With our new Refer-a-Friend feature, members can get rewarded with bonus points for referring their friends to the loyalty program. Lower your loyalty member acquisition costs by letting happy customers bring in new ones!
Clarification:
This feature is currently only available for points based loyalty programs.
The Details
Each loyalty member has a unique referral code/link that they can share with their friends.
Once the referred friend signs up to the program, (using the referral code/link) and does a purchase within a specific period, both get bonus points.
Once all steps are completed, both get a message confirming that the points have been earned.
Members can be rewarded a limited amount of times per period for their successful referrals.
The DataCandy member portal will also display a new “More ways to earn” section and will allow will provide instructions to the member on the offer and how to share their unique link.
This is also where your member will be able to share they unique referral link. Once they click on the offer, they will be able to copy the link or use the "Share now" functionality.
Key Benefits
Lower your loyalty member acquisition costs
Increase engagement as members are more likely to interact with your loyalty program when they have an incentive to refer friends.
Boost member sales, as referred friends must do a purchase to be rewarded.
Activating the Refer-a-Friend Offer
First, setup the details and period of your referral offer
Useful tip:
We recommend adding an image to your offer configuration to catch the eye of your members!
Navigate to Offers / Refer a Friend
Select Add
On the configuration screen, enter a Name for your promotion. The offer name will appear on the Offers tab of the member portal.
Upload an offer image if desired. The image must be 200px wide x 200px high and in a .jpg or .png format.
Select the Active status.
If Yes is selected, the promotion will automatically start on the selected start date and be displayed in the Offers tab of your member portal.
If No is selected, the promotion can still be saved but it will not start automatically until the active field is set to yes at a later date.
Enter an External Reference. This is optional.
Select your start and end date.
Note that if the end date is left empty, the promotion will run until it is manually stopped.
You may set a specific start and end time if you wish. By default our platform will suggest 00:00 if the start date is in the future. If the start date is today, the promotion will start, at the earliest, 15 min after it is configured.
Next, setup the rules of your offer for existing members
Select the amount of bonus points the member will earn for each successfully referred friend.
Select the frequency for receiving those bonus points.
Note: By setting a limit for how often members can get rewarded, in a specific number of weeks, we are aiming to prevent abuse. Your existing member will be able to share their link an unlimited number of times (or online!) but can only receive a limited amount of points, per period.
Select the Paid by merchant
We recommend selecting the "head office" merchant to have that entity cover the cost generated from the promotional points, or a specific merchant if you do not have a headoffice one.
Next, setup the rules of your offer for the referred friends
Select the amount of bonus points the referred friend will earn once they complete all necessary steps.
Select the time limit they have, from registration, to do their purchase and be eligible to receive the points. This can be set in a number of days, weeks or months.
Select the Paid by merchant
We recommend selecting the "Participating merchant" options to assign the cost of those points to the merchant where the purchase has been done. You can also select the "head office" merchant or a specific merchant if you do not have a headoffice one.
Useful tip:
Be sure to double check all setting before saving! Once the offer has started running, only the offer name, image and paying merchants can be edited. If you wish to make a change to any other field, you will have to stop the promotion and start a new one.
4. Click Save.
Finally, activate your automated message to invite your members to share their referral ink with their friends
We have automated an invitation to your members following a high point during their loyalty member lifecycle: theri first redemption! This is the first time they get to experience the value that they may get from your loyalty program.
This Lights out can then be configured X days following their first redemption and will invite them to refer their friends.
Clarification:
This is a Message only Lights Out to invite members to share their unique referral link and encourage their friends to join your loyalty program.
This automation will only send the invitation message - to reward the referrals the offer needs to be activated with the steps mentioned previously!
Useful tip:
Make sure to time this invitation based on your other active Lights Out campaigns! You want to make sure not to "spam" you loyalty members during their first few weeks or months of joining your loyalty program.
Add a name to your Lights Out under the external reference field. This will allow you to differentiate the offers and follow its results in our reports (if applicable)!
You can save your work, by selecting the Save button. This will keep your progress until you are ready to activate it!
Set an Active offer to Inactive to stop sending emails. Members who already received their emails will still get the reward if they visit in the specified time frame.
Navigate to Offers / Lights Out
Select Add an Offer
Select the Member Nurturing category
Select Refer a Friend
Configure the number of days after a member's first redemption you wish to send the invitation
Edit the message templates as needed. If you have our SMS feature, you will also need to edit the SMS message.
Once you have completed the configuration of your offer and edited your message, send yourself a test message to visualise what your members will receive.
Once satisfied with the result, slide the toggle in the top right corner of the screen to activate your offer.
Click Save. Your message is now active!
Got questions or need a hand? Just pop into the chat to talk to our team, or shoot us an email at [email protected]—we’re here to help!