Are you launching a referral program? Then you’ll likely promote it via email to your existing customers.
To increase open rates and grow your program, you need engaging referral emails with compelling offers that target the right audience segments. In this article, we break down six referral email examples to help inspire your next email campaign.
Referral Email Examples
Referrals are a foundational aspect of customer-led marketing, helping you lower customer acquisition costs while nurturing loyalty.
The following email examples come from businesses across industries and illustrate the different ways you can approach referral marketing.
1. Lumina
Lumina manufactures 4K webcams with many advanced functionalities, including adaptive color correction and automated blurring.
The company invites customers to join their referral program with a simple yet effective email.
It starts with a direct subject line, “Exclusive: Refer 2 friends. Get 1 free Lumina webcam” that immediately clarifies the purpose of the email. This way, every recipient will learn that Lumina has a referral program — regardless of whether they actually open the email.
Image source: Really Good Emails
The email body contains little text. It succinctly explains how the referral program works and its benefits for advocates and friends. The call-to-action (CTA) is clear and prominent, so there’s no confusion about the next step.
What you can steal: Below the CTA, Lumina includes share buttons for different social media platforms. This creates a frictionless sharing process and increases the recipient’s likelihood of forwarding their link.
2. Career Foundry
CareerFoundry offers online courses that give people the skills they need to break into the tech industry.
They sent this email to contract employees who mentor and teach the courses — many of whom acquired their skills by taking a course themselves. By asking teachers (who personally understand the value of the program) to refer their friends, they’re guaranteeing themselves both positive and targeted referrals.
Their program offers massive double-sided benefits, incentivizing advocates to talk up CareerFoundry and their friends to listen. However, to take advantage of this service, you must sign up for their referral program.
The referral program links take you to a dashboard that helps you manage your referrals (to see who you’ve invited and who’s accepted the invitation). This is useful but causes friction. Instead, give advocates an easy-access personalized link to make your referral program barrier-free.
What you can steal: By targeting the people who have experienced the value of their product first-hand, Career Foundry increases the likelihood that the advocates will praise their brand and attract new customers.
With Extole’s customer engagement platform, you can personalize your referral program outreach and target advocates at specific times in their relationship with your company. For example, you could target referral requests towards frequent buyers who just made a purchase.
3. The Hustle
The Hustle is a daily newsletter that keeps you up-to-date with the latest tech and business developments.
They sent this email to encourage subscribers to refer their friends. If subscribers reach certain referral benchmarks, they get Hustle merchandise, like stickers or a duffel bag.
The conversational and mysterious subject line (“Interested?”) helps increase open rates, and the fun tone of the letter helps engage subscribers.
But the best part of this email is the visual representation of the rewards. Not only do subscribers see what they get when they refer friends, but the physical rewards also lend themselves to social media sharing. Advocates are likely to post a photo of themselves on social media wearing the merchandise, further promoting the brand.
What you can steal: Swag (and its shareability) powers your referral engine. People love getting swag and posting photos of fun things on social media. Use a swag service like CustomInk.com to create anything from t-shirts to mugs without hiring a graphic designer.
Get our 2024 guide to referral marketing: Optimize and grow your referral marketing program with Extole’s best practices.
4. Going
Going (formerly known as Scott’s Cheap Flights) helps travelers discover affordable flights. After users sign up, they select a target airport. The app then alerts them when it detects a cheap flight to a domestic or international location.
The company’s referral program offers great double-sided benefits — a $100 reward for advocates and a 20% subscription discount for twelve months for friends.
The subject line of the referral program email puts the benefits front and center: “Get real money for helping your friends travel 💰”. The message body reiterates the rewards and provides a clear CTA before going into a step-by-step breakdown of the program.
Image source: Really Good Emails
This referral email example uses many visual elements to engage recipients. The colors and graphics create a pleasant user experience and make it easy to understand how the referral program works.
What you can steal: Going finishes their email with three tips on how advocates can refer friends. This simple addition is a great way to increase conversions and improve the user experience.
5. Oura
Oura is a health technology company that sells smart rings. The Oura Ring tracks more than 20 biometric data points that influence wellbeing and provides personalized health tips.
Their referral marketing email opens with the subject line: “Don’t miss your chance to get exclusive ŌURA apparel on us.” This leverages the recipient’s fear of missing out to entice them to open the email and participate in the referral program.
Image source: Really Good Emails
The message body includes images of the exclusive apparel to encourage customers to become advocates. Simple step-by-step instructions and a prominent CTA make it easy for customers to act.
What you can steal: The Oura referral program comes with certain restrictions, which the email clarifies. If this is also the case with your referral offer, be transparent about it to prevent customer frustration.
6. Dropbox
Dropbox is a cloud storage provider that also offers work collaboration features.
The company sends this confirmation email when a referral has been successful and reminds advocates about the rewards they’re receiving.
This is important because customers might not realize they’re receiving value from your referral program. But when advocates recognize the benefit they’re getting from your referral program, they’re more likely to refer again.
Their email rewards customers for past referrals and encourages them to refer again, which creates a viral loop. Implementing this referral program increased signups by 60%.
What you can steal: Depending on your target audience, it might be a better option to use “You’re awesome” or another fun expression instead of a simple “Thank you”. If you build a refer-a-friend program using Extole, you can easily personalize communications and experiences to specific audience segments.
3 Referral Email Templates
As you’re crafting your referral email copy, use these free templates as a jumping off point.
1. New user referral email
When a new user signs up for an account and downloads your app, send them a referral email so they can invite their friends.
SUBJECT LINE: Happy one-week anniversary, [USER NAME]
BODY: We hope you enjoyed your first week on [APP NAME], [USER NAME].
Make sure to invite your friends to access exclusive rewards. For each successful referral, you’ll receive 500 points. Just send them this unique referral link: [URL]
2. Post-purchase referral email
A good time to send a referral email is shortly after a customer receives their purchase. Your brand will still be fresh in the customer’s mind and they’ll be more excited to share their experience with friends.
Here is a post-purchase referral email template you can use.
SUBJECT LINE: Invite friends and save on your next order
BODY: Hi [CUSTOMER NAME],
We hope you are happy with your latest purchase.
Already thinking about what to order next?
Make sure to share your referral code with up to three friends to receive a discount on your next order. For every successful referral, you’ll receive 10% off for your next purchase.
[CTA]
3. Long-term customer email
Nurturing relationships with long-standing customers helps you optimize an important metric — customer lifetime value. One way to do so is to acknowledge and show appreciation for their loyalty by providing them with special rewards for referring their friends.
SUBJECT LINE: Thanks for your support, [FIRST NAME]
BODY: Hi [FIRST NAME],
We want to thank you for choosing [BUSINESS NAME] for your [USE CASE] needs. Your continued business hasn’t gone unnoticed.
As a gift of appreciation, you’ll receive [SPECIAL OFFER] for each friend you refer. Just forward them the link below.
[CTA]
Plug the Leaks in Your Referral Marketing Funnel
The best referral emails are the ones people want to engage with. Such emails provide an incentive for customers to participate and make it as easy as possible for them to do so. Adding extra steps, like making advocates go through a separate sign-up process, can hurt your referral program.
Optimizing your emails based on these referral email examples will plug the leaks in your referral marketing funnel. When you make it as easy as possible for your advocates to spread the word and their friends to sign up, everyone who wants to become your customer will.
With Extole’s customer engagement platform, you can build a high-performing referral program and access important analytics to optimize it further. For more information, take a tour of the platform.
