Even with all the fancy marketing tools and intricate strategies to promote a brand, nothing comes close to beating a word of mouth referral.
As a marketer, you will do whatever it takes to turn your customers into brand advocates, right? Maybe yes or maybe not.
But don’t you think it will be an excellent idea to allure your business patrons with referral rewards to bring new customers onboard?
Some things never go out of fashion.
When you spend your time and resources to generate leads across multiple platforms while ignoring the existing customer base, you are doing them a disservice. The cost of acquiring customers increases over time, but not if our customers spread the word for your brand.
Moreover, your patrons are actively using email and social media services today, which only makes the process of uplifting them as brand advocates much easier.
In this article, we will take a look at how you can increase your bottom line by implementing a simple referral reward system for your customers.
Tips to Get the Process Right
Incentivize Social Sharing:
‘What’s in it for me?’ Many will ask. What do you do? Could you give them a reason to share? It doesn’t have to cash rewards.
You can incentivize their efforts by offering credits for the next purchase, a freebie, and other rewards when bringing a friend to your brand.
After all, who doesn’t like an exclusive deal, right?
Make it Easy to Share:
Your biggest asset for referral marketing is social media. It is fast, easy, and is capable of producing a tremendous amount of organic traffic to your brand.
People share everything on social media nowadays, why can’t these posts be about your products? So, don’t make the sharing process difficult.
Integrate sharing with popular platforms at multiple points of your buyer’s journey. Combine it with the previous point, and you are on the right track. Apart from instant sharing links via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and more, you can also have a pre-written message for every share.
It saves them the trouble of losing interest in sharing and helps you deliver the exact message you want to the potential customers. While you are at it, make sure all your content is mobile-friendly as most people make purchases from mobile devices.
Use a Robust Referral Management Software:
No matter how exciting it is to reach out to your customers with a tailor-made referral program, it is impossible to manage it without a tool.
Use an automated referral management platform to get specific, actionable data. Ideally, this platform will be your analyst and help you identify which ideas are working and how the customers are responding to your existing referral programs.
With factual data, you will be able to identify the right time to incentivize a customer, determine the best messaging strategy, evaluate the customer acquisition cost, and provide predictive analytics.
Gamify Their Journey With the Brand:
One excellent way to bring your patrons back time and again is to spread the word about referral rewards. Keep them informed about new opportunities to earn more of them.
‘Share our product and get 10% off on your current purchase.’
‘Invite 5 of your friends and get $50 credit this festive season.’
Once they achieve these targets, make sure you amp up their experience by rewarding them with a badge or acknowledgment on their dashboard.
Simple messages like ‘New Achievement Unlocked’ make their journey enjoyable and, in the process, turn them into your brand advocates.
Make a Strong First Impression:
First impressions matter, don’t they?
So, before you venture into creating all sorts of referral programs, make sure you give your customers an epic first experience.
Why? Because if they had a bad experience the first time, they would never refer your brand to their friends and family.
It might lead to some negative publicity, and you might end up cleaning the damage done for months to come.
Did you know that over 65% of consumers do not return to a brand based on a single poor experience? So make sure that the first experience entices them and maintain the consistency every time.
Touch Some Emotional Chords:
If you can tap into your customer’s emotions, there is a good chance they will keep positively talking about your business.
Find ways of connecting with your patrons. Tie your brand closely to something that you genuinely believe in. And, strike that emotional chord to start the sharing process across social networks.
User-Generated Content Matters:
In the form of reviews, comments, and social sharing, organic content generated by your customers has far more impact than any run-of-the-mill updates and pictures.
Post some screenshots of messages and reviews received over WhatsApp or Facebook chat. Over 85% of users find user-generated content better than sales-related updates.
Additionally, it opens up a two-way communication with your customers. You can further ask them to give your brand a shout-out. And also inform them about the rewards they can earn by doing so.
Takeaway
Word-of-mouth marketing is more than just a publicity stunt for your business. It is a powerful tool to kickstart your brand advocacy campaign.
And while referral rewards are a great way to push things forward, it usually requires marketers to test out a few ideas before they can finally get what they want.
Start your referral marketing campaign right away and make sure you manage it with a robust referral marketing software. NextBee offers you the perfect Catalyst to get ahead of your competition.
Cut through the noise, reach your target customers, and build brand advocates along the way. To know more about how it works, contact us for a free consultation today.
