Let me do some extraordinarily basic math as an instance the ability of referral advertising and marketing:
Say you’ve obtained 10,000 contacts in your e-mail listing.
In accordance with the Survey Heart on American Life, 53 % of People have between three and 9 shut associates, whereas 13 % have 10+.
So assuming these 10,000 (imaginary) names in your advertising and marketing listing are “common” People, they might have a community of 90,000+ shut associates. And that’s earlier than we even think about relations.
Wouldn’t it’s unbelievable should you might share your greatest merchandise and promotions with that vast, prolonged viewers?
With referral advertising and marketing, you’ll be able to.
And since referred prospects are extra loyal, have larger lifetime values, and generate larger revenue margins than “common” prospects, you’ll be able to afford to sweeten the deal, incentivizing your present viewers to advocate your model to family and friends.
That’s the place the standard referral e-mail is available in.
On this article, I’ll give some sensible ideas and greatest practices for profitable referral advertising and marketing, then share a few of my favourite referral e-mail template examples.
Let’s get into it…
2 Forms of Referral Emails to Strive
There are two important sorts of referral advertising and marketing e-mail:
- Mass referral emails
- Customized referral e-mail
Let’s examine and distinction these two distinct referral e-mail codecs…
| Mass referral emails | Private referral emails |
| Despatched to broad viewers segments or your entire e-mail listing. | Despatched to area of interest viewers segments or particular person prospects. |
| Promote generic advantages of your referral program. | Spotlight particular referral program advantages prone to resonate with area of interest audiences. |
| Solely embrace primary personalization, such because the recipient’s identify. | Reference the shopper’s relationship along with your model (e.g. how lengthy they’ve been a buyer) |
| Generic tone to enchantment to everybody in your advertising and marketing listing (even these but to make their first buy). | Heat, appreciative tone designed to make the shopper really feel valued. |
| Finest for selling your referral program to the biggest attainable viewers. | Finest for inviting high-value prospects to refer family and friends. |
To be clear, neither referral e-mail format is “higher” than the opposite. Each have a key half to play in boosting the profile of your referral program, however you must perceive how (and when) to make use of every.
6 Referral Electronic mail Finest Practices for Ecommerce
With out an efficient promotional technique, your referral program is doomed to failure. Get it proper by following these referral e-mail greatest practices…
1. Goal the Proper Audiences
Identical to any advertising and marketing marketing campaign, crafting a profitable referral e-mail is all about reaching the precise viewers.
In the event you’re sending a mass referral e-mail, this tip doesn’t actually apply—your solely aim is to advertise your program to as many individuals as attainable. However it’s important for private referral e-mail campaigns.
In actuality, solely a relatively small proportion of your viewers will really feel snug recommending you to their family and friends. That’s hardly shocking.
Except you are feeling passionate a couple of model and love its merchandise, why would you place your neck on the road?
However there’s one viewers section stuffed with people who find themselves extremely prone to make the most of your referral program: your most loyal prospects.
In accordance with KPMG, 86 % of loyal prospects are comfortable to advocate manufacturers to their nearest and dearest.
So your job is to determine who they’re. They might be prospects who:
- Have stored shopping for from you over the longest interval
- Generate the best common order values
- Buy from you most often
- Present the best lifetime worth
Or possibly it’s a mixture of all these metrics.
Professional tip: To really nail your viewers concentrating on, you want dynamic segmentation capabilities. With Drip, segments replace robotically and in actual time. So you’ll be able to add particular person prospects to your referral program sequence as quickly as they hit a sure lifetime worth or buy quantity (or fulfill some other standards).
2. Write Compelling Topic Strains
You need your referral e-mail to succeed in as many eyes as attainable. As a result of it doesn’t matter how attractive your referral supply is that if nobody is aware of it exists.
Which means nailing your topic traces, on condition that practically half of e-mail recipients think about them when deciding whether or not to open any given e-mail.
Crafting a high-performing topic line requires a stable understanding of your model and viewers (and loads of A/B testing), so we will’t let you know precisely what to jot down. However basically, think about these greatest practices:
- Preserve it brief and candy. Most individuals open emails on iPhone or Gmail, so purpose for topic line lengths of between 41 characters (iPhone portrait view character restrict) and 70 characters (Gmail character restrict).
- Transcend primary personalization. A customized topic line shouldn’t simply embrace the recipient’s first identify. Contemplate their location, shopping conduct, and buy habits to craft really private messaging.
