Referral Rock

Referral Program Software Done Right. Get more referrals, more often (without painful DIY). Skip the guesswork of launching the perfect referral program.

Run end-to-end referral programs with frictionless sharing, nudge reminders, & rewards customers actually care about. More referrals from your brand fans, more often — without the pain of building a high engagement referral experience yourself. A dedicated portal, timed emails, and One Click Access links (no passwords needed!) keep your best sharers engaged. Go beyond “give one, get one” programs and create incentives that make an impact. Choose from 50+ built-in automated reward payouts and create rewards available on multiple buyer stages (not just an e-commerce checkout). Work with an expert onboarding specialist to design the best reward structures, promotion strategies, and technical assistance with integrations. Design the program that fits your needs, whether you want to work with customer referrers, affiliates, or brand ambassadors.

05/13/2025

Your first Instagram post didn't go viral so you abandoned social media.
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Your paid ads aren't delivering the ROI you wanted so you're ditching this whole "marketing" thing.
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You think your audience owes you attention because of your "revolutionary" idea?
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Stop it.
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The best marketing, the best referral programs, the best businesses all share three ingredients: grit, resilience, and consistent effort.
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I'm watching too many companies demand overnight success from long-term growth strategies without experimenting or pivoting when things don't immediately work. (And hearing the cries of our CS team when clients ghost them but still expect results 🥲).
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Real growth isn't sexy. It's showing up when the metrics are disappointing. It's testing new approaches when the first five fail.
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Are you skipping the messy middle part?
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Love,
Unhinged Marketer

05/09/2025

Just interviewed our CS team and discovered the real reason most referral marketing programs fail... I'm not going to lie I was kind of shocked...
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Here's what happens behind the scenes when companies launch referral programs (and why most of them crash and burn):
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➡️ Larger companies think they know everything already because they have "marketing experience" so completely ghost CS calls thinking they know best. But being a marketer is not the same as understanding referral marketing (think about it, is a SEO specialist also a brand specialist? Maybe sometimes, but not often...they're completely different beasts!).
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➡️ Businesses think one CS call is enough and program launching is the end of their journey. The dedicated CS team is basically your entire personalized referral marketing and strategy team and businesses don't take advantage of it! (And then wonder why nothing is happening...yikes...)
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➡️ The #1 reason programs fail? People think the software will magically work itself! They spend weeks setting everything up perfectly, then forget the most important part: actually telling people the program exists!!!
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One CS specialist told me: "They launch and think everything's just gonna do itself. Then they come back and say 'I didn't get any referrals' and I'm like... yeah."
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I think we're all guilty of this sometimes: spending weeks perfecting something then forgetting to actually put it out into the world. (I'm totally not talking about my phone's notes tab of "almost ready" social media posts..)
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There's way more tea but this is it for now. We're human, it happens. But the best marketers are the ones who never stop growing (and learning!).
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What's something you've built that deserves more promotion? Drop it below and I'll hype you up!
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Love,
Unhinged Marketer

05/02/2025

You're going to hate me for comparing this 'cause it's cringy and cheesy BUT, starting a new marketing program for your business is basically the same as building a friendship or relationship.
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I spoke to a few of our customer success team members today who literally spilled the tea on their deepest, darkest secrets for client referral marketing program fails.
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It turns out, the reasons why are the most obvious and basic:
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→lack of communication
→low effort
→refusing to try new things when things aren't working out
→giving up after the first roadblock
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The tea is HOT and I can't wait to share more with you. But I was so shocked that like most things in life, the reason we fail is that we don't put the required effort needed and expect things to fall on our lap.
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We expect overnight success and forget marketing is all about the long game.
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Yes, marketing will humble you!
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Yes, marketing will hit your ego!
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But no, we don't give up, we keep building!
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To continue being cheesy (since we're here), this reminds me of that quote by Thomas Edison: "I didn't fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps."
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Are you giving up on step number 37?
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Love,
Unhinged Marketer

