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Case Study

Building a referral engine for The Institute of Applied Psychology

The Institute of Applied Psychology logo

Lupo gave IAP a trackable referral engine on HubSpot and Referral Factory - and its reach has grown more than threefold across the partnership.

Marketing Sales Education Referral & Rewards

1,690 → 5,483

Referral invitations per send

More than 3× reach growth (Mar 2023 → Dec 2025)

26.3%

Open rate on referral emails

Healthy, sustained engagement

Tracked end-to-end

Referrer → invitee → follow-up

Fully visible in HubSpot dashboards

About the client

About The Institute of Applied Psychology

The Institute of Applied Psychology (IAP) is an Australian education provider delivering coaching and applied-psychology courses. Word-of-mouth is a powerful channel for IAP but it needed a way to capture, track and grow referrals systematically.

Industry
Education
Project
2019
HubSpot
Marketing · Sales · CRM
Audiences
Referral engine (Referral Factory)

The challenge

A strong word-of-mouth channel with no engine behind it

Core problem

IAP's students were natural advocates, but referrals happened ad hoc with no systematic way to invite, track and grow them, or to see what was working.

No referral system

Advocacy relied on informal word-of-mouth, with nothing to scale or measure it.

No tracking

Without end-to-end tracking, IAP couldn't see referrer-to-invitee performance.

Limited reach

Referral invitations went to a small base, capping the channel's potential.

The solution

A trackable referral engine on HubSpot and Referral Factory

Lupo built a referral program that invites advocates at scale and tracks every step in HubSpot.

IAP referral engine: referral invitation emails, sharing, HubSpot CRM dashboard and lead-source reporting
  1. 01

    Referral Factory integration

    Connected Referral Factory to HubSpot to run and track the program from one place.

  2. 02

    Advocate invitation campaigns

    Referral email campaigns that invite advocates and grow the sending base over time.

  3. 03

    End-to-end tracking

    Made referrer → invitee → follow-up fully visible, so performance is measurable.

  4. 04

    Dashboards & reporting

    Dedicated dashboards for referral campaign, lead source and sales-team views.

Solution Stack

Platform

  • HubSpot CRM
  • Marketing Hub
  • Sales Hub

Growth infrastructure

  • Referral Factory integration
  • Referral email campaigns
  • Workflows
  • Dashboards & reporting

Enablement

  • Program design
  • Lead-source tracking
  • Ongoing optimisation
Marketing Sales Referral Factory Email Campaigns Workflows Dashboards Lead Source

The results

A referral engine that keeps growing with strong reach and engagement

Across the partnership, IAP's referral program has grown more than 3× in reach, with healthy open rates and rising engagement - all tracked end-to-end in HubSpot.

1,690 → 5,483

Referral invitations per send (Mar 2023 → Dec 2025)

26.3%

Open rate on referral emails

67 → 136

Clicks per send

5,471

Delivered on the latest send

Reach that compounds

The program's reach has more than tripled over the partnership as IAP's advocate base grows.

Tracked end-to-end

Referrer → invitee → follow-up is fully visible in HubSpot, with dedicated dashboards.

Before & after

What changed for IAP

Before

After

Ad-hoc, informal word of mouth
A structured referral engine
No systematic referral invitations
Advocate invitations at scale
No end-to-end tracking
Referrer → invitee fully tracked
Limited, static reach
Reach grown 3×, and still climbing

Questions buyers ask

FAQ

Lupo integrated Referral Factory with HubSpot for IAP, then built referral email campaigns and dashboards so the whole program runs and reports from one place.

Start the conversation

Could HubSpot work harder for your business?

Talk with Lupo about where your CRM, marketing, sales, service, data, integrations or AI capability could go next.

More proof

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