Referral Emails that Convert: a Simple Guide for SaaS & E-commerce Brands

Setting up a referral program is rather easy these days. You sign up for a referral marketing platform that handles all the aspects of your referral campaigns, integrate it with your systems, and start your program. 

The main issue is how to get people to join your referral program. Even if they enjoy your product, your customers are slow in recommending it to others. 

This is where referral emails come into play. Referral emails are the most popular way to promote your referral program and invite people to join it.

In this article, I’ll explain what referral emails are, give you some top referral email examples to learn from, and teach you how to design and send effective ones in detail.

What are referral emails? 

Referral emails are the emails you send to your customers, asking them to refer (or invite) new customers to your business. Referral emails are part of referral programs, which are one of the most effective word-of-mouth strategies.  

When running referral programs, businesses typically use specific strategies to incentivize their current customers to refer new customers. These could be a store credit, cash, gift cards, discounts, or subscription referrers receive in exchange for referring a new customer. And a referral email should clearly state the incentives.  

Referral emails statistics

• 92% of consumers trust referrals from their friends and family. This makes referral marketing strategies one of the smartest ways to grow your customer base.

• A study by McKinsey shows that consumers are more influenced by friends and family rather than social media. 50% of US respondents considered “friends and family” as their first source of influence. Referral emails tap into the most effective source of influence on people. 

• An academic study published in the Journal of Marketing Research attests to the chain effect of referral marketing. According to the study, “referred customers make 31%-57% more referrals than non-referred customers conditional on purchase activities.” 

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Referral emails examples 

Word-of-mouth (WOM) programs are insanely popular these days, so there are lots of inspiring examples you can learn from.

1. Revolut’s referral email

Revolut is a big British fintech company that grew to be the biggest neobank (digital bank) in Europe with over 50 million users and an annual revenue of more than $3 billion. 

Revolut’s ex-Head of Growth explained in a podcast that their main driver for traffic is word of mouth, so they basically try to make it easier for their customers to recommend their product to their friends, family, and colleagues.

Later in that interview, he said that word-of-mouth drives around 65 to 70% of overall users to their company. 

So it doesn’t come as a surprise that they should have a generous referral program powered up by well-structured referral emails. Here’s the one I received: 

Subject: Earn up to €200 for each friend you refer to Revolut!

What’s good about Revolut’s referral email? 

• Clear, motivating, and easy to follow: The email grabs attention with a strong offer, uses simple step-by-step instructions, and presents information with clean visual hierarchy and a clear CTA.
• Transparent and trustworthy: Eligibility, deadlines, and reward details are openly explained, reducing uncertainty and reinforcing trust in the referral offer.

2. Airbnb’s referral email

Airbnb’s famous referral program is only available to users in Brazil, mainland China, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, and South Korea. 

Now, because of the possibility of fraud, the referral program is quite limited, but it’s still popular. Here’s the referral email:

Subject: Earn travel credit for your next adventure

What’s good about Airbnb’s referral email

• Emotionally engaging and clearly rewarding: The travel-themed opening creates positive relevance, and the email highlights a clear double-sided incentive where both the referrer and friend earn $30.
• Focused and easy to act on: A minimalist layout with one strong CTA (“Invite Friends”) keeps attention on the core message and simplifies the referral action.

3. NordVPN’s referral email

NordVPN has an established referral program through which you can get months of free VPN for each successful referral. The prerequisite is that the new customer you refer should stay with the company for 30 days before you receive your free VPN. 

Here’s NordVPN’s referral email:

Subject: Get free months for every friend you refer

What’s good about NordVPN’s referral email? 

• Clear, simple, and visually organized: The email uses a straightforward headline and a clean three-step breakdown with icons, supported by a minimalist layout and strong hierarchy that makes the offer and process easy to understand.
• Trust-building and expectation-setting: Transparent terms and a single clear CTA (“Learn More”) create credibility, manage expectations, and reduce potential confusion.

4. Intuit’s TurboTax referral email

TurboTax is a tax preparation software developed by Intuit. As part of their referral program, they send emails asking their current customers to refer new customers and receive a $25 gift card. The referred customer will also get 20% off TurboTax online federal products. 

