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Referral campaign builder

Seamlessly refine layouts and enhance text and visuals using the intuitive referral campaign visual editor

James Dohm avatar
Written by James Dohm
Updated over a week ago

Introduction

With referral campaigns, your referral marketing initiatives can receive a significant boost. Create engaging referral campaigns that drive customer acquisition and increase loyalty using our comprehensive visual editor to effortlessly refine layouts and enhance text and visuals.

✨ Referral campaigns are available on the Scale and Plus plans. See pricing β†’


General

Configure your campaign's core settings, rewards, and integration options. In General, you can set up the main preferences of your campaign, including visibility, naming, display options, and the rewards available for advocates and referred friends.

General tab on the Referral Campaigns editor
  • Campaign Status - Toggle your campaign active or inactive. When active, customers can access your referral program through the embedded code or theme extension. Inactive campaigns are hidden from customers but settings are preserved.

  • Campaign Name - Set an internal name for your campaign - this is only visible to you for organization purposes. Use descriptive names to easily identify different campaigns if you create multiple ones.

  • Embedded Campaign - Copy the provided HTML snippet to embed your campaign on any page of your website. The code format is: <div id="rivo-referral-campaign-{ID}"></div>. If you're using Rivo's theme extension, you can reference the campaign using its unique ID number instead of embedding the HTML code directly.

  • Display Type - Choose how your referral campaign appears to customers: Inline (displays directly within your page content) or Popup (appears as an overlay popup window).

  • Advocate Incentive - Configure rewards for customers who refer their friends (advocates). Choose from multiple reward types: Fixed Amount (specific dollar discount), Percentage (percentage-based discount), Free Shipping (complimentary shipping), Free Product (specific product at no cost), or Gift Card (store credit). The advocates receive their reward after the referred friend places their first order and need to follow a link sent by email to claim their reward.

  • Friend Incentive - Set up rewards for new customers who are referred by advocates. Use the same reward types as advocate incentives. This discount code is generated once the referred friend follows the referral link to claim the reward. Friend rewards are typically designed to encourage first-time purchases.

πŸ’‘ Find out more: Referral reward types


Pages

Customize every step of the customer journey through your referral campaign. In Pages, you can edit the copy of your campaign and configure how advocates and referred friends interact with each page. Each page can be fully customized with your own text, buttons, and branding.

Design tab on the Referral Campaigns editor

πŸ’‘ Find out more: Customer referrals explained

Advocate Signup

Advocate Signup page

The initial page where customers sign up to become advocates and start referring friends. This is the page that your customers see when they first visit your dedicated referral page or the page where you have embedded your campaign.

Customizable Elements:

  • Header Title: Main heading displayed at the top

  • Title & Subtitle: Primary messaging explaining the referral program

  • Form Fields: Email (required) and optional first name field

  • Button Text: Call-to-action button (default: "Invite Friends")

  • Disclaimer Text: Legal or promotional disclaimers

Additional Options:

  • Email Marketing Consent: Optional checkbox to subscribe advocates to your email list with customizable checkbox text and default checked state

  • Terms & Conditions: Link to your terms and conditions page with customizable text and URL

  • First Name Requirement: Toggle whether first name is required or optional

Advocate Share

Advocate Share page

This is the page customers see after signing up. From here, they can share their unique referral link across multiple channels and track their referral progress.

Sharing Options:

  • Personal Link: Unique referral URL that can be copied and shared anywhere

  • Email Sharing: Built-in email form to send referrals directly to friends

  • Social Media: Quick sharing buttons for Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms

  • SMS & WhatsApp: Mobile sharing options with customizable messages

Email Sharing Features:

  • Recipient List: Comma-separated email addresses for multiple recipients

  • Custom Subject: Personalized email subject line (can be enabled/disabled)

  • Additional Note: Personal message from the advocate (can be enabled/disabled)

  • Reminder Emails: Automatic follow-up emails after 3 days (can be enabled/disabled)

Stats Email Feature: Advocates can request their referral statistics to be sent to their email, helping them track their progress and earnings.

Advocate Reward

Advocate Reward page

This page appears when advocates have successfully completed a referral and earned their reward. They access this page through the "Referral Completed" email notification.

Reward Claiming Options:

  • Discount Code Display: Shows the generated discount code

  • Copy Function: One-click copying of the discount code

  • Auto-Apply: Automatically applies the discount when customers visit your store

  • Apply Button: Direct link to apply the code at checkout

  • Post-Discount Redirect: Custom page to redirect customers after claiming their reward

Friend Claim

Friend Claim page

This is the landing page for referred friends after they follow a referral link. Friends submit their email address to claim their reward and receive their discount code.

πŸ“ Note: The Friend Claim Page includes built-in fraud prevention measures to ensure program integrity.

Fraud Prevention Features:

  • Email Validation: Prevents duplicate claims from the same email address

  • Existing Customer Detection: Identifies if the email belongs to an existing customer

  • Referral Link Validation: Ensures the referral link is valid and active

  • Customer Exclusion: Merchants can exclude specific customers from the referral program

Advanced Options:

  • CTA Version: Replace email signup with a custom call-to-action button

  • Custom JavaScript: Add custom functionality for advanced integrations

  • Marketing Consent: Optional checkbox for email marketing subscription

  • Terms & Conditions: Link to legal terms for the referral program

Friend Reward

Friend Reward page

The final page where friends receive their discount code after successfully claiming their reward. After referred friends submit their emails and pass the fraud check, this is the page where they can claim their reward and receive instructions for redemption.

