Refer a friend schemes

What Is Refer A Friend?

Refer a friend is a strategy used in referral marketing where existing customers are encouraged to recommend products to friends and family.  As an existing customer, you share a referral code in order to earn rewards when your friends and family sign up. 

Research has indicated that 92% of shoppers trust referrals if they are from people they know.  Also, over 50% of consumers are likely to take part in a referral scheme if they are offered incentives and rewards.

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What Is A Referral Code?

A referral code usually comes in the format of a number or word and is provided so you can share it with other people.  The people that receive the code then use it to sign up to the relevant brand(s).  

Once they use the referral code, you should get your reward which tends to come in the form of credit, vouchers and cash.  The code used is normally unique to enable the company to track who made the referral and reward the correct person.

If you only have a couple, sharing a referral code is pretty straight-forward.  However, if you decided to use the refer a friend scheme as a side hustle?  This could result in you having multiple referral codes making it difficult to manage them.  

So, is there a way to track all of your referral codes? The answer is yes.  There’s a free platform called ReferPage which allows you to share lots of referral codes.

It works like this: you create a referral page and add all your referral codes. You can then generate a unique link which means that you only have one thing to share. Once you’ve done that, it’s easy to add the link to your referral page and to your social bios, website, or directly with your contacts. 

Get a referral code from a brand you value, add it to your ReferPage, and then share your unique ReferPage link.

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How Does Refer A Friend Marketing Work?

With refer-a-friend marketing, you earn rewards for recommending a brand’s products or services. The idea is to spread the word about something you love and encourage people you know to sign up. Although it perhaps falls under the same umbrella as pyramid schemes, it doesn’t have the same negative connotations.

• Buy a product or use a service. For this example, let’s use Deliveroo. Visit their app or website to order some food online and get it delivered. To order, you’ll probably have to sign up/open an account with Deliveroo.
• If you’re happy with the service, look out for a referral code to share with friends and family. You’ll usually find this by logging into your Deliveroo profile or account settings.
• Tell your friends and family about it!
• If one of them uses Deliveroo and enters your referral code during the signup process, you will receive a reward. The type of reward depends on the brand. For example, you could receive cash, credit, discounts, or vouchers.

Make sure you’re happy with the type of reward offered before you share your refer-a-friend code. Be aware that cash won’t always be an option.

Referral marketing works because it relies on trust. If you’re genuinely impressed with something you’ve used, it makes sense that you’d want to tell people about it. And the people you’re most likely to tell are those you know well. If they trust your judgement, they’re more likely to be influenced to try it themselves. 

In fact, 84% of people trust recommendations from people they know, and 77% of consumers are more likely to buy a new product when learning about it from friends or family. These stats come from research carried out by conversion rate optimisation specialist, Invesp. 

If the rewards on offer from refer-a-friend marketing aren’t what you want, it might be worth considering if you can make money online doing surveys or writing reviews.

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Refer A Friend vs Affiliate Marketing

As we talked about earlier, refer-a-friend is a strategy used in referral marketing. What other types of marketing have you heard of? 

Affiliate marketing is quite similar to referral marketing in that it requires someone to tell someone else about a brand and encourage them to sign up. Let’s look at both of these in a bit more detail:

Referral marketing rewards current customers for inviting their friends and family to try a product or service. With affiliate marketing, third-party brand advocates send new customers to a business in return for a flat fee. For more information, check out our affiliate marketing UK side hustle guide.

Both types of marketing are quite similar in that they both reward people for promoting a business’ offering to others. Because of the level of trust involved, they are both more likely to attract loyal, longer-term customers. This is especially true of referral marketing.

One of the main differences between the two strategies is that you probably won’t need to submit a website for review with refer-a-friend. 

With affiliate marketing, businesses usually want to check the quality of your content and popularity levels, etc. It’s a form of quality control because you are representing their brand in a way. 

If affiliate marketing sounds like something you could get your teeth into, check out how to sell on Fiverr!  OddsMonkey even has its own affiliate programme if you fancy it.

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Customer Relationships And Loyalty

With referral marketing, the relationship between affiliate and customer is usually close. It relies on recommendations from friends to other friends. Tell people you have an existing relationship with a brand you know and love. Therefore, the level of trust is high. It’s a good way to build a strong customer base. 

