6 Referral Email Examples To Inspire Your Own Campaigns

Referral programs are a powerful customer acquisition tool.

By launching a referral program, brand advocates can share their love for your brand with their friends and family. This means more new customers for your business, without lifting a finger.

But before the referral process begins, you need to send a referral email for your brand advocates. Ideally, this message should motivate customers to pursue the referral reward, and convince their friends to sign-up.

Now, what is an ideal referral program email? Here are some tips that you need to know.

For starters, a referral program rewards brand advocates with freebies, discounts and cash rewards in exchange for a successful referral.

Just like any marketing email, customers want an answer to the question, "What's in it for me?" That's precisely why your email headline should be able to convey the answer the benefits of participating immediately. A long and complicated explanation won't earn you any brownie points from readers.

Digital Ocean's email headline is "Give $10, Get $25"—a convenient summary of their rewards in just four words.

What we love:

• Clear and simple explanation of their referral program incentives
• Referral code link and easy-t0-understand instructions for participation
• Clickable CTA for mobile and desktop users
• Interactive GIF that grabs the attention of recipients

A referral program email should instantly grab the attention of brand advocates.

For Soko Glam, referred friends receive a gorgeous email featuring the brand's attractive curation of their latest products.

Just like their brand's visual aesthetic, the Korean beauty brand uses vibrant pastel-themed hues to communicate their incentives. Also, the featured best-selling products tempt beauty fans to refer their friends to snag their favourite merchandise.

What we love:

• High-quality images of their skincare products
• Attractive fonts around a light orange background
• Lively copy that sounds like you're talking to a friend
• Pastel-themed aesthetic that's pleasing to the eye

Your brand advocates referred friends will be experiencing your products and services for the first time. So, it's crucial to have clear step-by-step onboarding instructions for availing your products and services.

Handy's referral email for brand advocates also works as a welcome email. Recipients receive step-by-step instructions and illustrations for making their first booking.

Interestingly, they also encourage referred friends to pay-it-forward by encouraging them to refer their friends and family to get free cleaning services.

What we love:

• Clear onboarding instructions for first-time customers
• Easy-to-understand step-by-step instructions with illustrations
• Encourages first-time customers to refer their friends in exchange for free cleaning.
• Clickable CTA for desktop and mobile users

Let's say your referral program is not performing as well as you'd hoped. To ramp up sign-ups, you can host an exclusive contest that will excite your customers.

Huckberry's referral program typically rewards brand advocates with $20, while referred friends snag $10. Most referral program rewards don't change so there's no pressure for brand advocates to promote to their friends immediately.

As a result, Huckberry spiced up their referral program by offering $1000 Huckberry credit to brand advocates with the most referrals. Meanwhile, second place gets $500 credit and third place gets $250 credit. Since the contest is only available for a limited time, this fuelled participants to get their loved ones onboard as soon as possible.

What we love:

• A limited-time offer pressures brand advocates to act ASAP
• The $1000 Huckberry cash reward is outlined in big and bold letters
• Exciting copy that feels like a game show host is talking to you
• The words "INVITE FRIENDS" are outlined in orange so the message can be easily understood by readers who only scan the email

Besides having a simple incentive, you can also add a gamification aspect to your referral program. Offer a big reward to customers who can get a bunch of their friends to sign-up and join.

Acorns - an investment company - offers $200 for brand advocates that can get four of their friends to opt in. The sweet deal is only available for a limited time which compels participants to get in touch with their contacts immediately. While the rewards seem expensive, it seems like a worthy investment for four additional customers.

What we love:

• Limited-time offer which compels customers to act immediately
• Although the reward is expensive, the company can break even because of the number of new customers signing-up.
• The text, "Boost your future by $200" is large and easily noticeable.

Referral programs are a two-way street. Besides the brand advocate, you also have to convince the referred friend to take the offer.

HelloFresh tempts the referred friend to claim their free box by showing a picture of their fresh vegetables and the delectable dishes they can whip up.

In addition, they include the name of the customer in the main headline in bold font, which makes it seem like you're communicating with a close pal.

At the bottom of the CTA, readers can easily find shipping and delivery details. If they claim the deal today, then they can expect their package by next week.

What we love:

• Includes the name of the customer which boosts personalization.
• Flaunts the referral reward referred friends can get if they opt for the deal.
• Has shipping and delivery details.
• Includes contact details via email and phone so customer service can answer questions about the offer.

And, that's it! We hope these six well-designed referral email campaigns can inspire your own.

Getting started with your referral campaign can be a bit difficult. However, if you send emails with a compelling offer and tempting high-quality graphics, you'll be on your way to convincing your brand advocates and potential new customers to sign-up and join. You can also spice up your program with valuable offers for a limited-time only.

What kind of referral program will you launch? Let us know in the comments below.