Referral marketing is proven to work—but how you position it can be the difference between under 1% of bookings and 3–10% contribution.
A double-sided referral offer is particularly effective, as it incentivises both parties:
The referrer (who’s already entered your event) for sharing
Their friend, family or colleague for completing their entry
Check Your Referral Proposition
Before promoting your scheme, ensure the offer is compelling and clearly communicated. Ask yourself:
Is the incentive valuable enough to motivate sharing?
👉 If you want to edit your scheme see the guide on creating a referral scheme.
Make Your Referral Scheme More Visible
Entry Confirmation Email
We know how powerful referrals can be. That’s why, by default, all entry confirmation emails include a shareable link to your event page—even if you haven’t enabled any automated referral incentives.
However, while the default text is polite, there is minimal context. Therefore to increase engagement, we strongly recommend adding 1–2 personalised sentences, for example:
Encouragement to share:
“You’re in! Why not invite your friends and family to join you?” or “Share the below discount code with friends and family”
Clear explanation of the reward:
“As a thank you, anyone you refer will get £X off their entry, and you’ll receive £X credit for every successful referral to use on a future event.”
Once your referral scheme is enabled:
For a single sided scheme your participant receives a unique referral URL
With a double sided scheme the participant has a unique discount code
The same link can be shared and used multiple times
Promote Referrals via Email Marketing
Participants love talking about the events and challenges they’ve signed up for—and often want friends to join them for training, motivation, or shared travel.
Take advantage of this by reminding them they can be rewarded for spreading the word.
While you can add referral messaging to existing campaigns, we recommend sending a short, dedicated email focused entirely on the referral offer.
Ready-to-use template in the Email Marketing feature (coming soon)
Template reference:
Remember to include the %Referral_Code% merge tag
Encourage Social Sharing
Keep the referral process simple and repeat it consistently. For example:
Enter the event and sign up for an account
Share the referral link from your entry confirmation email
Remind friends to complete their entry using that link or code (and not start a new session)
Share as many times as you like
Everyone benefits 🎉
Add a Page to your Website Navigation
Have a section on your website dedicated to your referral scheme
Here’s an example of how your referral page could look. https://10krunning.clubtrac-staging.uk/website-contents/90-referral-scheme
Template in Website Contents (coming soon)
See our guide on Adding Website Content
FAQs and Help Content
Recommended FAQs to include:
Is there a refer-a-friend scheme?
How does the referral process work?
Do you need an account to refer someone?
What happens if my friend doesn’t use my link?
👉 Reference the Refer a Friend system FAQs (coming soon) and the Creating an Account After Registration FAQ (live).
Monitor Referral Performance
You can track referral activity at any time by navigating to:
Dashboard → Referral Scheme → Referrals
Here, you’ll be able to see:
How many sign-ups are generated
Who is referring
👉 For deeper insights, see the Reporting on Referrals section in the Setup Guide.
