Referral marketing is one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies: using your current customers to spread the word about your brand to new customers.
We compiled a truly epic list of the best referral program ideas currently on the market, along with recommendations on what kinds of referral program software to use, incentives to offer, and current customers to target for your very own referral program.
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But hang on—there's a catch.
It's not always easy for your customers to do. Between their hectic work schedules and a never-ending list of social and family obligations, your marketing strategy is the last thing on their minds.
To turn your loyal customers into your biggest brand advocates, you have to make the referral process as easy as possible for them, and you have to stay top-of-mind with killer referral incentives, like free products and major discounts.
Instead of reinventing the wheel to come up with your own referral marketing ideas, you may want to take inspiration from top brands who are absolutely killing it with referral programs.
By the end of our list, you will have enough referral program ideas to launch your very own program and open the floodgates of another customer acquisition channel for your business.
Before we begin, let's break down some basic referral marketing definitions so that we know that we're all on the same page.
A referral program or a “refer-a-friend” program is a marketing strategy used by many top ecommerce brands to incentivize existing customers to recommend the brand and its products to their family and friends.
A referral program is a deliberate, systematic way of getting people to make referrals to your business. Referral programs are often called word-of-mouth marketing, because they reward existing customers for sharing and incentivize new customers to try out your brand.
Customers are rewarded with referral incentives, such as free cash, major discounts, or a free month of subscription. While there is an upfront cost to the business, referral programs significantly increase long-term revenue by making loyal customers out of your existing customer base.
If you are wondering why you should have a referral program and how to run one, let’s take a look at how the top ecommerce brands are running their referral programs and the results they have achieved.
Before we begin, let's quickly go through the basics of referral programs.
One of the biggest stresses of any business is finding a solid customer acquisition channel, or basically, bringing in new customers. When you have a solid referral marketing program, however, you let your existing customers bring new buyers to your brand. This not only significantly reduces spending on bringing new customers to your shop, but also increases customer retention, which is a very good thing.
Why?
Because loyal customers have a higher conversion rate than new customers and spend more per transaction, making customer referral programs the most cost-effective and lucrative marketing strategy that your business can possibly employ.
People don't make as many referrals as they intend to for a variety of reasons. A referral program helps make their mind up with a tangible reward for referrals.
Modern referral programs, or refer-a-friend programs, use software to track referrals made by happy customers through either a referral code, a rewards card, or a referral link. Depending on the referral campaign, customers will usually receive some kind of referral bonus or benefit when they refer a friend. Referral marketing software automates the payout of these referral rewards.
This referral process creates a natural word-of-mouth marketing experience for your brand, which ultimately increases both your customer retention rate and your revenue.
To find out more, check out how ReferralCandy works.
The best way to bring in potential customers is to first focus on your existing satisfied customers. Rather than just offering cash rewards or free gifts in hopes that your customers will refer a friend to your shop, it takes a little bit of planning to set up a referral program that works.
Before creating a complex ambassador program or launching tons of marketing campaigns (of any kind), it's important to be clear about what your goals are for the program. This will help guide you as you brainstorm referral marketing ideas. Some questions to consider are:
You can certainly achieve each of these goals, but it might require a different referral campaign for each goal. So it's important to be clear about your goals before beginning.
Canopy makes the world's cleanest and easiest humidifier for optimal skin health and wellness.
It’s not unusual for brands to choose product incentives rather than cash or credit incentives, but they definitely belong to the minority. Canopy does a great job in closing the loop for existing customers and keeping them loyal. If I’m an advocate, it makes absolute sense for me to be incentivized by free filters since I already own the device. They’ve also made it enticing to click on the “Free Filter” button rather than to put “Refer-a-Friend Program” on their homepage.
Your referral sources are your happy customers, friends, and family. They are your biggest advocates and will be the lifeblood of your referral marketing program. Make a list of all of these groups and how you can easily contact them.
Now that you have a list of referral sources, carefully make an outreach plan. It's not quite as simple as sending a blast email with a generic referral incentive. Instead, research the best practices for reaching out to each type of referral.
Newer customers, for example, shouldn't receive emails about your reward program right after their first purchase. And close friends and family may not need an incentive at all! The types of referral programs that you use will largely depend on your list, so plan accordingly.
While cash incentives likely seem like they’ll get the biggest draw out of your existing customer base, that’s not necessarily the case. One study found that non-cash incentives were 24% more effective with referral marketing than cash incentives. It’s best to offer something of tremendous value to your customers that will keep them coming back to your shop in the future.
Braxley Bands’ referral program reward structure:
Beyond the conventional 20% for you, and 20% for me, Braxley Bands also introduced an additional perk of standing a chance to win a $100 gift card (that’s essentially 3 more bands for the advocate). That alone is an extra incentive at zero cost to the advocate, all he or she needs to do is to share via word of mouth.
Once you’ve settled on your referral lists and your incentives, it’s time to get people to spread the word both about your brand and your rewards! There are many different ways to do this, each of which brings in a different segment of potential customers.
You could add details about your referral program in your newsletters, have opt-ins on your website, capture customers through a pop-up widget right on your homepage, or even send out specific referral emails to your most loyal audience. Do a little research about the most effective way to grow your lists and then test it out for yourself.