- Use actionable language. Deal with your topic line like a CTA by incorporating set off phrases like “Get”, “Store”, and “Discover”.
- Construct urgency. Give your viewers a cause to click on proper now by including urgency-related messaging to your topic line, resembling mentioning a limited-time promotion.
- Add complementary preview textual content. Take full benefit of inbox actual property by writing preview textual content that follows—and enhances—the messaging in your topic line.
Need extra recommendation? Try our roundup 180+ confirmed e-mail topic traces throughout completely different industries and themes.
3. Supply an Enticing Incentive
As soon as somebody’s opened your referral e-mail, you must win them over with a compelling supply that prompts them to take motion. Most referral incentives comprise two distinct parts:
- Referrer reward: A reduction, cashback supply, or another reward for the referrer (i.e. the prevailing buyer who recommends you to their family and friends) when the particular person they refer makes a purchase order.
- Referred buyer reward. The promotion that the referrer shares with family and friends, resembling a proportion low cost for his or her first buy.
As with topic traces, there’s no such factor because the “good” referral incentive—what works for one model gained’t essentially carry out for an additional.
Broadly talking, all of it depends upon your product and worth level. In the event you promote lower-priced merchandise, a hard and fast money low cost sounds extra enticing, whereas a proportion low cost usually works greatest for higher-ticket objects.
4. Preserve Your Electronic mail Easy and Concise
Above all else, your referral supply must be simple to grasp. As a result of if it appears too unachievable or complicated, nobody’s going to participate.
In the event you can’t talk the important thing parts—the rewards on supply to each the referrer and the referred buyer, and any phrases and situations that apply—in a few bullet factors, your promotion is nearly definitely too difficult.
5. Leverage Shortage and Urgency
As we’ve already famous, urgency generally is a key software for selling your referral program—particularly when mixed with one other issue, shortage. Whereas they’re usually used collectively, they’re truly fairly completely different:
Urgency entails imposing a deadline on the shopper’s motion (e.g. “Get 10 % off for twenty-four hours”), whereas shortage is about limiting the provision of a product or low cost (e.g. “Purchase our new limited-edition product, solely 50 accessible”).
Within the context of a referral program, that may imply:
- Limiting the quantity of people that can be a part of your program (“Solely 100 areas accessible”).
- Asking individuals to make the most of your referral supply by a selected date (“Refer a buddy within the subsequent 48 hours and also you each get $100 cashback”).
Like with the rest within the advertising and marketing world, discovering the supply that resonates greatest along with your viewers requires a bunch of testing, so don’t be afraid to experiment with completely different promotions and messaging.
6. Get Your Timing Proper
Timing is every thing relating to working a profitable referral e-mail marketing campaign.
I’m not simply speaking about discovering the greatest time to ship emails (though that’s nonetheless necessary). As a substitute, it’s about concentrating on individuals on the proper stage of the shopper journey. For example, you would possibly share your referral e-mail with prospects who’ve simply:
- Made their first buy
- Acquired supply of their first order
- Written their first evaluation
- Positioned a set quantity or money worth of orders inside a given time interval
You must also think about selling your referral program throughout busy purchasing durations when individuals are almost definitely to be making purchases, resembling round BFCM.
13 Referral Electronic mail Examples
Now that we’ve lined the speculation behind a profitable referral e-mail, let’s have a look at some real-world examples…
1. Casper
Supply: ReallyGoodEmails
Casper usually makes use of its publication—or “snoozeletter”—to immediate its prospects to refer a buddy.
Now, Casper mattresses are a big-ticket product. Costs begin across the €300 mark and climb as excessive as €1,200+. That makes its referral scheme fairly enticing, with 10 % off for brand spanking new prospects, plus a $75 Amazon reward card for the referrer.
It’s good that Casper doesn’t go in for the exhausting promote right here by positioning the referral supply proper on the backside of the e-mail, moderately than making it the principle focus of the entire e-mail.
Think about you signed up for the snooze letter and acquired this e-mail. In the event you’ve scrolled all the best way to the underside, it stands to cause that you just’re fairly engaged with the model—which implies there’s a very good likelihood you’ll be comfortable to advocate Casper to your pals.
All you want is a mild nudge in the precise path.
2. MeUndies
Supply: ReallyGoodEmails
We’re massive followers of MeUndies right here at Drip—a lot in order that we spent a month digging into the model’s advertising and marketing technique.
So it’s no shock to us that this referral e-mail is so sturdy.
In some methods, it’s the alternative of the earlier instance from Casper.
