{"id":820,"date":"2017-07-21T17:00:10","date_gmt":"2017-07-21T15:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.viral-loops.com\/?p=820"},"modified":"2025-05-08T08:45:41","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T06:45:41","slug":"harrys-gathered-100k-emails-single-week-milestone-referral-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/viral-loops.com\/blog\/harrys-gathered-100k-emails-single-week-milestone-referral-program\/","title":{"rendered":"How Harry’s gathered 100K emails in a single week with a milestone referral program"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, I wrote a thorough article considering my experience with\u00a0The Hustle\u2019s milestone referral program<\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

I like this article, but I feel that there is more into milestone referral programs<\/a> than just an example.<\/span><\/p>\n

Check how our latest Form Widget looks like.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why we decided that this week we should shed some light into one of the cornerstones of referral marketing<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

Harry\u2019s<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Harry\u2019s is a\u00a0New York-based\u00a0grooming brand<\/span>\u00a0that manufactures and sells shaving equipment\u00a0via mail order<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The idea for the campaign was built by Jeff Raider & Andy Katz-Mayfield, Harry\u2019s founders.<\/p>\n

Their belief that the most powerful and\u00a0effective way to launch\u00a0<\/span>their grooming brand was through a credible referral marketing<\/a> program.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thus, they focused on building a campaign that helped people to spread the word to their friends\u2014and not just spending a ton of money on Google and Facebook.<\/span><\/p>\n

They managed to gather 100,000 emails in a single week.<\/span><\/p>\n

I want to write that again.\u00a0100,000 emails in a single week!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Although their original referral is discontinued, they have a new one in the making:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Harry's<\/p>\n

Where this pre-launch<\/a> campaign led Harry\u2019s?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Well, initially it helped the company get\u00a0100+ million dollars in funding and eventually buy<\/span>\u00a0a 94-year-old razor blade factory. This way they could\u00a0produce their own blades<\/span>, taking on shaving heavyweights, Gillette And Schick.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s\u00a0what it looks like:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Also, their team\u00a0now has more than\u00a0500 employees<\/span>\u00a0and their digital store is\u00a0one of the fastest growing in the industry<\/span>. Apart from that, Harry\u2019s owns its own barber shop in NYC (which I\u2019m dying to visit).<\/span><\/p>\n

The cherry on the pie is that they\u2019re publishing\u00a0their own magazine<\/span>–\u00a0Five O\u2019 Clock<\/a><\/span>. Love it!<\/span><\/p>\n

Can I tell you a secret? This referral marketing<\/a> program was one of the reasons we decided to start Viral Loops<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

By the way, we created a free tool to help you build a referral campaign like Harry\u2019s in 4 simple steps<\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, how did Harry\u2019s get so famous?!<\/span><\/h2>\n

I think the answer here is\u00a0simplicity<\/span>. Even a child that was capable of reading could easily be part of their referral marketing<\/a> campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

The website of the campaign was something really simple, yet catchy and effective; just a 2-page microsite<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

1.<\/span> When people landed at harrys.com, they were asked to give their email in order to participate in the campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

The big\u00a0bold image<\/span>\u00a0made pretty clear to people\u00a0what Harry\u2019s is all about<\/span>\u00a0in the first 5 seconds.<\/span><\/p>\n

That, along with the\u00a0nice tagline<\/span>\u00a0sparked the notion that Harry\u2019s is launching soon and will disrupt the industry (\u2018respecting the face and wallet since like\u2026 right now<\/em>\u2019<\/span>).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Harry's<\/p>\n

According to Jeff Raider himself, these words were intended to be playful and introduce people to the purpose of their brand\u00a0and also\u00a0create an air mystery as to what they were all about. <\/span><\/p>\n

They paired the line with a\u00a0photo of one of their razors, but they included no more information about their company or product.<\/span><\/p>\n

One thing that I would surely do if I were in their shoes, is that I would also\u00a0allow people to join the campaign with Facebook login<\/span>\u2014which would give them more data and also increase conversions. <\/span><\/p>\n

Younger people are not keen on checking their emails constantly.<\/span><\/p>\n

2.<\/span>\u00a0After giving their email,\u00a0people had to invite their friends<\/span>\u00a0to get the prizes.<\/p>\n

The page included the\u00a0unique URL<\/span>\u00a0of each user, a brief explanation of how the program works and a\u00a0tracker<\/span>\u00a0where people could see how many friends they had referred and what prize they had attained.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Harry's<\/p>\n

Harry\u2019s followed the concept of a \u201cMilestone Referral Campaign,\u201d meaning that when people reached a specific number of referrals (milestone), they instantly win the corresponding prize.<\/span><\/p>\n

There were\u00a04 milestones<\/span>\u00a0in total:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Referred 5 friends = free shave cream<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Referred 10 friends = free razor<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Referred 25 friends = free premium razor<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Referred 50 friends = free shaving for a year<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Their\u00a0clear messaging<\/span>: “Invite friends to earn product.”, along with the fact that\u00a0attaining a prize was super doable<\/span>\u00a0(who doesn\u2019t have 5 or 10 guys that shave?), skyrocketed the sharing count.<\/span><\/p>\n

    According to Jeff Raider, Co-founder, and CEO of Harry\u2019s, the referral mechanics were amazing. 77% of the emails were collected via referrals, meaning about 20K people referred about 65K friends.<\/p>\n

    This means referrers, on average,\u00a0referred more than 3 friends<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Yet there were a lot of people who referred well above that average: More than 200 participants referred more than 50 of their friends, achieving the highest tier reward.<\/span><\/p>\n

    This social sharing frenzy might be due to the campaign\u00a0being designed to be\u00a0share-friendly<\/span>. I mean, they used\u00a0pre-populated tweets<\/span>\u00a0with a simple, yet irresistible copy:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"Harry's<\/p>\n

    How did\u00a0the fire start?<\/span><\/h2>\n

    In their case, Harry\u2019s did the exact same thing that The Hustle did<\/a>; they\u00a0focused on email<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

    All employees handed their email addresses (that was crucial as the first announcement about the product, went straight to people that were known to each other; you can\u2019t ignore an email from a friend), and set their email signature<\/a> properly.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The recipients received a\u00a0personalized email<\/span>\u00a0in a very friendly tone of voice, announcing that Harry\u2019s is coming. In the same time, the copy\u00a0encouraged people to spread the word<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Apart from that, there was a \u2018special\u2019 batch of people (like company CEO etc) that receive emails crafted accordingly in order to incentivize them to\u00a0share the message with their entire team, or company<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Can you do it like Harry\u2019s?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

    I think it\u2019s clear enough that this type of referral campaigns is\u00a0perfect for eCommerce<\/span>\u00a0Stores.<\/p>\n

    So if you own one, then the rewards can be your own products and coupons. Also, if you\u2019re in\u00a0pre-launch<\/span>, want to just build an amazing referral marketing<\/a> program<\/span>, this is a thing for you.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Check how our latest Form Widget looks like.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    This is\u00a0awesome for blogs, too<\/span>. You can use it for email list building and give merchandise, like stickers, t-shirts, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

    I think the only thing that stops you from doing it, is the will to do it.<\/p>\n

    For the rest, we\u2019 ve built\u00a0this milestone referral program tool, inspired by Harry\u2019s that will help you setup your campaign in minutes.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

    And if you wanna how you can get the most out of the campaign you can join our FREE webinar, https:\/\/bit.ly\/campaign-success<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

    In this webinar you’ll:<\/p>\n