Where would we be without other people's advice and opinions? Humans are social beings. We spend much of the day communicating and dealing with people - family, friends, co-workers, neighbours, online friends, or strangers. We like to exchange news, tell stories, discuss problems and share what is important to us. The internet has fundamentally changed the way our society functions. It has never been easier to communicate. Being separated by hundreds of miles does not stop us from seeing each other - we are more interconnected than ever before.
You can also reach people with specific preferences or interests. It is much easier to find your crowd. This has also fundamentally changed the way businesses communicate and led to a dramatic increase in companies looking to use referral marketing to communicate their message and their brand. Let's take a dive into the world of referral marketing and review some of the best tools that are available to you.
Word of mouth marketing is when you encourage and promote the discussion of customers' experiences. If you give your customers a great experience (good customer service or high-quality goods for example) they will be happy and may even communicate (tweet or comment) about it with the rest of the world. To increase the buzz around your business you might want to provide your customers with a little bit of encouragement. For instance, you can post the best comments on your social media platforms, make it easy for them to provide feedback, or give them an incentive to get their friends to try out your services.
Referral marketing is where you encourage your customers to bring their friends and families along. If you have loyal customers who appreciate what you do, there is a chance that they might tell their friends about you. You can, of course, encourage this by providing some kind of rewards such as an introductory discount, a bonus, or a gift. The great thing about referral marketing is that it doesn't have to cost you anything - your customers are doing the marketing for you. If you can turn customers into brand ambassadors, they will have a big advantage over content influencers - they have personal experience of using your product or services. The statistics around referral marketing prove that it is a very powerful tool.
Whether you are starting a new business or have an established business and want to increase traffic to your website, referral marketing should be part of your arsenal of marketing tools. One approach you could use is guest posting. This is a way for you to share your experience and knowledge with other people. You write a blog post about a subject you have knowledge of, people read and like it and you attract followers. Guest posting is a tried-and-trusted method to drive more traffic to your site. There are websites that can help with this. Visit this site for a high-quality guest posting service. This service is ideal if you:
You can either commission posts from professional writers or write your own which includes a link to your site. The objective is to create content that will attract new visitors and help increase your referral traffic recovery. This article provides an excellent deep dive into referral marketing. For the purposes of this blog, we'll be focussing on the referral marketing tools you can use:
There are some great social media analytics tools out there that will help you analyse how effective your marketing referral is but first you need to get your referral campaign off the ground. There are several software tools that can help with this. How do you choose the best software package for you? Here is a list of the top 10 referral marketing tools we enjoy the most. Some of them are designed for start-ups and smaller companies while others are for larger companies and organisations:
Referral Rock has everything you need to get your referral campaign going:
Friendbuy is a referral marketing software that is also aimed at different categories of brands and businesses. It has three pricing plans for companies with up to £50k in total sales per month, up to £100k, and brands with more than £100k. The first two plans are pretty similar so it makes sense to get the first plan if you have modest requirements from your referral program (free trials are also included by the way!). What do you get?
Post Affiliate Pro allows you to create referral campaigns, customize them and integrate with numerous CMS and payment system options. In addition, you will get:
Genius Referrals provides all the necessary tools to build a successful referral campaign. You are given a choice of four plans. Each plan has a certain number of advocates (customers that will participate in your referral program), languages, currencies, and reward campaigns.
ReferralCandy is an excellent gateway for those new to referral marketing. It makes it easy to initiate your referral campaign. You can customize the look of your campaign to fit your brand and you have the option to integrate with e-commerce apps and different platforms such as Shopify, BigCommerce, or Magento. You get all the basic tools - templates, fraud-prevention algorithms, and other features - but currently doesn't include some features found in other marketing tools - no A/B testing for example. On the other hand, it is easy to use and a great entry point for those starting off with referral marketing.
Extole has plenty to offer you and it's a good option to consider if you have a medium-sized or larger business:
Talkable sells itself as a referral program software for e-commerce brands. They have three plans to choose from - for small businesses, medium-sized businesses, and enterprises. What does Talkable offer?
For an additional cost, you will get advanced templates, customisation options, fraud protection, and a personal team of experts that can assist you with building and managing a successful referral campaign.
Mention Me is another very viable choice. This includes:
InviteBox is an accessible referral marketing software that gives you enough tools for steady referral progress. There are three plans included as well as a free trial. Like some of the other tools mention here, it's a great starting point for small businesses. Launching your campaign should be straightforward (it just requires copy-pasting of your widget code). This will provide you with the basic campaign tools and some rewards to satisfy your customers. You can track all your progress to see how well it is working for you.
We are wrapping up our list with a versatile multi-feature referral software - Ambassador. They have three plans - for start-ups, mid-to-large-sized businesses, and enterprises. Ambassador allows you to run multiple campaigns that will include both your customers and your brand associates and partners too. What else does it include?
This list has highlighted a wide range of referral marketing tools - one of these may well be the perfect one for you. We recommend you undertake further research before making a final decision. Many of these tools offer free trials or demo versions so you might want to take advantage of that. Have fun and good luck with your referral campaign!
by Frank Hamilton | 27 Sep 23