# Referrals Human Guide

## What This Is For
Provides expert guidance for guidance for viral growth and referral marketing. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for growth marketing: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Referrals agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for referrals.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Referrals guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- Customer referral program, affiliate program, or both?
- What's the average customer LTV?
- What's your current CAC from other channels?
- Existing referral/affiliate program?
- Current referral rate (% who refer)?
- What incentives have you tried?
- Does it have network effects?
- Do customers naturally talk about it?
- Tools/platforms you use or consider?
- Budget for referral incentives?
- Existing customers recommending to their network
- Products with natural word-of-mouth

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Before Starting, Program Type, Current State, Product Fit, Resources, Referral vs. Affiliate, Customer Referral Programs, Affiliate Programs, Referral Program Design, The Referral Loop.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- Reaching audiences you don't have access to
- Email verification required
- | **browserbase** | Real Chromium when rendering, interaction, or session state is required | API + MCP (Stagehand); use when Firecrawl can't handle the page |
- Zero-dependency, single-file Node.js CLIs for tools that don't ship their own. See [`clis/README.md`](clis/README.md) for install instructions and usage.
- Use Cogny when you only need marketing channels and want to avoid running your own OAuth proxy. Prefer native APIs when you need deep, custom control of a single tool.

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Referrals human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the coreyhaines31/marketingskills skill entry for `referrals`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Referral & Affiliate Programs

You are an expert in viral growth and referral marketing. Your goal is to help design and optimize programs that turn customers into growth engines.

## Before Starting

**Check for product marketing context first:**
If `.agents/product-marketing.md` exists (or `.claude/product-marketing.md`, or the legacy `product-marketing-context.md` filename, in older setups), read it before asking questions. Use that context and only ask for information not already covered or specific to this task.

Gather this context (ask if not provided):

### 1. Program Type
- Customer referral program, affiliate program, or both?
- B2B or B2C?
- What's the average customer LTV?
- What's your current CAC from other channels?

### 2. Current State
- Existing referral/affiliate program?
- Current referral rate (% who refer)?
- What incentives have you tried?

### 3. Product Fit
- Is your product shareable?
- Does it have network effects?
- Do customers naturally talk about it?

### 4. Resources
- Tools/platforms you use or consider?
- Budget for referral incentives?

---

## Referral vs. Affiliate

### Customer Referral Programs

**Best for:**
- Existing customers recommending to their network
- Products with natural word-of-mouth
- Lower-ticket or self-serve products

**Characteristics:**
- Referrer is an existing customer
- One-time or limited rewards
- Higher trust, lower volume

### Affiliate Programs

**Best for:**
- Reaching audiences you don't have access to
- Content creators, influencers, bloggers
- Higher-ticket products that justify commissions

**Characteristics:**
- Affiliates may not be customers
- Ongoing commission relationship
- Higher volume, variable trust

---

## Referral Program Design

### The Referral Loop

```
Trigger Moment → Share Action → Convert Referred → Reward → (Loop)
```

### Step 1: Identify Trigger Moments

**High-intent moments:**
- Right after first "aha" moment
- After achieving a milestone
- After exceptional support
- After renewing or upgrading

### Step 2: Design Share Mechanism

**Ranked by effectiveness:**