Like most ecommerce brands, Chāmpo puts a link to their referral program in their site footer. It’s accessible and easy to spot.
In order to run a successful rewards program, you need to keep track of all of the referrals being made. You need to be able to keep track of who referred whom, the date they were referred, whether or not a conversion was made, and the best way to follow up with both the referrer and the referee.
One of the easiest ways to do this is with referral program software, like ReferralCandy. A system that not only facilitates the reward within your shop but also provides accurate data on the referrals is going to help you know exactly how successful (or unsuccessful) your program is. Some referral systems go one step further in making sure that your referrals are legit and not frauds. Here’s an example of what your referral report might look like on ReferralCandy!
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Now that you have a clearer idea of referral programs, let's take a look at the referral programs of top brands and what we can learn from them.
Dropbox's referral program is probably one of the most well-known examples of referral marketing around. Dropbox grew by 3900% with this very famous referral program. Even today, almost ten years later, it is often used in case studies to demonstrate how referral programs may either assist or even act as the growth engine of a business.
Dropbox's referral program guiding principles are quite clear. Since the product provides cloud storage, it decided to give users more free space in addition to referral bonuses for both accepting invitations and referring friends. Dropbox users can get up to 16 GB for their referrals. So you basically get 500 MB for every friend who installs the Dropbox desktop app and the friend gets 500 MB too. They can sign up for any plan and you get your bonus storage the minute they download the app.
How Referrals Built The $10 Billion Dropbox Empire.
When discussing referral-based viral growth, almost every blog post mentions PayPal’s referral program. PayPal was one of the first companies to use a referral campaign to achieve viral growth at such a massive scale, from “A 10% daily growth rate” to “A $1.5 billion buyout”.
All users need to do is send an invitation to a friend who doesn’t have PayPal and have them sign up and link their bank account or card. When they spend or send at least $5, PayPal sends both the advocate and the referred, $10. Users can invite up to ten friends and earn up to $100, and just need to make sure they spend/send at least $5.
Uber's referral program was the basis of its success. It was offered ever since the business began, and its quick expansion was largely due to it. The program has changed, but it still offers rewards to its users. To earn referral rewards, users have to follow their conditions. The program is eligible only for a customer who received a program email. Users need to share a referral code in your email with their friend. To earn referral rewards, a referee must complete the first trip with the referral code.
We've written more about Uber's many referral programs here:
How Uber Covered More Than 50 Countries In 3 Years
Airtable is an online tool that combines elements from databases and spreadsheets. It's very adaptable and has a wonderful user interface. For each person users refer to Airtable, they'll receive $10 in credit. Only when the person invited registers and confirms their email will the users be given credit. Users can invite people to use Airtable, and access an Airtable-referral link, from the Referrals and credits section of the Account page.
DocSend is a wonderful solution for safely sending important files while getting immediate feedback on how your recipients are interacting with your content. Their referral program is a way to show their customers’ appreciation for the tool to others while getting a $15 credit for each new user they invite.
A famous global internet marketplace for independent contractors, Fiverr also offers a referral program to its customers. The Fiverr platform links freelancers with individuals or companies looking to hire. They allow their users to earn up to $100 for every friend who signs up and makes their first order. You can share it by email or with a link via social sharing. When your friends sign up to Fiverr, they get 10% off their first purchase, and you get 10% off their first order amount, up to $100.
Every marketer’s favorite social media example Duolingo offers its referral program too. With their program, for every person you refer and signs up for a Duolingo account, you receive a free week of Super Duolingo! This is a simple and easy way to attract your friends to learn a new language and get rewarded.
The Clymb is an adventure gear brand that has many customers from around the world. They offer a referral reward structure to their loyal customers where you invite a friend to join The Clymb and you each get $10 in Clymb credit when they make their first order of $50 or more. They send your credit to your account when the first order ships.
They now even allow you to mass invite your friends and send them a personalized message.
Erin Condren is known for creating fun organization essentials for your home, office, and everything in between. They have an awesome referral program, where you can earn EC credits to spend in their online store. All you need to do is to send your friends a referral link. After they sign up they get a 10$ coupon, and after their first purchase, you will get rewarded with 1000 EC points (a $10 equivalent). You can stack up these points and shop later.
Fashion Referral Programs – Erin Condren
3. Greats
GREATS is the first sneaker company to be founded in Brooklyn. They claim to produce high-quality, long-lasting sneakers with an excellent fit and feel using quality material. Their referral program GIVE $30, GET $30 is a win-win for existing and new customers, offering a great discount and rewards.
Footwear Referral Program Examples – GREATS
4. Rothy's
Rothy’s creates essentials from classic shoes to carry-everywhere bags. They get their inspiration from the strides that the community is making. Their Refer-a-Friend promises to give $20, get a $20 reward, as your friends get their first order.
5. Girlfriend Collective
Here’s a great example from the ethical brand Girlfriend Collective. They believe in sustainable manufacturing and recycled materials. They use old water bottles and fishing nets to produce their clothing, so they won’t be clogging landfills and polluting oceans. With their referral program, you can earn free leggings. Give your friends 30% off their first purchase of $95 or more and earn a Free Pair of Compressive Leggings when they buy.