Here’s Intuit’s TurboTax’s referral email: 

Subject: Don’t forget: Refer more friends, get more rewards

What’s good about TurboTax’s referral email?

• Clear, motivating reminder with straightforward value: The email uses a friendly nudge and plainly states the $25-per-referral reward, making the benefit immediately clear.
• Clean, focused design that encourages continued engagement: A minimalist layout with a single CTA reinforces brand consistency, while a progress-oriented message motivates users to keep referring to multiple rewards.

5. Trustmary’s referral email

Trustmary is a customer feedback tool. They have referral programs both for their users and their agency partners. 

The user referral program offers a 20% commission from paid subscriptions up to €200 for each referral. Their agency partner referral program offers a 30% commission from paid customers up to €1500/referral. In both programs, referred customers receive a 50% discount for their first three months of subscription. They source and invite agency partners into the program manually. 

This is the referral email for their user referral program. 

Subject: Refer Trustmary to your friends!

What’s good about Trustmary’s referral email? 

• Clear, compelling, and trustworthy: The bold “Give 50% off, get up to $200” offer sets strong expectations, while visuals, testimonials, and icons reinforce credibility. Simple steps and a product screenshot make the process easy to understand.
• Emotionally engaging and relevant: A friendly, conversational tone tied to Valentine’s Day adds warmth and personal relevance, giving a transactional referral email a more human, appealing feel.

How Tapfiliate helps you automate high-performing referral emails

If you want to remove most of the manual work around referral emails, Tapfiliate can take over the entire flow. Our Automatic Recruitment feature lets brands invite new referrers at exactly the right moment — without writing or sending a single email manually.

When a customer becomes eligible to join your referral program (for example, after a purchase or another positive interaction), Tapfiliate automatically sends them a pre-designed invitation email with a unique referral link included. The template looks clean out of the box, but you can customize it fully if you want your own tone, layout, or messaging.

This removes friction on both sides: customers receive a clear, personal invitation at the perfect moment, and brands get a predictable, automated stream of new referrers without depending on ad-hoc campaigns.

How to send the perfect referral emails

Here are some strategies you need to adopt before you start sending your first referral emails: 

Tap into familiarity and personal touch

The most significant advantage of referral emails is that they leverage social proof and trust. People trust recommendations from close friends and family more than any other sources. 

And so in your referral emails, you need to make sure you tap into positive feelings such as familiarity, social proof, and a personal touch. 

• Write in a warm, conversational tone. You need to minimize your branded tone in your referral emails and instead focus on a friendly, personal, and warm language. This is how friends talk to each other and recommend products. Words like “together,” “we,” or “share” strengthen social connection and make the reader feel part of a friendly exchange, not a sales funnel.
• Avoid automation signals or over-branding. If the message looks too much like an automated mass email with multiple CTAs, legal text, or corporate banners, it undermines sincerity. So keep your referral emails simple, clean, and human. 

Here’s how Cometee uses a friendly copy to connect with its customers. 

Send the referral email at the right time.

A referral email is most effective when it’s sent at the peak of a customer’s satisfaction. 

So pinpoint the instances in which your customer is the most satisfied with you. This often is when they have just made a successful purchase, or after a smooth delivery, or even a quick refund. You need to send your referral emails as close to these positive moments as possible. Here are four timing scenarios for your referral emails: 

1- After successful delivery, send an email within 24 hours after a customer has received their product. Customers are pretty much excited after they have successfully purchased and received a product. 

2- After positive feedback: right after a customer has given you positive feedback or has submitted a review, you can send a referral email. A title such as “Thanks for the 5 stars 🌟 . Now help a friend discover us too” is simple and effective. 

3- After a milestone: referral emails sent after milestones or anniversaries (for example, “1 year with us,” “Your 10th order,” or “100 days of saving”) can trigger pride, nostalgia, and belonging, and inspire customers to share that joy with others. Using a CRM with email marketing helps you a lot in this process. 

4- After a positive experience with customer support, customers typically feel good when they have a positive interaction with your support team, such as when a problem is solved quickly or a refund is processed smoothly. And this is the perfect timing.

