A promotion engine, otherwise known as promotion management software or offer management software, is a software platform that helps marketers manage, distribute, secure, and track digital offers. They can usually support different types of sales promotions, like digital coupons, automatic discounts, gift cards, referral or loyalty programs, even giveaways.
There are a couple of options if you are looking for a promotion management system. You can either build or buy one. When it comes to outsourcing a promotion engine, it can be either a part of a bigger, monolithic software suite, usually paired with an e-commerce platform or a CRM system or a standalone solution that can be integrated with your existing technology stack. When it comes to standalone promotion management software (not sold in a package with other platforms), the top-of-breed technology solutions are API-based so that they can fit into composable software architecture, connecting easily with other software solutions. I recommend the last option as it (among other benefits) prepares you for any future digital channels, can be integrated easily with any new software, usually features a pay-as-you-go pricing model, and can be easily scaled up or down, as needed. It is usually the fastest to integrate, giving you the quickest time to market for your campaigns.
If you decide to buy a monolithic suite or to pay for a SaaS solution, you will need to choose the right vendor and prepare an RFP.
Companies may issue an RFP, or a request for proposal, when choosing a vendor or service provider to work with. This document outlines project specifics, such as scope and price, and asks potential vendors to come back with a bid for the work. Multiple bids are then compared to help determine the best choice.
If you discover the need for a promotion management system in your organization, you should not jump straight into writing RFPs. First, you should do a bit of internal and external research to know what to include in your RFP and what to ask your bidders about. Here is a shortlist of topics you should research before writing a promotion engine RFP:
As the promotion engine needs to be connectable with your current and future technology stack, you need to make a comprehensive list of software you are using and planning to use. You should then add this information to your RFP so that bidders can confirm whether their software can be integrated with such a stack.
The list should include, for example, major programming languages used, an e-commerce platform in place, CMS, mobile app(s), CRM or CDP systems, PIM systems, personalization tools (CEP, for example), tagging and tracking tools, distribution platforms (for example, email or SMS distribution providers), POS and web analytics or BI tools.
You should know what is currently possible to do using promotion engines. And for that, you need to have some background knowledge before approaching your colleagues to collect their needs. This way, you will be able to propose some options to them and ask them what is the must-have and nice-to-have in their perspective. It will also help you to define what to look for in the potential vendors.
You should also check the top vendors on the market to compile the initial list of requirements that you can later prioritize based on the needs of your organization. You can also use the RFP template linked below as a potential list of features to pick from.
To collect the list of non-functional and functional requirements, you should discuss the requirements with your colleagues in relevant departments. A couple of ideas on what to discuss and with whom:
Marketing/sales team:
IT team/product team:
Legal team:
Customer Service team:
Finance team:
Based on the conversations you have had with all the departments, you can come up with the number of user accounts you would need for your organization, as well as the workflows and user roles needed.
You should check what budget your organization wants to spend on the promotion engine. If there is no defined budget and you are just looking into possibilities and options, that is also fine. Knowing it upfront can help you speed up the process and exclude some vendors in the first round of the RFP.
You should check with the Purchasing team if there are any guidelines on the required format of the offers or presentations. For example, what should be included in the price offer or what your preferred terms and means of payment are. Maybe your Purchasing department has a ready RFP template or even RFP response template a vendor should fill out. This can save you lots of time and allows you to focus on specifying only the functional and non-functional requirements.
In my experience, a basic request for proposals for a promotion management software has the following chapters:
Choosing the right vendor may be up to you or the Purchasing department. You should decide who covers your current needs best for the lowest possible cost but you should also consider the options for scalability, for example geographical (location, language, currency), performance, usage scalability as well as the options for expansion of the promotional scenarios. The cheapest option covering your current needs, if you need to change it due to changing needs, can cost you more (time and effort spent on launching a new RFP, integrating and migrating to a new solution, re-training the teams) than going with a more expensive vendor straight away. Choose a solution that will prepare you for what the future may bring. The more flexibility, agility, and scalability you have, the better.
Here you can find a free, editable RFP template for promotion management software where we cover functional and non-functional requirements, focusing on automatic promotions and discount coupons (if you need other types of campaigns like referral, loyalty, gift cards, or giveaways, you would need to add more functional requirements specifying your needs). You can use it as a source of inspiration or copy and paste some sections into your own RFP template.
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