6. J. Crew Factory
J.Crew believes that shopping should be fun and provides high-quality clothing that helps you look and feel your best, whether you enjoy specific details, unique fabrics, or traditional colors. They offer their customers a classic GIVE $20, GET $20 referral program. Refer a friend and they’ll get $20 off their order, plus you’ll get $20 when they sign up for J.Crew Passport. What we like about their referral program is that it provides all of the information that potential advocates want to know, including the terms and conditions. Better to be safe than sorry!
7. Outdoor Voices
Outdoor Voices brand designs its products through the lens of longevity and circularity to reduce our environmental impact. If you refer a friend to join the brand’s community, you’ll both get $20 off your next purchase of $100 or more. It's also interesting how they've tied in a campaign specific hashtag #DoingThings with their referral program to maintain the consistency of their branding across the board.
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Hanna Andersson was established by a Swedish woman living in America. By embracing essentially Scandinavian ideas, such as iconic design that successfully combines form and function, a sincere commitment to sustainability, and a way of life that promotes contented happy lives, she aimed to furnish childhood adventures. If you refer a friend, then you'll both get a 20% off reward with Hanna’s generous referral program. See how the brand has also provided a cute hero image on the side to tap on the "share with friends" concept. And also added a bunch of links just in case potential advocates need them.
Boden is all about sustainability. Also, they offer a great referral program to their customers. All they need to do is to fill in the details on their form, next their friend receives 20% off their FIRST purchase, and after they've ordered, customers get a $15 VOUCHER.
Fabletics is a popular activewear, fitness, and workout clothing brand. Their goal is to design the finest stylish, high-performing, active-lifestyle goods in the world for every person and everybody at an affordable price. With their referral program, you can get $40 in store credit if you refer a friend and they sign up and become VIPs. What's great about their referral landing page is that they've provided a way for advocates to customize the content of their invite emails, which could be a great point for personalization!
Thinx is a unique women's underwear brand. They make comfortable, absorbent products, and women around the world love their brand. Thinx offers a give $10, get $10 referral program. When you refer a friend and they make a purchase, you get $10 and they get $10 off their first order of Thinx.
Birdies brand was created by a woman who believes there should be a comfortable pair of shoes in all of your life’s journey. Designed to take you everywhere, Birdies shoes combine elevated style, ultimate comfort, and everyday versatility. Their Give $20, Get $20 referral program pays to refer friends and family and enjoy shopping even more. Your friends will get $20 off their first order, and you’ll get $20 off your next order when they make a purchase. Again, Birdies strategically placed an image showing friends wearing Birdies shoes and it does help to paint the picture of referring the product to friends!
Hunter is a forward-thinking British heritage company established in 1856 and known for its famous Original boot. The company has a long history of invention and continues to create products that are weatherproof and functional in a variety of environments. With Hunter’s referral program you can give your friends 20% off, and if they go on to purchase, they will also send you a 20% discount.
American Giant was born when the founders were dissatisfied with the way clothes were created. So new technologies emerged that allowed for reduced supply chains and direct online sales to customers like you. The brand already has a lot of loyal customers and can use their Give 20%, Get $20 refer a friend program to get rewarded.
Dermstore is a skincare and beauty online shop in the United States. Their customers get rewarded $15 for each friend they refer, also providing friends and family with discounts on their first order. Rather than allowing anyone to join their referral program, they've made it exclusive for people who have an existing account with them (pretty smart since now they have the data to reach out to them), but it could also deter non-customers from signing up as well.
Adore Beauty is the top pure-play online beauty retailer in Australia and an authorized supplier of more than 260 top-tier beauty brands. You can get up to a $30 reward, depending on your level, if you refer a friend and they will complete their first order.
Karissa Bodnar founded Thrive Causemetics, a beauty company, and philosophy that goes beyond skin deep by uplifting various communities. Their beautiful online store offers a Give $10, Get $10 referral program, where you can give your friend $10 off their first purchase of $50 and more, plus free shipping, and get $10 in points for each successful referral.
Quip is an oral hygiene subscription-based service that provides customers with toothbrushes and other dental essentials. They have a $5 for you, $5 for a friend referral program for their users, and also offer free brush heads, floss, & paste in addition to that.
Haircare brand Madison Reed allows their customers to earn up to $45 from their referral program. It’s a give $15 get $15 deal, and you get beautiful hair as a bonus.
BoxyCharm is a monthly subscription beauty box that comes with 5 full-sized skincare and cosmetics items. Existing customers can use the company's referral program to send a special link to friends. You will receive 500 charms (also known as points) for each new member who signs up. You can exchange the charms for cosmetics. It's also nice that they've explained the whole referral process from start to end so that advocates have a better idea of what's going happen once they sign up.
Kari Gran Skincare has been successful in the clean skincare market for ten years. The business is founded on a small number of essential, oil-based products. The referral program on their website allows you to give your friends $10 off. When your friends buy from your invite link, you get $10 off!
Murad is the first brand of clinical skincare products, setting a new standard for high-performance skincare. Give a friend $10 off their first $50 purchase to get $10 off when they redeem. What's great about their referral program is that it's extremely easy to sign up, all they need to do is just fill in a very simple form.
Ohana provides beauty and skincare products and on their website they allow all of their clients to use the referral program. For every completed purchase you will receive 20% off.
Pavlok sells a waking-up device that helps its customers become more productive, relaxed, and mindful. They have a referral program that allows you to earn $20 from each friend.
