How do I make a referral programme work?

Give referrers one thing to send rather than a kit of assets, and put the link where the customer already is -- the product, the invoice email, the account page. Programmes usually fail because nobody remembers them at the moment a referral would have happened, not because the incentive was too small.

Why is a demo good for referrals?

Because the referrer does not have to explain a product they know only through the two features they use. The link does the explaining, and the friend clicking it reaches the product rather than marketing about it.

What does a referred visitor need?

Orientation rather than persuasion. They arrive with trust already granted and almost no information -- the opposite of search traffic, which arrives sceptical and informed -- so the job is answering "what is this" quickly without arguing.

← Back to blog

Demos in a Referral or Affiliate Program

August 28, 2026

Referral programmes usually give a customer a link and a discount code, and then rely on them to explain your product to somebody who trusts them.

They will do it badly. Not through disloyalty — they know your product from the two features they use, and they have thirty seconds in a conversation about something else.

Give them something to send

The moment a referral actually happens is somebody saying "you should look at X" in a message. What they need at that instant is one link that explains the product without them having to.

A demo does that better than a homepage, because the friend clicking it gets to the product rather than to marketing about it.

Make the kit small

One link. A referral kit with six assets gets none of them used.
A sentence they can paste, written the way a person talks.
No branding requirements, which make people feel like unpaid staff.
Their code already in the link, so nothing has to be remembered.

The referred person is a different reader

They arrive with trust already granted by whoever sent them, and almost no information. That is the opposite of search traffic, which arrives sceptical and informed.

What that reader needs is orientation, fast, not persuasion. A demo suits them unusually well because it answers "what is this" without arguing.

Where referral programmes actually fail

Usually not the incentive. They fail because nobody remembers the programme exists at the moment a referral would have happened, which is in a conversation you are not part of.

Being memorable in that moment is a distribution problem: put the link somewhere the customer already is — the product, the invoice email, the account page — rather than in a launch announcement they read once.

Frequently asked questions

How do I make a referral programme work?: Give referrers one thing to send rather than a kit of assets, and put the link where the customer already is -- the product, the invoice email, the account page. Programmes usually fail because nobody remembers them at the moment a referral would have happened, not because the incentive was too small.
Why is a demo good for referrals?: Because the referrer does not have to explain a product they know only through the two features they use. The link does the explaining, and the friend clicking it reaches the product rather than marketing about it.
What does a referred visitor need?: Orientation rather than persuasion. They arrive with trust already granted and almost no information -- the opposite of search traffic, which arrives sceptical and informed -- so the job is answering "what is this" quickly without arguing.

Keep reading

This is what Demorta does

Click through it — the same kind of demo you can record of your own product.

Try it on your own product

Record your first interactive demo free.

Five demos on the free plan, forever. No credit card, no trial countdown, no sales call. Install the Chrome extension, click through your product once, and you have a shareable link in about ten minutes.

Start free →