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Refer-A-Friend

These features are available on All Plans

About

The Refer-a-Friend feature rewards contest entrants when their referred friends also enter the contest. This feature can be used in two ways:

  1. For voting contests, bonus points are added to the referring entrant’s vote total.
  2. For giveaways without voting, bonus points can be used as extra entries.

How It Works

  1. A person submits an entry.
  2. After submission, a pop-up explains the Refer-a-Friend bonus (customizable text) and provides a Share button.
  3. The entrant clicks Share, triggering the Share dialog for social media platforms, email, and SMS.
  4. The shared post includes a unique link.
    • When a friend clicks the link, visits the campaign, and submits an entry, the referrer receives bonus points.
    • If entries are displayed in an Entry Display Widget with sharing enabled, sharing an entry will credit the shared entry with bonus points for any subsequent entries via the shared link.

Enabling Refer-a-Friend

  1. Create or edit a Form Container.
  2. Open the Form Container settings by clicking on the pencil icon.
  3. Click on the Refer-a-Friend tab on the left side of the pop-up:
    • Check the Enable refer-a-friend box.
    • Enter the number of bonus points to award for each referral.
  4. (Optional) Limit Total Referral Points:
    • Check the Limit total points box.
    • Enter the maximum number of points an entrant can earn through referrals.
    • Points from other sources (e.g., votes) are not factored into this limit.

Sharing the Referral URL

You can share the referral URL for each entrant in three different ways: through campaign sharing, an Autoresponder Email, and an entry via the Entry Display Widget. You can choose one or all of these methods for entrants to receive their referral URL. 

Configure Sharing

  1. In the Form Container settings, go to the After Submit tab.
  2. Check the Enable Sharing box.
  3. Click on the Sharing tab on the left side of the Form Container settings pop-up. 
  4. Configure and style each sharing option with images and custom text.
  5. Save and exit.

Configure an Autoresponder Email

You can create an autoresponder email to share the entrant's unique URL directly.

  1. From the Campaign Builder, click the envelope icon in the top-right corner.
  2. Click New Email or edit the current autoresponder by clicking the pencil icon.
  3. Continue to set up the new email and select autoresponder. 
  4. Once the Email Builder is open, click on the Entry URL in the available merge fields list on the left.
  5. Alternatively, add the merge code {{entry.entry_url}} directly into the email content.
  6. Save and activate your autoresponder.

For additonal assistance, refer to Creating an Autoresponder Email.

Sharing Entries

If you're using an Entry Display Widget to showcase submissions, entrants can share their individual Entry URL as a referral source directly from their entry.

  1. Open the Entry Display Widget settings by clicking the pencil icon. 
  2. Click on the Sharing tab on the left side of the pop-up. 
  3. Check the Enable Sharing box.
  4. By default, the shared content will include the entry’s image, title, and description.
  5. To change this, click the blue text next to each element to switch to a custom image, title, or description.
  6. (Optional) If using the custom sharing options, configure and style each sharing option with images and custom text.
  7. Save and exit.

Verifying Referrals

To see which entry was submitted as a referral, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the Entries Manager.
  2. Use the filters on the left to locate the relevant campaign, list, or entry.
  3. Hover over the entry and click Entry Details.
  4. In the top-left corner of the Entry Details screen, click the number of votes/points.
  5. You’ll now see the Entry ID, point(s), and the date the point(s) was awarded for the referral. 
Note:
 Referral data cannot be exported. Clicking a referral entry ID will not open that entry. To view it, copy the ID and paste it into the search bar in the Entries Manager.

 

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