MSI is a computer hardware manufacturer. If you refer a friend you can get 300 points and a chance to win a big prize. This is slightly different from a default referral program because they've provided the added benefit of winning a prize on top of the purchase bonus.
Bose is an American manufacturer that specializes in selling audio equipment. They have a classic give $20, get $20 referral program on their website that inspires you to become everyone’s best friend. Bose's made it clear and easy to understand the entire referral process by breaking it down into bullet points on their referral landing page.
Lightning and home decor brand Lulu & Georgia gives you and your friend 25$ for each successful referral. Again it's easy to sign up for it since it's a simple form which greatly reduces the friction for potential advocates!
Craft Coffee is a coffee subscription box that makes it easy to find good coffee at fair prices. With their referral program, your friends get 15% off and you get a free bag of coffee. With a punchy headline using power words, Craft Coffee is able to capture the attention of coffee lovers—who doesn't want free coffee?
Soylent is a meal-replacement product that has a combination of vitamins, minerals, and other necessary components. You can receive 10,000 points through their referral program for each referral that joins.
Stop & Shop is an online food store. Customers can use email, Facebook, Twitter, Messenger, Pinterest, and Pinterest Messenger to share referral links with friends. Customers who successfully refer friends will receive $25 to put towards their next purchase, while referrals who sign up receive $25.
Hydrant is an online beverage store that sells refreshment drinks and its generous referral program gives you and your friends a 50% off coupon.
Muscle food offers meal plans and prepped food with protein. They offer a referral program where your friend gets £10 off and you get £10 off.
Farm Fresh To You offers delivery service of organic fruits and veggies fresh from their farm and other local growers/artisans. You get to save $25 and your friend saves $15 with their referral program.
Flaviar gives you and your referred friend the possibility to choose an extra Tasting Box or bottle in case of a successful referral. Flaviar takes their branding so seriously, that even their referral program process is illustrated with branded images. And that works extremely well for them in helping advocates understand the referral process better.
Love with Food offers s huge variety of snacks to its customers. They have a referral program for all of their customers, where you can invite friends, and after they sign up, you get a free box of snacks and 1000 points to redeem at their store.
Happy Way is an Australian brand of organic and natural health snacks with a top-notch rewards system. Happy Way stands out in a crowded market that regularly takes itself too seriously by using vibrant color pops and upbeat visuals. With their Happy Way referral program, you and your friend get $10 in the referral was complete.
We Are Feel
We Are Feel offers safe and natural supplements—multivitamins, collagen, and more. Their referral program is a simple one but it taps on the altruistic mind of "keeping friends healthy" by introducing these supplements to them. It's an angle that is widely used in referral campaigns and they tend to do well too.
Seated is an app for restaurant and cafe reservations. The referral program on their website allows their users and referred friends to get credits that can be used toward future reservations. As seen above, Seated has a whole FAQ segment that fully answers all of the commonly asked questions from potential advocates.
GPen's referral program gives your friends 15% off and a 20% discount to you.
Vampire Vape sells a variety of e-liquids, disposables, vapes, and pods. You can use their refer a friend feature so that you and your friend will get £5 off your next order.
Vape Loft gives you and your friends $10 coupon for each successful referral.
Vape Merchant offers a classic give $15, get $15 referral program to their existing customers and new friends.
PetFlow offers a classic give $10 get, $10 referral program to their customers and their furry friends.
An animal pet insurance brand Animal Friends gives you and your referred friend a £10 voucher to boost their sales and attract more customers.
A pet food online store PetDirect gives you $10 and your friends $10 when you tell them about the store with your personalized referral link. Their referral landing page has a cute approach by using a pet pun to get the attention of people on the page—plus it does wonders for their branding!
At Budget Pet Supplies, you and your friends get the chance to collect rewards together. All you have to do to earn thousands of reward points is recommend a friend or family member to Budget Pet Supplies. You will receive 500 reward points for one referral link, and your friend will receive 200 reward points in addition to a 15% sign-up and purchase discount.
Pet Releaf sells plant-based products for pet health. In their referral program, they give you and your friends $20 to shop on their website.
Superfoods for pets brand PetKind gives your friends $10 off their first order and you get $20 (in points) for each successful referral.
With the Five Good Friends program, you can refer a friend and you and your friend will receive a $50 gift card when they join Five Good Friends and complete their first service visit. Sometimes, referral incentives don't just have to be strictly cash or products, they could come in the form of gift vouchers and gift cards!
QE Home sells luxury bedding like duvet covers, kids' bedding, down duvets, quilt sets, weighted blankets, and more. You need to share $10 off that your friends can use towards their first order and get $10 off for each successful referral.
The Conran Shop is a home accessories and textile eCommerce store. They offer their users give 15% get, 15% off for referring a friend.
In the WoW referral program, the player and their friends receive not only free game time but also exclusive in-game items. The conditions are also provided for new users who have not played World of Warcraft for a long time (more than 2 years). This increases the number of active players who show loyalty to earlier users.
Share your referral link with your friends to get earn rewards. When an invited friend registers for a Binance account and makes his first deposit worth more than $50, you’ll both receive 100 USDT ($100) in trading fee credit.
