5 Best Practices For Referral Share Messaging

Think about the last time you shared a referral program through a private message or social media. While friends and family only need the referral code, it's more convenient if there's a default referral messaging template.

The goal of a referral message is to help your brand advocate convince their network. It's typically short and straight to the point, but it should highlight the rewards and benefits that people can get.

For example, Peloton's referral share message encourages readers to achieve their New Year's fitness goals by working out at home.

A referral message introduces people to your brand and referral program. Besides highlighting your referral perks, it shapes people's perception about your brand and the products and services you'll offer.

A referral message could encourage prospects to visit your website, try your products, and make a purchase. Without it, people might not be able to have a good first impression of your brand which means dismal results for your referral program or customer acquisition goals.

How to make a good referral message? Here are the tips you need to know.

Each time customers share your referral program on social media, they simultaneously boost brand awareness. To make people more conscious of your business, place the logo in your referral messaging.

Selling app Mercari includes a bold and prominent logo at the bottom of their main referral offer. The high-quality product images and logo will pique people's interest and encourage them to click, especially if they have several friends endorsing the brand.

Ecommerce relies heavily on visual images. An eye-catching image can draw people in, encourage them to visit your website, and even opt-in to the referral offer.

Consider the LimeLife referral program banner which includes images of their starter kit and beauty products. At first glance, we can tell that the brand specializes in the cosmetics industry. A makeup lover that receives this message could be easily convinced to check it out and accept their offer.

Incentives and rewards are the main selling point of your referral program. Since most of us are exposed to many advertisements and promotions, highlighting your referral rewards could help you stand out from the crowd. If the incentives are not obvious, people will easily scroll down and ignore your post from their newsfeed.

A referral message is meant to attract the loved ones of your brand advocates. That's exactly why you should emphasize what referred friends can get by accepting the offer. Follow the example of this referral message from Shopee—an online marketplace. The personalized image shows that the receiver can get $10 off their purchase. The clear benefit and the bright and bold referral code can pull in recipients and make it easier for them to decide on the purchase.

A bit of personalization can go a long way in enticing recipients. That's why we highly recommend encouraging brand advocates to include the recipients name in your default referral message. This little personal touch can make it easier for brand advocates to sell your business.

Here's an example of a default referral message:

Hi [recipient name],

Your thoughtful friend, [brand advocate's name] believed you could use our beauty products. Here's a $50 coupon, it's yours fair and square.

This message is obviously meant for messaging platforms such as Facebook Messenger, SMS, Whatsapp, and Telegram.

Adding the name of each recipient and getting it right each time could be quite a challenge. To avoid mistakes, provide a referral message template that brand advocates can use, and encourage them to personalize it.

While personalization takes a bit of effort, most double-sided rewards programs give brand advocates more rewards for referring more friends. By having a more personalized referral message, brand advocates can get more rewards and your business can reel in more customers. It's a win-win-win situation.

Rather than using a referral message in a third-person POV, you can write a message that makes it seem like your customers are personally endorsing your brand. For example, instead of a referral message saying "Use this referral code to get"—you can incorporate personal pronouns.

Here's an example of a referral message from an Airbnb customer.

Nothing lasts forever including your referral message. To make it more relevant, consider updating your message during the change of the season, sales event, or product launch. You can also experiment with different referral messages to figure out which ones work best for your brand.

When done right, referral messages can be an effective way to acquire new customers. Referral marketing brings 3 to 5x higher conversion rates, while referred customers bring 25% higher profit margins. Just by looking at these numbers, you can easily imagine the impact of having a customized and effective referral message on your sales margin.