# Marketing and promotions overview

Marketing and promotions

GrandNode gives you the promotional tools most stores need without extra plugins: **discounts** with coupon codes and rules, **loyalty points** that reward repeat customers, **affiliates** that track orders brought in by partners, and **newsletters** with targeted mailing campaigns. This article is the map: what each tool is for, where it lives in the admin panel, and which article explains it in detail.

### Where to find it

Open the admin panel (`/admin`) and click **Marketing** in the left sidebar. The flyout groups the screens:

- **Discounts** - percentage or fixed-amount reductions on products, categories, brands, collections, vendors, the order subtotal, the order total or shipping, with optional coupon codes and rules.
- **Gift vouchers** - prepaid codes customers buy or receive and redeem at checkout (covered in [Sales and orders](https://grandnode.com/docs-sales)).
- **Affiliates** - partners with their own tracking link; orders placed through the link are attributed to them.
- **Contact Attributes** - extra fields on the storefront *Contact us* form.
- **Newsletter** → **Mailing Campaigns**, **Newsletter Category**, **Newsletter Subscribers** - the subscriber list, the topics people can subscribe to, and the e-mails you send them.
- **Push notifications** → **Send**, **Messages**, **Receivers** - browser push messages to customers who allowed them (requires push notification settings).
- **Documents** → **Type of document**, **Document list** - documents such as contracts or invoices attached to customers, orders or vendors.

![The Marketing flyout in the admin sidebar with Discounts, Gift vouchers, Affiliates, Contact Attributes, Newsletter, Push notifications and Documents groups](https://grandnode.com/Plugins/Theme.GrandNodeCom/Content/kb/marketing/menu.webp)

The Marketing menu. Newsletter, Push notifications and Documents open sub-menus.

Two marketing tools are configured elsewhere:

- **Loyalty points** are switched on and tuned in **Settings → Sales** on the **Loyalty points** tab, and each customer's balance is shown on the customer's **Loyalty points** tab under **Customers → Customers**.
- **Contact form messages** sent by visitors are listed under **System → Contact Us form**.

### Which tool for which goal

| Goal | Tool | Article |
|---|---|---|
| Put a category or brand on sale for a season | Discount assigned to categories, brands or collections, with start and end dates | [Discount types and where they apply](https://grandnode.com/marketing-discount-types) |
| Give a code to newsletter readers or influencers | Discount with **Requires coupon code** | [Coupon codes, limits and usage history](https://grandnode.com/marketing-coupon-codes-and-limits) |
| Reward only wholesale or VIP customers | Discount rule *Must be assigned to customer group* | [Discount rules](https://grandnode.com/marketing-discount-rules) |
| Free shipping above a basket value | Discount assigned to shipping plus the cart subtotal rule | [Discount rules](https://grandnode.com/marketing-discount-rules) |
| Bring customers back for the next order | Loyalty points | [Loyalty points](https://grandnode.com/marketing-loyalty-points) |
| Pay partners for the sales they refer | Affiliates | [Affiliates](https://grandnode.com/marketing-affiliates) |
| Announce a sale by e-mail | Newsletter categories and a mailing campaign | [Mailing campaigns](https://grandnode.com/marketing-newsletter-campaigns) |

### Stores, vendors and store managers

Most marketing records can be **limited to stores**: a discount, a newsletter category or a campaign that is limited to one store is ignored in the others. If you run several stores, decide early whether a promotion is global or per store. Store managers working in the store panel (`/store`) also have a Discounts screen: every discount they create is limited to their own store automatically, and they only see and edit their store's discounts. See [Store panel](https://grandnode.com/docs-store-panel) for details.

### Permissions

Each screen is protected by its own permission (*Manage Discounts*, *Manage Affiliates*, *Manage Newsletter Subscribers*, *Manage Newsletter Categories*, *Manage Campaigns*, *Manage Push Notifications*, *Manage Documents*; contact form messages need *Manage Message Contact Form*). If a staff member cannot see an item in the Marketing menu, give their customer group the permission under **Customers → Customer groups** (see [Customers](https://grandnode.com/docs-customers)).

### Related

- [Creating a discount](https://grandnode.com/marketing-discounts)
- [Sales and customer settings](https://grandnode.com/configuration-sales-customer-settings) - where loyalty points are configured
- [Sales and orders](https://grandnode.com/docs-sales) - gift vouchers, orders and what customers pay

- [Web page](https://grandnode.com/marketing-overview)