Launch Checklist

A referral program rarely fails at launch because of one big mistake — it fails because a few small things were never finished. The short answer: settle the reward and offer first, brand every customer-facing surface, test the full flow as a real customer, then promote only once everything works. This article is the order to do those steps in, with a checklist and links to the Bloop docs for each.

Treat launch as a sequence, not a single switch. Each step depends on the one before it, and skipping the test step is the most common reason a live program quietly loses shares.

The launch sequence

1. Decide the reward and offer. Choose the type, value, offer shape, minimums, and expiry. Start here because every other surface is built around it.
2. Set who can refer. Open the audience wide at launch so you gather data on who actually refers.
3. Brand the customer-facing surfaces. Style the widget, post-purchase prompt, and landing page so the program reads as part of your store.
4. Switch on the emails. Make sure reward, reminder, and invitation emails are enabled and worded in your voice.
5. Test the full flow. Run a real referral end to end before anyone sees it.
6. Promote. Only now point traffic at the program.

Pre-launch checklist

Area	Confirm before launch	Where
Reward	Type and value chosen; combined value below your referral profit	Rewards
Offer	Single vs double-sided, minimums, and expiry set deliberately	Rewards
Audience	Eligibility rule chosen — wide at launch	Target audience
Widget	Launcher and panel branded to your store	Widget branding
Post-purchase	Prompt enabled and worded around the friend's reward	Post-purchase popup
Landing page	Created, given a clean handle, added to navigation	Referral page
Emails	Program emails enabled and on-brand	Referral emails
Test	A full referral completed in test mode	Test your referral program

Test as a real customer before you promote

The fastest way to catch a broken reward, a missing email, or an unbranded popup is to run the whole flow yourself: become a referrer, send a referral, complete a qualifying order as the referee, and confirm both rewards land. Bloop provides a test path so you can do this without affecting real data — see test your referral program. Do not skip this step; a program that looks fine in settings can still fail at checkout.

Promote once, properly

With everything verified, point traffic at the program through the surfaces you branded plus off-store channels. Resist launching promotion before the test passes — a broken first impression is hard to win back.

Set it up in Bloop

• Follow the full setup in Getting started with referrals.
• Verify the flow in test your referral program.
• For promotion ideas, see how to promote your referral program.

Related

• Best practices: making your referral program visible
• Best practices: measuring and optimizing your program
• Getting started with referrals