
• Audit-proof documentation of assignments
• Greater scalability even with large volumes of codes
• Clean integration into existing target groups, mailings, forms and campaigns

This makes Voucher Management not only technically cleaner, but also strategically more valuable. Campaigns can be set up faster, managed more securely and connected more effectively with existing communication processes.