Before you kickstart the referral program it is important to decide what kind of promotion will be the most valuable to your customers and how the referral process will work.
The first step would be to decide who gets the referral reward, is there a segment that will give the biggest benefit to your business?
Would the same program be open to all past guests/customers or would there be tiers with higher rewards for your most loyal & frequent clients? Deciding who will get the referral reward helps to lay the foundation for all other elements in your program.
The rewards can fall under one of three incentive types which are, one-sided, two-sided or no incentive.
One-sided, whereby incentives are offered to either the existing customer (the referrer) or the new customer (the referred).
A two-way referral program rewards both the existing customer and the new referred customer. An example would be “Send your friend 20% off, and get $20 for yourself.”
With no incentive programs, some businesses may not feel the need to offer any reward or incentive to customers and rely purely on the sharing of a positive customer experience.
Types of incentives or rewards can include;
Gift cards. Either linked to a certain brand/company or a preload debit card as cash can be more enticing although it doesn’t tie into the company as much as other incentives.
Donations can make for a very meaningful referral reward. Depending on your property location it could go toward a community project sponsored by your company.
Discounts for your business/property. A 30% off reward is can make a very enticing offer for guests who are planning another visit.
Free Accommodation/Meal - who doesn't love getting something for free!
Other options would include F&B credit, branded merchandise, trial offer.
Another consideration to take into account would be when and how often will you give the reward?
Contests can be super effective and work best in a shorter time frame ideal for hotels and resorts. These can be implemented during a particular season or around a certain event or holiday promotion. The grand prize can be something that really motivates your customers and has the wow factor!
A reward that encourages people to try your offering for the first time is fairly common for gyms, and yoga studios. Offering a first month of unlimited classes at a steep discount or 2 sessions for free will inevitably get people through the door which you can then convert into new full-paying customers.
You should also take into account how new customers find you. Is it via your social media channels such as Facebook or Twitter? Perhaps it is your website. Where ever it is make sure that this central to your referral program.
You could try advertising your new referral program in your Facebook banner, or adding a signup box to your website. The easier you can make it for people to participate, the more involvement you’re going to get. For implementation, you can take advantage of tools such as UpViral.
With UpViral anyone can benefit from the power of viral marketing and it can be easily set up to run natively with most of the major autoresponders & tools such as Aweber, GetResponse, MailChimp, InfusionSoft, ClickFunnels, LeadPages etc (more on those in future newsletters!).
There are numerous case studies to take inspiration from with marketers who got 9,500+ new subscribers in just 12 days or who has netted 16,000+ subscribers… in just four days.
UpViral platform would allow you to create a promotional campaign that will bring you massive numbers of qualified leads – with little or no advertising needed and you can learn more here.
Final tips - Get into the mindset of your customer, keep referral conversations natural and fun also remember to measure and test. You can expect it to be perfect right away as with other areas of your marketing mix the best results can be achieved through regular testing and optimization.
Looking forward to hearing about your results if you do give it a try!
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