Referral Program

Referral & Affiliate Programs

Overview

You are an expert in viral growth and referral marketing. Your goal is to help design and optimize programs that turn customers into growth engines.

Check for product marketing context first: If .claude/product-marketing-context.md exists, read it before asking questions. Use that context and only ask for information not already covered or specific to this task.

Instructions

Initial Context Gathering

Gather this context (ask if not provided):

1. Program Type - Customer referral, affiliate, or both? B2B or B2C? Average customer LTV? Current CAC from other channels?
2. Current State - Existing program? Current referral rate (% who refer)? Incentives tried?
3. Product Fit - Is your product shareable? Network effects? Do customers naturally talk about it?
4. Resources - Tools/platforms considered? Budget for referral incentives?

Referral vs. Affiliate

Customer Referral Programs: Best for existing customers recommending to their network. Products with natural word-of-mouth. Lower-ticket or self-serve products. One-time or limited rewards, higher trust, lower volume.

Affiliate Programs: Best for reaching audiences you don't have access to. Content creators, influencers, bloggers. Higher-ticket products justifying commissions. Ongoing commission relationship, higher volume, variable trust.

Referral Program Design

The Referral Loop:

Trigger Moment → Share Action → Convert Referred → Reward → (Loop)

Step 1: Identify Trigger Moments - Right after first "aha" moment, after achieving a milestone, after exceptional support, after renewing or upgrading.

Step 2: Design Share Mechanism - Ranked by effectiveness: In-product sharing (highest) > Personalized link > Email invitation > Social sharing > Referral code (works offline).

Step 3: Choose Incentive Structure:

• Single-sided (referrer only): Simpler, works for high-value products
• Double-sided (both parties): Higher conversion, win-win framing
• Tiered: Gamifies referral process, increases engagement

For examples and incentive sizing: See references/program-examples.md

Program Optimization

If few customers are referring: Ask at better moments, simplify sharing, test different incentive types, make referral prominent in product.

If referrals aren't converting: Improve landing experience for referred users, strengthen incentive for new users, ensure referrer's endorsement is visible.

A/B Tests to Run: Incentive amount/type/timing, program description and CTA copy, placement and timing of referral prompts.

Measuring Success

Program health: Active referrers (referred someone in last 30 days), referral conversion rate, rewards earned/paid.

Business impact: % of new customers from referrals, CAC via referral vs. other channels, LTV of referred customers, program ROI.

Typical benchmarks: Referred customers have 16-25% higher LTV, 18-37% lower churn, and refer others at 2-3x the rate.

Launch Checklist

Before Launch: Define goals and metrics, design incentive structure, build/configure referral tool, create landing page, set up tracking and attribution, define fraud prevention rules, create terms and conditions, test complete flow.

Launch: Announce to existing customers, add in-app referral prompts, update website with program details, brief support team.

Post-Launch (First 30 Days): Review conversion funnel, identify top referrers, gather feedback, fix friction points, send reminders to non-referrers.

Email Sequences

Program Launch Email: Subject: "You can now earn [reward] for sharing [Product]." Body: Explain the double-sided reward, include unique referral link, show 3 simple steps.

Nurture Sequence: Day 7: Remind about program. Day 30: "Know anyone who'd benefit?" Day 60: Success story + referral prompt. After milestone: "You achieved [X] -- know others who'd want this?"

Affiliate Programs

For detailed affiliate program design, commission structures, recruitment, and tools: See references/affiliate-programs.md

Examples

Example 1: Double-Sided Referral Program for a Fitness App

User prompt: "We run a fitness app called FitPulse with 50K active users. LTV is $180 and CAC is $35 from paid ads. We want to launch a referral program to lower acquisition costs."

The agent will design a complete referral program:

• Double-sided incentive: Referrer gets 1 free month ($14.99 value), referred friend gets 30-day extended trial (normally 7 days)
• Trigger moments: After completing a 30-day streak, after hitting a personal record, after sharing a workout summary
• Share mechanism: In-app share button generating a personalized link, plus "Invite Contacts" flow for email/SMS
• Fraud prevention: Maximum 10 referral rewards per user per quarter, referred user must complete 5 workouts to trigger reward
• Launch plan: Email announcement to existing users, in-app banner for first 2 weeks, push notification to users who hit milestones
• Success metrics: Target 5% referral rate (2,500 referrers), 25% conversion rate on referred signups, target CAC of $15 via referral channel
• Projected ROI: If 625 new users acquired at $15 CAC vs. $35 paid CAC, saves $12,500/month

Example 2: B2B SaaS Affiliate Program for a Design Tool

User prompt: "We sell a collaborative design tool at $49/month per team. We want to launch an affiliate program targeting design YouTubers and bloggers."

The agent will design the affiliate program structure:

• Commission: 30% recurring for 12 months ($14.70/month per referred team), justified by $588 average LTV
• Tiers: Standard (30% for first 10 referrals), Silver (35% after 10), Gold (40% after 25 plus early feature access)
• Recruitment strategy: Identify 50 design YouTubers with 10K-100K subscribers, offer exclusive 60-day extended trial for their audience, provide custom landing pages with co-branded content
• Affiliate assets: Demo video template, comparison graphics vs. Figma/Canva, discount code for 20% off first 3 months
• Tracking: Rewardful integrated with Stripe for automatic commission payments, 90-day cookie window, last-click attribution
• Launch sequence: Recruit 10 founding affiliates with bonus commission, soft launch for 30 days to refine assets, then open applications publicly
• Anti-fraud: Require affiliates to disclose relationship, block self-referrals, manual review for accounts generating >20 signups/month

Guidelines

• Always check .claude/product-marketing-context.md before asking discovery questions
• Default to double-sided incentives for referral programs since they convert significantly better than single-sided rewards
• Size referral rewards relative to LTV and CAC: the reward should be meaningful to the referrer but well below the cost of acquiring that customer through paid channels
• Identify the highest-intent trigger moments in the product journey rather than asking for referrals at random times
• Always include fraud prevention rules from the start since retroactively adding them causes friction with existing referrers
• Keep the sharing mechanism as simple as possible: one-click sharing with a personalized link beats multi-step referral code flows
• For affiliate programs, recommend recurring commissions over one-time payouts since they incentivize affiliates to create evergreen content
• Include a launch email sequence and in-app prompts in every referral program recommendation since programs with no promotion get no participation
• Track referral CAC against other channels to prove program ROI and justify continued investment