05/01/2025

My boss gave me one rule: "Make our blogs sound like you wrote them, not a marketing robot." So here I am, caffeinated beyond reason (what else is new lol), editing a blog on why social campaigns go viral.
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Here are a few things I noticed from analyzing Wendy's Twitter roasts, IHOP's identity crisis, and that viral ALS ice bucket challenge:
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➡️ The most "successful" campaigns aren't even about the products! Wendy's never tweets "our burgers have 20% more beef" - they just roast McDonald's and honestly I am lovin' it.
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➡️ Every viral campaign I studied had one thing in common: they triggered actual human emotions (no way, shocker, we totally never talk about that on this page...)
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➡️ The campaigns that bombed were all trying too hard to go viral instead of connecting with real people about real things. I see this a lot with new businesses, "make me famous". Um, nobody wants to be a one-hit wonder. Creating loyal, obsessed fans is where it's at!
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I think our obsession with "best practices" and professionalism is truly killing creativity. The most powerful campaigns seem to break all the rules!
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Like this one! When Norway (like, the country) wanted to promote tourism, they put cameras on sheep (yes, actual sheep) for their tourism campaign. This gave them 6 million views in two months!
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Talk about . So the moral of the story is: maybe strap a GoPro to a farm animal instead of doing the booooring regular smegular marketing. Baaaaa.

04/24/2025

Is it just me or have popup timers gone completely FERAL lately?
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I can't make it 3 seconds on a website without:
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"WANT 10% OFF?"
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"JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST!"
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"DON'T MISS OUT!"
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Like HELLO? I literally just arrived. I don't even know if I like you yet and you're already asking for my email?
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The absolute WORST are the ones that:
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→Block the entire screen
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→Have microscopic close buttons
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→Make you feel like garbage with dismissal copy like "No thanks, I hate saving money" *eye roll*
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Sometimes I land on a site with 18 things flying around and just rage-quit. Like, who does that??
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Sure, it's a marketing strategy and might "work," but it ignores the silent (or loud) rage of visitors who bounce the second they're hit with popup purgatory.
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I prefer to delay pop-ups at least 30 seconds in, or trigger them based on scroll depth or real engagement.
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Anyone else feel this way or am I just extra unhinged today? Like please don't make me throw my phone against the wall from pop-up overwhelm.
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Love,
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Unhinged Marketer

04/22/2025

I've been a brand ambassador, influencer, AND affiliate for brands and am only now learning the actual differences.
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But let's rewind. The other day my boss asked me to update our blogs with only one rule: "Make this sound less corporate-y and more like YOU."
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I started with a post on top brand ambassador examples, and immediately learned way more than I expected. Here’s the 411:
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➡️ Brand ambassadors = your ride-or-die fans who signed a contract
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➡️ Influencers = will promote anything for the right price (yesterday's stranger, today's " ")
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➡️ Affiliates = commission-hungry with varying levels of actual product love
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My fave example? Gymshark's ambassador program. I've seen people repping their brand ALL over my TikTok, YouTube, IG feeds for YEARS. Their head of PR nailed it: "Who better to represent the brand than those who actually love Gymshark?"
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As an embarrassingly professional TikTok scroller, I only trust people who've genuinely used a product for years before repping it. Authenticity > selling your soul for any price tag, am I right???
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So that’s my mission over the next few weeks: add authenticity and humanize our content. Maybe even add a little ✨unhinged✨ spice to the copy.
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First few blogs down... and only about 17 "how unhinged do you want it?" messages to my boss later...
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Love,
Unhinged Marketer

04/11/2025

Nothing exposes a brand’s true colors faster than a customer service fail on your grandmother’s birthday.
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Last year I ordered flowers for my grandmother’s birthday, paid extra for fast morning delivery, and pictured her smiling as they arrived at her door.
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Instead… they showed up at 10PM. So I did what most people do: I contacted customer service (frantically), hoping for a refund.
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What I got instead?
→ “It’s still technically the same day.”
→ “We can offer you a $5 credit on your next order.” 🙃
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Oh perfect, let me ruin another special day. Thanks.
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It made me think about how fragile customer trust really is. You can have the perfect product, a beautifully designed site, a clever marketing campaign… but if the experience falls apart and support is supposed to save the day and doesn't? Ouuf it's embarrassing.
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A $5 credit doesn’t fix broken trust. (A full refund would've been a whole different story...)
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Customer service matters. Way more than most brands act like it does. So thank you to the ones who do show up and save the day. ❤️
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Sincerely,
Unhinged Marketer