Offer relevant incentives

Even if people have the best experience with your brand, they still need some sort of incentive or reward for referring others to your company. So offering incentives in your referral emails is a must.

Referral incentives are generally divided into two categories: 

1- one-sided: in which only one party (typically the referrer) receives the incentive. 

2- double-sided: in which both parties (the referrers and the referees) receive some sort of rewards. The double-sided incentives are the most popular form of referral email incentives. According to a report by Impact, 78% of referral programs are double-sided. 

Be as clear as possible about the incentives you offer. Mention what both the referrer and the referee receive for each referral, what requirements need to be met, and what limitations exist. 

Design your referral emails the right way

Designing a beautiful referral email with all the bells and whistles sounds exciting, but the real mission is to convey all the information your customers need about your referral program. 

Here are some design elements in your referral emails and some tips to create them better. 

1. A clear headline

Your headline should instantly tell both sides what they’ll gain. A short, transparent message like “Give $20, Get $20” or “Your friend gets $30 off, and you get $20 credit” works best. 

Here’s the headline of Revolut’s referral email: “Earn up to €200 for each friend you refer to Revolut!”

2. A simple visual or text flow explaining how it works

The most important question for people after opening your email would be how the referral process works. What do they need to do? And when and how did they receive their reward? 

You need to answer these questions as clearly as possible. In particular, you need to be clear about: 

1- What actions both sides need to take: Clearly explain the exact steps that the referrer and the referee need to take in scannable steps. Don’t assume users will figure it out on their own. Use short sentences or icons to make the process effortless. This structure instantly removes friction and helps users see how easy the process is.

2- What reward they’ll receive, when, and how: state the incentive upfront and make it tangible and fair. Mention clearly what requirements need to be met in the process. For example, you might expect the referred person to complete a purchase and stay with you for 30 days. Only then will the referred customer receive their reward. Also, explain how the referrer will receive their reward (in their software account, bank account, cash, PayPal, etc.).  

Be clear on any limitations or terms and conditions that might make the rewarding system ineffective. Any misunderstanding will result in future frustration. 

Here‘s how NordVPN explains the terms and conditions of their rewarding system. 

3. A bold, singular call-to-action (CTA)

A bold and clear CTA that directs the referrer towards a particular action goes a long way. Use one clear button, typically centered and colored, that says something like “Share Your Link”, “Invite a Friend”, or “Get Your Reward.”

Avoid multiple buttons or competing messages. One strong CTA reduces confusion and increases conversions.

When people click on these buttons, they should be directed towards a workflow that clearly states what needs to be done. You need to make sure the whole process is as frictionless as possible. 

How Tapfiliate helps you automate high-performing referral emails

If you want to remove most of the manual work around referral emails, Tapfiliate can take over the entire flow. Our Automatic Recruitment feature lets brands invite new referrers at exactly the right moment — without writing or sending a single email manually.

When a customer becomes eligible to join your referral program (for example, after a purchase or another positive interaction), Tapfiliate automatically sends them a pre-designed invitation email with a unique referral link included. The template looks clean out of the box, but you can customize it fully if you want your own tone, layout, or messaging.

This removes friction on both sides: customers receive a clear, personal invitation at the perfect moment, and brands get a predictable, automated stream of new referrers without depending on ad-hoc campaigns.

What do experts say about referral emails? 

Nothing beats expertise and experience, so I’ve reached out to some email marketing experts and asked them to share their opinions about referral emails. 

Jordie van Rijn – email marketing consultant and the founder of Emailvendorselection.com

I love a well-designed referral program, especially because your most enthusiastic customers can become the best ambassadors for your brand and turn into superpromoters. People often move in the same circles as their peers. And have what we would call “lookalike audiences” in their social and business circles, people that are like them, behave like them, and share interests with them. They may be your best potential new clients.

Maybe you are wondering if that is true for your brand. Well, the quickest way to test it is in a few customer calls. The simple question to ask in the call would be “Do you know two or three people that would appreciate this product? And if you get a “yes”, that is fertile ground for referrals. Here you can directly test some incentives as well, because adding incentives begins with having an understanding of what makes your audience tick.

