A little while ago we sneak-peeked Pyow, our iPhone app that helps store owners send, scan, and track coupons. We’re happy to announce that it’s been approved and is now live in the iPhone App Store.
In case you haven’t heard, with Pyow, you can create a beautiful coupon-embedded email inside MailChimp:
Then your customers can print the coupon, bring it into the store, and you scan it with Pyow:
Since each customer gets a unique, trackable QR code, we can show you in your MailChimp stats who redeemed, and how many friends they referred to you. For more details on how to send a coupon in MailChimp, check out this blog post.
In other MailChimp Mobile news:
- Sundrop Mobile just announced their integration with MailChimp. It allows customers to sign up to your list via SMS. More on that later.
Only apple users are happy with mailchimp mobile solutions… :-(
Hi Tiago, are you an Android user? Android development’s going strong in our Mobile Lab. Developing for Android is different, and not quite as refined as developing (and designing) for iPhone. We’re still getting the hang of it, but we’re making good progress.
Windows Phone 7 user and developer here… Would really appreciate a WP7 version. And believe me, WP7 development is much more refined that on other platforms (Objective-C and C# are incomparable, and I’m not even talking about the great free development tools).
Hi there,
I tried Pyow in a test and it worked well.
But the “barcode” doesn’t show up in my iPhone’s mail.
Instead I have to view it in my web browser.
Is this a bug?
Odd, the QR codes show up on my iPhone fine.
You might contact our support team and show them your exact campaign so they can look into it.
Are you looking at the email in your iPhone mail, or are you opening up the archive version in your iPhone’s web browser?
I’m testing out the QR codes and every time I scan one from a test email with Pyow, it says it’s an invalid coupon. Is that because it’s a test email, and therefore the coupon can’t be valid?
Yep, it’s because it’s a test message. If you setup a very small test list, then send a real QR code to it, the scan will work.
What should happen when you try to scan the QR code in a test message you send to yourself. Pyow tells me that it’s an invalid coupon. Shouldn’t it tell me somehow what the coupon will say so I can make sure I have everything set up right?
Sorry for the double post. I did contact support about this and they recommending setting up a test list with just my address in it. That way, I can send the campaign and actually test out the coupon before sending it to everybody. It might be a less than ideal solution, but it certainly is workable.
FWIW, having a test list has been extremely valuable for me over the years. We have other features that don’t work or render when sending tests, so it’s worth doing. Particularly for this feature, I’d want to test it out a *ton* before sending to customers. Low lighting conditions and wifi access in your store can affect performance and all. So I’d be sending myself (or some friends and co-workers) full-blown tests and doing dry-runs at your location. Just my 2 cents.
I have been using MailChimp for a while now, I must say these developments always intrigue me. All my work is web based, non-profit service but I seem to always find a use for these features.
Can I embed a QR code that directs to a page on my website? I don’t need coupons, but I would like to increase the interactivity of my mailings.
You can create a QR Code via the Google Chart API or via bit.ly that links to a URL. However, that won’t add any Mail Chimp tracking since it’ll be the same QR code in everyone’s e-mail.
If I’m correctly understanding what you’re asking for, ideally, you’d be able to use a merge tag like *|QRURL:http://path/to/your/site:2|* that would create a different code for everyone’s email that points to a slightly different URL that shows you who scanned the address in the Mail Chimp stats. That would be pretty neat, but I can’t think of any practical applications offhand. Thoughts?
Is there a way to generate a unique QR code for every person that gets the email? That way we can make them a one time deal?
Every person who gets the email technically does get a uniquely trackable QR code. Not exactly sure what you’re looking to do. Could you provide more details? If I had to guess, you may want to use our segmentation tool to narrow down your list by certain criteria, then send those people a very targeted offer (?)
I am interested in an alternative to scanning qr codes without the iphone. We could use this functionality so well in our small brick and mortar store, but we don’t have a dedicated iphone for the store. We do use imacs with built in isight cameras, do you know of a way to scan them that way? What about a traditional barcode scanner?
The iPod Touch works well when scanning printed coupons on paper. When scanning QR coupons from the displays of other devices, the iPod requires that you zoom the QR image as big as possible on the other screen. The iPhone4′s camera seems best for scanning other screens.
Re: other devices, like a traditional bar code, we’re exploring opportunities to integrate with POS companies.
What about tracking who’s using the codes? It only shows a long URL in the stats of specific members. There is nothing in the reports that show how many have been redeemed, who redeemed. Would be great also to be able to target people who have used a code in the past….
Hi Willy, the long URL is going to change very soon to something easier to identify as Pyow related. First, we tackled the QR code generation challenge, then the iphone app, and now we refine the display inside MailChimp.
Hi,
I run a daily deal site. I was wondering whether I can use Pyow to help the small businesses that I promote keep track of redemptions. Are you able to send out coupons in one account but have someone else monitor redemptions ie. from a different account/ subaccount? This would be really handy.
Thanks
Each customer would ideally have their own separate MailChimp account. Pyow, on their iPhone, would then be linked into their account. You, as an administrator, can monitor their stats in a couple different ways:
1) Get a key to the customer’s account:
http://blog.mailchimp.com/manage-multiple-accounts-with-the-mailchimp-keychain/
2) In the customer’s account, setup VIP reports* and send yourself access:
http://blog.mailchimp.com/re-brandable-campaign-reports-in-mailchimp/
This will show click activity, but I know we’re in the process of creating a Pyow specific reports section. I’m not sure if that’s going to be in the VIP reports.
But you get the gist — if all you need to do is monitor their stats, you can get to them in different ways via MailChimp.
Thanks Ben.
Your post sparked off another idea of a workaround.
If I send a campaign and coupons via my account, can I then give multiple other businesses (on whose behalf I send the coupons) LIMITED access to my account so that they can:
1) use Pyow to redeem coupons for a particular campaign
2) monitor coupon redemptions for a particular campaign
I don’t want small businesses to have access to email lists/ personal details because this would be a privacy concern. Also, each business must only have access to their particular campaign – not all campaigns.
Is that possible through VIP reports?
Thanks
Pete
Hi,
Just wondering what’s happening with Pyow? You mentioned in your initial post that you were building a dedicated stat section for Pyow in reports or a dedicated Pyow section? Is there any progress on this?
Thanks
Ben
I’ve sent several segmented test campaigns to my email and have not gotten pyow! to work once!
I was wondering if anyone has been able to get it to work or if I’m the only one? what do I need to do to get this to work? I have a really awesome promotion I want to run and Pyow! is waaaay awesome in theory. would love to be abale to get it to work! any tips appreciated :D
I am also trying to get QR to work without success. I created a small test list with a few dummy emails and sent out a real campaign with QR codes of size 4. Reading using PYOW! with an iphone4 from a computer screen and also from another iPhone4 screen and each scan results in “Not a valid coupon code”. I’ve tried sending coupons valid for 1 use and 2 uses to no avail. Any thoughts?