Here are some of the terms you’ll encounter in our documentation and what they mean.
Advocates: aka Referrer. Someone who promotes a newsletter to their contacts.
Campaign: A referral program set up in SparkLoop that is attached to a specific list in the ESP.
Customer: Someone who is paying to use a product or service.
Double-sided referral program: A referral program in which both the advocate and the new subscriber are incentivized, the advocate for bringing in a referral, and the new subscriber for signing up.
Email subscribers aka Email contact: Someone who has opted in to receive email communication from a content creator/brand.
ESP: Email Service Provider. A company that offers email marketing services.
Magic link: Links created by SparkLoop’s free tool, Magic, that can be added in any partner newsletter to let their readers opt-in to an email list with just one click.
Media brand: A platform for a community with shared interests, focused on the interests of this community through content aggregation and offered services.
Milestone rewards: Prizes given to subscribers for hitting a certain number of referrals aka milestones.
Trigger reward: For subscribers who get between 1 and 3 referrals. Ideally compelling, automated, and free, such as a pdf report or coupon.
Momentum builders: For subscribers who get between 2 and 10 referrals. Ideally have 2-3 rewards in this range, giving subscribers an attainable goal, that is, something that will motivate them to share again.
Aspirational rewards: For subscribers who get between 11 and 50 referrals. Rewards that subscribers are likely to highly desire. Often physical rewards.
Showstoppers: For subscribers who get 50+ referrals. Ideally rewards that’ll get influencers talking and sharing, for instance, golf retreats, signed books, and invitations to exclusive events.
Newsletter: An email broadcast sent out to people who have opted to receive it.
Newsletter publisher: A person or company that sends out regular email broadcasts to subscribers who have opted to receive it.
Paid subscriber: Someone who pays to receive content from a media brand (the NYT’s subscriber base, for instance, would consist of its paying customers).
Partner program: A strategic partnership offered by SparkLoop to help eligible businesses earn revenue by helping their audiences unlock game-changing email growth.
Recurring reward: A reward that is offered repeatedly for achieving various milestones in a referral program. For instance, for every three referrals a subscriber makes, they get a 10% discount on services.
Referral giveaways: A type of promotion in which advocates/referrers are entered into a random prize draw for bringing in referrals during a certain period.
The Subscribe-to-Win giveaway: Used to incentivize people who are not already part of an email list by offering them the chance to win a prize when they subscribe.
The Refer-to-Win giveaway: Similar to a normal referral program, but instead of winning rewards for making referrals, subscribers are entered into a draw to win a prize.
The Two-Sided giveaway: A combination of the Subscribe-to-Win and Refer-to-Win giveaways. Both existing subscribers who make referrals and new subscribers who sign up are entered into a giveaway.
Referral giveaway prizes: The reward offered for the winner of the random prize draw.
Referral hub: The area on the SparkLoop website where subscribers can see how many people they’ve referred, what prizes they can win, and get sharing links.
Referral link: A unique link given to each email subscriber of a newsletter that allows them to share the newsletter with their friends/contacts.
Referral points: Points assigned to each new referral a subscriber brings in. Often one, but can be more.
Referral program: A program through which a newsletter publisher incentivizes and rewards existing subscribers for bringing in subscribers.
Referral section: The area of a newsletter where subscribers are given their unique sharing links.
Referral traffic: Web users who visit a website using a unique referral link.
Referrals: Someone who has signed up for a newsletter based on a recommendation from a friend, using that friend’s unique link.
Total referral count: The number of referrals a subscriber has brought in.
User: Someone who uses a product or service, free or paid.
Visual builder: A tool inside SparkLoop that helps newsletter publishers create gorgeous referral sections within seconds.