Introduction
For customers to know about your rewards, email is one of the best distribution methods for your referral program. Making a referral email might be a complex task.
However, once you understand some essential elements to make the email stand out, you are good to go. Here, we’ll break down the elements and show how they work together to make a perfect referral email.
Elements of a successful referral email
Some elements below might help in bringing the success for a perfect referral email:
1. Clear Subject Line
Since a person notices the subject line first and then proceeds to read the whole email, you need that your email has a catchy yet simplistic subject line.
Make sure that it has not all the properties, but the main two things should be there- simplicity and clarity. Avoid spam words.
Some commonly used words often turn out as spam which you should avoid. Some of them are:
→ Click here
→ You win!
→ Claim your prize
→ Exclusive deal
→ Offer expires
→ Order now
→ Limited time
Some subject lines that you can use as reference are as follows:
→ Hey Riya! Your friend Sarah gave you $20
→ 10% off in your first month
→ You have 5$ for your next purchase
Many email services help you test out your subject lines to see which one turns out to be the best option.
2. Incentives and rewards
Make sure your reward offers are well understood. They will be the ones to sign up with you in the future, so they need to understand your strategy. Let them know any terms and conditions involved as well.
Don’t let there be any space for confusion and hesitation. Provide such information in the email that you send out.
3. Personalization
Marketing, in general, is fine for addressing a mass audience but providing your customers with a personalized experience is a great way to attract them. Talking to them in their language, being in constant touch, and being friendly with them will give you the advantage of them being on your side in no time.
But the question that arises is how to personalize?
The very first step could be calling them by their name. This method can help to deliver desired results because of the personified feelings the customers feel. You can use birth dates, job titles, and other details to personalize the email as well.
→ The open rate and click rate for an email with a personalized subject line are 7.4% and 0.4%, respectively.
→ The open rate and click rate for an email with a personalized message are 18.8% and 2.1%, respectively.
→ The open rate and click rate for an email with a personalized subject line and message are 5.9% and 0.2%, respectively.
And hence with this information, you can take the required steps to open up your chances for getting customers at your end.
4. Design
The best benefit of emails is that you have your own choice of design. The design of the email will help show the image of our company to the customer, one of the most important deciding factors for them to choose you.
The logo, palettes, color, and every visual effect play an essential role in communicating your brand to the customer. The design can even show how much loyal and recognition you carry. Templates can help with this complex task.
5.CTA
You have achieved the attention with your subject line and got them hooked with your visuals. The next step is to encourage them to take some action, a step you should never ignore.
But the question is where to put CTA?
Your CTAs need to be supported by customer benefits.
The button could itself be in the following forms:
→ Sign up now
→ Try for free
→ Start your free trial
→ Redeem your offer
Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Instagram, and LinkedIn are just some of many such platforms that might make it easier to increase your reach, conditioned by the addition of their social media buttons.
Similarly, if you have a mobile app launched for your platform, you can also add a link for Google Play or Appstore for people to download.
Such methods will give you a boost for reach and engagement.
7. Content Hierarchy
Applying to both visuals and content, users scan the content even when emails are not long enough. Hence our goal is to give priority to content organizing in a user-friendly way.
Some of such methods for the same could be:
→ Proximity
→ Scale
→ Alignment
→ Color
→ Contrast
Following are the common patterns that you need to keep in mind:
F Pattern
The most commonly used pattern is where viewers scan the content looking for headlines and sub-headers.
Z Pattern
With this pattern, you can highlight like CTAs.
Automation
Automation is needed to reach out to the masses for your referral program. The process is made even, fluid, and faster and helps get the most out of your referral emails.
Following are the two most relevant aspects of the email referral program involved in the Personalization process:
1. Segmentation
You can use some integration from other apps as well to segment your customers.
→ Demographics
→ Job title
→ Age
→ Products they use
→ Interests
2. Behavior-triggered emails
Concerning Personalization, having access to such a feature allows you to send an automated email when the customer completes a particular action/task and helps to track the user journey.
The essential steps in referral emailing are segmentation and behavior-triggered emails.
These can help you with improving the customer experience.
Types of Referral Emails
Talking about emails, we face one or more of the following conditions:
- The one that encourages customers to send the referral link to their contacts in the case of Setapp.
It means that a short paragraph is enough to explain all about your program. Keep it as simple as possible with some graphics to support the copy.
- Highlighting from the example of Allset:
The message is clear in two short paragraphs. The branding and design are well made, along with buttons for social media sharing.
Links to the website and company are attached too.
Following is a basic template for referral emails that you can modify as per your needs and requirements.
Subject line:
A surprise gift from your friend (name)
Email copy:
Hello (name)!
Your friend (name) loved to use ( product name) and thought of sharing it with you.
Now you can also get free access for one month to (the product)
Here is the referral code: ODE25821
Sign up for free!
Conclusion
Good emails have the power to give you better results and help you promote your referral program in the most cost-effective way. The most beneficial method to make your email enticing is the Personalization of emails.
6. Social media sharing