Lunatic Capital offers their members get discount for a monthly subscription by inviting 2 friends. For example, John invited 2 of his friends. And in case of a successful referral, John will get a $160 discount for the monthly subscription.
Cash app lets customers and their friends get bonuses following these simple steps. They just have to download the application, enter their referral code in the profile, link a debit card, and spend within the given time frame to receive the referral bonus.
TransferGo is an app that can help you easily send money to over 160 countries. You can earn 22€ on your bank account every time your referral friends make their first transfer.
Instead of the usual cash or discount rewards, Western Union’s referral program introduced another incentive where customers and their referred friends can earn a $20 Amazon.com e-gift code.
Turkish Airlines gives you 500 Miles for every invited friend. You can refer up to 5 friends and earn 2500 Miles.
Friendly Planet offers travel services. They offer their customers a generous referral program, where you and your friends can earn $100 each.
Travelink gives you a $25 American Express Gift Card for a first-time booking or when you refer friends and family.
All travel enthusiasts can refer a friend and they’ll both save £100 on your next trip with Rooh Travel.
With the Holiday Vacations referral program you can earn $200 in Refer a Friend credit for each new friend you refer.
Kensington Tours offers you and your referred friends or family members $250 each to spend on your next trip.
CapiotalOne also has a great referral program for its users. You need to sign in to your account to get your personal referral link, then share that link with family members or friends. If they’re a new Capital One cardholder and get approved using your link, you’ll earn a bonus for each friend approved.
American Express rewards their loyal customers if they refer a friend and get approved for the card.
With Payoneer’s referral program you can get a $25 reward when referring a friend or family member.
Chase Bank offers up to 75,000 bonus points or up to $500 cashback per year in their referral program for each friend that gets referred.
Refer-a-Friend eligible users get Discover’s credit referral reward of $50 to $100 if their friend applies for the specific offer sent via the link provided.
By introducing friends and family to T-Mobile to open new postpaid accounts, current customers are eligible to win a $50 Virtual Express Prepaid MasterCard card.
Mint Mobile offers you 3 months of free usage for referring a friend. You can also earn up to $90 for each referral. The amount of credit you get will depend on which plan your friend picks.
If you refer your friends to Metro, you can earn up to $125 a year. For every friend who joins any Metro plan, you’ll receive a $25 virtual prepaid Mastercard.
Earn £25 with the FoneHouse referral program. There are some steps you need to follow in order to refer friends and earn rewards.
Building a referral program from scratch can be daunting at the start.
What referral incentives should I offer? How often should I promote my referral program? What if people are taking advantage of our referral campaigns?
These are all legitimate questions that any business would have. What matters most is to really understand who your customers are, what makes them happy? Not to forget make sure that your product itself is of good quality and easily referable.
What are your favorite ecommerce referral programs? If this list is missing your favorites, let us know!
P.S. If you enjoyed reading this article and want to grow your ecommerce store, subscribe to our newsletter to get our latest articles and roundups.
The previous versions of this article were written by Visakan Veerasamy, Si Quan Ong, Darren Foong, and Marquis Matson, Alfred Lua, marketers at ReferralCandy. We update this article regularly to keep it relevant and useful to ecommerce merchants.
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Influencer marketing can be a key strategy for many brands—especially because 61% of consumers are likely to trust recommendations from influencers versus 38% who’ll trust brands directly.
Influencers help brands to create authentic content, providing endorsements that improve brand awareness and increase sales. One study by HypeAuditor showed that brands can generate $4.87 of earned media value for every $1 spent on influencer marketing, which is a solid ROI.
But how do you get started with influencer marketing? First, you’ll need to research the best influencers to work with. Then start the outreach process. Writing successful influencer outreach emails is pivotal to starting your collaboration out on the right foot and getting influencers interested in working with your brand.
Throughout this article, we’re going to talk about what to include within your influencer outreach emails plus share five templates to help you get started.
Writing influencer outreach emails can seem daunting if you have no clue where to start. While the templates we share in the next section will also be a huge help, let’s go over the basic skeleton of what you’ll need in each email.
You need to stand out in each influencer’s inbox. The best way to do that is by infusing your email with a subject line that’s going to grab attention. However, you also want to make sure it sets your email apart from seemingly promotional emails.
Some ideas include:
Adding in some personalization by starting the subject line with “Hi [Name]!” is another great way to grab attention.
Yes, we just mentioned this, but let’s get a bit deeper. One way to immediately connect with the influencer you’re reaching out to is by showcasing that you’re well-versed with their content and their target audience.
First, you want to use a friendly greeting and include their name. Don’t make this seem like a generic mass email that you’ve copied and pasted into fifty different messages.
Something simple like “Hey [Name]!” is a great salutation.
Then, you’ll want to insert even more personalization into your message body, showcasing that you’ve done your research and you know who this influencer is. Start your email off with a line like:
Prove that you’ve done your research and actually know who each of the influencers you’re reaching out to is.
The next step is to share the overall reason you’re reaching out—your collaboration pitch. This is where you explain why you’re reaching out, how you’d like to collaborate with the influencer, and what your business is all about.
Keep your tone friendly but professional, working to build a sincere relationship and potential partnership. Follow this structure in your pitch:
This shows that you’ve done your research into understanding what a collaboration might look like between your brand and the influencer you’re reaching out to and makes it a lot easier for the influencer to hop on board.
