Refer-A-Friend

This documentation will explain in detail how to use the Refer-A-Friend feature.

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This documentation has been depreciated.

Please visit https://support.viralsweep.com/ for our updated documentation.

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Note

This feature is only available on our Business and Agency plans.

Overview

The Refer-A-Friend feature encourages people to share your promotion with their friends through email in order to earn bonus entries. When a user enters your promotion, they will see the Refer-A-Friend box which allows them to type in a friend's email address and invite them to the promotion. Users will only receive bonus entries when a friend that they refer actually enters the promotion.

Setup

Select the Refer-A-Friend feature under Advanced Options when putting your promotion together.

Email From

This field is the email address that the email will come from. By default, we suggest leaving this blank, as the email will come from the person who entered the promotion.

For example, if John enters with [email protected], and refers [email protected], the email that Lisa receives will be from [email protected].

However, if you want the Refer-A-Friend emails to come from your own company, then enter your company email address into the Email From field.

Subject and Body

In the subject field, enter what you want the subject of the email to be. Be sure to keep it clear and concise, and do not make it misleading or deceptive.

In the body of the email, we provide you with a default message that you can use, along with parameters that you can utilize. The body field accepts both plain-text, as well as HTML. If you currently have an HTML email template that you use, you can copy and paste it into the body field.

The current available parameters that we provide are:

[REFER_URL] - This will automatically pull in the referral URL of the person who invited their friend.

[END_TIME] - This will display the end time of the promotion.

[ENTRY_NAME] - This will display the first name of the entrant. You must be using the 'Name' field on your entry form in order for this to work.

[ENTRY_EMAIL] - This will display the email address of the entrant.

Here is an example utilizing some of these parameters:

HTML

Howdy!

I just entered to win this trip to Cancun and thought you would be interested in entering too.

Follow this link to enter for a chance to win a trip to Cancun: [REFER_URL].

This sweepstakes will end on [END_TIME], so be sure to enter before it's too late!

If you want to use text or an image with the [REFER_URL] parameter, that will need to be added using HTML. That would look like this:

HTML

<a href="[REFER_URL]">Click here to enter the sweepstakes</a>

Test Email

Once you have input the proper information, you can send yourself a test email. Simply input your email address and a test email will be dispatched to you.

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Note

The test email feature is purely to see what the email will look like. We do not fill in the parameters in the test email, so you will not see a referral URL, or the end time, etc. If you want to do a live test of this where all the parameters are filled in, save your campaign and enter the promotion to run a live test.

Common Questions

Will I receive the email addresses of those who were referred if they did not enter?

No. You will only receive the email addresses of people who entered the promotion. If someone referred a friend and that friend did not enter, you will not get that persons email address as they did not opt-in to your promotion.

Example 1: John invites his friend Sam to the promotion and Sam enters. You will receive the email addresses of both John and Sam.

Example 2: John invites his friend Jessica to the promotion but she does not enter. You will receive only John's email address.

Can a user upload an email list to send out emails to all their friends at once?

No. This encourages spam, which we strictly prohibit. A user must type in email addresses one at a time to invite people to the promotion.

How do I know what the email will say that gets sent out when people refer friends?

You have full control over this email during the setup phase. Please refer to the setup section which will explain in detail how to modify the email that is sent out.

Does a user get bonus entries every single time they invite a friend?

No, users do not get bonus entries simply for inviting people. This is strictly referral based, so the user can only earn a bonus entry when the friend that they invite clicks on the link in the email they receive and enters the promotion.

Example 1 - Successful Referral: John invites his friend Lisa to the promotion by entering her email address into the Refer-A-Friend box. Lisa opens the email she receives, clicks the link, and the enters the promotion. John receives bonus entries for successfully referring Lisa.

Example 2 - Unsuccessful Referral: John invites his friend Chris to the promotion by entering his email address into the Refer-A-Friend box. Chris opens the email he receives, clicks the link, but does not enter the promotion. John does not receive bonus entries because Chris did not enter the promotion.

Is there a limit to the number of friends that someone can invite?

No. A user can invite an unlimited number of friends to the promotion through this feature.

When testing I did not get the Refer-A-Friend email, what happened?

There could be a few reasons for this:

• There is a delay in sending the email. Please allow more time for it to be delivered.
• The email went to your spam folder. Please check your spam/junk folder.
• The email address you referred is invalid and the email bounced.
• You triggered our spam filter while testing, and therefore no emails will be sent out. Be sure to disable the spam filter while testing, and reenable it when you promotion goes live.

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Any questions? We're here to help

You can reach us at [email protected] or talk to us on live chat if we are available.