How to build a referral program using Klaviyo

Referrals can be a game-changer for your brand, but creating a successful referral program requires careful planning and effective communication. In this blog post, I will show you how to use Voucherify and Klaviyo to build an omnichannel referral program.

How to use Klaviyo for referral programs?

Klaviyo is a CEP/CDP which helps brands collect and use customer data to send targeted and effective messages, helping them better engage with their audience. Klaviyo offers plenty of features to help in running robust referral campaigns.

1. Email campaigns for refer-a-friend programs

Craft personalized referral emails that go beyond just using the recipient's name. For instance, reference their recent purchases, highlight products they've shown interest in, and suggest friends who might also like those products based on their browsing history.

2. List segmentation to find advocates

Segment your email list to find potential advocates and target customers who have not referred anyone yet. Send them a reminder email with an incentive, for example, a discount code, to encourage them to share your brand with friends.

3. Automate referrals with workflows

Set up an automated referral workflows that triggers a referral email to be sent immediately after a customer successfully refers a friend. This referral email can include a personalized thank-you message for the referral, details about the reward they've earned, and clear instructions on how to redeem or share their unique referral code with additional friends.

4. A/B test referral models

Improve distribution with tests for subject lines, content, and timing. For example, test "Refer a Friend and Get Rewarded!" against "Share the Love: Refer Friends for Exclusive Discounts" and see what gives you the best results.

5. Launch omnichannel referrals

Enable SMS marketing alongside email for your referral program. For example, send a brief SMS notification immediately after a successful referral, informing the customer about their earned reward.

6. Analyze referral performance

Use detailed performance data to track which referral emails drive the most engagement. For example, analyze open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates to identify the most effective email content and timing.

Why use Voucherify and Klaviyo for referral programs?

Klaviyo is a CEP, and while it can be a valuable tool for certain aspects of running a referral program, it does not provide all the features needed to carry out a referral campaign on its own. Here are some limitations of referral programs in Klaviyo:

1. Klaviyo cannot generate referral codes or set up referral models.
2. Klaviyo's plugins do not extensively support custom event triggers for referral program interactions, making it difficult to track and validate specific referral actions.
3. As referral programs grow, Klaviyo's connectors may not be able to handle large amounts of referral-related data.
4. Implementing tiered referral rewards based on specific criteria can be challenging with Klaviyo's plugins.
5. Some of Klaviyo's plugins lack advanced personalization options, like generating unique, one-time-use coupon codes for rewards, which could result in a less personalized experience for advocates and invited friends.

But do not worry. While Klaviyo is a versatile platform for customer engagement, it just needs a little help when it comes to running engaging refer-a-friend campaigns. Here is where Voucherify referral module comes in handy.

1. Custom referral triggers

Voucherify allows for custom referral triggers – for instance, a referred friend has to complete a user profile or make the first order worth more than $60 for the referral to be marked as successful. This lets you not only to personalize the program more, but also protect it from referral fraud.

 2. High-scale refer-a-friend campaigns

Voucherify, through its robust APIs, enables efficient data synchronization and workflow management with other systems, for example, CDP platforms, which are invaluable for effective customer data management.

Voucherify's APIs provide a means to significantly reduce development time and integrate your referral program into different stages of the user journey. This includes sharing referral codes with advocates after purchases or within specific app views. Moreover, these APIs facilitate efficient data synchronization and workflow management with other systems, such as CDP platforms, to enhance the management of customer data.

3. Conditional referral reward rules

Voucherify allows full control over when referral rewards are granted. You can create rules based on specific criteria, for example: 

• Minimum purchase amounts (e.g., $20).
• Product restrictions (e.g., product X is excluded from the referral offer).
• Audience (e.g., only loyalty members can become advocates).
• Or time-based conditions (e.g., the referral code is only valid between X and Y days). 

4. Referral levels

Voucherify succeeds at managing varying award levels in your referral campaign, depending on the engagement level of your advocates. For example, you can set it up so that if a customer refers one friend, they receive a $10 discount, but if they refer three friends, they earn a substantial $50 discount for successful referrals.

Why choose a composable referral engine?

Voucherify and Klaviyo both offer granular APIs – this approach streamlines integration efforts, ensuring that both platforms work together properly. With an API-first connection, data can flow between Voucherify referral APIs and Klaviyo's email APIs to orchestrate the complete refer-a-friend campaign with just two platforms.

While we provide a ready-made Klaviyo plugin, this API flexibility allows you to create customized, more advanced referral scenarios, for example:

• Referral link shares.
• Referral progress messages.
• Referral shares reminders.
• Referral completed ‘thank you’ emails.
• Referral redemption created notifications.

How to connect Voucherify and Klaviyo for successful referral distribution?

To create a referral program with email distribution, you need to connect Voucherify and Klaviyo via API.

This connection enables data transfer, enabling Klaviyo to send personalized messages to potential advocates and invited friends containing essential referral information, like unique referral codes and referral rewards managed by Voucherify.

Once you have connected the two platforms via the API, select Klaviyo as your distribution channel when configuring referral tiers within the Voucherify referral campaign.

For the integration to work properly, you need to map Voucherify fields to Klaviyo – for instance, set the name of the referral code to "referral_klaviyo." This is how the property will be named in Klaviyo.

Upon assigning a referral code to a customer, observe how this information automatically transfers to Klaviyo.

Remember: For that to happen, the Customer ID and External ID should be the same.

When viewing customer details in Klaviyo, you will also find the referral code readily available.

Importantly, you do not have to send referral codes to your customers only in the alphanumeric form, as Voucherify also automatically generates QR and barcodes with every referral code created. 

You can send the codes via email and if your referral program is to work offline as well, the referred friend can simply scan the code at checkout while visiting the brick-and-mortar store.

The depicted data flow above enables the distribution of referral codes to potential advocates through personalized email campaigns managed by Klaviyo. 

Remember: This is only an exemplary setup, and after connecting Voucherify and Klaviyo, you can customize the type of information sent to Klaviyo, allowing for a fully customized distribution of various referral details.

In the same way, as presented above, you can also support Klaviyo distribution for your referral rewards defined in Voucherify, for example, discount codes.