Getting Started with Referral

William Harper Updated by William Harper

Welcome to Friendbuy! We are excited for you to start the referral journey with us. This article includes a comprehensive checklist of what is needed for a successful onboarding experience. Along the way, we will include a Checkpoint! to ensure you are on the right path.

Before you Begin

Here are a few items to complete before beginning the setup of your referral program.

  1. Confirm you can log into your Friendbuy account. Unable to log in? Contact support@friendbuy.com for help! Need to add users to the account? No Problem! Here's how.
  2. Determine an Offer Strategy for the program.
  3. Understand Friendbuy Best Practice Placements and the expectations of what a referral program needs to succeed.
  4. Gather Creative Assets for the Theme. We recommend having your style guide, logo, and both portrait and landscape high-res images at the ready.
  5. Arm yourself with Referral Terms to feel confident in the information presented in this article and others.

Create a Referral Campaign

A Referral Campaign is where you will define how an Advocate and Friend receive their rewards. Here are the steps to successfully set up a new referral campaign and the contents within.

Checkpoint! A solidified Offer Strategy and an understanding of Best Practices will be necessary to create a referral campaign. Make sure these items are understood before moving forward.
  1. Create a new Referral Campaign
  2. Set Up the Advocate Reward
  3. Set Up the Friend Incentive
  4. Add Rewards
    1. To reward with coupon codes or store gift cards, we recommend setting up Code Banks. Using Shopify? Consider using our Shopify Coupon Code integration for ease of use!
    2. To reward with third-party gift cards, we recommend our Tremendous integration. Reach out to support@friendbuy.com for us to introduce you to the Tremendous team for an overview and account creation with them!
  5. Create a Widget Theme
Need support in our widget builder? Reach out to support@friendbuy.com and we will be happy to help!

Configure Best Practice Placements in your Referral Campaign

  1. Set Up a Sitewide Overlay
  2. Set Up an Advocate Landing Page
  3. Set Up a Friend Landing Page
  4. Set up a Post Purchase Overlay
  5. Set Up an Account Page Share Widget
  6. Set Up a Self-Referral Overlay
Checkpoint! These next few steps require knowledge of HTML/CSS and DNS Management. Make sure to pull in the appropriate individuals to complete these tasks.

Create and Configure Referral Emails

We send emails on your behalf in the referral flow. Learn about the types of emails we offer in this article.

  1. Create Emails
  2. Configure Email Sender
  3. Add DNS Records

Manage Account Level Settings

  1. Terms & Conditions
  2. Error Redirect URL
  3. Referral Link Fallback

Add Integration Code

Head to the 'Development Center' > 'Friendbuy Code' section of your account to find the Sitewide Code with your Merchant ID and all Track Event Codes needed to set up the integration across your site. The Sitewide Code and Track Purchase Code are necessary to create a basic setup for attribution.

Have a Shopify Store? Use our one-click integration for ease of use. Head to the Integration section of your account to connect your Shopify store now!

Sitewide Code

This is the minimal integration code needed to get started. This code should be placed on every page inside of the `head` tag in your HTML. This code is necessary to load widgets and provide attribution for referrals.

Track Purchase

This conversion tracking script should be placed on page load after a purchase/order has been completed.

Make sure to add this wherever you have a checkout option available such as ReCharge or Bold to ensure attribution there.

Ensure for payment gateways such as PayPal you have the auto return feature enabled for the user to return to the checkout confirmation page to allow the track purchase script to run.

Track Customer

To allow logged-in users to skip the “email gate” and proceed directly to sharing. This script should only be used while a customer is logged in. We do not accept blank values or zeros when customer information does not exist.

Track Page

For Single-Page Application frameworks like Gatsby or React, add this code to each page where a widget will display. Each page should have a unique name.

Track Sign Up

Include this conversion tracking script on page load after a sign-up has been completed. This code can be used for non-standard ecomm flows such as a newsletter or form.

Connect Marketing Integrations

Integrate with one of our many partners to grow your Email and SMS subscriber lists and seamlessly automate referral program customer communications. For more information on setting these up, head over to our Integrations documentation to see our offerings such as Attentive, Klaviyo, Iterable, and more!

Test the Integration and Launch

We provide a comprehensive overview to test your integration. Download the Testing Instructions here. Once you have tested both the advocate and friend flows, rewards are sending and applying correctly, and data is showing up in reporting accurately, you can launch your program by enabling the following:

  • Sitewide CTA
  • Post Purchase Overlay
  • Advocate Landing Page
  • Friend Landing Page

Now you are ready to begin driving referral program awareness. Congratulations on launching a best-in-class referral program with Friendbuy!

How did we do?

Plan Your Referral Program Implementation Team

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