Create an audience from your existing contacts. And because recommendations come from friends, the level of customer loyalty is high too.

However, with affiliate marketing, you don’t necessarily have to know your audience beforehand. Instead, they might follow you on social media or read your blog. An affiliate marketer could be an influencer, a celebrity, a blogger, or someone who owns an online business. The relationship is there – as is the level of trust – but it’s not pre-existing. That means that there’s a higher possibility of customers leaving after one interaction. 

If you have a knack for building trust online, you could write reviews for money as a side hustle if that is something you would be interested in.

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Types Of Rewards

Both referral and affiliate marketing are reward-based strategies. That means that the referrer or affiliate will receive something in exchange for promoting a brand and encouraging sales. The type of reward offered will vary depending on the brand you’re representing. In refer-a-friend marketing, you could receive cash, discounts, or free products. 

Affiliates usually receive a commission on the sales they are responsible for bringing in. It’s worth checking what’s on offer first to make sure you’ll be getting something you want. 

These side hustles are great whether you’re looking for something to fill your free time and receive goodies or ways to make money on maternity leave; there are so many options.

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Sharing Referral Codes

For referral programs, you’ll usually be given either a code (word or numbers) or a link. Both are relatively easy to share, although remember that links can’t be shared on platforms like Instagram captions. They can be typed but won’t be clickable. 

A referral code is much easier to share via word of mouth, which is perfect when telling friends and family about a brand. Because affiliate marketing predominantly takes place online, a unique URL can easily be added to long-form copy, such as blog posts. This makes sharing quite easy. However, a link can be a bit of a mouthful if you’re trying to share verbally, depending on the length and complexity of the URL. 

This is something to think about when deciding whether you want to do referral or affiliate marketing.

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Best Refer A Friend Schemes

There’s plenty of schemes that run refer a friend rewards from food companies to online survey companies.

Let’s have a look at some of the better refer a friend schemes on offer:

Food Box Refer A Friend Schemes

Over the last few years, there’s been an increase in the number of companies offering meal kits delivered to your door. Usually, you choose from a number of recipes and the ingredients are delivered pre-measured. It cuts down on stress, waste, and time. If you enjoy it, you’ll find a refer-a-friend code to share with your friends. All offers are correct at the time of writing, but make sure you check first.

Hello Fresh

• There’s currently an offer to get 50% off your 1st box and free dessert for life, which is fantastic for new customers. However, when someone you refer signs up using your referral code, you’ll both receive £20 credit.

Gousto

• As a new customer, you will receive a 50% discount on the first box you buy, 40% off your second box and 20% off for two months. If you recommend Gousto to a friend and they join and order, you’ll get £20 credit. On top of that, the person you refer gets 6.5% off their first box and 25% off all other boxes they order in the first two months. Something for everyone.

Huel

• Huel (Human + Fuel) is a dietician-approved meal-replacement shake. When you refer someone, they’ll save £15 on their first order and you’ll get £15 off your next order too.

Food Delivery Service Refer A Friend Schemes

Deliveroo

• There are two ways to make money from Deliveroo by referring a friend. If someone signs up using your referral code, you’ll get £10 off across your first 4 deliveries from Deliveroo (£2.50 a time). You must have ordered a certain number of times before getting an invite link. As a Rider (delivery driver), you will receive a £50 referral fee when the person you recommended completes 30 deliveries.

Just Eat

• Just Eat doesn’t really have a referral code for customers, but they do for courier referrals. For example, if someone you refer completes 15 deliveries within 90 days of their sign-up date, you’ll receive your £100, and they’ll get £50, too.

Uber Eats

• Here’s another food delivery service that’s most likely operating in your area. Again, you need to be a customer yourself in order to get a referral code. Once you share your code with a new user (who’s never used the app before), you’ll get a £10 discount on your next order. They’ll also receive a discount.

Cashback Website Refer A Friend Schemes

TopCashback

• TopCashback is probably the UK’s biggest cashback site. Their referral scheme is called “Tell-a-friend”, so use your unique code to invite your friends and family to join. Once they’ve earned their first £10 cashback, you’ll receive up to £25 free cashback.

