Objective
Acquire qualified entrants through trusted referrals
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Free planning resourceBuilt for Shopify merchants
Refer-a-friend giveaway template
Give every entrant a reason to introduce the campaign to people with similar interests.
- Practical examples
- Implementation checklist
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Ready-to-use template
Campaign blueprint
Start with the complete working structure, then adjust the language, timing, and incentive to fit your customers and brand.
Best used when
Your team has a specific decision or growth objective and needs a focused artifact to move from planning to launch.
Audience
Your existing customers and entrants, specifically the ones who already talk about you. The people it reaches second, the referred friends, are the actual acquisition, pre-filtered by someone who knows both them and the product. A poor fit for a brand nobody has bought from yet, since there is nothing to refer.
Recommended duration
4 to 6 weeks per season, two or three seasons a year
What to measure
Referrals per referrer, and what share of total entries came from your top ten referrers. A healthy season has a wide base: if most referrals come from six people, you have found six ambassadors rather than built a referral engine.
Prize ideas
- matching prizes for the winner and a friend
- A focused product bundle for the same customer need
- Store credit paired with a bestselling product
Entry design
Primary action
Enter with email
Bonus actions
Refer a friend
Campaign timeline
- 1Week 1: open the season to customers and your existing list, since the first referrals can only come from people who already know you
- 2Week 2: email entrants a progress update read from the entry export, which is what gets a second share out of the same person
- 3Week 4: last call with the cap restated, so nobody assumes the leaderboard is already decided
- 4Close and draw: announce the winner and their referred friend together, then close the season for a few months so the next one still means something
Launch checklist
- Season start and end dates fixed, and the gap before the next season decided too
- Referral cap set and stated on the entry page in entries, not percentages
- The share message written for the referrer, leading with what the friend gets
- A verification pass booked before the draw: distinct addresses, no duplicated people
Promotion copy
“Refer a friend before [date] and you both go in the draw: matching [prize] for one winner and for the friend who got them in. Every friend who enters adds entries to your name, up to [cap].”
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What you get
What this template gives you
Three specifics worth checking against your own store before you launch.
Matching prizes for the winner and the friend, which turns the ask into a gift
Runs as a season with a close date, not a permanent widget nobody notices
A stated cap on referral entries, so the top of the list stays reachable
How to put it into practice
How to put it to work
Start with the focused version, publish, and let the first answers steer the next iteration.
- 1
Fix the season length before you open it: four to six weeks with a published close date, so there is a reason to share this week
- 2
Make email the entry and the referral the multiplier, then say plainly how many referral entries one person can earn
- 3
Write the share message for the referrer, because most people send whatever wording you hand them rather than composing their own
Mistakes to avoid
Protect the quality of the result
Strong execution usually comes from removing ambiguity and keeping every action tied to the original objective.
Leaving it open forever, which removes the only urgency a referral has and turns the campaign into furniture on your site
Uncapped referral entries, so the season is decided by whoever is most willing to create extra email addresses
Prizing only the referrer, which makes the message awkward to send: help me win is not a forwardable sentence
Drawing before you check the referred entries, instead of verifying distinct people while you can still fix it quietly
Frequently asked questions
Practical answers before you launch
How is this different from a referral discount program?
A discount program pays a fixed reward per referral and lives permanently on your store. This is a campaign: a fixed window, one prize, and a draw at the end. It suits brands whose repeat cycle is too long for a standing referral offer to feel worth the effort, and it gives you a reason to relaunch the idea two or three times a year.
How do I stop people referring themselves?
Cap referral entries per person, require each referred entry to be a distinct verified email, and read the top of the list by hand before you draw. A prize only your customer wants also lowers the payoff for gaming it, which is a better defense than any rule you can write.
How long should a referral season run?
Four to six weeks. Shorter and the second wave never happens, because most people share once and forget. Longer and the deadline stops functioning as a reason to act, which is the only thing making anybody share at all.
What should the share message say?
Say what the friend gets, not what the referrer gets. You get a shot at [prize] too is forwardable; help me win entries is not. Write it in the second person, keep it under two lines, and put it where the entrant sees it immediately after entering.
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