Referral Marketing Strategies

A good referral program is important to help you really bridge the gap between you, your supporters, and your potential clientele in the market. It’s important you have a clear cut goal with your referral program so that it’s easier to get people to follow your message. However, you don’t want to follow a simple method from someone because that gets old and boring.

You need to have your own methods even if it means borrowing from a previous template. You can add nuances to spice things up and make your program much more palatable. One of the things you should make sure of is that you have to have the best software built for the system you are using,so if you are using WordPress make sure you find the best for it.

With that being said, here are 4 ways you can help spice up your referral program. 

1. Get More Creative With Banner Themes for the Season

The same old banners make things a bit dreary. You don’t want some gray banners when it’s time for Thanksgiving or Christmas. The best thing you can do is invest some time in creating banners for the holiday season.

Why? Here are a few reasons below: 

One, people will be in the holiday spirit. Your company needs to match that cheeriness because people gravitate toward that. It’s kind of like the saying “good energy attracts good energy.”

If your company doesn’t have the right energy to promote a product, then it makes it hard to get that sale just because you’re not on the same tip as everyone else. While you want to be in your unique lane, you never want to steer away from something that could possibly work. Two, helps you make your mark at the right time.

Sometimes, spicing your referral program in a good season helps you create better sales. If you have the time to get a bit creative with a powerful Thanksgiving/Christmas theme, then it works wonders. It’s all about having the right content to go with the last few months of the year.

Why is this powerful? It’s the time where people buy impulsively. Take a look at this solid article by Forbes on “8 Online Marketing Tips for the Holidays.”

You want to take full advantage of this period when your customers are in a buying mood. They will spend tons of money and all of your supporters will look to make extra money because it’s holiday time. They want to buy expensive gifts for their families so they will walk another mile just to make it happen.

You can always come up with a great marketing program or some kind of incentive during the holidays just to make it sweeter for both ends.  Maybe you have a grand prize or a monetary bonus that can truly help your supporters get a better Christmas because they will have the funds to treat their family to something special. Additionally, you can set your banners for different themes.

For example, you can have a specific banner for your homepage that helps draw in leads. You can have your banners for your email to draw in special members. Additionally, you can even create specific referrals for social media.

Customize them in a way that works well for each customer. Banners don’t take too long to create and it can significantly help you promote an offer during the right time. Using colors like brown and orange for your Thanksgiving campaign will help generate a better buzz that having colors that are a bit off-beat.

The same thing goes for Christmas. While you don’t have to completely conform to the holidays, it’s always good to have something in there that helps you mesh well with the time period. Make it look natural and have a genuine promotion that fits within your company mission.

This way it’s not just about a marketing thing, but it can actually provide value to others while still keeping your integrity.  

2. Bring Out a Good Message 

Maybe you need to spruce things up as far as sending a message out to your audience. Christmas or Thanksgiving is a time of spreading positivity. With your emails, you can spend time giving your audience a positive vibe to help make the day better.

Here’s a good article on “How Do I Write a Positive Business Email Message?” Not only that, maybe you have a Halloween special coming along and you have a niche market in horror or something. You can send a spooky message or a theme that really entices your supporters. 

Why does a strong message work? Well, it brings attention in the right manner. Sure, you can post a bulletin your site or go through social media, but a direct message through email is more effective. You can actually spend time and get creative with your email reminder.

You can set things for the future and maybe have a theme like “31 days of Halloween.” All through that month you can put together a plan where you do a special promo each day for a specific product. This way you can test the waters and see who bites.

You’ll get a good idea of what people enjoy during this time period, and you might even get some late bloomers who buy these products right after the season is over. You can put those products on a sale before you clear the inventory for your Thanksgiving and Christmas season. It’s a great segway to get more buyers during the most important period of the year. 

Not every email has to be about a sale. You can through interesting facts, tidbits, or even a funny story here and there to really capture your audience and lead them to explore your site. Sometimes the entertainment and discovery factor keeps them guessing or at least intrigued with what you have to say.

Here’s a good article on how you can “Increase Your Email Click-through Rates with Storytelling.” The key is in mixing up your content so it doesn’t get boring. You never want your words to become a snooze fest and you end losing a subscriber.

