Customer Newsletter || January 2026 || 6 minute read
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Revamp Your Evergreen Program for 2026
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Pick a color & we'll give you 3 ways to give your referral program a high-impact refresh
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Referral refresh: Pick your paint color
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It's not a total teardown, it's just a fresh coat of paint on your evergreen referral program. Pick the shade that's inspiring you this year and we'll tell you what three marketing tips you need to hear.
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Shade: Forest Green
You're already dreaming of Spring–new leaves, fresh ideas, clear skies! Think of these three tips as small seeds that will provide major referral growth down the line.
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1. Retarget holiday shoppers with your referral offer to turn seasonal buyers into yearround advocates
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Upload a file of email addresses into "My Audiences," or import directly from your CRM to build a new audience segment in My.Extole to target with high-vis referral placements and outbound messaging.
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2. Refresh your program with a limited-time reward burst
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Duplicate your evergreen campaign from the "Programs" page and update the copy and creatives. Select a new offer in the "Rules" section of your duplicate campaign (or create a new reward in "Rewards", if necessary).
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3. Add a post-purchase pop-up to create referral momentum
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This high-visibility placement drives 16x more clicks than static CTAs. If your site has the Extole JavaScript library installed, your CSM will provide a customizable zone tag for your post-purchase confirmation page.
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Shade: Viva Magenta
You feel bold and expressive coming into the new year. No plan is too ambitious, nor any adventure too wild. Harness (some of) your passion to chart new channels of referral growth.
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4. Give customers more ways to earn and redeem with Reward Bank
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Install Reward Bank from the "Extension" section of the "Partners" page in My.Extole to give advocates a single place to track, build, and redeem multiple referral rewards. Contact your CSM or follow this guide to configure.
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5. Build an in-app referral experience using Extole API or SDK
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Extole's lightweight mobile SDK powers customizable, high-converting mobile referral experiences, so your users can view and share referral promos straight from their phone. Follow this in-depth integration guide to configure.
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6. Optimize your program with strategic A/B testing
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Duplicate your
evergreen campaign to make a testing variant and edit the relevant component(s). Once you publish the changes, click "Go Live" and select the option to "Go Live as a Test" to begin randomly splitting traffic.
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Shade: Classic Blue
A rational thinker above all else, you opt for functional fixes over dramatic reinventions. These technical tweaks will help you get the most out of the Extole platform—and your programs!
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7. Connect all your accounts for easy data sharing
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Take advantage of cross-platform functionalities by integrating with one of our many tech partners, including Attentive, Q2, Braze, and Shopify. Connect your existing accounts via the "Partners" page in My.Extole, or contact your CSM.
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8. Equip your international programs with language localization
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Empower customers across the globe to advocate on your behalf with language localization powered by AI translation. Contact your CSM to discuss access to this feature, which may require additional costs.
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9. Schedule reports to deliver to your internal systems via SFTP
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Make referral metrics a natural feature of your quarterly business reviews by configuring your internal systems to automatically fetch reports on a regular cadence. Connect your SFTP server on the "Tech Center" page in My.Extole.
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ICYMI: High-impact updates from 2025
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Referral programs across the board got more than a fresh coat of paint in 2025 thanks to the endless updates coming out of our product and engineering teams. Take a look at some of our favorites:
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Extole’s Flow Builder gives users a no‑code canvas for designing complete referral journeys: drag‑and‑drop editor, pre‑built templates, and visual clarity, all in one powerful new tool.
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This branded reward redemption center empowers customers to earn, track, and redeem points for every action they take. Gamification and flexibility keeps customers engaged far beyond their first referral.
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A mobile referral app turns every in-person customer touchpoint into an opportunity for growth. Now, field teams can bring Extole everywhere they go for instant access to personalized share links + QR codes.
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Two of the newest program templates in Flow Builder ("Refer a Member" and "CU Welcome Offer") are tailor-made to align with Credit Union member journeys, significantly reducing launch timelines and customization work for CU clients.
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Retailers can also benefit from speedier launches using one of three new pre-configured & optimized ambassador program templates. Each template handles a unique use case based on the ambassador approval method
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Shopify merchants have a host of new features to enjoy in Extole, including support for multiple storefronts, auto-applied discount codes, and a new Shopify checkout extension configurable directly in the program editor.
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Extole is now available as a content block in Q2's composable dashboard, making referrals fit even more naturally within your mobile banking experience with no dev work required.
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In vs. out: Predicting 2026 trends
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The rapid progression of artifical intelligence has stirred both excitement and unease in the marketing community. As the world creeps closer to total automation, the drive among many to embrace its antithesis—authentic human interaction—has grown stronger than ever. We predict that this will manifest in 2026 as community-centered marketing
campaigns, customer-first decisionmaking, and a commitment to realism above all else. What do you predict?
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2026 Conferences: Come say hello!
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It's that time again! We'll be at a few conferences over the coming months and would love to connect. Please reach out if you're in the area—coffee's
on us.
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23-25: Metro Connect (Ft Lauderdale, FL)
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23-26: eTail Palm Springs (Palm Springs, CA)
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24-26: Shoptalk (Las Vegas, NV)
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30-Apr 1: Fintech Meetup (Las Vegas, NV)
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13-15: Financial Brand Forum (Las Vegas, NV)
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13-15: Alkami Co:lab (San Diego, CA)
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14-15: Connected America (Irvine, TX)
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21-24: Candescent Axis (Orlando, FL)
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Happy 2026, Year of the Horse!
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Have questions about a new feature? Curious about ways to amplify your program? Want to share feedback on this newsletter? Just reply to this email or contact your CSM—we'll connect you with the right person!
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548 Market St #39231
San Francisco, CA 94101
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