How to Create a Refer-a-Friend Form (+ Template)

Would you like to create a refer-a-friend form for your website? A refer-a-friend form is a great way to generate leads for your online store, or widen your talent pool for a job opening.

In this article, we’ll show you 2 easy ways to create a refer-a-friend form using a template. You can add your finished form to your WordPress site without writing any code.

Create Your Refer-a-Friend Form Now

Does Refer-a-Friend Work?

Yes. When someone refers a friend to you, it’s a personal recommendation for your business or organization. So their referral will inspire more trust than a simple sales pitch.

That’s why referrals have a high conversion rate compared to other forms of lead generation. When running any kind of refer-a-friend program, it’s important to:

• Have a clear goal: Know what you want to achieve from your refer-a-friend campaign. Do you want more subscribers, more leads, more applicants for a job, or something else?
• Offer an incentive: Give something back to the people who you refer you, like an entry for a big-ticket prize draw, or a financial reward.
• Focus attention: Publish a clear, attractive refer-a-friend form to get as many referrals as possible. A distraction-free landing page is the perfect way to increase conversions on a form.

Now that you know the benefits of a refer-a-friend form, let’s look at 2 easy ways to make one in WordPress. Both of these methods use templates to speed things up.

How to Create a Refer-a-Friend Form

We’re going to look at 2 different plugins that let you create a refer-a-friend form. Both of these plugins are super powerful, but easy for beginners to set up and use.

Method 1: Create a Refer-a-Friend Form in WPForms

WPForms Pro is the best form builder plugin for WordPress. It lets you create any kind of form easily without writing any code. There are 2 great refer-a-friend templates in WPForms:

• Refer a Friend and Win Form Template: This template is perfect if you want to let customers send you new leads. It includes fields for the name and email of the person filling out the form as well as the name and email of the person they’re referring to you.
• Employee Referral Form Template: If your business is hiring and you’re looking for candidate recommendations, this form template can help. It will let existing employees send you referrals easily.

For our example, we’ll use the Employee Referral Form template. However, the steps to create your refer-a-friend form will be pretty much the same no matter which template you use. Let’s start by getting the plugin set up.

Step 1: Install and Activate WPForms

WPForms keeps referral forms simple, with 2,100+ form templates to customize, including the two we just looked at. You build the whole thing by dragging fields into place, no code required.

What I like most about WPForms for referral forms is how much it handles on its own. You can email both the referrer and their friend automatically, save every referral in your dashboard, and hand out a reward without touching a line of code.

For this tutorial you’ll want WPForms Pro, which unlocks the full template library and the ready-made referral templates. It also adds the tools that make a referral campaign work, like the Coupons addon for reward codes and Entry Management for keeping track of who referred whom.

To get started, buy the Pro license. Then install WPForms on your website. If you need a hand, here’s a guide to installing a plugin in WordPress.

Upgrade to WPForms Pro Now!

Step 2: Customize Your Refer-a-Friend Form

Now it’s time to start building your form. Click WPForms » Add New in the WordPress sidebar. When the form builder opens, you’ll see a box at the top for the form name. Go ahead and type in the name you want to use here.

Next, scroll down to the Select a Template section. WPForms comes with 2,100+ WordPress form templates that you can customize however you like.

In the search field, search for “referral form.” Go ahead and click Use Template to open the Employee Referral Form template in the form builder.

Great! Now the form template is open and we can change it to fit our employee refer-a-friend campaign. In the form builder, you can drag any fields from the left-hand side to the right-hand side to add them to the form.

Also, you can delete any fields you don’t need by clicking hovering your mouse over the field in the preview area and clicking the trash can icon.

If you want to customize a field, such as changing its label or adding a description, you can click on it in the preview area to open its field options on the left side of the builder.

You’ll also want to explain the reward you’re offering. The easiest way is to drag a Content field onto the form and add your text there.

You can also add an image to your form using the same Content field. Keep in mind that anything you put in a Content field won’t show in the builder, but it will appear once the form is published.

