How to set up and share your referral program

The beehiiv referral program is an organic way for you to continuously market to engaged audiences by offering rewards to your subscribers as incentives for referring your newsletter to others. The best part is, once you set it up, it’s fully automated and all you have to do is review the results and fulfill the rewards. 

How to set up your referral program 

1. From the left hand panel in your account, go to Grow > Referral Program then click on the Configure tab.

2. Click on the Add Milestone button. This is where you’ll set up all of your milestones that are achievable by your subscribers when they reach specific levels of referrals.

3. The milestone form will pop up. First, enter the number of referrals that will be needed for the milestone and then click on Add Reward to specify what they will receive once reaching the milestone.

4. The rewards form will appear on the right for you to fill in the details about the reward. The Name, Description, and Reward Type fields are required. 

Enter in the desired information and then click on Create to finalize. 

5. (Optional) You can also customize how fulfillment will be performed and when the achievement emails will be triggered. 

• Toggle on the Auto Fulfill option to have achievements automatically marked when they are reached. 
  • This is useful when the email being sent contains the actual reward.
• Toggle on the Delay Email Until Fulfilled option to delay the achievement email until it has been fulfilled. Otherwise, it will be sent as soon as someone achieves a milestone.  
  • This is useful if you don't want to notify a user that they have achieved a milestone until you've had a chance to review their referrals.
    
    

6. Create the milestone email that will be sent out after they’ve reached the milestone. This is where you can congratulate them for their achievement and include any additional information about the milestone like an image of it or a promo code. 

The Subject Line and Content are both required and you can access the post editor that you are familiar with by typing / in the content area. Use the Preview button to review the message, and then click on Create to finalize.

7. After each milestone is added you’ll see it listed on the main page. You can add as many milestones as desired by clicking on the Add Milestone button and repeating the process.

Your referral card to share

As with many beehiiv features, the referral program is built into your account, and you can access it anytime directly from the post editor (providing you are on a Scale or Enterprise plan). 

When drafting a message, click / to open the post editor and then select Referral Program. Here, you can either copy and paste the link provided or add it to your beehiiv emails as-is.

Rewards: where to edit, delete, or add rewards 

From the Referral Program in your account, click on the Configure tab, then navigate to Rewards. Here, you’ll see a list of all of the rewards you’ve created. 

You can click on the 3 vertical dots to edit or delete your rewards, or to add a new reward, click the Add Reward button.

Settings: where to add custom copy to your referral card

You’ll also have access to a referral card that you can add to your beehiiv posts to promote or share your referral program with others, and this is how you can customize what the card says. 

From the Referral Program in your account, click on the Configure tab, then navigate to Settings. 

Here, you can add your own copy to describe your newsletter, which will be displayed at the top of your referral card within your email posts.

Refer to this article for information on monitoring or exporting your referral program data after it's been setup.

Frequently asked questions about the beehiiv referral program

Can I import existing referral data into my beehiiv account? 

If you’re coming from a different provider and want to import existing referral data, please log into your account and contact support so our team can help you out. 

What happens if I change the limit of the required referrals? 

We only calculate rewards when a new subscriber is referred. This means that changing the limit, whether it be lower or higher, would not affect the status of the milestone achievement count, unless a new referral came through. 

For example, if a subscriber has 4 referrals, and the reward tier is reduced to 3 referrals from 5, they wouldn't get the reward for that tier until a new referral comes in. Subsequently, if the subscriber gets the reward at 3 or 4 referrals, and then the threshold moves back up to 5, it'll still show that they earned the reward. They also won't double earn it, if they hit the higher threshold.  

Can I feature the referral hub on my domain instead of yours?

Yes, if you are using a custom domain. The URL for your referral program is determined by the domain you're using with your beehiiv account; which is either your own custom domain or the beehiiv subdomain that your account came with. Refer to this article for more information on using domains in beehiiv. 

What if a subscriber changes jobs, can I still keep their referral numbers?

Yes, but we will need to do this for you. If you want a subscriber’s email changed while keeping their profile history, please log into your account and contact support so our team can help you out.