a single source, nothing corroborates it

Price the merch tier by what a reader is worth

Divide what the item costs you to fulfil by what you would pay for one engaged subscriber, then halve it, and never put anything physical below five referrals because every unit costs money to post. Match the object to the moment your publication occupies in the reader's day, and where fulfilment cannot handle a one off, email the winner a full discount code and let them complete checkout themselves.

The method

1. 01

   Never use physical merchandise as your first-tier reward under five referrals, since every unit costs you money to ship.

2. 02

   Price the referral tier by dividing what the item costs you to fulfil by what you are prepared to pay for one engaged subscriber, then halving the answer.

3. 03

   Match the item to the moment your newsletter occupies in the reader's day or life rather than picking a generic product.

4. 04

   If a print-on-demand integration cannot make your item, email each winner a one-off hundred percent discount code for your own store, letting them fill in the delivery address themselves during checkout so the order runs through your normal fulfilment.

What it returned

• 5

  Typical tiers run 5 to 25 referrals for caps, mugs and t-shirts, and 20 to 100 or more for sweatshirts, bags and pricier goods.

• $20

  A $20 item against $1 per subscriber gives 20, halved to a 10 referral tier.

• A travel newsletter should choose travel gear, and a morning read like The Pour Over should choose a coffee mug.

• The fallback below that is emailing winners a form that collects size and address, then processing those entries yourself from a spreadsheet.

Sources

• Referral Rewards 101: Guide to using merch & swag as rewardsLouis Nicholls · sparkloop.app · How many referrals to unlock my merch reward? · undated