How to configure referral email notifications
Most of your referral programme’s contact with customers happens by email — the welcome that hands over a link, the thank-you that confirms a reward, the reminder that rescues a forgotten code. Bloop sends these automatically, and each one is a template you can rewrite, style, time and switch off.
Open your campaign and go to Email notifications. Emails belong to the campaign, so a second campaign gets its own set.
The emails Bloop sends
Section titled “The emails Bloop sends”The page splits into Referrer and Referee tabs.
To the referrer
Section titled “To the referrer”| When it sends | |
|---|---|
| Welcome to referral program | They join — carries their referral link and what they’ll earn |
| Successful rewards | A referral converts. One template per reward type: discount, credit, cash, custom, free product |
| Pending rewards | A reward is earned but waiting on review |
| Decline rewards | A referral didn’t qualify |
| Not enough referees to receive reward | A referral succeeded but a referee-count minimum isn’t met yet |
| Referral progress | Each time a tier reward is earned: what they just earned, which tier they’re at and what’s next. If Successful rewards is on too, both emails go out for the same referral |
| Reward expiry reminder | Before their unused discount code expires |
| Reward reminder | Their discount code is still unused |
| Cash payout notification | You marked their cash payout as paid |
| Remind referrer to refer | A recurring nudge that repeats until the stopping rule you pick ends it (12 months by default), and stops if the campaign is no longer active |
| Referral Hub access | A referrer asks for a link to open their referral hub, and this email delivers the sign-in link. If the template is switched off or empty, Bloop sends a built-in version instead |
To the referee
Section titled “To the referee”| When it sends | |
|---|---|
| Email invitation from referrers | A referrer invites them by email |
| Discount claim | They enter their email — carries the coupon code |
| Reward expiry reminder | Before their unused code expires |
| Reward reminder | Their code is still unused |
The email invitation is the only one written partly by your customer: it carries their own note. Keep your template’s framing light around it — the personal line is what makes it work.
To protect your sender reputation, invitations have a daily ceiling, both for each referrer and for your store across all referrers. An invite over either limit isn’t sent.
Edit a template
Section titled “Edit a template”Open any email to get the editor. The Preview button in the editor toolbar opens the finished body in a dialog; it does not show the subject or the From address.
| Field | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Subject | The subject line. Variables work here too |
| Content | The body |
| Banner image | .jpeg or .png, under 20 MB and 20 MP, best at 1200 × 704 px — or No Image |
| Button content | The button’s text, font, and hover colour. Leave the text empty to hide the button. On referrer emails other than Successful rewards, these fields sit under a Hub redirect button heading |
| Redirect customers to specific page when clicking on the button | Where the button sends them, on Successful rewards and referee emails only. Other referrer emails always open the referral hub |
Reset to default puts a template back to Bloop’s copy if an edit goes wrong.
Default templates mark where the button sits with a grey {{RedirectButton}} block, and on Welcome and Referral progress where the tier table sits with a {{TierTable}} block. Cut and paste a block to move its content, or add one back from Insert variables. If you delete a placeholder, Bloop does not drop the content: it adds it at the end of the email.
Which address your emails come from, and where customers’ replies go, is set in email sender settings, not in the template.
Editing the Referral progress email, you can set which tier the preview highlights — the template branches on tier position, so check the one your referrers will actually be at. That email can also carry conditional blocks, which let one template read differently at each tier.
Conditional blocks
Section titled “Conditional blocks”Available on the Referral progress email once FlexiTiers are on.
Tiers often hand out different kinds of reward — store credit at the lower ones, a free product at the milestone. A sentence written for credit reads badly against a gift. Conditional blocks solve that inside one template: mark a paragraph with a condition and it is only included when that condition is true. Anything you leave unmarked is sent every time, exactly as before.
Write one
Section titled “Write one”Put the cursor where the paragraph belongs, click Conditional block in the toolbar, and pick a condition. An empty box appears with a grey tag naming its condition — type inside it. The tag is part of the editor, never part of the email: what the customer receives is exactly the text you typed in the box, with the box itself and its tag gone.
Blocks sit next to each other, never inside each other. Clicking a second condition while the cursor is inside a block puts the new one after it, not within it.
| Condition | True when |
|---|---|
| Only for a tier | The referral landed the referrer on that tier |
| Only when there is a next tier | Any tier with another one above it |
| Only at the highest tier | The top tier, with nothing after it |
| Only the first time this tier is reached | The referral that moved them into the tier |
| Only on later referrals in this tier | The 2nd, 3rd… referral inside the same tier range |
On a Loop cycle the highest-tier condition is replaced by Only when the cycle starts over, which fires on the referral that sends them back to tier 1.