We’ve already mentioned that you don’t want to copy and paste the exact same message into every single outreach email you send. However, there’s nothing wrong with using a template to get started and fully personalizing the message to match each influencer you reach out to.
We’ve put together five email templates that can help you win over influencers, get started on collaborations, and start fostering relationships.
If you want to pitch a one-off collaboration, sometimes getting straight to the point with a short and sweet email is the way to go. Use a template like the one below, customized to fit each influencer you reach out to and the specific content they’ve posted.
Hi [Name]!
I’m Sarah with Summer Suits. We’ve been LOVING your series on summer must-haves and thought our product would make a great fit for your feed. We want to offer you a free product to try out—plus some to give away to your followers!
If you’re able to fit us into your series, please email us back with your collaboration rates for an Instagram post featuring our brand.
Can’t wait to chat!
Sarah
Always make sure to ask about rates. You’re not going to get a sole feature in an influencer’s post by offering free products alone—at best, you’ll get into an unboxing video. Which can be a strategy on its own, bringing us to our next template.
If you don’t have much of an influencer marketing budget to work with, this can be a great strategy for getting your brand off the ground and building brand awareness.
Simply offer free samples with absolutely no strings attached—it can be a great way to get influencers genuinely interested in your products. And many may feature them in an unboxing video on their channel or profile.
Here’s a great template for this type of influencer outreach email:
Hi [Name]!
I’m Ariel with Blending Bright! We’d love to send you a sample of our brand-new makeup blender to test out. We’re confident you’ll love it.
Would you mind sharing your mailing address with us so we can get one in the mail?
Thanks so much!
Ariel
While this leaves you no guarantees that you’ll get a mention, oftentimes sending out free products is more budget-friendly than full-on collaborations. This can be a great starting point for generating brand awareness.
Are you looking to create a long-term working relationship with an influencer? Rather than a one-off post, you might want to create an ongoing campaign or maybe even a collaborative product line down the road.
To do that, you need to send an outreach email that’s going to facilitate a deeper relationship. A template like the one below is a great starting point.
Hi [Name]!
I’m Felicity from StayHome. I’ve been following your Instagram account for years and am obsessed with your content! (I especially loved your recent tip about mixing and matching patterns in home decor.)
I think your content meshes well with our messaging, and I believe our audience would love to learn from you! Would you be interested in an ongoing collaboration with StayHome? We’d love to discuss details on how we can work together.
If so, please get back in touch with me anytime! We’re happy to share more details on our vision for this partnership and would love to take a look at your rates sheet as well.
Thank you,
Felicity
For a long-term relationship, the influencer’s audience, expertise, and industry need to match yours to a T. This way, a partnership and ongoing content creation together make a lot of sense—especially if you’re interested in an influencer product line.
FOMO (fear of missing out) is real—especially in the influencer space. Influencers never want to be one to miss out on a great product, an amazing event, or a steal of a deal. Use this to your advantage by creating a sense of urgency in your outreach email.
There are a couple of different ways you can do this. The first is when you’re giving influencers sneak peek access into an upcoming launch.
Hi [Name]!
I’m Elena from RealWorks! I’m reaching out because my team thought you’d want to be the first to know about this brand-new product line we’re launching!
Would you like more information on when this will be going live?
Best,
Elena
However, this strategy can also be used to tease an upcoming event. Inviting local influencers and offering them free tickets is a great way to get some free press for your event. Use this template below in such an instance.
Hi [Name]!
I’m Claire from Evermore Jewelry! I’m reaching out because we’re hosting an exclusive event to launch our next capsule collection and we thought you’d love an invite! Other notable attendees include [Name 1] and [Name 2].
Are you interested in attending? We’d love to get you and a friend set up with comped tickets!
Let me know!
Claire
Make the influencer you’re reaching out to feel special and like they’re really going to be missing out on something if they don’t reach back out to learn more about the product launch, event, or whatever else you’re offering exclusive access to or information about.
If your brand is creating an affiliate marketing program, influencer outreach can be a great way to bulk up your initial affiliate partners. However, it can be difficult to get people that are new to your brand to sell your products for you.
This is why you should reach out to influencers you’ve already worked with in the past and/or offer free products before the influencer signs up for the program to make sure they feel comfortable becoming an affiliate.
Use a template like the one below to start tapping into your influencer network as an affiliate marketing strategy.
Hi [Name]!
I’m Sierra with CityWalk Shoes. We’ve just launched our brand new affiliate program, and based on your recent posts sharing your fabulous shoe style, we thought you’d be a great fit!
To get you started, we’d love to gift you a few pairs of shoes of your choice to see what you think. If you love them, we’d be thrilled to get you onboarded as an affiliate!
Our affiliates receive a 10% commission on every sale they make through their link, and we provide a ton of assistance to help our partners get the most out of our program as possible.
Let me know what you think! We’d love to work with you.
Best,
Sierra
Make sure you let your influencers know exactly what’s in it for them. Being an affiliate can be a lot of work—offering free products and guidance to getting started plus a generous commission is key to increasing the number of yesses you get in return.
Ready to start recruiting some influencers to work with your brand? The above templates and the following tips can help you get started—and see success.
