Promo Codes

Promo codes give clients a discount at checkout on your order forms. Use them for a launch offer, a win-back campaign, or a seasonal special — the kinds of incentives agents actively look for and remember you by. For a standing rate for one brokerage or agent, use a price list instead. The deal applies on orders you create for them and when they book signed in to your client portal, with no code to type.

What a promo code can do

• Percentage off (for example 10%) or a fixed amount off (for example $25). A percentage is any value from 1 to 100.
• Validity window — an optional start and end date. Outside the window the code simply stops working, so you don’t have to remember to switch off last season’s promo.
• Total redemption cap — limit how many times the code can be used across all clients (“first 20 bookings”).
• Per-client limit — limit how many times each client can use it (once each, for a first-order offer).
• Minimum order amount — require a minimum services subtotal before the code applies, so a 15%-off code doesn’t get burned on a single cheap add-on.

Each code also has an internal name that only you see — handy for labelling which campaign or channel a code belongs to, separate from the code the client types.

How the discount is applied

• It comes off your services and package subtotal — never the travel fee or taxes. The discount is calculated before travel is added, so a code rewards the work, not the drive.
• Codes don’t stack. An order uses one code at a time. A referral code uses the same slot, so a new client booking through a referral link can’t add a promo code on top.
• Price lists come first. For a client on a price list, the code comes off their list-priced subtotal, and the minimum order amount is checked against that subtotal.
• The discount can’t exceed the order. A large fixed-amount code on a small order just brings the subtotal to zero, never below.

Things to know

• Codes are case-sensitive. SPRING15 and spring15 are different codes — only the surrounding spaces are ignored. Keep codes short and all-caps so agents type them exactly right.
• You can deactivate a code any time without deleting it, and Spatiko tracks how many times each code has been redeemed, with a list of the recent orders that used it — so you can see at a glance whether a promo is working.
• Referral codes live elsewhere. The codes the referral program makes for each client don’t appear in your Promo codes list. Each client’s link, with their code in it, is on their client record, and the referrals themselves are tracked on Settings → Payments → Referrals. Unlike your own promo codes, referral codes aren’t case-sensitive.

Ways photographers use them

• First-order offer. A percentage or fixed amount, one use per client, to convert an agent trying you for the first time.
• A push for bigger orders. Pair a discount with a minimum order amount so it only kicks in on larger bookings. For a permanent brokerage rate, a price list is the better tool.
• Seasonal push. A dated code for a slow month, set to expire on its own.
• Review thank-you. A single-redemption code you hand out after a client leaves a review. For referrals, use the built-in referral program, which gives every client their own link and pays out credit automatically.

Tips

• Give every campaign its own code, even for the same discount — the redemption counts then tell you which channel actually drives bookings.
• Set a minimum order amount just above your average order value to nudge agents toward adding one more service.
• Say the casing out loud when you share a code (or put it in the link) — case-sensitivity is the number-one reason a valid code “doesn’t work” for a client.

Go deeper

• Services & pricing models — set the catalog prices a code discounts from.
• Custom pricing with price lists — give one brokerage or agent a standing rate without a code.
• Client referral program — reward agents who send you new clients.
• Managing an order — apply a one-off discount to a single order instead of issuing a code.
• Revenue & service performance reports — check whether a promo actually lifted your bookings.