SparkLoop Review: Effortlessly grow your email list with referrals

SparkLoop features you’ll love

• 📨 More referrals, more rewards

  Incentives are subscriber superfood.

  With SparkLoop you’re in total control of rewards. Choose from a single reward, multiple reward tiers, or recurring rewards. Whether you want to give away merch, discount codes, exclusive access, free membership for a few months or a free e-book, SparkLoop makes it easy to create, track and optimise rewards that actually work.

  

  SparkLoop is extremely polished. With very little effort you’ll have a good looking and highly effective viral referral scheme on your hands.

  I’m on a side project budget, so will be going for affordable and easy-to-create rewards. Think digital “thank you”s and drop-shipped swag, with a total budget of $250.

  One of the former free course graduates, Aleyda, advised: “it’s really important to have a reward for 1-3 referrals that costs nothing so that every subscriber knows they’ll get something in return for sharing.” Wise words.

  The SparkLoop rewards library is full of inspiration for rewards that can grow your email list. Go check it out!

• 💌 Baked into your newsletter

  SparkLoop lets you bake a referral program into your standard newsletter.

  Connect it up to your MailChimp, ConvertKit, MailerLite, Campaign Monitor, Active Campaign or Drip account for amazing two-way data sync. This allows you to track new subscribers, insert unique referral links in your newsletter and for your referrers to attract new subscribers with a single click. No form filling needed!

  Subscribers can share the referral link any way they please, including in social media posts, in blog posts or guests posts, a QR code or adding a call to action into their marketing emails. The single click sign-up is a win/win for everyone.

  One of the main reasons this all works so well is because it’s unshakably upfront and simple. “Refer a friend” or “Send to a friend” links are usually hidden away at the bottom of emails. SparkLoop makes the ask a lot more direct and appealing. Also, if the prospect takes a detour, SparkLoop’s tracking script tracks referrals across any sign-up form or pop-up anywhere on your website.

• 🎁 Reward emails and fulfilment – easy-peasy

  Don’t fret about fulfilling all those rewards. You’re busy enough.

  SparkLoop can be setup to automatically send a congratulatory email to referrers due a reward. If the reward is digital (e.g. a PDF, discount, course etc), you can include a link to download it in the email itself. Clever!

  Whilst we’re on emails. SparkLoop can also automate ‘You’ve made your first referral’ emails and those to your new subscribers resulting from the campaign. Merge tags, such as ‘name’, ‘number of referrals’ and ‘referrals needed for next reward’ keep referrers feeling values and motivated.

• 📈 Dashboards for all - keep motivating

  

  SparkLoop keeps everyone in the loop with super simple and easy-to-find dashboards.

  Everything referrers need to stay motivated (subscriber count, reward tiers, key links) is in one place and wrapped in your branding. Referrers can also directly access their individual dashboard by following the unique link in your emails – no messing around with logins and lost passwords.

  The unique referral link means every new sign up is permanently credited to the referring subscriber’s account. SparkLoop ensures the all-important mix of accuracy, transparency and fun needed for any referral or email marketing campaign.

  As the campaign owner, you’ll get a day-by-day breakdown of new subscribers, new referrals and traffic to your landing page. You can also see top referrers to drop them a “thank you” note, outside of the rewards system.

• 🏆 Giveaways - inject more urgency

  Giveaways are great if you’re starting with a small audience or want to grow your email list even faster.

  

  The Refer-to-Win Giveaway is very similar to the normal referral program you might run with SparkLoop, but instead of rewarding referrals with prizes, they get entries into a prize draw. The more referrals they make, the better their odds of winning. Email marketing 101.

  SparkLoop powers these end-to-end too. It’ll even pick a winner for you, ensuring a fair draw. You can select the start and finish date, the entries per referral, the number of prizes and advanced anti-fraud measures (e.g. double-opt-in entries) to stop anyone gaming the system. Just like a SparkLoop referral campaign, Giveaways can also be embedded directly into your email newsletters.

• 📝 Subscribe pages – a single editable template

  Although SparkLoop’s one-click subscription link is a godsend, you may also wish to send people to a landing page.

  SparkLoop’s Subscribe pages are designed with conversion in mind. They’re super minimalist, featuring just enough info to persuade and reassure potential new subscribers. However, I have to say I prefer Unbounce’s advanced landing pages, boosting better looking templates, building grid, social proof, A/B testing and AI optimisation.

  Still, it’s a much-needed feature and will do the job of converting website visitors into subscribers and potential customers. Make sure you point yours to a custom domain (e.g. subscribe.example.com) and don’t forget to set your success message and automated email marketing welcome.