The conditions are independent, so they combine: a block for a tier and a block for the first time in that tier both appear on the same email when both are true.
Condition a few words, not a whole paragraph
Section titled “Condition a few words, not a whole paragraph”Select the words first, then pick a condition. The selection stays where it is in the sentence and is highlighted instead of boxed — everything around it is sent every time.
That is how you write one sentence that changes only at the reward: You have earned 5€ store credit a free product for this referral. — two highlighted fragments, one per tier, in the middle of a sentence the reader sees as a single line.
Check what gets sent
Section titled “Check what gets sent”Two selectors under the editor set who the preview pretends to be — which tier they’re on, and whether this is their first referral in it. They change the preview only; the email is untouched.
Whether there is a next tier is not a selector because it follows from the tier you pick. Choose the last tier and the “next tier” blocks drop out while the “highest tier” blocks appear.
In the editor every block stays visible so you can always see your whole template, dimmed when it falls outside the current selection. The Preview button in the editor toolbar is the one that shows the finished email, with the non-matching blocks removed.
Under the selectors, Bloop lists the blocks your template contains. Click one to jump to it.
Move existing copy into blocks first
Section titled “Move existing copy into blocks first”The mistake worth avoiding: adding a block for your odd tier and leaving the original sentence unmarked. Both then go out together on that tier.
If a sentence in your template is only right for some tiers, put it into blocks for those tiers too, then write the new one. Step through every tier in the preview afterwards — a tier with nothing to say is easier to spot there than in a customer’s inbox.
Warnings you may see
Section titled “Warnings you may see”| Warning | What to do |
|---|---|
| A block points at a tier that no longer exists | You deleted or replaced that tier. The block can never be sent — remove it or point it at a live tier |
| The highest-tier block is never sent | Your Loop cycle is made of single-referral steps, so nobody is ever sitting inside a highest tier. Use Only when the cycle starts over instead |
Reordering tiers is safe: blocks follow the tier itself, not its position in the list.
Where the button goes
Section titled “Where the button goes”In referrer emails other than Successful rewards, the button always takes the referrer to their referral hub, already signed in. It is the single best destination, because everything they might want next is on it. The editor offers no custom path for these emails. The exception is Cash payout notification: it shows the same hub layout, but its button opens your store’s home page.
On Successful rewards and the referee emails you can point the button somewhere specific. Tick Redirect customers to specific page when clicking on the button and fill in a path such as /about-us. Use it when an email has a job the hub can’t do, such as a product launch or a survey, and leave it alone otherwise. The discount and free product versions of Successful rewards open your store with the reward code already applied, so a custom path does not change them.
Style the tier reward block
Section titled “Style the tier reward block”The Welcome and Referral progress emails show a table of your tiers when the campaign uses FlexiTiers. At the end of those two editors, the collapsed Tier reward style section lets you shape that block:
| Field | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Custom code | A <style> block for the table’s CSS and a single <img> tag to replace the default gift icon. Nothing else is allowed, and the editor shows the size budget as you type |
| Referral range label, “You are here” label | The wording on each tier row and the marker on the referrer’s current tier |
| Discount, store credit, cash and generic free product reward text | How each reward type reads in the table. Keep the {{amount}} placeholder where the value belongs |
The custom code runs in emails sent to real customers, and Bloop support can’t debug it. Send a test after every change.
Time the send
Section titled “Time the send”Each email carries its own schedule:
| Option | Used for |
|---|---|
| Send immediately post-enrollment | The default for anything that reacts to an event |
| Send N days post-enrollment | Delayed welcomes and onboarding nudges |
| Send N days before expiry | Expiry warnings |
| Send N days after event | Reminders on an unused reward |
| Recurring, every N weeks | The “remind referrer to refer” nudge |
A recurring email needs a stopping rule, and you pick which: stop once the referrer has a number of successful referrals, stop after a number of emails, or just let the twelve-month limit end it. Every recurring email stops after 12 months from the contact’s enrolment regardless. A referrer never gets more than one recurring reminder in 24 hours; an extra one waits until the next day.
The default rule is the twelve-month limit, so a referrer who has already referred keeps getting the nudge. Pick the rule that stops after a number of successful referrals to end it once they do.
Set a stopping rule you’d be comfortable receiving yourself. A reminder that keeps arriving after someone has clearly opted out in spirit costs more goodwill than the referral is worth.
