Referral marketing is an incredibly effective strategy for growing your WordPress site, especially when you simplify the process for users to invite their friends.
The problem is that many WordPress invitation systems can be cumbersome, hard to manage, or susceptible to spam.
After evaluating various tools, we discovered that WPForms provides a straightforward and dependable method for establishing a seamless referral process. It enables you to transform your current users into a powerful growth engine.
In this guide, we will walk you through the steps to allow users to invite their friends to register on your WordPress site effortlessly, ensuring you achieve great results.
Why Should You Enable User Invitations?
If you’re seeking an easy and budget-friendly way to attract new users to your membership site or social network, empowering your existing users to invite their friends is one of the most effective tactics.
This type of word-of-mouth marketing is highly effective because it leverages social proof, making it a common feature on nearly all popular registration platforms.
For instance, users on X (formerly Twitter) can invite their followers to join a community, and Facebook users can invite friends to participate in a group.
If your website generates revenue through subscriptions or an online store, consider incentivizing your users to promote it. For instance, you can establish a referral program.
In this guide, we will demonstrate how to enable your users to invite their friends to register on your WordPress site.
Here’s what we will discuss in this article:
- Method 1: Adding a User-Friendly Invitation Form to Any WordPress Site
- Method 2: Enabling Users to Invite Friends to Your BuddyPress Site
- Bonus Tips 💡: Additional Strategies to Increase Your Registered Users
Are you ready? Let’s dive in!
Method 1: Adding a User-Friendly Invitation Form to Any WordPress Site
The simplest way to let your users invite their friends to your website is toincorporate a user-friendly invitation formin your sidebar. However, please note that this method does not allow you to track the responses to invitations.
So, how can you track invitations?
If you operate a BuddyPress site, follow Method 2 below. For online stores or membership sites, we suggest creating a referral or affiliate program instead.
For this method, we will utilize WPForms Lite, as it is both free and user-friendly.
The premium version of WPForms conveniently stores all submitted form entries in your WordPress dashboard, making it easy to track the number of invitations sent and their recipients.
At CanadaCreate, we highly recommend WPForms as our go-to plugin. It efficiently manages our contact form, annual survey, and migration request forms. To discover more about this plugin, check out our comprehensive WPForms review.
The first step is to install the Contact Forms by WPForms plugin. For detailed instructions, refer to our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Creating Your Invitation Form
After activating the plugin, you can create your invitation form by going to the WPForms » Add New page. Here, you can name your form and then click the ‘Create Blank Form’ button.
🧑💻 Expert Tip: You can also utilize the AI Form Builder to effortlessly create a simple invitation form. Just provide a brief prompt, and WPForms AI will generate the form for you. It’s that simple!
This action will launch the WPForms drag-and-drop form builder. You will see a preview of the currently blank form on the right, along with a list of available form fields on the left.
Begin by finding the ‘Email’ form field and dragging it onto your form. Alternatively, you can click on it to add it to the blank canvas.
Next, configure the ‘Email’ field to suit your needs.
Clicking on the field will display its settings on the left side of the screen.
Change the label to ‘Invite Your Friends’ to make it clear for users.
You can also add a description beneath the field to guide users, such as, ‘Please enter your friend’s email address. Use commas to separate multiple addresses.’
Consider adjusting the field size to utilize the full width of the form.
To do this, click on the ‘Advanced’ tab and select ‘Large’ from the ‘Field Size’ dropdown menu.
You can explore additional settings by going to Settings » General. Here, you can modify the button label to make it more user-friendly.
In the ‘Submit Button Text’ field, enter ‘Send Invitation’ to clarify the action.
Creating the Invitation Email
Now, navigate to the Settings » Notifications page to configure the invitation email, allowing you to send a confirmation email after the form is submitted.
Utilize smart tags to automatically populate user details in the form, including the information they provided. A comprehensive list of smart tags is available on the WPForms website.
In the ‘Send To Email Address’ field, input the email address provided in the form. Clicking the ‘Show Smart Tags’ link will display a list of available fields.
Simply select the ‘Invite Your Friends’ option.
Enter the desired email subject line. Next, input the user’s full name in the ‘From Name’ field using the smart tag {user_full_name}.
Choosing the correct ‘From Email’ is crucial to prevent your invitations from landing in the spam folder. Ensure that the domain name in the email address matches your WordPress blog.
For instance, if your website’s URL is www.example.com, then the email address should be formatted as john@example.com.
This means you should not enter the user’s email address in the ‘From Email’ field. Instead, you can use {admin_email}, which is the default option.
If you’re worried about spam in your admin email, consider using a non-existent email address likeno-reply@example.com.
Next, scroll down to the ‘Reply-To Email Address’ section. Here, input the user’s email address using the smart tag{user_email}. This way, if the invited person replies to the email, their response will go to the user who sent the invitation.
Finally, you need to write the invitation message in the ‘Email Message’ field. It’s best to keep it brief and friendly. You can also use smart tags in your message, such as including the user’s name at the end by typing{user_first_name}.
Make sure to include a link to your website. This link can direct the invited person to your homepage or a user registration page.
Even better, you can link to a landing page that clearly outlines the features and benefits of your website.
