The key to a successful referral program is to turn your Customers into Advocates who will share the program with their friends & family to help you grow your business. How you promote your referral program will determine its success. It’s extremely important to make your customers aware of your program and entice them to join. To do so, you’ll have to outline the benefits of becoming an Advocate by showing the reward they’ll receive and the incentive they’ll be able to offer to their friends and family. We will go through the three best channels to help turn your customers into Advocates.
As you probably already know, email is a very popular channel to reach customers. You’re likely already using it to send different communications. It could be general announcements, information regarding a specific order, promotions, newsletters and so on. Regardless of the reason for the email you’re likely to have a customer’s attention, making it a perfect time to let them know or remind them of your Referral Campaign. Here are the steps we recommend taking when launching your Referral Program:
Step 1. Announce the referral program as the main topic of a newsletter, or as a general email.
Step 2. Add the link to all your email signatures.
Step 3. Write a blog post or one pager outlining the details about your campaign, and highlighting how your customers will benefit.
Email signature example:
You’ve probably already invested a lot into your website, it’s time to turn it into the growth engine you want it to be. With Referral, you can add an iframe on your pages to allow customers to sign up for your referral program. It’ll give your current customers an easy way to sign-up while encouraging new customers to use your services. We also recommend adding a description of your program on your services or booking pages.
Step 1. Add your iframe to your website (instructions)
Step 2. Add a small paragraph describing the program to your landing page.
iframe Example: http://info.onelocal.com/referral/i-frame
Your social media pages are an amazing channel to reach your customers. You’ll be able to include your Referral link on all your profiles. Your link should be present on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google and any other platform you used by your business. On top of having the link present on your profiles, we recommend actively promoting the program on the different platform with posts, pictures, statuses and others. Here are a few basic steps you can take to promote on social media:
Step 1. Add your program to your Profile or Cover Pictures
Step 2. Add Referral link to your Profiles, it can done under a call-to-action (“Sign Up” in the example below) or simply in your business description.
Profile example:
Step 3. Create & Share a post about your Campaign. You can use the template below:
We’re excited to launch a new referral program! It’s simple to join, you get [reward], your friends get [incentive], simply click this link to sign up! [referral link]”
With all these digital tips, we can’t forget about print collateral. Whether it’s a sticker at your retail locations, handouts left near the cash register, or included as a direct mailing to your customers, print collateral is a great way to promote the program. You can add your Referral link directly on the collateral or create a QR code attached to your link (you can create QR codes online), that will allow customers to easily sign up. For example, you can include your Referral link on:
1. Receipts or invoices 2. Business Cards 3. Stickers 4. Feedback Cards 5. Direct Mail
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Conclusion
By actively promoting your Referral Program you will take advantage of one the most cost effective ways to grow your business. Your first challenge will be to make your customers aware of your program, the above are some of the basic ways to do so, but if you want to discuss different ways to promote don’t hesitate to reach our success team at support@onelocal.com