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referral-program
You are an expert in viral growth and referral marketing with access to referral program data and third-party tools. Your goal is to help design and optimize programs that turn customers into growth engines.
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You are an expert in viral growth and referral marketing with access to referral program data and third-party tools. Your goal is to help design and optimize programs that turn customers into growth engines.
Optimize pull requests for quick approval and merging by ensuring clean diffs, comprehensive self-reviews, and structured documentation.
Frontend design entry point: direction, design system, visual philosophy. Use whenever building or touching the look of any web UI (components, pages, dashboards, React/Vue/HTML-CSS) or when the user says "make this look better", "fix the spacing/layout", or mentions styling, color, type, or polish.
Render the UI and prove it's balanced + usable: a deterministic layout audit (centroid / optical-center / pixel-oracle balance via explicit math + annotated screenshot) plus a vision-judged Nielsen usability audit by a separate fresh-eyes judge. The measurement layer taste-only design skills lack.
Automated visual tuning: a vision or video model rates rendered variants in a loop. Render several labeled variants into one artifact, ask the model to rate them and suggest better values, render the suggestions, ask it to pick the best, repeat until good — the model is the eye, you run the loop.
Human-in-the-loop web studio to tune AI-generated output by eye. Stand up a local interactive studio (sliders, pickers, drag handles) or an inline edit/highlight/comment annotation studio for prose & media, instead of guessing values or shipping a static comparison grid.
macOS screen recorder that captures the main display PLUS system audio via ScreenCaptureKit — no BlackHole/loopback driver, no sudo, just the standard Screen Recording permission. CLI-driven; fills the headless-screen-recording-with-system-sound gap QuickTime and `screencapture -v` can't.
| name | referral-program |
| description | You are an expert in viral growth and referral marketing with access to referral program data and third-party tools. Your goal is to help design and optimize programs that turn customers into growth engines. |
| risk | unknown |
| source | community |
| date_added | 2026-02-27 |
You are an expert in viral growth and referral marketing with access to referral program data and third-party tools. Your goal is to help design and optimize programs that turn customers into growth engines.
Gather this context (ask if not provided):
Best for:
Characteristics:
Best for:
Characteristics:
Many successful programs combine both:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ │
│ │ Trigger │───▶│ Share │───▶│ Convert │ │
│ │ Moment │ │ Action │ │ Referred │ │
│ └──────────┘ └──────────┘ └──────────┘ │
│ ▲ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ └───────────────────────────────┘ │
│ Reward │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
When are customers most likely to refer?
High-intent moments:
Natural sharing moments:
Methods ranked by effectiveness:
Best practice: Offer multiple sharing options, lead with the highest-converting method.
Single-sided rewards (referrer only):
Double-sided rewards (both parties):
Tiered rewards:
| Type | Pros | Cons | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash/credit | Universally valued | Feels transactional | Marketplaces, fintech |
| Product credit | Drives usage | Only valuable if they'll use it | SaaS, subscriptions |
| Free months | Clear value | May attract freebie-seekers | Subscription products |
| Feature unlock | Low cost to you | Only works for gated features | Freemium products |
| Swag/gifts | Memorable, shareable | Logistics complexity | Brand-focused companies |
| Charity donation | Feel-good | Lower personal motivation | Mission-driven brands |
Calculate your maximum incentive:
Max Referral Reward = (Customer LTV × Gross Margin) - Target CAC
Example:
Typical referral rewards:
Program: Give 500MB storage, get 500MB storage Why it worked:
Program: Give $10 ride credit, get $10 when they ride Why it worked:
Program: Tiered rewards for subscriber referrals
Why it worked:
Program: $10 credit per referral (education) Why it worked:
Percentage of sale:
Flat fee per action:
Recurring commission:
Tiered commission:
How long after click does affiliate get credit?
| Duration | Use Case |
|---|---|
| 24 hours | High-volume, low-consideration purchases |
| 7-14 days | Standard e-commerce |
| 30 days | Standard SaaS/B2B |
| 60-90 days | Long sales cycles, enterprise |
| Lifetime | Premium affiliate relationships |
Where to find affiliates:
Outreach template:
Subject: Partnership opportunity — [Your Product]
Hi [Name],
I've been following your content on [topic] — particularly [specific piece] — and think there could be a great fit for a partnership.
[Your Product] helps [audience] [achieve outcome], and I think your audience would find it valuable.
We offer [commission structure] for partners, plus [additional benefits: early access, co-marketing, etc.].
Would you be open to learning more?
[Your name]
Provide affiliates with:
Viral coefficient (K-factor):
K = Invitations × Conversion Rate
K > 1 = Viral growth (each user brings more than 1 new user)
K < 1 = Amplified growth (referrals supplement other acquisition)
Example:
Referral rate:
Referral Rate = (Customers who refer) / (Total customers)
Benchmarks:
Referrals per referrer:
How many successful referrals does each referring customer generate?
Benchmarks:
Referral Program ROI = (Revenue from referred customers - Program costs) / Program costs
Program costs = Rewards paid + Tool costs + Management time
Track separately:
If few customers are referring:
If referrals aren't converting:
Incentive tests:
Messaging tests:
Placement tests:
| Problem | Likely Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Low awareness | Program not visible | Add prominent in-app prompts |
| Low share rate | Too much friction | Simplify to one click |
| Low conversion | Weak landing page | Optimize referred user experience |
| Fraud/abuse | Gaming the system | Add verification, limits |
| One-time referrers | No ongoing motivation | Add tiered/gamified rewards |
Technical:
Policy:
Structural:
Full-featured platforms:
Built-in options:
Affiliate networks:
Self-hosted:
Consider:
Email 1: Announcement
Subject: You can now earn [reward] for sharing [Product]
Body:
We just launched our referral program!
Share [Product] with friends and earn [reward] for each person who signs up. They get [their reward] too.
[Unique referral link]
Here's how it works:
1. Share your link
2. Friend signs up
3. You both get [reward]
[CTA: Share now]
After signup (if they haven't referred):
Subject: Your friends are loving [Product]
Body:
Remember when you referred [Name]? They've [achievement/milestone].
Know anyone else who'd benefit? You'll earn [reward] for each friend who joins.
[Referral link]
Program health:
Business impact:
Track referred customers separately:
Typical findings:
If you need more context:
This skill is applicable to execute the workflow or actions described in the overview.