In some cases, just the mention of being able to refer can already stimulate referrals. A simple way, for instance, is a block at the bottom of your emails, “Did you receive this email from a colleague? Sign up here.” Yes, a referral program can also help grow your email list, increase awareness, and lead to more people sharing your emails.

TLDR 😉 

• Your current customers are probably your best promoters; they just need a little nudge.
• Learn from directly talking with your audience about what they like as incentives.
• Just mentioning the program can already make it work
• Consider other outcomes like list growth and lead generation, next to direct sales.
  

One last tip: the challenge in referral emails is to keep them as clear and clean as possible. Never use four steps. If it is 4, it can be displayed as three steps. And move all the terms and conditions outside of the email, so the main message stays very, very clear. 

Philipp Volnov – Head of Customer Success at maestra.io 

We helped one of our clients, an insurance company, find the ideal timing and offer format for its referral program. 

Customers received a referral program invitation right after getting their insurance payout, the most effective moment, as our testing showed recipients were 4 times more likely to recommend the company at that time. The email reminded them about the program and invited them to share a link in the app.

This is the email format we used for this campaign. 

Subject: Invite friends and earn money 

The email allowed users to share either a personalized referral link or a referral code copied directly from the message. Initially, only links were used, but adding a promo code increased click-through rates by 1.5 times.

Veljko Ristić – content manager at Mailtrap.io

Based on my experience, the difference between a mediocre referral program and a good one boils down to three things: timing, reward structure, and email execution. 

Here’s the scoop.

The timing sweet spot

We consistently see referral emails sent within 24 hours post-product/service delivery, achieving 18-23% higher engagement compared to those sent 3+ days later. And the psychology is simple. You’re catching customers at their peak satisfaction moment. 

You absolutely need different timing strategies for different customer segments. For instance, high-value customers who’ve made 5+ purchases (or remained loyal for long if we’re talking about the SaaS vertical) respond better to prompts embedded in milestone emails. E.g., “Happy 1st year anniversary with us.” 

This tactic drove a 31% lift in referrals from our “VIP” clients. 

Double-sided rewards are a must

In any referral program I audited, the double-sided reward structures outperform the single-sided ones in conversions by 40-60%. For instance, the median referral conversion for ecommerce falls between 3-5%, but double-sided incentives crack 8%+. 

One of our FinTech clients implemented a “Give $25, Get $25” reward structure and achieved a 66% referral conversion rate. It means that about 2 out of every 3 referrals became a paying customer.

Keep in mind that the reward type also matters. In the A/B tests I’ve done, cash and percentage discounts consistently outperform various point systems by about 40%. The same goes for Amazon gift cards (which are basically cash again). 

Though there’s a bit of a caveat, store credits work beautifully for subscription businesses where repeat purchases are guaranteed. For context, Uber at one point had a credit scheme that worked well. 

3. In execution, the details make the difference.

Based on my experience, benefit-focused subject lines mentioning the specific dollar amount (like the previous example “Give $25, Get $25”) consistently win in open rates by 2-3 times.

And I did one particularly revealing test. A premium scrubs brand tested the following subject lines: “{{sender}} shared FIGS with you” vs “Your friend thinks you’d love these scrubs – here’s $20.” To my surprise, the version with the sender name variable generated nearly twice as many clicks and close to 4 times the revenue. 

It turns out that authenticity and personal touches trump clever copywriting. 

Lastly, the CTA needs to be singular and bold. I’ve measured this using heat maps and emails with one prominent CTA, and I see 23% higher click-through rates compared to those with two or more actions.  

Wrapping up:

Referral emails work not because they’re “a channel,” but because they arrive at the exact moment when someone is already warmed up, trusts you, and is willing to share. When you respect that moment, with clear value, simple design, and a message that sounds like it came from a real human, referrals stop looking like a tactic and start performing like a growth engine.

If you’re designing your first referral emails, steal the structure from the examples above, keep the design clean, say what’s in it for the reader without dancing around it, and send your message when the experience is fresh and positive. Do this consistently, and your referral program will stop depending on luck and start showing predictable results.