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Using referral links in your emails
Using referral links in your emails

Learn how to display unique referral links for each subscriber.

Manuel Frigerio avatar
Written by Manuel Frigerio
Updated over 4 months ago

Referral links are where the magic happens.

SparkLoop autogenerates a unique referral link for each of your subscribers and when you integrate your ESP with SparkLoop, stores them in a custom field called RH_REFLINK.

It’s this unique referral link that your subscribers will share in order to earn referral points.

(For how to generate social sharing links, click here.)

How it works

Each of your subscribers is given a unique referral link. They should share this unique link with friends, colleagues, or strangers on the Internet.

Every time someone clicks on your subscriber’s unique referral link, they’ll be taken to a page on your website where they can join your email list by filling out a form. This is how your subscribers earn referral points.

To make this possible, you need to choose a page on your website that your subscribers’ unique referral links will take people to.

This is called your referral link destination.

It should probably be a page you’ve already created. Somewhere lots of people are already signing up for your email list. Like your newsletter homepage or your most popular lead magnet landing page.

To tell SparkLoop what landing page URL to use:

  1. On your SparkLoop dashboard, head over to Campaign.

  2. Under Referral links URL, paste your link.

  3. On the top right-hand corner, press Save.

Permanent referral links

In SparkLoop, referral links are "permanent,” meaning they are fixed for each subscriber.

For example: https://sparklp.co/690397bd

Using a permanent referral link has some significant advantages for you:

  • Instant updates: You can instantly change what URL your referral link points to. No waiting for your email platform to sync custom fields.
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  • No need to update your referral section: You don't need to update your referral section in emails when you change the URL the referral link points to.
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  • Better analytics: By tracking clicks on links directly, we can give you a more accurate picture of your subscribers engagement.
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  • More conversions: Permanent referral links are shorter and look more trustworthy. Which leads to more clicks, more referrals, and a better-looking referral section in your newsletter.
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  • No broken links: If you make a mistake or want to change your referral landing page after sending an email, you can do so at any time.

Displaying unique referral links in your emails

You can display your subscribers' unique referral link in any email sent via your email platform by using the correct merge tag wherever you like.

The correct syntax of the merge tag you use depends on the email platform you use.

Here's an example in ConvertKit using the RH_REFLINK merge tag:

And in Mailchimp:

Generating social sharing links

In addition to the referral link, you may want to give your newsletter readers social sharing buttons and links that they can click simply and easily to share your newsletter on their Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn feeds.

The easiest way to create sharing links inside your referral section is to use our Visual Builder.

If you’re not using our Visual Builder or you’re using an ESP that doesn’t support our Visual Builder like Campaign Monitor, then you can generate those links manually.

To do so:

1. Go to your SparkLoop dashboard and click on Referral Section.

2. Scroll to the bottom to "If you want to design your own referral section, follow these instructions.” Click on the link.

3. Again, scroll down to the middle of the page and in step #4: Make it easy for your subscribers to share by including 2-4 social links, click the link.

4. A pop-up Referral Sharing generator will open up. Click on Create Links and your referral links will be generated.

You can now use these sharing links in your referral section.

How to add UTM parameters

What if you’re running a marketing campaign and want to track the UTM Source and Campaign of your referral links.?

How do you add those to your permanent referral links?

Easy: Add the parameters to the merge tag as if it was a "normal" link.

For example, to add a utm_source "facebook" and a utm_campaign "paid-ads" parameter to your referral links, add the parameters to the merge tag as if it was a "normal" link:

{{ subscriber.rh_reflink }}?utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=paid-ads

Note: the example above uses ConvertKit's merge tag {{ subscriber.rh_reflink }}

Make sure to use the correct merge tag for your email platform.

⚠️ SparkLoop will automatically pass over ANY query parameter you send.

If you’d like to create custom links, read these instructions on how to do so.

And that’s it. With these unique links, your advocates can share far and wide, bringing new subscribers to your newsletter.

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