23+ Referral Email Design Examples (& Templates To Use)

If you’re reading this, chances are you’re either about to launch a referral program or looking to improve the one you’ve already got. I believe 2025 is the perfect time to double down on referrals: ad costs are up, and customers trust friends more than ads.

Referral emails are a successful strategy that ecommerce and DTC brands employ to promote their referral and affiliate partner strategies their advocates and improve referral rates. Great email design amplifies word-of-mouth promotion by making it easy and compelling for advocates to share.

Sending out referral emails to your happy customers not only brings your loyal customers back to your online shop but also brings in new customers with little effort (thank you, email automation).

Once you've decided on the referral incentives for your existing customers, it's time to let them know about it by sending out a well-thought-out referral program email.

In this article, we'll give you tips for writing the best referral emails, show you what other successful ecommerce brands are doing and give you three templates to use.

Let’s start with quick tips!

Note: The below examples can serve as great inspiration for your own referral emails. If you want to start actually building your own referral emails, you can use ReferralCandy; a platform built to help ecommerce brands get started affordably with referral programs.

Launching a referral program?

6 quick tips for referral emails

Even with the most irresistible incentive possible, it doesn't necessarily equate to your customers taking up your offer.

Why not?

Because they might not even open your referral program email. If they do, they might not click on the link to set up their referral discount or offer.

That's why it's super important to write a referral email that is more likely to land in the inbox, be opened, and grab the attention of your existing customer base.

"It only takes a few seconds for customers to decide whether to click on your referral email, so make it stand out. Maximize your chances of higher open rates by using an eye-catching subject head, professional-looking images that highlight your product, and use persuasive, but not aggressive copywriting." - Rachel Leung, Product Designer @ ReferralCandy

We've got a few tips to help you do exactly that.

1. Use a high-converting referral email subject line

As tempting as it is to write a super cheeky subject line as you might do with your friends, it might not be the best tactic when it comes to your email marketing strategy.

Instead, it's super important to be clear about what you are offering in the email so that your customers know whether or not they want to open it. Be clear about what the referral offer is right in the subject line (see example below).

Email subject line example: Get 10% off your next purchase and help a friend save too!

Want another tip?

Consider adding an emoji to your subject line. People are 54% more likely to open your email when there are emojis in the subject line.

2. Show the referral incentive

Referral incentives are one of the most important components of asking for referrals. Most people want to know what's in it for them by referring your brand and product to their close friends and family.

The keyword here is “WORTH”.

The referral incentive should be clear and simple while showing your subscribers that it is worth being an advocate for your brand. By prominently displaying it in your email, it helps your customers to decide if it is worth their time and effort to refer your brand and products.

Showing the incentive example:

To refer a friend, simply share your unique referral code/referral link with them and have them enter it at checkout. They'll get 10% off their order, and you'll get a discount on your next purchase.

3. Get to the point

Listen, as impressive as human beings can be at times, the truth of the matter is that we are also incredibly lazy.

So make your referral bonus easy to identify right away, either with a clear call-to-action, an effective campaign slogan, a big, bold referral code, or super clear instructions. You want to include a unique referral link for customers to copy. This can be shared on both the referral email and referral program page.

A good email design ensures that the main message is read even if your customer is just scanning through the email. Furthermore, custom email templates play a pivotal role in attracting the customer's attention and nudging them to act.

4. Decide your target audience

When starting your referral program, you must determine who you will send it to, i.e., your target audience.

For most ecommerce merchants, we recommend sending the referral program email to all new customers with a post-purchase email, which we’ll discuss in the next step.

You should send it not only to all new customers but also to existing customers. To do this, you can use one of the email templates we will later show you in this article.

5. Send your referral email at the right time

Once you have identified your target audience, the next step is to make sure you send out your referral program at the right time.

Here are some timings we recommend.

Post-purchase, immediately after.

This is the most common time to send out a referral email, but it's a hit or miss. At this point, customers are happy enough since they've purchased a product from you. But if they're first-time customers, it may be slightly off-putting when you're telling them to share about your product before they've even received it.

Post-purchase, once they've received the product.

We can't stress enough how important it is to reach out to these customers for referrals. Depending on your "goals", you could target this segment with either a review email or a referral email. But it's the perfect time to turn them into advocates, especially if they're satisfied with what they've received in their mail.

Holiday season.

Targeting customers during the holiday season is also a great idea. While you have an ongoing "general" referral campaign, you could have a separate one just for the festive period with a different seasonal perk that comes along with it. Even your referral messaging, email design, and landing pages can all be catered to the holiday event. A limited edition perk would work super well as it plays on the FOMO behavior of humans. To make sure your holiday referral campaign truly stands out, consider partnering with an email marketing company like InboxArmy, which specializes in optimizing email timing, segmentation, design and delivery for maximum impact.

6. Be genuine in your emails

Referrals are all about genuine relationships. It relies heavily on the personal relationships of your customers when they make the decision to share about your product and brand with the people they know.

With that said, your referral emails, especially for loyal customers, should also show how much you appreciate your customers. Use storytelling techniques like AIDA and emotional narratives to highlight real customer experiences and the “why” behind your brand.

23 examples of beautiful referral email designs

Next, let's look into examples of the most beautiful referral email designs.

1. Riff Raff & Co

Email subject line: Refer to friends & get a free toy

Refferral email example from Riff Raff & Co

Riff Raff & Co is an ecommerce brand in the accessories for baby & toddler niche. Using the above referral email design, they achieved a 24% referral rate, much higher than the industry average. To create the referral emails, they used ReferralCandy.