Creating a Confirmation Message for Form Submission
Now, head over toSettings » Confirmations. Here, you will write a short message that appears to the user after they invite their friends.
Keep the ‘Confirmation Type’ set to ‘Message’ and enter a brief thank you note in the ‘Confirmation Message’ field.
After completing the setup of your invitation form, click the orange ‘Save’ button at the top of the screen to save your changes. Once saved, you can click the ‘X’ button to exit the WPForms editor.
Integrating the Invitation Form into Your WordPress Site
Next, add the form to your website’s sidebar or any other widget-ready area. To begin, navigate to the Appearance » Widgets section in the WordPress admin dashboard.
Locate the WPForms block and drag it into your sidebar. For further instructions, refer to our guide on adding and using widgets in WordPress.
Then, select the ‘Invite Your Friends’ form from the ‘Select a Form’ dropdown menu. Remember to click the ‘Update’ button to save your settings.
Finally, visit your website to see the invitation form in action.
When a user sends an invitation through the form, the thank you confirmation message will replace the form.
Here’s an example of how it might appear:
📝 Note:If users are not receiving invitation emails, check our guide on resolving WordPress email delivery issues.
For those using the block editor, open a page or post to integrate your form into your WordPress site.
In the content editor, click the ‘+’ button and select the WPForms block to include it.
Next, open the dropdown menu within the WPForms block to select the form you wish to add.
Step 2: Enabling Users to Invite Friends to Your BuddyPress Site
BuddyPress is a project associated with WordPress.org that transforms your WordPress site into a social network, enabling you to create your own online community.
This plugin allows you and your users to create groups, each with its own members and activity streams. Users can join these groups and invite others, provided they are already members of your site.
If you are using BuddyPress and want to allow your users to send invitations to friends who have not yet registered, you will need to install the Invite Anyone plugin. For detailed instructions, refer to our step-by-step guide on installing a WordPress plugin.
After activation, navigate to Settings » Invite AnyoneTo set up the plugin, navigate to the ‘General Settings’ tab where you can personalize the email message that is sent when someone receives an invitation to register on your website.
You have numerous customization options for the email’s subject line, content, and footer. Additionally, you can allow your users to modify the email before sending it, set limits on the number of emails sent at once, and more.
If desired, you can restrict who is allowed to send invitations to your site. For instance, you might prefer that new users cannot invite their friends immediately. This measure helps prevent spammers from creating fake accounts.
To establish these restrictions, click on the ‘Access Control’ tab at the top of the page and select the ‘A limited set of users’ option.
You will then see three checkboxes that enable you to specify which users are permitted to send invitations.
You can restrict invitations to users who have been members of your site for a certain number of days or to those who hold a specific member role.
You can also prevent specific users from sending invitations by entering a list of user IDs, separated by commas.
Once you are satisfied with these settings, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the ‘Save Changes’ button to apply your settings.
Users can now invite their friends directly from their profile page by selecting the ‘Send Invites’ option.
They can easily enter up to five email addresses in the first text box. If permitted, they can also personalize the email message that will be sent.
If the user is part of any BuddyPress groups, they can select groups that they believe their friends might be interested in when they join your site.
Finally, users need to click the ‘Send Invites’ button at the bottom of the page. The plugin will then send invitations to their friends to register on your website.
📝 Note:If your website is experiencing issues sending emails, please refer to our guide on resolving the WordPress email sending problem.
After sending the invitations, users can view the status of all the invitations they have sent.
They can remove individual invitations from the list by clicking the red ‘X’ button. Additionally, they can clear accepted invitations or all invitations by clicking the links at the bottom of the list. These actions will not cancel the invitations, but will simply remove them from the display.
As the site administrator, you can monitor invitations sent by all users by going to the BuddyPress Invitations – Enhance Your Community EngagementAccess this feature directly from your WordPress admin dashboard.
Bonus Tips 💡: Additional Strategies to Expand Your User Base
With the ability for users to invite friends, let’s explore more strategies to attract visitors to your site and encourage them to register.
Fortunately, WordPress provides robust tools that can significantly boost your business growth.
- OptinMonster is the leading tool for lead generation and conversion optimization. It simplifies the process of increasing your email subscribers, creating mobile popups, and building effective sales funnels.
- All in One SEO is the top-rated SEO plugin for WordPress. It enables you to optimize your content for search engines effortlessly, without requiring technical expertise.
- SeedProd is the premier WordPress page and theme builder plugin. It allows you to effortlessly design stunning landing pages or custom themes.
- WPForms is the top form builder for WordPress. In addition to creating invitation forms, you can also use it to implement custom login and sign-up forms on your site.
- MonsterInsights simplifies website performance tracking with Google Analytics. It offers user-friendly reports to monitor visitor activity and set up eCommerce tracking.
Looking for more suggestions? Check out our comprehensive list of essential WordPress plugins for every website.
We trust that this guide has assisted you in enabling users to invite their friends to sign up on your WordPress site. You might also be interested in learning how to resend welcome emails to new users or exploring our curated selection of top user management plugins for WordPress.
If you enjoyed this article, consider subscribing to our YouTube Channel for informative WordPress video tutorials. You can also connect with us on Twitter and Facebook.