Step 3: Configure Form Settings

So that’s the basic form done. Now we just need to check a couple more things in the settings. Stay in the form builder and click Settings on the left, and then Notifications.

This screen shows the email template that will be used to send a notification when someone submits your form.

You can customize the email address that the notification will be sent to in the Send To Email Address field. You can also change the email subject and text.

Next, let’s check the form confirmations. Go ahead and click Confirmations on the left.

The message in on the right will show up after the form is submitted. You can change the wording of this message if you want to.

There are lots of other things you can change in the form settings if you’d like to. For now, we’re done here. Go ahead and click Save in the top right corner of the form builder. It’s time to move on and publish the form.

Step 4: Publish Your Refer-a-Friend Form on Your Site

Now that your form is done, you’ll want to add it to your website. WPForms lets you add your form anywhere in WordPress, like:

• On a page
• In a blog post
• In the sidebar
• In the WordPress footer

I’m going to show you how to add it to a page. At the top of the form builder, click the Embed button. Now click Create New Page in the popup.

Go ahead and type in the name for a new page here and click Let’s Go.

You’ll see your new page in the WordPress editor with your form embedded in it. All you have to do now is click the blue Publish button in the top right corner.

And that’s it! You’ve created a refer-a-friend form and published it on your site. Now you can share the link to the page with your employees and ask them to recommend people for your job opening.

You may also want to create and share an online job application form that your employees can send to potential candidates.

If you’d like to look at another way to create a refer-a-friend form, RafflePress is a great alternative. Let’s take a quick look at how it works.

Method 2: Make a Refer-a-Friend Form in RafflePress

RafflePress is the best giveaway plugin for WordPress, and it makes contests and refer-a-friend campaigns easy to run. It’s a great fit when you want more subscribers or leads, especially if you start an online store.

RafflePress comes with a refer-a-friend giveaway template, so you can get started right away.

For the full rundown, take a look at our RafflePress review. The difference with RafflePress is the built-in viral sharing.

You can add a refer-a-friend action to any campaign, and in this example we’re giving away an iPad, where each referral earns the entrant another entry in the giveaway.

RafflePress then creates a unique refer-a-friend link for every entrant automatically. To build yours, follow this guide to creating a viral refer-a-friend giveaway.

You can also add referral tracking to your forms with AffiliateWP if you plan to pay out commissions on the sales your referrals drive.

FAQs on Refer-a-Friend Forms

Refer-a-friend forms come up a lot when people start planning referral campaigns in WordPress. Here are answers to the questions I hear most.

What is a refer-a-friend form?

It’s a form where an existing customer or subscriber shares a friend’s name and email so you can reach out, usually in exchange for a reward. It turns word of mouth into leads you can actually follow up on.

What should a refer-a-friend form include?

At a minimum, the referrer’s name and email, the friend’s name and email, and a short optional message. It also helps to spell out the reward on the form itself, so people know exactly what they get for referring.

Is it free to create a refer-a-friend form?

A basic refer-a-friend form is free to build with WPForms Lite. To use the ready-made referral templates, store every entry, and offer rewards like coupon codes, you’ll want a paid plan, and Pro unlocks all of it.

How do I track who referred whom?

Every submission is saved in WPForms under WPForms » Entries. If you want to reward referrers based on the sales they drive, AffiliateWP adds full referral tracking, and RafflePress tracks referrals automatically when you run a viral giveaway.

Next, Get More Leads With Email Marketing

Once referrals start coming in, an email list is the best way to stay in touch, welcome new leads, and send them targeted offers. It’s how you turn a one-time referral into a repeat customer.

Take a look at our guide to the best WordPress lead generation plugins to grow your email list. For more ideas, here’s how to get more leads from your WordPress site.

Start Collecting Referrals Today

Ready to build your form? Get started today with the easiest WordPress form builder plugin. WPForms Pro includes lots of free templates and offers a 14-day money-back guarantee.

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