Additionally, your supporters would appreciate the change in action, so maybe they can enhance their content as well. 

3. Better Engagement on Social Media 

Social media is something that will change the status quo forever. There are different ways you can spruce up your content even for referrals. Let’s talk a bit about live video, and how it’s very powerful. 

If you’re great at speaking and interacting with people, Facebook live and Periscope could be great avenues for growth. While you don’t want to sell someone on there, it could be an incredible way to build traction. Referral marketing is all about building traction and getting people to vouch for you.

That’s why you should take a look at “8 Ways to Use Periscope to Drive More Sales.” When you have live feed, there’s no filter; it’s raw and unapologetic in a sense. People get to see the real you in live motion.

It’s not like recording a video and setting it for a vlog. You’re fully in the moment and interacting. There’s a sense of urgency that causes people to feel like they miss out something great especially when you have something strong to say.

Yes, people can view the replay, but it’s like watching a good football – it’s better when you view right as it happens. After the fact, people will show you the highlights and it makes you become a bit disinterested in what was shown in the original airing. This live feed allows you to get your questions answered, you can set up a viral marketing and hashtag themed stream that can be shown all over your Facebook and Twitter.

It really creates attraction that can be used to refer other people into your program. If you have a club or something, you can set facilitate it within your live feed. Send people a link and have them share it out to others.

Also, you can show them what it entails live. Of course, Pinterest, Instagram, and Snapchat are other ways you can help mold your referral program. It’s all about finding two or three good networks that you can really interact with the people.

Learn how to use them well so you can build things up in a manner that creates a solid following. When you can engage better with your prospects, your main supporters can see how to influence their audience more efficiently. This will help your referral program gain a major spike in traffic. 

4. Coming Up with a Great Incentive Package

You not only need to worry about the content of your site and how you spice things up for your prospects, but what about the supporters? You need to ensure that they want to keep working with you on a long term basis. How can you do that?

You need to provide them with great incentive so that they’re able to support families or feel like they are wanted. One of the best things you can do is set up a contest. This adds spice to it because now it’s a competition.

Competition can bring out the best in people because it requires a certain level of focus. It’s like having a bull behind you in a bull run, you’ll run your fastest to get out the way so you don’t get harmed. Well, you won’t get harmed here, but you surely want to do your best so you can be the one that gets the grand prize.

You can create a contest that allows people to see how they do on the leaderboard. Let’s say you have 50 people working with you to build the empire. You can have a top 20 board that shows who’s in the lead.

From that 20, maybe you have 4 places where people can get a prize. By having a leaderboard, this encourages your people to say “hey, I need to get in the game!” Before the contest starts, you can send an email to your participants and get them to vote on a prize from getting an item for the home, going on a dream vacation, or even making it a monetary prize so they can have a great holiday season.

By letting them vote on something, it shows that you care about their needs and that they have a say so in your company. It shows a lot of care and giving to your supporters. They will be inclined to stay on your program for the long haul.

This helps you in referral program for a few reasons:

• It weeds out your weakest supporters 
• You can find out what kind of items really get the most sales 
• Plan ahead for creating items for a particular season
• Gives you a gauge on how you can expand your company 

Not only is this good for your supporters, but it helps you create better predictions for the future. It also creates a bit of spice in the way you do referrals because you do need a bit of different flavor from your typical rice and chicken dinner every night. If you need a good blueprint to help you out, check out “5 Customer Referral Program Incentives That Work.”

In a referral program, it’s important to not only cater to your needs but everyone in your circle. Remember, that you need to treat your supporters well so  they can bring out the best in your initiatives. This will keep you around for a long time. 

These are a few ways to help you spice up your referral program. You don’t need to be like every referral source out there. You can set yourself up to perform well just by looking a few sectors of the market that may be underserved.

It’s important to keep your identity while knowing what’s hot on the market. Look at how you can utilize technology, creativity, and social media all in one to help you put your own stronghold on the market. Twist it to your advantage so that you can put your spin on it.

What are some ways that you’ve helped put a kick to your own referral program? Leave a comment below and checkout our article about some of the best facebook marketing courses.