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Outpost Promotions page showing a list of promotions with name, plan, token URL, status, and redemption stats

The Outpost Promotions page showing active and archived promotions

Go to Subscriptions → Outpost Promotions to manage your promotions.

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Why promotions exist

Ghost Offers check out through Ghost Portal, which only shows an offer to a visitor who doesn’t already have a paid subscription. Outpost Promotions check out on an Outpost checkout page instead. Running checkout there is what makes these possible:
  • Work for free, paid, and complimentary members, and for visitors who aren’t signed in. A reader that is in a group subscription or part of an institutional subscription is told at checkout that they already have access.
  • Subscription schedules: set an intro rate that transitions to standard pricing (e.g., 3 months at a discounted rate, then annual renewal)
  • Custom checkout pages: branded landing pages with your own headline and description
Your Ghost Offers still work for existing subscribers when Outpost sends them for you. Attach the offer to the email and link to it with %OFFER_URL%, and Outpost builds each reader their own link to that same offer: an existing paid subscriber gets a direct checkout that changes the plan they’re on, while a free reader goes through Ghost Portal. See Upgrading Existing Subscribers for how that checkout works.

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Creating a promotion

Go to Subscriptions → Outpost Promotions and click New Promotion. The promotion form is the same form used to create offers. Configure:
A promotion can’t be saved without a Default Amount. If you enter a fixed-amount discount while it is empty, the form shows “Enter the default amount before setting a discount amount.” If you change the tier or billing period after typing an amount, check it again: Outpost doesn’t update an amount you typed.
Each promotion automatically generates a unique URL that you can share anywhere: in emails, on social media, or in CTAs.
Billing Period vs. intro-then-renew pricing. Setting Billing Period to Every 3 Months or Every 6 Months charges the same amount every three or six months indefinitely. If you want an intro rate that lasts for the first 3 or 6 months and then transitions to an annual renewal at a different price, use a Subscription Schedule instead: that’s the tool for two-phase pricing.

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Promotion URL

Each promotion has a unique URL like:
When someone clicks this URL, they see the promotion’s headline and description, then proceed to checkout for the linked plan. You can prefill the checkout form by adding email and name query parameters to the promotion URL, for example ?email=reader@example.com&name=Sam. Prefilled values are locked on the checkout form, so only use them when you are sure of the reader’s details.

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Managing promotions

Archived promotions are hidden from the main list but can be viewed by filtering for archived promotions.

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Tracking redemptions

The promotions list shows how many members have subscribed through each promotion URL.

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Frequently asked questions

Use a Ghost Offer for discounts or free trials targeting free or unknown visitors: they check out through Ghost Portal and stay in sync with Ghost automatically. They also work for existing subscribers when Outpost sends them for you. Use a Promotion when you need one of these:
  • a discount on the plan a subscriber is already on
  • a subscription schedule with intro pricing
  • a quarterly or semi-annual billing period
  • a branded checkout page
See Ghost Offers vs Outpost Promotions for a full comparison.
No. Attach whichever offer suits the email and link to it with %OFFER_URL%. Outpost sends each reader to the right checkout for the offer you picked, so a Ghost Offer going to an existing subscriber still applies its discount. In an autoresponder action, the Select Offer panel has a Ghost Offers tab and an Outpost Promotions tab; email campaigns and Advanced Autoresponder flows list your Ghost Offers only, so there’s nothing to pick there. One exception: a free trial only applies to a reader who doesn’t have a subscription yet, so don’t attach one to an email going to existing subscribers.
The promotion URL stops working for new signups. Existing subscribers who signed up through the promotion are unaffected: their subscriptions continue normally. The promotion expires at 11:59 PM in your site’s configured timezone on the expiration date, so it remains active for the full day you specify.
No. Each promotion gets a unique, auto-generated URL. If you archive and create a new promotion, it will have a different URL.

Upgrading Existing Subscribers

How an upgrade offer checks out for someone who already has a subscription

Offers & Discounts

Ghost Offers and how they compare to Outpost Promotions

Subscription Schedules

Intro pricing that transitions to standard rates

Autoresponder

Attach offers and promotions to automated emails

Tiers & Pricing

The subscription products that promotions link to