Turn emails on and off
Section titled “Turn emails on and off”Every email has its own switch. Turning one off keeps your edits and only affects sends from that point on.
Be careful turning off the pending and declined emails: they’re the ones that explain a reward that didn’t arrive. Without them, a referrer’s only signal is silence, and silence generates support tickets.
Understanding the unsubscribe link
Section titled “Understanding the unsubscribe link”Marketing emails carry a one-click unsubscribe, as Gmail and Yahoo require from bulk senders. Bloop adds a short “Don’t want these emails? Unsubscribe” line at the bottom and a matching unsubscribe header that mail apps show as their own button. This applies to:
| Referrer | Referee |
|---|---|
| Welcome to referral program | Email invitation from referrers |
| Not enough referees to receive reward | Reward expiry reminder |
| Reward expiry reminder | Reward reminder |
| Reward reminder | |
| Remind referrer to refer |
The footer follows your store’s language when Bloop has a translation for it (German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Swedish, Romanian, Danish, Polish, Finnish, Bulgarian, Czech and Thai), and is in English otherwise.
A customer who unsubscribes stops receiving these emails from your store. Transactional emails, such as the discount claim, successful and pending rewards, declines, referral progress, cash payouts and Hub sign-in links, have no unsubscribe link and keep arriving.
Template variables
Section titled “Template variables”Variables are placeholders like {{StoreName}} that Bloop fills at send time. Insert variable in the editor lists the ones valid for the template you’re editing — they differ by email, since a referee’s template has no referrer reward to show.
| Variable | Fills in |
|---|---|
{{StoreName}} |
Your store name |
{{ReferrerName}} |
The referrer’s name |
{{ReferrerReward}} / {{RefereeReward}} |
Each side’s reward — rendered through your reward display text |
{{ReferralLink}} / {{ReferralCode}} |
The referrer’s link or code |
{{CouponCode}} |
The recipient’s discount code |
{{ReferrerMinimumRequirement}} / {{RefereeMinimumRequirement}} |
The minimum each side must meet |
{{ReferrerCodeExpired}} / {{RefereeCodeExpired}} |
Time until each code expires |
{{RemainQuantityOfReferees}} |
How many more friends the referrer needs |
{{Message}} |
The referrer’s personal note on an invitation |
An unfilled variable is left as written rather than rendered blank — which is why a typo in a variable name shows up in a customer’s inbox as {{ReferralLnk}}. Insert them from the menu rather than typing them.
Send a test
Section titled “Send a test”Send test email delivers the template to any address you name. Bloop fills the reward details from your campaign’s real settings, but the referral link and codes are samples, and variables that depend on a real customer, such as {{ReferrerName}}, are not filled in. The Hub button is the one personal part: enter the address of a real referrer and it signs you in as them, otherwise it opens the hub without signing you in.
On the Referral progress email the test follows the two preview selectors: it sends the tier and the first-or-later referral you have selected. Change a selector and send again to see each version in your inbox.
Check it on a phone as well as a desktop. Most referral emails are read on one.
Sending through Klaviyo or Mailchimp
Section titled “Sending through Klaviyo or Mailchimp”If you send lifecycle email through a platform you already own, Bloop can hand the events over instead of sending its own — see Klaviyo and Mailchimp. Those flows carry a permanent hub link as a profile property (BLOOP Hub Portal in Klaviyo, BLOOPHUB in Mailchimp), so an email sent days later still signs the referrer in.
Remove the watermark
Section titled “Remove the watermark”Bloop’s emails carry a Powered by BLOOP Referrals & Affiliates line. Request to remove on the Email notifications page starts the process with support.
Languages
Section titled “Languages”Each email has one template per campaign — there are no per-language versions here. If you sell in several languages, that’s a reason to run a campaign per language rather than translating inside one.
Common mistakes to avoid
Section titled “Common mistakes to avoid”- Writing transactional, not personal. This is a recommendation between friends, not a receipt.
- Two asks in one email. One email, one button, one action.
- Going live without a test send. A broken variable or a cut-off subject is invisible until a customer sees it.
- Turning off the pending and declined emails. Silence about a missing reward becomes a support ticket.
- Typing variables by hand. Use Insert variable — a misspelled one ships as literal text.
- Adding a conditional block without moving the sentence it replaces. The unmarked original still goes out, so that tier gets both.
Next steps
Section titled “Next steps”- Set the rewards these emails announce in Referrer and referee rewards.
- Control how the reward value reads in reward display.
- Give referrers somewhere to land in the referral hub.