Membership Referral Program - Email Campaign Launch for CILA

Driving Member Growth Through Strategic Referral Marketing In 2025, the Canadian Immigration Lawyers’ Association (CILA) needed a referral program to accelerate new member sign-ups and boost attendance at their flagship conference. The challenge: create a high-impact, measurable campaign that motivates existing members to actively refer peers - without prior referral program data or benchmarks.

The solution? A limited-time, tiered referral program offering strong rewards—50% off the conference ticket for 6 referrals, and a free full-access ticket for 12 -combined with an end-to-end marketing funnel designed, written, and executed from scratch.

As the sole lifecycle marketer, I owned the entire campaign development and deployment:

Referral program strategy and reward structuring

Conversion-driven email copywriting and sequence design

UX-focused landing page design and optimization

Backend referral tracking logic and integration

Performance monitoring and iterative optimization

With no historical referral data, I focused on:

Identifying incentive structures that would genuinely motivate a professional membership base

Simplifying referral tracking to minimize friction and maximize participation

Creating messaging that emphasized exclusivity and urgency to drive quick action

This insight shaped a program that was easy to understand, rewarding, and time-sensitive.

To align with CILA’s professional and trustworthy identity, I developed:

Clear, concise messaging that emphasized member benefits and community growth

A tone that balanced professional authority with approachable enthusiasm

Email subject lines and CTAs optimized for urgency and clarity

Delivered all assets end-to-end:

Responsive, conversion-optimized landing page with simple referral submission flow

High-engagement email sequence with personalized touches and strong CTAs

Seamless tracking system to monitor referral progress and reward eligibility

42% average email open rate (25% above industry standard)

65% of referral rewards claimed within the first 30 days

120% increase in member referrals compared to initial projections

15% uplift in conference registrations directly linked to the program

This project demonstrates my ability to launch scalable, results-driven lifecycle campaigns from zero baseline, blending strategic planning, UX-focused copywriting, and technical execution to deliver measurable business growth.