For one factor, it’s solely devoted to successful referrals, moderately than hiding the referral supply away on the backside of a publication. For an additional, it’s selling a a lot lower-ticket merchandise.
Regardless of this, MeUndies has nonetheless managed to craft a compelling supply that offers individuals a real cause to refer—on this case, 20 % off for the brand new buyer, plus $20 credit score for the referrer.
3. Italic
Supply: ReallyGoodEmails
Reductions and particular presents play a giant half in driving referrals.
In reality, in response to Point out Me, they’re the fourth-biggest cause individuals resolve to refer manufacturers—behind solely model trustworthiness, nice customer support, and free supply and returns.
Nevertheless, getting your particular supply proper isn’t as simple because it sounds.
If it’s too complicated, nobody will interact with it. If it’s too beneficiant, it’ll eat into your margins and harm your earnings. And if it’s too stingy, nobody will care.
Simplicity is commonly key to an efficient referral supply, and Italic clearly understands this. It’s all concerning the quantity 15—refer a buddy and so they get $15 off, plus you get $15 for everybody who locations an order along with your hyperlink.
4. Equal Components
Supply: ReallyGoodEmails
This one’s all concerning the smooth promote.
Equal Components makes non-stick, non-toxic cookware designed to make the exercise of cooking at house extra pleasing.
To that finish, it presents common ideas, tips, and insights on the best way to have enjoyable within the kitchen, together with issues like leveling up your grocery purchasing.
After providing a bunch of sensible recommendation, Equal Components slips in a referral message, prompting readers to unfold the phrase.
Though this referral e-mail mentions how referrers can earn rewards when their associates enroll, that is actually extra about constructing advocacy via worth. The implicit message right here is: “In the event you get pleasure from our content material and merchandise, why gained’t you let different individuals in on the key?”
5. On
Supply: ReallyGoodEmails
Okay, so that you’ve obtained a referral.
That’s good—any variety of referrals is best than none, in spite of everything—however it doesn’t assure something. You continue to must make efficient use of it.
Swiss efficiency working shoe and clothes model On demonstrates the best way to get it proper by reaching out to a newly-referred buyer and asking in the event that they need to discover out extra.
Why’s this strategy so sensible?
As a result of it’s like a double opt-in. On is saying: “You’ve been referred by your buddy, however do you truly need to preserve listening to from us?”
That approach, the retailer manages to construct belief from potential new prospects, whereas concurrently explaining a bit concerning the model and what it stands for.
6. Saje
Supply: ReallyGoodEmails
As any author will let you know, an efficient referral e-mail doesn’t simply depend on a catchy supply and snappy visuals. Copy performs an enormous half, too.
Important oils and skincare merchandise model Saje will get it proper right here with a easy, impactful message crafted to resonate with its target market: “Unfold wellness to your pals.”
On this approach, Saje is asking its prospects to advertise a life-style, not a product. You’re not referring a buddy to purchase some new pores and skin serum or a face masks; you’re referring the whole idea of wellness.
That’s a way more partaking proposition than saying: “In the event you persuade your pals to purchase our merchandise, we’ll provide you with a reduction code.”
7. Maude
Supply: ReallyGoodEmails
Maude describes itself as a contemporary sexual wellness startup. It sells issues like private massagers and physique oils. A giant promoting level is the delicate nature of its packaging, which retains issues discreet and minimalist.
The corporate clearly understands its prospects may not be too eager on blindly sharing a referral hyperlink on Fb. With that in thoughts, it stresses that referrers might be proven a preview of their referral submit earlier than it will get shared.
That’s tremendous necessary as a result of belief is a giant deal to referrers (bear in mind, in response to that Point out Me examine, it’s the one greatest think about whether or not somebody refers a model).
8. Outside Voices
Supply: ReallyGoodEmails
I’ve already highlighted how necessary it’s for manufacturers to profit from the referrals they obtain from prospects.
Fail to succeed in out in the precise approach and that referral loses all its worth. Outside Voices understands this, so it follows up referrals with a succinct e-mail.
Firstly, it stresses who the referral got here from, thereby highlighting that this isn’t just a few random advertising and marketing spam.
Subsequent, it clearly explains what it’s about—technical attire for critical canine walks and informal marathons. In different phrases, it makes a high quality product, however it doesn’t take itself too significantly.
Lastly, it units out the phrases of its referral program—spend $100 or extra and get $20 off.
