
Here’s What Great Referral Email Campaigns Look Like
How to make your referral email campaign work? Here are tips we've compiled from experts!
(Last updated April 2015)
The following terms are used as applied to ReferralCandy. They're primarily intended to help our own clients familiarize themselves with the referral process and troubleshoot any problems or concerns they might have.
That said, we believe they'll also be helpful to anybody thinking about referral programs. As you'll see, referral marketing can get remarkably complex!
Add-Ons: These are paid features that you can activate to provide additional functionality for your referral program.
Admin Email Address: Please refer to entry on "Email Address".
Advanced Integration: Please refer to entry on "Integration".
Advocate: Please refer to the entry under "Customers".
Campaign Status: There are 3 types of campaign statuses in your referral program that you can toggle between:
Commission: The percentage of the final invoice amount of the referred purchase that ReferralCandy takes as a fee for facilitating that referred purchase.
Customers: There are 3 main types of individuals commonly described as "customers" and it's very important to understand the distinction between each type as described in the referral program:
Dashboard: The interface that you see when you login to your ReferralCandy account.
It provides information about your referral program along with the various details of the friend offer, referral reward, emails & pages, integration, and payment details.
Emails (sent by ReferralCandy): There are 3 types of emails that are sent out by ReferralCandy as part of your referral program:
^ A simple, unformatted template of a referral email
Note: You are able to edit the subject and content of each email template. You can also edit the HTML & CSS with the white label add-on.
Email Address: There are 2 email address settings in your referral program:
Embedded Sharing Panel: Please refer to entry on "Widgets".
Friend Offer: The friend offer is an incentive that you can offer to a referred friend to encourage them to make a purchase at your store.
When a referred friend uses the referral link shared with them by an advocate, the referred friend is directed to a landing page with a coupon code (that you've defined) that can be used at your store to enjoy the related incentive on a qualified purchase (subject to your conditions).
Front Page Signup Widget: Please refer to entry on "Widgets".
In-App Invite Tool: You can use ReferralCandy's to send referral program invite emails to past customers. You can do this individually or as a batch via a CSV upload.
The in-app invite tool is accessible via your campaign dashboard.
Integration: The process of connecting your online store to ReferralCandy so that referral activity can be accurately tracked. There are 2 types of integration:
Invoice Email Statuses (for emails sent to ReferralCandy): There are 6 different statuses for invoice emails that you send to ReferralCandy as part of the referral program integration:
Javascript Tracking Code: Please refer to the entry under "Tracking Code".
Landing Page: Please refer to the entry under "Pages".
Minimum Purchase Amount: The smallest purchase amount (which you have defined) that a referred friend has to make for the advocate to be eligible for the referral reward.
Minimum Usage Fee: The base amount that is charged for the use of ReferralCandy on a monthly basis. If the accumulated commission for the month exceeds this amount, you will simply have to pay the accumulated commission (i.e. the base amount is waived).
Multiple Language Add-On: Please refer to entry on "Add-Ons"
Pages: There are 2 types of pages that are offered as part of your referral program:
You can configure access to the ReferralCandy Portal to:
Note: You are able to edit the content of each page template. You can also edit the HTML & CSS with the white label add-on.
Post-Purchase Popup Widget: Please refer to entry on "Widgets".
Referral Email: Please refer to the entry under "Emails".
Referral Link: This is a key part of how referrals are tracked.
It is a unique link given to each advocate when they are enrolled in your referral program. When a advocate's friend clicks on the referral link, the referred friend will be brought to a landing page which shows the coupon code (friend offer) that can be used at your store.
Referral Report: A report that shows the activity summary and key metrics of your referral program for the past 30 days.
Referral Reward: The referral reward is an incentive that you can offer to advocates to encourage them to share their unique referral link with their friends.
When a referred friend makes a qualified purchase after clicking the advocate's unique referral link, the advocate will be eligible for the referral reward (subject to your conditions about the purchase).
Referred Friend: Please refer to the entry under "Customers".
Referred Purchase: A purchase that is made by a referred friend using a advocate's referral link.
This purchase must pass fraud prevention measures and meets the criteria (minimum purchase amount, X number of purchases by referred friend) set by the merchant. (Also see related 'Rewardable Referred Purchase' entry below).
Referred Purchase Review Period: The review period after the referred purchase, during which earned referral rewards are placed on hold.
During this review period, merchants can mark a referred purchase as invalid or cancelled. After this review period, eligible advocates who have made successful referrals are sent their referral rewards.
The length of the review period is set by merchant and typically corresponds with the time period on the return policy (if applicable).
Reminder Email: Please refer to the entry under "Emails".
Reward Email: Please refer to the entry under "Emails".
Rewardable Referred Purchase: A referred purchase (please refer to entry on 'Referred purchase' above) whose referred purchase review period is over, and now counts towards a reward.
Sent From Email Address: Please refer to entry on "Email Address".
Set-Up Wizard: A sequence of dialog boxes / pages that lead a merchant through a series of well-defined steps (which require input) to set up their referral program.
Geeky sidenote: The term "Wizard" was originally derived from the term "Windowed Interactive Setup Assistance Dialog" (WISAD). Cool huh?
Sharing Messages: Sharing messages are the template messages (Twitter & Facebook) that advocates see when they click on the Twitter / Facebook sharing buttons from their referral email or Portal Sharing Page.
You are able edit the default message to suit your business. Advocates are able to further edit and personalize their message before sharing it with their friends.
Standard Integration: Please refer to entry on "Integration".
Tracking Code: The tracking code is a snippet of Javascript that needs to be inserted on the post-purchase page of your website as part of the integration process with ReferralCandy.
This code, together with the referral link, enables ReferralCandy to track and identify successful referred purchases for you.
White Label Add-On: Please refer to entry on "Add Ons"
Widgets: Widgets are free additional features that you can enable to improve your advocates' user experience and increase the effectiveness of your referral program.
The widgets that are currently available are: