Most of our customers want more referrals. It's a less expensive way to grow sales than traditional advertising and direct sales. But how do you create a referral program that works? Check out these referral marketing ideas to make your loyalty program more effective.
Run seasonal referral campaigns
Here are some reasons why running a seasonal campaign may work for your business:
- You can time a referral campaign to coincide with key sales periods, such as the holiday shopping season when customers are more likely to share special offers with friends.
- A referral campaign can create a sense of urgency and excitement among customers
- A referral campaign can thank customers for their past business and encourage them to continue referring new customers
To run a successful referral campaign, offer a bonus to customers who refer new clients. It should be something outside of your loyalty program's typical rewards. For example, a point-based program might offer double or triple points for each successful referral. Other referral incentives include:
- Product or service upgrades
- A mystery gift
- A free gift
- A percentage discount on a product or service
Customers love getting bonuses, so be sure to publicize your offer. This will optimize the campaign’s success. You can use email blasts, make social posts and distribute flyers. Feel free to use these templates as starting points when you are ready:
- Spread the Word About Your Rewards Program with These Social Posts
- Two Weeks of Social Posts for Launching (or Relaunching) Your Rewards Program
- Optimize Your Referral Program with These Marketing Tips
Consider using loyalty program software to automate your referral campaign. This will make it easier to track results and manage the program. Perkville, for example:
- Offers a Promotion Bonus feature. This allows your business to reward extra points during a particular date range and for a particular type of earning activity.
- Will promote bonus points on your rewards program website, and in point emails to customers.
- Includes reporting to see the results of your referral promotions
Create a promotional offer that referring customers can share with friends
Another referral program idea is to create a promotional offer for referrals. For instance, a gym might offer a 7-day pass instead of a 3-day pass during the promotion period. Or a discounted membership such as waiving any one time fees. At a salon, 15% off a new customer's first visit instead of 10%. Run the referral offer alongside your seasonal referral campaign. This will provide added incentive for customers to refer their friends. They'll be able to give referred customers a better deal than normal and earn a bonus for their efforts.
Some features that we see in successful referral offers include:
- Being high value, so customers feel good about referring their friends
- Encourages new clients to try your core product or service
- Has an expiration date to create a sense of urgency
- Shareable via online, text, or email
To learn more about creating a successful referral offer, check out our blog post here.
Create a referral program landing page
The best referral programs have a referral program landing page. This is a page on your website that explains the program and has your referral link. Make sure to include:
- A brief explanation of how the program works
- Your business's core product or service
- A call-to-action to sign up for the program
- Your referral link
Some businesses also like to include social proof, such as customer testimonials, on their referral landing pages. This can help increase conversions by giving potential referrals confidence in your business.
The goal is to make it easy for customers to refer their friends. The easier you make it, the more likely they are to do it. Use social media, email, and in-store marketing to promote your referral landing page.
When customers refer their friends, they should be able to easily share the referral offer by email and text.
If you're using Perkville's loyalty program software, we'll automate everything for you. We include your referral link in your loyalty program's emails and point statements. We'll even send an automatic email to referred friends, so they have all the information they need to become new clients.
Encourage existing customers to enroll in your loyalty program
There are plenty of customers out there who haven't enrolled in your loyalty program yet. Don't miss out on the opportunity to connect with them. Reach out to them and share the benefits of enrolling in the program. You can do this via email, social media, or in-store marketing. This will increase the chance that customers join, as well as refer others. With a little effort, you can turn them into brand advocates for your business.
With Perkville's loyalty program software, we make the process easy. You can:
- Generate new leads when customers join your loyalty program. Our first action is to ask them to refer friends to your business.
- Offer an incentive for customers who sign up for your loyalty program. For instance, double points during a short period.
- Run a report of customers who are not enrolled in your program yet for targeted marketing campaigns
Conclusion
There are many ways to increase referrals from your customer loyalty program. By offering a referral bonus, special offer, and publishing a referral landing page, you can encourage customers to refer their friends. You can also boost referrals by promoting enrollment in your loyalty program. Try out these customer referral program ideas and see how they work for you.
For more tips on how to attract new clients with rewards, check out these blog posts:
- Top Referral Offers to Convert Prospects to Customers
- How to Increase Gym Membership with a Referral Program
About Perkville
Perkville offers a way to create and manage your customer loyalty and referral program. We automate the experience by integrating to point-of-sale, scheduling, and membership systems. Schedule a demo to learn how Perkville can help your business - we’d love to chat.