That’s lots of data to speak, but Outside Voices will get the job carried out in fewer than 50 phrases.
9. Postable
Supply: ReallyGoodEmails
Bear in mind once I stated simplicity holds the important thing to an efficient referral e-mail?
Postable does it higher than most—by explaining its referral program in fewer than 20 phrases.
Plus, the visuals are putting and cheery, which is necessary for a model that makes designer greeting playing cards and invites.
Problem your self to do the identical. Clarify your referral scheme, then edit it right down to the naked bones.
In the event you can’t talk your supply in about the identical variety of phrases as Postable, it’s too complicated.
10. Bombas
Supply: ReallyGoodEmails
As you’ve seen from this text, lots of e-commerce manufacturers favor to offer away a bit element about their referral program within the authentic e-mail, earlier than directing prospects towards a touchdown web page to study extra.
There’s logic to this strategy. It means your referral emails are much less cluttered, which might make your message extra impactful and simpler to digest.
Nevertheless, it’s not the one strategy. Bombas takes issues within the different path by setting out, in easy-to-understand steps, precisely what its referral supply entails.
No must click on via to the web site to completely perceive the proposition—it’s all proper there in black and white (and blue).
What’s extra, moderately than providing a reduction on future orders, Bombas goes with one thing much more compelling: a completely free product.
In the event you’ve already ordered a pair of Bombas socks, there’s a very good likelihood you just like the model and would like to get extra pairs without spending a dime. That’s precisely what this referral e-mail guarantees.
11. Goby
Supply: ReallyGoodEmails
Goby sells electrical toothbrushes and equipment.
In the event you’ve ever owned an electrical toothbrush, you’ll know they’re hardly a daily buy. When you’ve purchased one, you’ll doubtless keep it up for a number of years.
Nevertheless, the comb heads want changing each three months or so a minimum of, and that’s the place Goby’s referral supply is available in.
This e-mail demonstrates the advantages of psychology in crafting an efficient referral proposition.
These brush heads aren’t precisely costly. They price $6 apiece. Now, ask your self which of those choices sounds most tasty:
- Refer a buddy and get $6; or
- Refer a buddy and get this free product.
Despite the fact that the worth is similar, choice two takes it each time.
12. Brooklinen
Supply: ReallyGoodEmails
A well timed supply could make your ecommerce referral e-mail much more compelling.
Brooklinen demonstrates this with an e-mail despatched on Nationwide Leisure Day (it’s August fifteenth, in case you need to add it to your diary).
Leisure and new mattress linen? That seems like a match made in heaven. This well-timed referral e-mail offers prospects a cause to refer their associates proper now.
13. Harry’s
Supply: ReallyGoodEmails
Nearly all of these e-commerce referral emails have been a type of “you scratch my again, I’ll scratch yours” association.
You refer a brand new buyer to us, and we’ll reward you with this low cost or supply (and the particular person you refer would possibly get some cash off, too).
As we’ve mentioned earlier than, Harry’s isn’t afraid to do issues in a different way.
Fairly than providing one thing to the referrer, it guarantees to ship free razors to 2 associates. That approach, the referrer will get to really feel like they’re sending a present, moderately than making an attempt to steer their buddy to purchase a product.
3 Referral Electronic mail Templates You Can Steal
We’ve seen how different manufacturers are doing it. Now, listed below are three referral e-mail templates to encourage your individual referral campaigns…
1. The New Buyer Referral Electronic mail
For a lot of prospects, the very best alternative to ask for a referral is after they first buy from you. They’re enthusiastic about their new product, and so they haven’t been distracted by the subsequent shiny, new factor (but).
Use this copy as a jumping-off level:
2. The Loyal Buyer Referral Electronic mail
Bear in mind, loyal prospects are the almost definitely to advocate your model and merchandise, in order that they’re an apparent target market for referral campaigns.
Flip loyal prospects into model advocates with this referral e-mail template:
3. The Urgency-Inducing Referral Electronic mail
Creating a sense of urgency helps you drive referrals proper now. Right here’s the best way to do it…
Conclusion
Efficient e-mail advertising and marketing holds the important thing to selling your referral program.
That’s why you want Drip.
Our advertising and marketing automation platform makes it simple to construct on-brand emails that stand out (and convert) in each inbox.
Begin with certainly one of 50+ professionally-designed e-mail templates, customise to your coronary heart’s content material with our easy point-and-click editor, and run your campaigns on autopilot with our visible workflow builder.
See all of it for your self by signing up on your free 14-day trial!
