[October 2026] 🤘 Don't overlook your active participants (+ 3 updates)

Hey it’s Mica,

I've seen small referral programs with highly engaged participants outperform ones 20 times their size. It's about quality, not quantity. Just having people on a list or in your program doesn’t mean they’ll refer you.

This month, we're exploring how to think about your referral program participants and why you shouldn’t overlook active participants (even if they haven’t referred you yet).

We also released several product updates this month (scroll for full details).

• New Integrations Hub, now with Shopify and HighLevel

• Better Invite Emails (with time zones clearly listed)

• More Member Sources

Let's dive in. 👇👇

-Mica
Head of Operations

👀 Don’t overlook your active program participants

It’s not about how many people you have in your referral program. It’s about what they do and how they engage. Every participant belongs to a group, and each group needs something different.

• Added - joined your program but hasn’t done anything (activate them)

• Active - recently engaged in some way (keep them active)

• Inactive - previously active but no longer engaged (reactivate them)

Referrals only come from active participants

Active participants are the people who engage with your referral program, whether that's clicking to learn more, casually sharing with a friend, or bringing in referrals. Activity is what matters.

Anyone who refers you is an active participant, so referrals can only come from active participants. That sounds obvious, but it's an important clarification. It tells you how your program is performing and where your future referrals will likely come from.

You can’t control who gets referred

Everyone wants to generate referrals from their referral program, but that’s out of your control. You don’t get to decide who becomes a referral. You don’t even know who the referral is until they reach out.

Your program participants speak for you. All interactions with potential referrals are done on your behalf.

So focus on what you can control: the people participating in your program, and the interactions you have with them.

Activity leads to sharing

Not all active participants will share from Day 1. It's the engagement that matters.

A participant who keeps coming back is interested in your referral program. They know your program exists, and when the moment comes, they're ready to refer your business.

Picture this:

• A customer joins a landscaping company's referral program, checks it out, and sees her friend would get $50 off. She doesn't share anything that week.

• Each month, she gets an email reminding her of the program and the reward she can give her friend.

• Two months down the road, her neighbor complains about his yard. Your program is still top of mind, and so she sends them her link.

She was active the whole time. The referral just hadn’t happened yet.

🌟 Product Updates - Admin Login, Integrations Hub, Invite Emails & More

More Secure Admin Login Experience

We’re switching to a passwordless admin login experience that uses email sign-in codes instead of passwords. This will make your accounts more secure by providing an extra email verification check.

Once live, your existing passwords will no longer work. Instead, you’ll immediately recieve an email sign-in code when logging in.

New Integrations Hub, now with Shopify and HighLevel

Every integration now lives on one page, the Integrations Hub. Search for what you need, see what's connected, and ask us to set one up.

New this month: we added native integrations for Shopify and HighLevel.

Better Invite Email Editor and Scheduler

The Invite Email got a makeover: a live preview, reward callouts, and more control over your email design and content.

Schedule invites in your time zone

Invite schedules show the send day and time in the time zone set in your user settings. New accounts now start in your browser's time zone instead of UTC, and you pick a time zone when you add a team member.

See where every new member came from

New members added through an integration now show the system they came from as their Source (e.g., HubSpot, Stripe, Zoho) instead of a generic label. This makes it easier to understand where your members are coming from and which ones are being activated.