How to Get a Referral Boost to Your Business with an Email Referral Scheme

Every company relies on the influx of new customers to grow and stay in business. Customers are the lifeline of each industry, no business can function without them.

One way to attract new customers is the proper usage of referral programs. These programs have been around for a while now, mainly because they work like a charm. After all, the returns generated by referral marketing are something to behold.

So, what can you do to maximize the results of your referral programs? Are there any new methods that the rest of your competitors don’t know about? Also, can you learn something valuable from the way they approach referrals?

Of course you can. For your business to grow, you need to keep up with the trends as well as keep an eye on what the competition is doing.

Keep reading to learn how you can boost your customer referral programs to maximize each effort put into referral marketing by your company. 

Find new ways to spread the word about your program

It goes without saying that you need to introduce your program to as many people as possible and show them what it’s all about. Still, when you have to manage more things at once, it’s easy to forget just how important spreading the word is.

Reaching out to as many people as possible should be a priority. It is one of the most important factors that will determine the success of your referral program. The more people know about your program, the more likely you are to get new referral customers and referral sales.

When looking for sources, you should first consider your existing and past customers. Why? Because they are the ones that have already made purchases. If they like your products, chances are they will recommend them to their friends.

In addition, your followers on social media are most probably interested in your brand and they might already be telling their friends about you. So, give them another reason to share.

You could also monitor competitors’ social media efforts of this kind if you are not sure how to approach the issue.

 

Email as a tool to promote your referral program

Great referral programs are built on relationships, and there is no better marketing channel to help you build relationships than email marketing. On top of that, email marketing still produces a good ROI.

Therefore, combining your email marketing efforts with a referral program can produce great results. Make sure that you consider applying this method from the ‘toolset’ of email marketing tips and tricks.

 

How it works

A great way to use email marketing to notify people about your referral program is to take advantage of a three-email referral marketing campaign.

1. The first email should state the benefits of your program. That is the main reason why someone would even consider reading through and learning more about what you have to say. Explain everything, be clear and concise.
2. Then comes the second email. This one is just a follow-up that reminds the recipient to send referrals. Many skip sending this message. Make sure that you are not one of them.
3. Finally, the third email is the advocacy email. To maximize referral potential, you need to offer incentives that would benefit both the referrer and the person referred. So, in short, an advocacy request email asks users to email their friends with their referral code and share it on social media.

And don’t fear that no one will even open your emails. There are some rather easy ways to ensure a good open rate.

 

Utilize the power of social media

Social media networks are so popular nowadays. It’s just absurd to doubt that these platforms can’t be used to promote your referral program and maximize your reach.

Numbers don’t lie. Millions use social media networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and others. Be smart and take advantage of the opportunity to reach enormous pools of potential customers.

With your promotional strategy outlined, you need to make sure that your social media profiles are set up properly. Then, it’s time to find a good practice to boost your referral program strategy.

First, start by un-following those who post toxic material to your profile. It’s simple, having ‘spammy’ comments all over your profile decrease your brand trustworthiness.

Then, find the right social networks where your potential customers would hang out. A pretty good bet would be to start with Facebook and Twitter. However, do not undermine networks like Pinterest, Instagram, or even LinkedIn.

Set up profiles that make sense and figure out which platforms best suit your business. For instance, not many older users use Snapchat. So, it would be useless for you to put in the effort to promote your program there if you are trying to sell something to elderly people.

Also, keep your image and appearance top-notch. Everything has to be up to date. Stay active and responsive. If you create a page and abandon it, people will have a hard time reaching out to you. This happens because search engines and social media networks put aside ‘abandoned’ pages.

On top of that, when you have a page that was last updated two years ago, the chances are that visitors will think that the business is no longer in motion.

Finally, start sending those messages and sharing links for the program – make people on social networks aware of how they could benefit from your referral program. If you don’t want to send each message manually, you could find a tool that will let you send numerous messages at once.

For example, if you want to inform people on LinkedIn about your program, find a tool that allows LinkedIn bulk messaging. This way, you’ll automate a somewhat dull task. Saving this time will allow you to deal with more important issues than writing the same messages time and time again.

 

A clear explanation of terms as a priority

Clarifying the terms is one of the top priorities that you should have when crafting your referral program. You need to communicate the conditions clearly. Never allow this to be a gray area as you may suffer costly consequences.

Be upfront with reward conditions so that your participants aren’t surprised at the last minute and left with a bad taste in their mouths. Explain each term clearly. You can never know if all your customers will understand how referral programs work.

List out the terms and conditions in referral emails, put them on your website, and just provide people with a number of options where they could find out more.

This way, you clearly show that you are serious and have no intention of tricking anyone into doing something that will solely benefit the company and not the customers.

 

Re-engage

Don’t be afraid of re-engaging customers who have made a referral. This can result in missing out on an opportunity to increase the number of referrals.

Go ahead with re-engaging customers once they have made a referral. Send behavioral emails based off of actions taken with the referral program. This is a sure way to increase the share rate of your program.

For example, ask your customer to make another referral after they earn their first reward. You could even offer greater compensation. There is no reason why you shouldn’t. If that customer successfully made a referral once, they will be able to do so again.

And the more you are willing to work for these good results, the higher the chances that the existing client will be willing to take that extra step to get you new customers.