Membership Overview
Learn what being a member does for you
The Seller Styles
NASP Programs
Catalog
See a summary of all our programs and certifications
Online Certifications
Certified Professional Sales Person(CPSP®)
Develop your potential as a certified sales professional
Certified Professional Sales Leader(CPSL®)
Grow your impact as a certified sales leader
Certified Master Sales Professional (CMSP®)
Join the elite group of sales professionals and leaders
Certified Master Sales Trainer (CMST®)
Online Programs
Advanced Sales Influence (ASI)
Take your influence and leadership to the next level.
Certified Professional Sales Associate (CPSA®)
Learn foundational sales behaviors, strategies, and skills
Power of Contact Marketing
Learn from marketing expert and author Stu Heinecke
ProSeries Programs
Join the top 1% of sales professionals in the world.
Next Level Virtual Coaching
Sales Mastery
Join our ongoing dynamic virtual coaching community
Career Center
Explore job postings from some of the best companies in the country looking for sales professionals
Training Resources
Daily Dose of Influence!
Enjoy our video series of influence tips and strategies
Leads To Growth
Dig into our podcast featuring industry leaders and experts
Coaches Corner
Learn from our high-level sales coaching video series
Women of Sales & Influence – Facebook Live Series
Be inspired by our Facebook Live series spotlighting top women influencers
Women of Sales & Influence – Video Blog
Enjoy valuable, high-level sales strategies to empower your sales goals
Sales Resources
The Growth Quotient
You’ve heard about IQ, but what is your GQ?
Our Commitment to You
We are here to help your approach to sales, how you interact with others, and how you perform and execute
Articles
NASP Sales Blog
Learn from our member-submitted articles for sales professionals
About Our CEO
Standards of Conduct
Testimonials
Common Questions and Answers
Contact
by Helga Zabalkanska
Writing a good referral email requires you to pay attention to every element. Doing so will get you higher conversion rates.
Staying competitive in the modern market requires you to implement all kinds of marketing strategies. On top of all the PPC campaigns, SEO content strategies and social media exposure, there’s another approach that many companies opt for.
Referral marketing is a great way to reach out to potential clients who already trust your brand because an existing customer referred you or your business.
That’s where referral emails come in to help you create a successful referral marketing campaign. But for that, you need better referral email templates, and an experienced content writer or research paper writers provider can help you to write email templates. Their role is significant in the process, as email still belongs to the top three organic content distribution channels.
Keep reading to learn more about referral emails, explore examples and tips.
In most cases, the process is simple. A user or a company client receives an email that offers a reward if they refer the business to a friend.
Referral marketing is one of the best ways of efficiently growing a business. Companies use it to turn existing customers into brand ambassadors to promote their services.
Once that customer registers and begins using the platform, the client gets a discount, money, or a coupon reward.
On the other hand, referral emails are also used by freelancers and smaller businesses offering services. They use the referrals for website testimonials, which helps build trust with potential new clients.
Referral marketing is an equivalent of incentivized word of mouth marketing but in the digital world. Implementing it will bring benefits to your business such as:
These benefits make referral marketing an effective way of growing a business in which referral emails play a crucial role.
Apply the following tips to achieve better email marketing results.
Introducing too many elements in the email can be confusing, leading to the user closing it as soon as they lay their eyes on the message. To avoid this, ensure that the layout is simple. An excellent referral email should include:
With this in mind, you’ll be able to design a simple email that delivers a clear message.
The subject line is where your proposal begins. Pick a subject line that’ll spark interest and slowly introduce the reader to the referral email. Use expressions that create a call to action right from the start.
Here’s what you could do:
The last email has a very appealing subject line as most readers will open it to see what kind of anniversary the brand refers to. Anniversary usually means gifts, so you automatically convey that some sort of reward is available in the email.
From the moment your customer opens the email, they need to understand the message. That’s why keeping everything simple is so important. The message you want to convey should be in the first paragraph of your email.
Make sure you only add the necessary elements in the email. Include the referral link they should use or a guide on how the referral program works. It’ll require less action on the user’s side, keeping things as simple as possible.