03/28/2025

The hill I will gladly die on? Customer service is marketing more than marketing is marketing.
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Last year I canceled an $80/month subscription in seconds - not because of price, not because of the product, but because of one crazy gaslight-y customer service experience.
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I ordered dog food but my shipment was 2 weeks late and the promo I used mysteriously vanished. So I reached out to customer service, expecting, idk, help? Instead, the rep:
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→Took zero accountability
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→Gaslit me
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→Deliberately ended our chat multiple times
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→Ignored my follow-up attempts
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In my Stephanie Tanner voice, how rude.
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They lost my:
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→ Recurring revenue
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→ My brand trust
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→ Potential referrals

Not to mention the 10+ people who’ll hear my “don’t buy from them” rant.
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Reading our latest newsletter reminded me of this story. A great customer experience starts with treating people like humans (shocker!) - something AI can never replace.
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⁣Love,
⁣Unhinged Marketer

03/21/2025

Do you ever have those days where you feel like a zombie and 5 coffees aren’t going to cut it?
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⁣Yeah, well that’s me today - finally home at 2 am after my train was delayed for 4 hours. Not only was my train delayed for 4 hours, but the actual ride ended up being an additional 2 hours longer because of some mandatory speed reduction (um??).
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⁣And honestly? Their communication throughout all this was almost nonexistent…the customer service was not customer service-ing. What a mess.
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⁣They did try to romance us with free pizza though and 100% credit for the next trip (um, WHAT next trip). Not going to lie, the pizza did make me feel slightly better (it’s the thought that counts! And cheese!!). But free pizza couldn’t fix my crankiness. Oh yeah and to make matters worse, the wifi SUCKED. So there’s that.
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⁣When I got home, I was so sleepy that I couldn’t fall asleep (does that ever happen to you?). Yeah…fun times. I am a bit non-functional, but the show must go on…
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⁣What I can’t stop thinking about is: “I’m never going to go on this train ever again.” If anyone ever asks me about this train again, not only will I NOT recommend it but I’ll recount my nightmare experience in THOROUGH detail! Isn’t it funny how one negative experience tarnishes the image of a business forevermore?
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Love,
⁣Unhinged Marketer

03/19/2025

This is a PSA: If you see a business owner anytime in the next few months, don’t ask how they’re doing. It’s the nightmare that is tax season and we're crying into our spreadsheets until further notice okay? 😵‍💫

Here's a list of what you can do instead:

1. Assure us we’re not going to jail.

2. Promise to visit us daily with coffee in our jail cell.

See you on the other side ✌

02/19/2025

Today I discovered the marketing Rule of 100:
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For a $50 pair of sneakers, which discount feels more enticing?
⤷ 20% off vs. $10 off
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Your brain probably jumped to 20%, right?
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Now for a $1,500 laptop:
⤷ 10% off vs. $150 off
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Suddenly, $150 feels way more appealing.
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Here’s the fun part: they’re exactly the same discount.
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Why?
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Our brains aren’t wired to process numbers in absolute terms. Instead, we compare them relative to the original price, so we gravitate toward larger numbers that sound like a better deal.
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↳ Under $100? Percentage discounts hit different.
↳ Over $100? Show the dollar amount.
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And here’s why this is fascinating: people love sharing useful, counterintuitive insights (especially when it makes them look smart - do I look smart to you yet?🤓).
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That’s exactly why concepts like this spread through word of mouth.
Jonah Berger explains this in Contagious: Why Things Catch On, and now I can’t stop spotting it everywhere in marketing (and LinkedIn tbh👀).
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Love,
Unhinged Marketer
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02/18/2025

Could YOU grow your user base to 8.5 million, without spending a single dollar on ads? Well, Hotmail did it...
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I came across this story while reading Jonah Berger’s "Contagious: Why Things Catch On", and wow!
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Here’s how Hotmail did it:
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Back in 1996, Hotmail launched as one of the first web-based email services. But they had one big problem: no marketing budget.
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So, they got scrappy (as all the best marketers do). They added this line at the bottom of every email sent from their platform: "Get your free email at Hotmail."
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Yep, that’s it. Just one line. No fancy campaign, no celebrity endorsements. But it worked. Like, really worked.
Each email became a subtle recommendation, popping up in inboxes around the world.
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Users didn’t even realize they were marketing Hotmail (isn't that crazy?).
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My biggest takeaway is:
If you can make your service publicly visible and effortlessly shareable, it can sell itself.
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By the way, is anyone else still using Hotmail, or am I the only one who can’t let go? 👀
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Love,
Unhinged Marketer

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Website

https://referralrock.com/

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