Create Referral Program
Learn how to set up a referral program and create unique referral codes in the Campaign Manager.
With Areas and Stores (enterprise feature), you can create referral programs targeting specific markets or shops within one project. You can create areas representing your regional structure and stores representing your points of sale. Additionally, you can manage your team and assign permissions to store or area managers. This way, they can run referral programs independently without the risk of affecting campaigns assigned to other areas or stores.
Before you start
Read the Referral Program basics before you follow this guide.
Contents
- Program size
- Timeframe
- Referral workflow
- Referee reward
- Tiers for referrers
- Notifications
- Metadata and the summary
Go to the Campaign Manager in the Campaigns tab in the Campaign Hub section and create a new referral program.
Program size
In the first step, define program details such as:
- Program name and category.
- Code settings (pattern, redemption limit, code count).
- Auto-update campaign mode (new codes will be automatically added to the campaign if you run out of the original pool of codes).
- Customers will join the campaign only once*.
Join once
When you create a referral campaign, you can mark that each customer will be allowed to join the campaign only once. If the same customer requests another referral code, Voucherify will give them the same code again and will not generate another code for this end-user. Therefore, one customer can only receive one referral code assigned from a particular referral campaign.
Program timeframe
In the second step, define optional time limits:
- Start and end date (if no end date is set, the program will run non-stop and will need to be paused manually).
- Validity timeframe (e.g., every day between 3 and 6 pm).
- Valid on particular days only (e.g., only on the weekend).
- Valid for specific amount of time after publication (e.g., code is active for 48 hours after sharing with customers).
Campaign Calendar
Once you save your campaign or save it as a draft, you can see when it will be active in the Campaign Calendar in the Marketer Hub sidebar section. The Campaign Calendar shows an overview of all campaigns and their timeframes and additional information when you click on a given campaign bar.
Incentive workflow
In the third section, you will be asked to set up your referral campaign workflow.
Choose a conversion event (when a new customer is designated as a referred customer).
- Referral code redemption - the referee redeems a referral code
- Custom event - a custom trigger
Next, choose the type of referral program.
- Referrer - This is a single-sided referral program where only the referrer is rewarded.
- Referrer and referee - This is a double-sided referral program in which both the referrer and the referee who was invited receive a reward.
Referee reward
If you decide on a double-sided referral program, you need to define a reward for new customers (referees). It can be a discount code (percent, unit, amount, free shipping, fixed price), gift card credits, or loyalty points.
Discount Effects
If you choose discount coupons, you need to decide if the discount is applied to the whole order or to specific items only. Select the discount effect and if needed, define discounted products using validation rules. Read more about discount effects. The discount effect is discount-specific, meaning that the effects are based on the discount context.
Validation Rules
Below this section, you can see validation rules. Here, you can create validation rules attached to referral codes. They restrict redemptions made by new customers (referees). For example, you can set the required minimum order value to $50. You can create these validation rules for both single and double-sided referral programs.
If you need help with creating limits, visit this guide.
Tiers
In the fifth stage of the program creation, you need to define rewarding criteria and tell Voucherify when and how the referrer is rewarded.
To do so, you are going to build tiers. Each tier is a separate level in your referral program. If you want to have different rewards or/and different rewarding criteria, then tiers are what you need. For example, you can reward a referrer for each successful referral with a 10% discount, and by using the second tier, you can trigger an extra reward for every 5th, 10th, and 15th referred customer.
The number of tiers is not limited, so you can build multi-level referral programs with many rewards and custom rewarding schemas.
The creation of tiers is a 3-step process:
- Criteria
- Rewards
- Notifications
Step 1: Tier criteria
For both custom events and referral code redemption-based conversion events, you can reward the referrer based on two criteria:
- Reward every time a referee (the invited customer) performs the conversion event (custom event or referral code redemption).
- Reward for a given number of referees who performed a conversion event.
Advanced Filters
With this option, you can build additional reward rules for referrers. Advanced Filters create a customer segment that a referrer has to enter to be rewarded.
Use filters to create needed segment conditions and confirm the selection with Add. As a result, a referrer needs to enter the created segment to get the reward.
Step 2: Tier rewards
Next, define the reward for referrers. You can choose from digital and material rewards:
- Discount coupon
- Gift card credits
- Loyalty points
- Physical product (imported from your product catalog).
If you have already created rewards, you can select them from a list by clicking on the magnifying glass. You can also build rewards from scratch by clicking on the plus sign. Read more about the Rewards Catalog.
When creating new digital rewards, you need to specify the campaign that will be the source of the codes. You can either choose an existing campaign or create a new campaign on the spot.
If you decide to create a new campaign from scratch, you will be taken to the Campaign Manager, where you can set the campaign name, incentive type, value, validation rules, and campaign metadata. After filling in the details, confirm with Save.
If you decide to create a new reward from scratch, you will have the option of adding metadata, which is custom attributes to the reward. Don't forget to click Save. Otherwise, the reward won't be saved.
Continue to add possible rewards for the referrer. The referral tier manager will list all active referrer rewards.
Step 3: Tier notifications
Lastly, you can add notifications that are triggered when all rewarding criteria are met, and a reward is assigned to the referrer.
You can design your message on the spot (email & SMS) or map fields for your integrations. Read more.
When the tier is ready, confirm with Done. You can add another referral tier or go to the Next step.
Program notifications
In the 6th stage, you can add optional notifications to your referral campaign. You can set up automatic notifications for two events:
- The message is triggered by code publication when sending a referral code to a referrer.
- To inform the referee about the successful referral. A successful referral triggers the message.
Note that all variables related to vouchers will be populated only in referrer notifications. Read more about notifications set up.
Metadata and summary
In the 7th step, you can add additional metadata to your campaign. Read more here about metadata.
The last stage of the manager shows a summary of your referral program. You can see the overview and, in case you need to, go back to each step to modify it.
When all program details are ready, confirm with Save and wait until the referral codes are generated.
Next step
Remember that each referral code needs to be published before new customers (referees) can use it. The publication is the process of assigning a referral code to a particular customer (referrer). Learn how you can publish referral codes.