Show your customer how much you care by completely personalizing the email. Before sending one, learn more about the customer and their relationship with your brand “to better define at which stage is your buyer in his journey and target your message accordingly.”
Use specific milestones in your collaboration to send celebratory emails and remind them about your referral program.
Tools like Mailchimp will allow you to seamlessly address your users by their name. These little things make a big change as personalization shows your care for your customers.
Modern customers understand how referral programs work. They are expecting a reward for recommending your brand to their friends and family. Introduce what the prize is from the start. A single sentence can include all the reward details.
After reading the message containing all the relevant details, a clear call to action should be noticeable. That applies to referral code, link or a button. Make them easily noticeable by using different colors, bolding or underlining the relevant text.
Don’t forget that 49% of emails are opened on mobile devices. That means that you should optimize your email layout to fit the smaller screens perfectly. Use small images and short text to achieve this goal.
It would be ideal to design an email that users can see on their phones without scrolling at all.
Let’s explore a couple of helpful email examples that different companies have used in their referral marketing campaigns.
Payoneer uses an exciting approach to remind you that you can refer their company to your friends. The company sends an email with an appealing email subject that states, “Happy Payoneerversary.” It’s a perfect example of a trigger email that is sent out every year.
You’ll notice a brief congratulatory introduction that quickly continues to a referral reminder when you open an email. Then it follows with quick instructions on what to do and ends with an easy-to-notice call to action.
It’s a clean email that looks perfect on both desktop and mobile devices.
JobRack is a great platform that connects professionals with job opportunities. An interesting referral approach they provide is candidate recommendation. If you connect a particular individual with a job opportunity and they are hired, you’ll receive a financial reward.
The email is short and features crucial information in the bolded part. It quickly continues to the list of currently open jobs, helping you see the current opportunities you can promote.
Big companies are not the only ones deploying referral marketing strategies. It’s also an effective way of growing your client list as a freelancer. Create a simple form that the client can fill out and use the information as a quote on your website and social media.
Here’s an example of a referral email you can send to your happy clients.
Subject line: Greetings [Client Name]
Email:
Greetings [Client Name],
It makes me extremely happy that you’re satisfied with the services I’ve provided so far. I always give my best to deliver quality designs for your marketing materials.
I have a favor to ask. Would you possibly have some time to refer my services by filling out a form I’ve prepared for you? [Link to the form]
Thank you for your time. I’ll happily reward you by charging 10% less on our next project.
Also, am I allowed to use your referral on my website? That would mean a lot to my graphic design business. Thank you for taking the time to read my proposal, looking forward to working on our next project.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Contact details]
Another freelancing platform runs a referral program to grow its platform. Its email design is straightforward, with a call to action that stands out. The introductory part immediately features the referral offer details, followed by quick steps the user should take.
It’s a great example of how simplicity can be effective.
Companies that initially don’t offer referral programs need to find a way to introduce it somehow. A good idea is to include such an announcement in a newsletter email. That’s the approach that DMarket took, as it notified its users what their rewards are if they spread the word.
After introducing the program in the newsletter, it would be good to follow up with a separate mail containing a more direct message on referring the platform to other users.
Image Source
EverlyWell is an excellent example of how bright colors can help the message stand out. The image starts with the platform’s referral offering. In the central part is a brief explanation that shares all the offer’s nuances.
Lastly, convenient buttons make it easy to share the referral link on Facebook and Twitter.
Outdoor Voices is a perfect example of how incorporating an image can be the ideal addition to a referral email. Given the nature of the company, it fits perfectly. The short explanation of the offer below sums up all the essentials and follows up with an easy-to-notice button.
The image size fits smaller screens, making this an optimized email for different platforms.
Hopefully, you’ll find the above examples of referral emails useful. They’ll help you go in the right direction to create a referral email that gets the best results.
Creating an excellent email layout requires a little bit of trial and error. But after enough testing, you’ll get much more out of your referral program by regularly sending out effective emails.
About the author
Helga Zabalkanska is a CMO at Newoldstamp (500 Startups backed) and MySignature. She has over 10 years of experience in digital marketing with a data-driven approach. Helga is a startup enthusiast and SaaS lover.