Every campaign—even with influencer marketing—should have a core goal or objective. Are you trying to increase brand awareness? Increase eyes on a new product? Build relationships with influencers in your industry? Improve overall engagement online?
Make sure you pinpoint your goal before you send your outreach communication. Not only does this help guide the overall campaign, but it also helps you decide which template to use and what to say in your emails.
Templates are great for getting your emails started on the right track. Templates are not meant to be sent word-for-word to each influencer you reach out to.
Make sure you personalize each email to show the influencers that you’re actually familiar with the types of content they publish and that specific posts have made them seem like a great fit for your brand. Call out certain posts as well that really resonated with you to help them feel like they’re doing something right.
You shouldn’t be reaching out to every influencer with over 25,000 followers. You need to make sure the influencers actually make sense for your brand—and vice versa, that it would make sense for the influencer to promote your product.
Do your research and compile a list of influencers in your industry. Then section that list based on their follower count. Sometimes even working with micro-influencers with less than 10,000 followers can be a great strategy.
Free product is not enough of an incentive for a full influencer campaign. Influencers are running their own businesses, just like you, so you need to expect to compensate them for their work.
While sending out free products—as we mentioned—can be a great strategy while trying to get some brand awareness when you’re brand new, this also doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get a return.
In each email you send, make sure you don’t sound like you’re expecting them to work for free. Ask for their rates for certain collaborations so they know you’re serious. If your email sounds like you’re wanting them to work just for some free products, they’re much less likely to respond.
Last, but not least, there’s no harm in sending follow-up emails. Influencers get dozens of emails a day, and they might accidentally gloss over yours. Send follow-up emails with equally engaging subject lines to try to stand out in their inboxes.
It’s time to start writing your outreach emails and working with influencers to promote your brand. With these templates and tips, you should be well on your way to creating personalized emails that get results. For even more help with your influencer marketing strategy, check out our new tool InfluencerCandy.
Need more influencer marketing resources? We've got your back, check out the following articles:
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Imagine this: You’re interested in purchasing from a new brand, and you head to their website for the first time. After finding that product you’ve seen so many ads about on TikTok, you decide you’re ready to finally buy it.
The price seems reasonable, after all!
You add it to your cart… And BAM! Suddenly, you’re hit with
Disappointed, you exit the website and never look back.
This, dear reader, is the experience you’re leaving your website visitors with by not optimizing your ecommerce checkout flow.
Don’t worry, though, because we spoke to two CRO experts—along with our own professional knowledge—to write you this article, so you can turn those browsers into buyers.
We’ll share how you can improve your checkout flow and examples of brands doing it well.
We spend so much time thinking about how to make our ecommerce sites user-friendly—our homepage, product description pages, and landing pages. Unfortunately, we often forget about one of the most important pages in the journey: the checkout page.
Did you know that nearly 70% of users abandon their cart before completing checkout? The top reasons are
According to Erin DeCesaris, Head of Strategy at Fuel Made (a website design and CRO agency), “As acquisition costs continue to rise, it’s more important than ever to convert customers on their first visit. So make sure your checkout is just as optimized and user-friendly as the rest of your site, leaving customers on a positive note.”
Overall, your checkout flow impacts your bottom line because it’s the last stage in the buying journey. So how can you improve it? Let’s look at what you need to do next.
We spoke with Erin and Brenda Godinez (Head of Retention at the non-alcoholic wine brand, Surely) about how they approach a strategy for improving a brand’s checkout flow.
First, make sure you’re tackling all the “low-hanging fruit” and applying modern best practices.
Before you add noise to your checkout, some basic best practices are table stakes in ecommerce. That includes
Once you tackle these low-hanging fruits, you can test other elements.
“I’ll test additional elements like brand value information, cross-sell and upsell sections, and email and text sign-up prompts,” said Erin.
A few core metrics to watch are your conversion rate, cart abandonment rate, and customer lifetime value.
You can keep your cart KPIs fairly simple. That’s why Brenda also suggests using heatmap tools to qualitatively understand how users are interacting with your checkout.
“I watch sessions in HotJar to see if it's subjectively an effective checkout experience. It's very powerful to see how users behave, not just look at metrics on spreadsheets,” said Brenda.
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Every shopper has preferred payment methods. Some want to check out with their visa, others prefer Apple Pay, and others want a buy now pay later option. It’s important for your store to offer a variety.
Why? People want to check out using the payment method they’re most comfortable with, and if that’s not available then it’s a friction point in their journey. In fact, around 10% of shoppers abandon checkout due to a lack of payment options.
It’s a simple solution: accept all standard payment methods, along with quick-pay (and buy now pay later if you sell big ticket items).
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Think about the first purchase like a first date—the customer may not be ready to share all their personal information with you.
That’s why a common point of friction for shoppers is when they’re forced to create an account in order to complete their order. Many first-time purchasers want to try your products first before committing to your brand.
Considering 34% of cart abandonments are due to shoppers being required to make an account, allowing them to checkout as a guest is an easy solution. You can follow up during the post-purchase stage to encourage them to create an account after.
Tip: To speed up the checkout experience more, add express checkout options, using validation and auto-complete to help shoppers fill out the form quickly.
Adding too many steps to your checkout means a higher chance of cart abandonment. This is something Baymard Institute reported, finding out that 17% of shoppers will abandon their cart if the process feels too long and complicated.
