Overview
Before referral programs were a standard feature of every marketing platform, LASIK MD was running one with social sharing, digital gift cards, and fully responsive email — built from scratch in an era when most email was still designed for desktop only. I designed and built this multi-channel referral campaign at a time when the tools and conventions we now take for granted were still being invented.
The Brief
LASIK MD's existing referral system was built on a CMS too rigid to support the experience the campaign needed — no responsive design capability, no flexibility for custom interactions. The brief required replacing it entirely with a purpose-built landing page while designing a referral mechanic compelling enough to motivate existing patients to actively recruit friends and family.
The Approach
The campaign was built around two motivators — generosity and reward. Patients could send friends and family a digital gift card by email or social media, and were entered into a prize draw including an Air Canada travel voucher for doing so. The landing page was built from scratch for full responsiveness and flexibility. The HTML email was engineered in Exact Target using reusable modular components — an approach that was well ahead of standard email practice at the time — with full analytics tracking across every send.
Key Features
— Custom-built responsive landing page
— Replaced a restrictive CMS system at a time when responsive web design was still an emerging practice
— Digital gift card sharing
— Distributable via email and social media, an early implementation of what would become standard referral program mechanics
— Modular responsive email
— Built in Exact Target with reusable components and full analytics tracking, ahead of standard email development practice for the period
— Multi-channel referral mechanic
— Combining email, social sharing, and contest incentives in a single integrated campaign
Campaign Support
The campaign ran across email and social media, with the referral mechanic itself serving as the primary distribution engine — patients became the channel.
Results
The campaign's engagement metrics significantly outperformed LASIK MD's standard marketing emails — open and click-through rates ran 60-70% higher than baseline, suggesting the referral framing drove a level of personal investment that broadcast messaging couldn't match. Of patients who shared their referral link, 85% did so across more than one channel — a strong signal that the multi-channel sharing mechanic wasn't just available, it was actively used. The campaign achieved referral rates in the 20-30% range, though without prior benchmarks the more telling measure was the behavioral data: people were engaged enough to share repeatedly and across platforms.
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