How to run a campaign that actually brings people in.

This decides everything. A treat that is too big scares you into a small cap, and a treat that is too small does not feel like a gift.

The rule: something that costs you a couple of dollars to make, that you are proud of, and that is too small to be a whole visit on its own.

• Good: one small scoop, a drip coffee, a plain croissant, two cookies.
• Bad: anything over about five dollars in product cost. You will start rationing it, and a rationed campaign feels mean at the counter.
• Also bad: your slowest-moving item. People can tell when they have been handed the thing you wanted rid of, and that is the first impression you paid for.

Two or three options is the sweet spot. One reads as stingy. Five makes a sender hesitate, and hesitation is where sends die.

The cap is a hard ceiling on the number of gifts that can be claimed. When it is reached, the campaign stops on its own. There is no way to overspend by accident.

Start lower than feels brave. A hundred is a good first number for most shops. Running out early is a good problem, tells you the thing works, and I can raise it in under a minute.

Work out your worst case before you set it: cap multiplied by your product cost, plus the platform fee. If that number does not make you flinch, the cap is right.

Remember you are only charged for the treats people actually walk in and claim. A cap of 200 does not mean you spend 200 treats. It means you cannot spend more than 200.

The cooldown is how long the same person has to wait before they can receive another free treat from you.

This is the control that stops a handful of people farming you, which is the thing that ruined coupon sites for everyone. Sixty days is a sensible default.

Nobody can send a gift to themselves, so the cooldown plus that rule together mean there is no repeat deal for anyone to sit and wait for.

People see the shops closest to them first, so your pin has to be right. The best way to set it is to stand in your shop and tap "use my location" during signup. That is more accurate than any address lookup and it costs nothing.

Multiple branches: each one funds and honours its own gifts. A gift bought for your Hoboken shop cannot be claimed downtown, because the branch that paid is the branch that hands it over. Set the first one up and tell me about the rest.

This is the part shops leave empty and should not. Your Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and website sit on your shop card while someone is choosing a gift, and again on the gift when it is unwrapped.

We ask people to follow you and we tell them why it helps. It costs them nothing, they are already warm toward you, and it is the cheapest reach a small shop can get.

Fill in every one you have. If your hours and menu only live on your website, that link is often the only way someone can check whether you are open before walking over.

A customer shows you a screen. You open the counter screen, put in your PIN, scan or paste the code, and hand the treat over. That is the whole job.

• Give each person their own PIN. Every redemption is stamped with who handed it over, which is useful when you are looking at a strange number later.
• Do one practice redemption before your first real one. Nobody should be learning this with a customer waiting.
• Tell them the tone. Someone is walking in holding a present from a friend. "Oh nice, who sent you that?" is worth more than anything on this page.

If a code does not work it will tell you why in plain words: already used, expired, or belongs to another shop. There is nothing to diagnose.

A campaign does not start itself. The first gifts almost always come from people who already like you, so tell them.

• Put a small sign by the register: "Send a friend a scoop, on us."
• Post it once on your own Instagram with the link. Your existing followers are the most likely senders you have.
• Tell your regulars at the counter. One sentence each. This works better than everything else on this list combined.
• Aim it at your dead hours. If Tuesday afternoon is empty, say so in the post.

Then leave it alone for a fortnight and look at the numbers. The pattern you are looking for is not the total, it is whether redemptions keep coming without you pushing, because that is the loop turning over on its own.

Redemptions climbing week over week without you posting again. That means recipients are becoming senders, which is the whole engine.

People buying something alongside the free item. That is where your money comes back, and it is worth asking your staff whether they are seeing it.

New faces rather than regulars. Ask. "First time here?" is a one-second question that tells you more than any dashboard.

If none of that is happening after a month, tell me and we will change the treat or the aim. That is what the sixty free days are for.