Referral Channel Scaling

This drill multiplies referral volume by deploying referral surfaces across every high-intent moment in the product and communication channels. Instead of a single "refer a friend" page, the referral ask appears contextually at moments of delight, habit formation, and social proof -- each instrumented and measurable independently.

Prerequisites

• Referral program running at Baseline level for at least 2 weeks with proven conversion
• PostHog tracking core referral events (link shared, clicked, signup, activation, reward)
• Intercom and Loops configured with referral messaging templates
• A unique referral link per user already implemented

Steps

1. Audit existing referral surfaces

Query PostHog for referral_link_shared events. Group by the surface property (or add it if missing). Calculate share rate and conversion rate per surface. Identify the current top-performing surface and the surfaces with zero or minimal activity. This baseline tells you where new surfaces will have the most incremental impact.

2. Deploy in-app contextual prompts

Using intercom-in-app-messages, create referral prompts triggered by product success moments:

Post-milestone prompt: When a user completes their first major workflow (defined by your activation metric), show: "You just [achieved X]. Know someone who needs this?" with a one-click referral share button.

Post-upgrade prompt: After a user upgrades their plan, show: "Welcome to [Plan]. Share [product] with a colleague and you both get [reward]."

Usage milestone prompt: When a user crosses a round-number milestone (100th document, 50th report, etc.), show: "You've reached [milestone]. Your referral link: [link]."

Using posthog-feature-flags, roll out each new prompt to 50% of eligible users first. Measure referral rate (prompts shown vs. links shared) for each. Keep prompts with >3% share rate; retire prompts below 1%.

3. Build lifecycle email referral touchpoints

Using loops-sequences, inject referral CTAs into existing lifecycle emails at strategic points:

• Day 7 post-signup email: If the user has activated, append a referral section at the bottom: "Enjoying [product]? Share with a friend."
• Monthly usage summary email: Include a section showing the user's impact (features used, time saved) with "Share your results" CTA that opens a pre-populated referral message.
• Plan renewal confirmation email: After successful renewal, include: "Thanks for staying. Refer a colleague and get [reward]."

Using posthog-custom-events, track referral_email_cta_shown and referral_email_cta_clicked for each touchpoint. Each email referral CTA should carry a surface=email_{touchpoint_name} property on the resulting referral link.

4. Implement post-action social sharing

Using posthog-custom-events, identify shareable product outputs: reports generated, dashboards created, exports completed, achievements unlocked. At each of these output moments, present a share mechanic:

• "Share this [output] with your team" -- generates a link that requires sign-up to view
• Pre-populated share text for email, Slack, and LinkedIn
• Each share link carries the referrer's unique referral code as a query parameter

Using n8n-triggers, fire a workflow when a shared output link gets its first click. The workflow enriches the visitor via attio-lists and starts the referee onboarding sequence.

5. Build the referral reminder cadence

Using n8n-workflow-basics, create an automation that identifies users who have shared at least once but not in 30+ days:

1. Query PostHog for users with referral_link_shared events, last occurrence >30 days ago
2. Filter to users still active (session in last 7 days)
3. Send a personalized Loops email: "You referred [name] last month. They're loving [product]. Know anyone else?" Include their current referral count and next reward tier.

Rate limit: maximum 1 referral reminder per user per 30 days.

6. Measure channel-level performance

Using posthog-cohorts, create a "Referral Surface Performance" dashboard showing:

| Surface | Prompts Shown | Links Shared | Share Rate | Referee Signups | Conversion Rate | Cost per Referral | |---------|--------------|--------------|------------|-----------------|-----------------|-------------------|

Rank surfaces by total referral signups (volume) and by conversion rate (quality). Allocate optimization effort to the highest-volume surfaces first. Retire surfaces with <0.5% share rate after 4 weeks.

Output

• 3+ in-app contextual referral prompts deployed at success moments
• Referral CTAs injected into 3+ lifecycle email touchpoints
• Post-action social sharing mechanic on shareable product outputs
• 30-day referral reminder automation for lapsed referrers
• Channel-level performance dashboard showing share rate and conversion per surface

Triggers

Run this drill once when entering Scalable level. Re-run quarterly to add new surfaces based on product changes and to retire underperforming ones.