Before you launch your referral program, it’s a good idea to test everything and make sure all the pieces of the puzzle are fitting well together.
One issue we sometimes see pop up during tests is referral links not showing up in emails.
Let’s say, for instance, that you’re running your SparkLoop campaign with Mailchimp. Everything’s set up and ready to go and you want to send a test email to check it has the referral link.
Except, either the email is not arriving, or it’s arriving without the referral link.
Here’s what could be happening.
The email address you're testing with is not subscribed to your list
For any email address to have a referral link and a referral code, they need to be on the email list connected with your SparkLoop account.
So if you’re getting an email with the referral link missing, one of the first things to check for is that this address is actually a subscriber on that list.
You sent the test email before the import completed
It’s likely that you’ve completed most of the onboarding while your list is importing and you’re eager to get started. Or perhaps your list is large, and you forgot the import was still in progress.
Either way, if you’re sending a test email and your list hasn’t finished importing, it’s likely referral links haven’t yet been generated and, therefore, cannot show up in your test email.
You’re using preview instead of an actual test email
Most of the major ESPs offer functionality where you can preview your emails as a subscriber.
When looking at this preview, however, make sure to preview as a specific subscriber and not as a generic user. This will ensure that the merge tab is replaced with the actual link associated with that subscriber.
If you’ve checked for all the above and you’re still facing an issue, please contact us here.