Swagbucks

• Swagbucks members earn rewards for completing online surveys or buying via their affiliate sites. Reward points are collected as Swag Bucks or SBs, which are then swapped for cash or gift cards. When you refer someone, and they use your code to sign up, you get 300SB + 10% of their SB for as long as they have a Swagbucks account.

Quidco

• Cashback site Quidco offers £5 for every ‘successful’ referral you send to them. Once your referral has signed up using your link and earned £5 cashback, you’ll receive your payment.

Car Rental Refer A Friend Schemes

Hiyacar

• This is a peer-to-peer car-sharing service. Receive £5 credit when you refer a friend; if they hire out their car, you’ll also get £30 credit.

Enterprise Car Club

• With Enterprise Car Club, your name is your pass. Just tell friends and family to enter your full name when they sign up, and you’ll both receive £20 in driving credit.

ZipCar

• London-based ZipCar offers car, and van hire on a ‘Flex’ or ‘Roundtrip’ basis. With their referral scheme, you earn $25 (approximately £18) driving credit when you introduce a friend to the service. Once approved, they’ll receive the same.

Energy Refer A Friend Schemes

Octopus Energy

• Octopus Energy customers can earn £50 for each person that signs up with a referral link.

Scottish Power

• The current Scottish Power referral scheme offers up to £60 per referral. Both you and your friend will receive the same rewards.  Should you referral involve both gas and electric switches, you’ll both get £60.  If only one utility is switched, it’s halved to £30.

E.ON Next

• When you sign up, you’ll be able to access an exclusive referral link in the Eon refer a friend scheme.  Each time you refer a friend, you’ll both receive £50.

TV And Media Refer A Friend Schemes

Sky

• The Sky refer a friend scheme has multiple referral options depending on what your friend signs up to.  The rewards vary from £15 for SIM only contracts to £100 for Sky Glass.  You can get the unique referral link from your account and share it with friends.  You’ll be rewarded with a voucher that can be used at loads of big brand retailers.

Virgin Media

• Refer your friends and family to Virgin Media, and if they successfully place an order using your unique link or code, you’ll both receive a cash reward of up to £50.

Banking Refer A Friend Schemes

Curve

• Curve is a mobile wallet that collects all your payment cards in one place.  To be eligible for any reward, the person you refer must sign up using your unique referral link and make at least 3 purchases of at least £5 each with their Curve card. Upon successful completion, you’ll receive £50 in Curve Cash and your friend gets £10.

Skrill

• Skrill is a digital wallet offering online payment and money transfer services. Get 10% off your friend’s fee payments when they open a Skrill account using your link.

PayPal

Get £10 when a friend signs up to PayPal using your referral link and spend at least £5. You can refer 10 friends meaning you have the potential to earn up to £100 using the scheme.

Mobile Phone Refer A Friend Schemes

Giffgaff

giffgaff is a mobile phone sim company which uses a community hub to offer customer support. With their refer-a-friend program, you can earn a £5 bonus credit that can be converted to cash for each friend that joins.  Your friend will also get £5 credit and free giffgaff to giffgaff calls and texts.

Virgin Mobile

• Similar to the Virgin Media offer, you could get up to £50 from this referral scheme. Recommend something like Virgin’s pay monthly SIM-only contracts or pay monthly mobile phones, and you’ll be rewarded when their device is delivered.

Three Mobile

• You could earn up to £80 (£40 for you and £40 for your friend) when you recommend one of Three’s eligible products or services to a friend, and they place an order. Just do the normal things, such as make sure you’re an existing customer and share your unique link.

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Tell Your Friends About OddsMonkey

Matched betting site OddsMonkey offers lots of information on potential side hustle ideas you could try out, as well as a fantastic referral scheme. Referring a friend is the easiest way to earn even more on top of your matched betting profits. You’ll receive £25 for every friend that signs up for an OddsMonkey Premium account via your personalised link. As a Premium member, you’ll have access to your referral control panel to view live data on how many Premium accounts have signed up using your link.

If you’re not yet matched betting with OddsMonkey, now’s a great time to find out more. Matched betting helps you unlock profit from the free promotional bets offered by bookmakers. Because you bet on and cover all potential outcomes, the only way you can lose money is if you make a mistake. Check out our ‘What is matched betting?’ guide to find out what you need to do to get started.

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