Turn your customers into your best advocates using a friend referral campaign!
Boost registration by encouraging members to invite their friends to join the program and offering them a special reward for each friend that joins—such as bonus points or a special coupon.
Table of Contents
1. How it Works
Step 1: Friend Invitation
The member taps an invite button from a dedicated app screen, and selects which platform to use (such as email, SMS, Facebook, WhatsApp, etc.) and which friends to invite.
Step 2: Registration
Your friend opens the link from the invite message and then registers using the referral code (via web form or after downloading the app).
Invite links automatically pre-fill the referral code field on the registration form and profile update pages, saving users from manually copy-pasting codes.
Step 3: Rewards
The advocate and their friend receive a reward! Built-in abuse prevention ensures members can only claim a referral benefit once.
2. App Setup
Step 1: Invite Screen
From Content > Layout, create a layout block that opens the Invite Friends screen and add it to a tile in your app:
| Field | Value / Select | Screenshot for Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Icon | icon_friendReferral | |
| Restrict access only to members? | Yes | |
| Button Action | Open App Screen > Invite Friends |
Step 2: Custom Icons (Optional)
From Content > Branding (NEW) > Custom Icons (NEW), you can customize the icon that appears on the invite screen (by changing the image of Invite Friends).
Step 3: Custom Texts (Optional)
From Content > Override App Text, you can customize any text that appears on:
- App invite screen
- Autofill invite message
- Landing page
Step 4: Registration Form
From Business Profile > Registration > Registration Form, add the Invite Code (Referral Code) field to your registration form.
- This field should not be a required field to allow all members to register.
- This field is not available for the update form (so if the friend doesn't enter it when they register, they can't go back and add it later). It is available on the update form only when a member exists without T&C consent.
- This field is not available for registration via import or the registration API.
- The invite code is case sensitive.
3. Reward Setup
From the Campaign Center, create rules to reward the advocate and the friend that joins.
3.1. Reward for Advocates
To reward the advocate, create a rule based on when a member's invited a friend who joined.
The second option is to reward the advocate only once the referred member makes their first purchase.
3.2. Reward for Invited Friends
To give members who join with an invite code an extra reward than other members who join the regular way, create a rule based on when a member joins with an invite code. If the program also has another joining gift, this member will receive this reward in addition to the regular joining gift.
To give members who join with an invite code a different joining gift than other members, create a rule based on when a member joins the program with cases; one case for members who used an invite code and another for those who did not.
4. Data
You can view the following data related to your friend referral campaign.
4.1. Advocate Code
From the data explorer, friend referral report, you can view the advocate personal invite code (the code they send to friends that they invite).
4.2. Friend Profile
When a member joins the program using an invite code, the log in their member profile indicates which invite code they used and the membership key of the advocate (the member who invited them).
From Filter Members, you can search for all members that joined using an invite code, and even for members that joined with a specific invite code (for example, to find all the members who joined with the code of a specific advocate).
You can also search how many members joined with a specific referral code by the advocate details or by the referral code.
4.3. Looker
In your Data Explorer section, you can analyze friend referrals and their purchase measures with breakdown to joining time, purchase details, and member details (referring and joined members).
5. Creating a Friend Referral Campaign With SMS & Email
You can also use this feature without an app, by adding a referral link to your SMS, Email, or Push campaign.
All you have to do is create a Friend Referral campaign through your chosen channel of communication using one of the two referral URLs below.
5.1. Invite Code Generation URL (For Email & Push)
This URL is used to generate an invite code that an existing club member can view and retrieve to send to a non-member:
https://app.comosense.com/ssr-modules/friend-invite/{LOCATION-ID}/{{context.Membership.ComoMemberID}}
- {LOCATION-ID}: Replace this with your actual business or Hub location ID.
- {{context.Membership.ComoMemberID}}: Replace this with the Como Member ID merge tag.
For Email campaigns, insert the URL directly into your button action properties:
5.1.1. What the Existing Member Sees
When an existing member clicks the CTA button in their email, it opens a web page displaying:
- An Invite Now button to directly share the referral offer with friends.
- Their unique Invite Code (e.g., ZN8CC) with an option to tap and copy it.
- A More info button that displays the message: When your friend signs up to the program using your invite code, you’ll both get a special reward. And the more friends that join, the more rewards you’ll get!
5.2. Pre-Filled Referral Link URL (For SMS & Push)
This URL already includes the member’s referral code so it can be copied and sent directly to a non-member who is being invited to join the club:
https://connect.prod.bcomo.com/r/{LOCATION-ID}/@Member: Como Member ID
- {LOCATION-ID}: Replace this with your actual business or Hub location ID.
- @Member: Como Member ID: Replace this with the Como Member ID merge tag.
For SMS/Push campaigns, insert the URL directly into the description box of the SMS:
5.2.1. What the Invited Non-Member Sees
When a non-member opens this link, it opens the registration form with the referral code already attached:
6. Setting Up a Friend Referral Campaign in a Third Party App
You can also set up referral campaigns in third-party apps by creating a dedicated app view for friend referrals and using our Friend Referral API.
7. Friend Referral Support for Existing Non-Registered Members (No-T&C Consent)
Members who have never received a friend referral benefit remain eligible to claim it, provided they haven't used it previously.
This includes pre-existing, unregistered shadow profiles in the CRM (such as profiles imported from POS transactions or newsletter signups). These non-registered members can complete their registration using a friend's referral link, agree to the Terms & Conditions, and claim their referral reward seamlessly.
To support this flow in the Hub, configure your campaign rules using the Updates membership details trigger combined with the Used invite code = Yes condition.