A referral program is a powerful way to grow your customer base by turning your happy customers into brand advocates. By rewarding customers for referring their friends and offering an incentive to the referred friend – you create a win-win 🏆
Why a referral program is important?
Referral programs are one of the most cost-effective and impactful marketing tools available. Here’s why it matters:
Trust drives action: People trust recommendations from friends more than ads. Referred friends are more likely to convert and become loyal customers.
Lower acquisition costs: You don’t need to spend heavily on ads when your customers are spreading the word for you.
Higher lifetime value: Customers gained through referrals tend to spend more and stick around longer.
Scalable word-of-mouth: A strong referral program creates a flywheel of ongoing, organic growth.
Before you get started
Here are some key details to note about creating a referral program:
Ensure you are using the new Customer Portal experience.
How to set up your referral program
1. In your Marsello admin, go to Loyalty > Referral Program
2. Click Edit referral settings
Set up your advocate's incentive
This is the incentive that encourages your members' to spread the word about your brand with their friends & family.
3. Enter the number of points to reward customers for a successful friend referral.
📝 Note: A successful referral is when the referred friend makes their first purchase and becomes a new customer.
Set up the friend's incentive discount
This is the special offer that encourages the referred friend to make their first purchase.
4. Edit the Referred friend incentive discount settings
⚠️ Important: The friend's incentive discount is set to 10% off storewide by default.
To customize, click Edit reward
Select type of reward, choose one of the following:
Fixed Discount Amount ($ off)
Percentage (% off)
Free Shipping
Reward Title: Give your reward a clear, engaging title that tells the referred friend exactly what they’ll receive for signing up and gets them excited to claim it.
Discount amount: Enter the discount amount
Optional: Add advanced reward conditions
⚠️ Important: The ability to create advanced rewards is determined by the POS/eCommerce sales channel(s) that you can using. Confirm the types of rewards avaiable per sales channel here.
Advanced reward conditions available for your referral programs include:
Applies to
This condition limits the discount to specific products or collections only.
Collection: Select the specific product collections in all of your sales channels.
Click the drop-down, enter the collection name and then select. Repeat this for all product collections and sales channels you'd like included your referral incentive.
OR
Product: Select the specific products in all of your sales channels.
Click the drop-down, enter the product name and select the product. Repeat this for all products and sales channels you'd like included in your referral incentive.
Order eligibility
This feature limits the discount to orders above a certain spend threshold.
Minimum purchase required: Set a minimum order total before the discount can be applied
Expiry, tiers, and terms
This feature allows you to an expiration period to your referral discount as well as any other terms you'd like your customers to follow when using this reward.
Discount expiry period: Enter the number of days the referred friend has to use their discount code before it expires.
Terms and conditions: Add any terms that you want your customers to abide by when using this reward. Here are some examples of terms to include with any rewards.
5. Click Update
Your referred friend’s incentive discount is now active and will become available in your referral program once it is enabled.
How it works – your referral program experience
Your member's (the advocate) experience
Stage 1
On your Customer portal, your member can access their unique referral link under the Earn Option: Refer a friend.
Stage 2
They can copy this link or share it directly, or use one of the quick-share features to share on platforms like Facebook, Email, or WhatsApp.
For example: On Facebook, they might add a personal note before sharing.
Stage 3
Once their friend completes their first purchase, they will automatically earn their loyalty points.
The friend's experience
Stage 1
Receives the referral link from their friend
Stage 2
The friend signs up to access their incentive discount
👾 Closed Beta: New referral sign-up process via your Customer portal 👾
If you're interested, please contact support to join this closed beta.
Stage 2: Current Experience
Referred friends are directed to a standalone page where they enter their details to receive a discount.
Stage 2: New Experience (Beta)
Friends are now directed to your customer portal, hosted on your online store or dedicated browser page. This provides a more engaging and branded introduction to your brand, giving friends a chance to browse products while signing up.
To receive their discount code, they must create a loyalty profile.
Signing up is simple:
Brands with omnichannel or eCommerce–only connection: Friends can create an online store account to access their loyalty profile giving them one single log in across your online store and loyalty profile.
Brands with POS–only connection(s): Friends can create a loyalty profile using their Gmail, Facebook, or Apple accounts, alternatively, they can use an email magic link. Single sign-on (SSO) makes it easy for friends to avoid remembering another password.
This new process is smoother, more trustworthy, and designed to drive quicker first purchases.
Once signed up, the referred friend will receive their unique incentive discount code, which will be visible on their loyalty profile within the customer portal.
💡 Recommended: Enable the Referral Incentive Discount email automation so the friend also receives their discount code via email – ensuring they have a copy saved in case they choose to use it later.
Stage 3
The friend can use their incentive discount on their next purchase.
Omnichannel brands: The friend can choose to use their discount code either in-store or online.
eCommerce-only brands: The friend can apply the discount code at checkout on your online store.
POS-only brands: The friend can present the discount code to store staff to redeem it during their next in-store visit.
How to promote your referral program
To make your referral program successful, it’s important to actively promote it:
Feature it prominently in your customer portal, homepage, and post-purchase emails.
Send email campaigns announcing the referral program to your customers.
Create automation when customers become 'Loyal' members, create an automation highlighting the referral program encouraging them to share with their friends and family.
Include as part of your email templates create a section of your standard email template that reminds customers of your referral program. You can include the customers' unique referral link directly in your email template with the merge tag "Customer's referral link"
Use banners or images on your online store to drive awareness.
Encourage social sharing by making it easy to post to social media with pre-filled messages.
Highlight success stories or testimonials from customers who’ve benefited from the referral program.
By integrating these strategies, you’ll maximize visibility and engagement, turning happy customers into your best brand advocates and word-of-mouth marketers.
Track the performance of your referral program
In your Marsello admin, go to Loyalty > Referral Program
📝 Note: Or under Earning Options > Referring Friends and click the down arrow next to 'Edit' > 'View reporting'.
On the Referrals page, you can view key performance data from your referral program, including:
Customers who successfully referred a friend
How many points they earned
The friend they referred
Details of the discount code issued
The date the code was claimed
Revenue generated from the referred friend’s first purchase
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