Here’s what you can do to avoid this: switch to a one-page checkout—a checkout page that simplifies the process by placing all the fields on one page.
Erin says this is best for stores with a straightforward checkout process. But if you need to use multiple pages, “Include a progress bar that shows users where they’re at in the process and make sure you’re not asking users to enter the same information multiple times.”
Just because someone makes it to the checkout page doesn’t automatically mean they trust your brand—use this opportunity to provide value and build credibility to guide them through the funnel.
You can do this by adding
Here’s an upsell example from Peepers, using an “add it now!” CTA right above the discount code field.
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And if you don’t want to add noise to your checkout page, you can include some of these widgets on the confirmation page to still provide value. This is what Baronfig did to promote its referral program.
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P.S. If you want to embed your referral program on your checkout page or promote it as a post-purchase pop-up, you can try ReferralCandy for free here.
We’ve all gone through hundreds of online checkout experiences, but do you know exactly what makes it a good experience?
Well, we reviewed three brands' checkout pages, comparing what they look like and how they’re using the best practices we shared in the previous section.
Let’s dive into why these brands have successful checkouts, starting with Live Bearded.
Live Bearded is on a mission to help beardsmen look, feel, and be their best. The products are A+—and so is the brand’s checkout experience. That’s because the team often runs tests to improve conversions from their cart.
For example, Live Bearded used to have a traditional cart page (Where you click a cart icon and get redirected to a specific cart page). However, they were interested in seeing if a slide-out cart would show better results.
The team worked with Fuel Made (a design and CRO agency) to run this A/B test. In it, they compared three versions of a checkout experience:
Which one do you think had the best results…?
The second cart with additional information had a modeled improvement over the baseline of up to 18%.
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In the winning version, you can see how Live Bearded added
Live Bearded’s A/B test is a good example of why it’s important to always be testing your checkout experience—and how impactful value-add information can be.
As you know, Brenda spends a lot of time on Surely Wine’s checkout. She’s always finding ways to improve conversions by making the experience easier.
Of course, we had to review Surely’s checkout as well.
One part that stood out to us is how easy it is to access the cart website-wide. Similar to Live Bearded’s cart, Surely uses a slide-out cart that opens up when you click the cart icon on the top right corner of the navigation menu.
However, instead of the cart sliding out from the slide, it slides out from the bottom of the screen, opening a larger cart widget with a ton of value-adds.
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Here’s what’s working for Surely’s cart:
Once customers click “Proceed to checkout,” they’re sent to a standard checkout page. Here, Surely does not require shoppers to make an account to checkout (nor do they push creating an account during the process).
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At this stage, Surely shows off its express checkout options and optional shipping insurance to help customers feel more secure about their order (if they choose to opt-in).
“The checkout experience is incredibly important because it can have a major impact on overall conversion. Sessions and add-to carts don't matter if your checkout flow isn't great,” explains Brenda. “It's at this step that people often make the final call of whether or not to buy, and you want to make that call a no-brainer. Don't give customers a reason to drop off.”
In the future, Brenda plans to test adding more social proof and a reminder of Surely’s money-back guarantee: “I think these should be table stakes.”
Final tip from Brenda: Make test orders as if you’re a customer of your brand, and see what parts of the process seem subjectively suboptimal. Ask yourself if there’s any friction. If you feel like you may be biased, have a friend do it for you.
One downside to not using Shopify Plus is the inability to customize your checkout page—essentially, you can’t add certain messaging or iconography.
But this doesn’t have to stop you from showing your value at the checkout stage.
InspiredGo is a great example to look at because the team discovered a way to build social proof in their checkout page—despite not being on Shopify Plus.
How? They created a banner image and added their rating directly to the banner, along with key messaging on the number of orders they’ve delivered.
This is a good way to build trust without being able to completely customize what your checkout looks like.
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We know it’s easy to keep adding more segments and messaging to your checkout page but remember it’s important to start with the basics. And even before that, you should audit your current checkout process.
Our final tip on how to improve your checkout flow is from Erin, where she explains why you need to start with an audit:
“Heatmap software like Microsoft Clarity or LuckyOrange can be especially helpful here. Watch user recordings and see if there are any points in checkout where users seem to experience friction. Also, take a look at KPIs like cart abandonment rate—is it higher on certain devices? These type of data can point you in the direction of where the low-hanging fruit opportunities for optimization are. And, as with anything on your site, continue to A/B test and optimize to continuously improve your checkout experience!”
![How to Optimize Your Ecommerce Checkout Flow [+ Best Practices Checklist]](https://global-uploads.webflow.com/6185b708a2657014268d2eaf/635b849f4bdbcdf5f3af7cd0_2%20(31).webp)
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A referral program is a deliberate, systematic way of getting people to make referrals to your business. Referral programs are often called word-of-mouth marketing, because they reward existing customers for sharing and incentivize new customers to try out your brand.
Reaching out to influencers can be difficult and time-consuming. Here are some tips to help you get higher response rates from influencers!
Want to improve your bottom line? Here’s how you can improve your checkout flow, plus examples to inspire you.
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We'll walk through five major signs that you’re ready to hop on your first influencer marketing campaign and cover three brands that have done an amazing job with their influencer campaigns.
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