Referral marketing, or also known as word-of-mouth marketing, happens organically by enthusiastic or satisfied customers, but it can also be influenced by companies with the right strategy. You would naturally trust a friend’s opinion more than a basic ad you see on the web. And statistics also say that “53% of users who clicked through a link shared by a friend of Facebook went on to make a purchase” (SociableLabs). So if you have been on this bandwagon for a while or just starting to realize its power, here are a few tips to boost your referral program.
- Find users who have experienced a high-five moment: From the time a customer makes a purchase to the time they are excited to use it and eventually forget about it, there is a small window of opportunity when you can high-five a customer and influence them to refer your product to their friends. Its important to ask and ask at the peak of their enthusiasm, because it could be the difference between sharing your product with 20 friends and ignoring your request. Blueshift’s segmentation engine and API makes it easy to find customers who share out to friends from your website and reach out to them with a personalized message.
- Think about app referrals: Mobile browsing has now overtaken desktop users and mobile marketing can no longer be ignored. Rethink your app referral strategy to make it flow better for the end user. Companies like https://branch.io/ help you track referrals from apps to check your progress and the impact it is making on your sales number. Testing your efforts and measuring the outcome continuously will give you a good idea of your success rate and what steps can be taken to improve your numbers.
- Visibility is everything: Make sure your referral option is very visible when you do ask for it. Not only that, it can be included on a product page, or in the signature of a transaction email. It can even be as simple as a check box on the checkout page. The more visible you make it, the more likely a customer is to use it.
- Easy peasy: Make sure your referral option is easy to share across the main social networks and email so your customer doesn’t have to jump through hoops to tell their friends about your product. Also create some attractive looking messaging around your product or brand so it makes you look your best to first time customers.
- Make an offer: Offering incentives for referrals is a sure way of getting a customers attention and keeping their business. A time sensitive offer creates a sense of urgency for the customer to act now rather than later. Store credit or a discount on a purchase attracts them to share your product and keeps them coming back to your store to redeem their rewards. Either way its a win win situation for your company.
Example of a time sensitive offer by NatureBox that doesn’t cost your customer anything, it is time sensitive, and makes them look good in front of friends.
There is no one recipe that works for every kind of business. It is an ongoing interaction with your customers that has to be monitored and adjusted with time. Changing up your content and offers from time to time keeps things interesting in the relationship, and keeps your customers engaged.
