When you first get OSI Affiliate Software, one of the things that we recommend that you do is email all your customers and let them know that you just launched a referral program.


To make this easy for you to do we have provided an email template that you can use with your email newsletter provider. If you have Mailchimp, you may use it to send your customers an invite to join your BigCommerce referral program. 


Follow the steps below to set it up.


Step 1. Notify [email protected] to enable this free feature to your account.

Step 2. Log in to your OSI Admin account and click on Promote.


Step 3. Click Learn More under Easily Enroll All Your Customers.


Step 4. Prepare your CSV file of your customers from BigCommerce. Click on Customers then Export. Select Default. Delete other columns and just leave the following:

  1. First Name
  2. Last Name
  3. Email Address


Step 5. Upload your email list CSV file and the system will download an exact file with an added column for their auto-signuplink. Rename the first column to 'Sign up link' for easy reference.


Step 6. Login to your Mailchimp account. Click the Audience icon, then click Manage Audience and select Import contacts button.


Step 7. Create a custom field and name it 'link'. Click Actions and Edit properties.


Step 8. Select Upload file and click Continue to Upload.


Step 9. Once you've reached the Match process, click on the header of the signup link column.


Step 10. Select Create a new field. Name it 'link' and choose Text for the data type. Complete the import process.


Step 11. Go back to the Audience area, then click Manage Audience and select Settings. Click Audience fields and *|MERGE|* tags.


Step 12. Note the merge tag of the link for later.


Step 13. Create your campaign as usual. Click the Campaigns icon and Create Campaign button.


Step 14. When adding the signup button, use the merge tag from Step 12.


Step 15. Send your email invitee. Once they click on the Signup button, they'll be taken directly to their affiliate dashboard wherein they just need to enter their password.