Features:

  • Discount Code Display: Clear presentation of the earned discount code

  • Copy Functionality: Easy one-click copying of the discount code

  • Auto-Apply Option: Automatically applies the discount when friends visit your store

  • Apply Button: Direct link to your store with the discount pre-applied

  • Post-Discount Redirect: Custom page to guide friends after claiming their reward


Design

Customize the visual appearance of your referral campaign to perfectly match your brand identity and create a seamless customer experience. Customize the layout of your campaigns by setting brand colors, background images, fonts, and other visual elements.

Design tab on the Referral Campaigns editor
  • Colors - Comprehensive color customization options to match your brand palette: header colors (background and font), title color, subtitle color, button colors (background, border, and font), and footer color.

  • Typography - Control font sizes and text alignment for optimal readability: customize title, subtitle, button, and footer font sizes (in pixels), set text alignment (left, center, right), and choose primary and secondary font families.

  • Custom height - Set specific heights for desktop and mobile displays to ensure optimal viewing across all devices. Edit the vertical distance between the embed and the element after it, for desktop and mobile, on the page it has been inserted. This applies to the Advocate Signup and Advocate Share Pages only.

  • Background type - Choose how to display the media between Cover (as a background) and Columns layout. This applies to the Advocate Signup and Advocate Share Pages only.

  • Background position - Position the background image on the left or right side. Applies to any Page that uses the background type Columns.

  • Share mode - Choose how sharing options are presented to advocates: Tabs (sharing options displayed in tabbed interface) or Blocks (sharing options shown as individual blocks).

  • Email Subject enabled - Toggle the visibility of email sharing form elements. Show/hide the subject line customization for advocates when sharing referral links via email.

  • Email Note enabled - Show/hide the personal message field for advocates when sharing referral links via email.

  • Email send reminder enabled - Show/hide the reminder email checkbox. Let advocates send automatic follow-up emails to their friends after 3 days.

  • Background image - Upload a custom background image (minimum 500px x 400px) to enhance your campaign's visual appeal. We recommend a size of 1420 x 800 pixels.


Advanced

Fine-tune your campaign with advanced customization options and integrations. Use the advanced settings to insert CSS codes, configure social sharing, and set up additional functionality.

Custom CSS

Add custom CSS to further customize the appearance and behavior of your referral campaign beyond the standard design options. This allows for advanced styling and layout modifications, from importing fonts to changing the entire look and feel of your campaign.

Best Practices:

  • Test your CSS changes thoroughly across different devices

  • Use specific selectors to avoid conflicts with your site's existing styles

  • Keep accessibility in mind when modifying colors and fonts

  • Ensure your customizations work well with both light and dark themes

Social Sharing Configuration

Customize social media sharing options and messages:

  • Facebook Sharing: Enable/disable Facebook sharing button

  • Twitter Sharing: Enable/disable Twitter sharing with custom message

  • SMS Sharing: Enable/disable SMS sharing with custom message

  • WhatsApp Sharing: Enable/disable WhatsApp sharing with custom message

  • Email Sharing: Built-in email sharing functionality

  • Share Order: Customize the order in which sharing options appear


Email Functionality

Comprehensive email features to enhance your referral program's effectiveness and keep participants engaged.

Email Sharing

Built-in email functionality allows advocates to send referral invitations directly through your campaign:

  • Multiple Recipients: Send to multiple friends using comma-separated email addresses

  • Custom Subject Lines: Personalize email subject lines

  • Personal Messages: Add custom notes to referral emails

  • Automatic Reminders: Send follow-up emails after 3 days to non-responsive recipients

Stats Emails

Advocates can request their referral performance statistics via email, including:

  • Number of successful referrals

  • Total rewards earned

  • Pending referrals

  • Campaign performance metrics

Notification Emails

Automated email notifications keep participants engaged:

  • Referral Completed: Sent to advocates when their referral makes a purchase

  • Reward Available: Notifies participants when rewards are ready to claim

  • Welcome Emails: Sent to new advocates and referred friends


Fraud Prevention & Security

Rivo's referral system includes robust fraud prevention tools to maintain program integrity and ensure fair participation.

Built-in Fraud Detection

Automatic fraud prevention measures include:

  • Duplicate Email Prevention: Prevents the same email from claiming multiple rewards

  • Existing Customer Detection: Identifies when referred emails belong to existing customers

  • Self-Referral Prevention: Blocks advocates from referring themselves

  • Link Validation: Ensures referral links are legitimate and active

Customer Exclusion

Merchants can manually exclude problematic customers from the referral program. Excluded customers will see generic error messages when attempting to participate, without being notified of their exclusion status.

Program Eligibility

Configure eligibility requirements:

  • New Customer Only: Restrict rewards to first-time customers

  • Minimum Order Values: Set minimum purchase requirements for reward redemption

  • Order Quantity Limits: Control how many items must be purchased

  • Expiration Dates: Set time limits on reward validity


Analytics & Tracking

Monitor your referral campaign performance with comprehensive analytics to optimize your program's effectiveness.

Campaign Metrics

Track key performance indicators:

  • Total Referrals: Number of referral links shared

  • Claimed Referrals: Number of friends who claimed rewards

  • Completed Referrals: Number of referred friends who made purchases

  • Revenue Generated: Total sales value from referred customers

  • Conversion Rates: Percentage of referrals that convert to sales

Individual Performance

Monitor individual advocate performance:

  • Top-performing advocates

  • Referral success rates by advocate

  • Reward distribution patterns

  • Customer lifetime value of referred customers

Campaign Optimization

Use analytics insights to optimize your campaigns:

  • A/B test different reward amounts

  • Optimize page copy and design based on conversion rates

  • Identify the most effective sharing channels

  • Monitor fraud patterns and adjust prevention measures

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