Best Graphical Assets For Referral Program

Today’s customers are visual. Some customers buy a product just because it looks good on photo. This is the reason why visual brands like Ikea are able to make tons of sales. It is ‘how it looks’ that counts.

This is the reason why graphical assets are indispensable in marketing. Even if you are promoting a referral program, you’ll need some graphics not only to capture your prospects’ attention but also to direct them where you want them to go.

High angle view of an artist drawing something on graphic tablet at the office

Today, you’ll discover 10 graphical assets that you should have for your referral program. This is not a checklist and all these graphical elements are optional. But once you have them, they can definitely increase the value of your referral program and help you get more referrals in the process. Companies such as Hunting Bow Lab have reported a 30% increase in sales after starting a referral program.

Referral Incentive Template

Every referral program has an incentive. This is what you give away in exchange for your prospects’ contact information. For this, you’ll need a referral incentive template. This will showcase the reward that you will be giving away along with the terms that your prospects need to meet in order to qualify for it.

There are different ways to approach this. But you must first put yourself in the shoes of your customers. If your customers have a greater chance of making repeat purchases, then discounts may be attractive. However, some customers may prefer products and experiences compared to discounts. It all depends on the characteristics of your customers.

PRO TIP: A good rule to follow is the ‘100 rule’. This states that if a product costs over $100, a cash discount or flat discount is ideal. Whereas, if a product cost less than $100, percentage discounts are preferred.

The key in a referral incentive template is to be clear. It should contain what your prospects will get if they sign up and what they have to do to qualify for the reward. Often, this will also include a sign-up form. But that can also be included in other parts of the referral program such as the call-to-action and sign up pages.

Referral Program Call-to-Action

A referral marketing program is only considered successful if it has people signing up for it. This is the reason why a call-to-action is essential. This brings your prospects to your sign up page.

A call-to-action can come in different forms. For some ecommerce websites, they have it in their navigation bar where it states ‘Get $100 off’ or something similar. For others, it can be a pop-up that shows that customers can get a discount if they sign up. In any case, the goal is to get the customer from whatever page he is surfing into the referral sign up page.

For this, there is no fixed template. All you need to do is think of a creative way to capture your audience’s attention. Try to run a heat map in your website to see which parts your prospects love to read. This will give you an idea on where to place your call-to-action.

NOTE: Call-to-action buttons or links doesn’t need to be boring. You can also make it graphical. As I have said, it all depends on your creativity.

ANOTHER NOTE: Be sure to assist your prospects in signing up. Excellent customer support can go a long way even in referral programs.

Referral Sign Up Page

The goal of a call-to-action page is to get prospects to sign up. But they will not be able to do that unless there is a referral sign up page.

A referral sign up page is more than just an online form. It also states the mechanics of the program. It should state more than the reward or incentive. It should also enumerate the steps that the prospect need to do in order to qualify.

Again, it should not always be direct. You can get creative by including the pictures of the incentives or rewards. This will act as bait for those people who are really interested in the reward. When they see it, they are far more likely to sign up.

Referral Email Template

Your website is only one place where you can gather referrals. Another way to do this is to email your subscribers.

This is powerful. One email can help you get thousands of referrals if done right.

The key is to have a graphical email and to capture the attention of your subscribers in one headline.

One way to do this is to label your followers as part of your community. You’ll see many brands do this. They call their followers a certain way making their followers feel that they belong. The key is to make it seem like you are making your followers feel special by signing them up as promoters. This is more attractive than pleading them to promote your site for you.

Another way is to be creative with your headline. I have seen some brands use animated GIFs and memes to catch the attention of their subscribers. I guess it works because they manage to get tons of referrals because of it.

Be creative. Think of an approach that will work best with your target market and go with that.

Referral Reminder Template

There are instances when you may need to remind your prospect to fill up your sign up form. It is like shopping cart abandonment. Your prospect may be on the verge of signing up only to leave the form hanging. When this happens, you can always give them a simple graphical nudge to go back.

Again, asking them to go back in a direct way may work but it may not work as effectively if you have done it in a creative manner. You see, people tend to respond more to unique approaches. It is the same as asking someone out. They are less likely to go out with you if you use an overused pick-up line.

It helps to put yourself in your prospects’ shoes. What type of images will catch their eye. Will a picture of a meme work? How about an animated GIF? Think of that and incorporate that into your reminder. You will have a greater chance of getting more referrals this way.

Reward Email Template

Digital Online Marketing Commerce Sale Concept

So you managed to get your prospect to sign up. That’s great! But you have to send them an email containing their reward.

Now, you can get lazy and just send them a text email with a discount code. But this doesn’t work anymore in today’s visual world. Because of this, you’ll need to be a bit more creative. You’ll need to create a graphical email that contains your reward.

Now the reward email will highly depend on the reward. If you are giving away a discount code, you may want to include a banner of all the products that your prospects can purchase with the discount code. If you are giving away a product or an experience, you’ll want to create something like that. It is all about simulating the experience through images even before the actual experience (or product) is there.

Here’s the thing. The majority of your prospects will not use their reward right away. So if you send it in text, they are far less likely to find it in the future. It is better to be creative and create a HTML email.

Referral Social Share Template

Social shares bring life to referral programs. It is the secret behind the growth of huge brands like PayPal and Airbnb. Here’s the thing. Social shares do more than give your referral program social proof. It also promotes the program encouraging more people to sign up.

Promoting a referral program is relatively easier than promoting a product or service. When you are promoting a product, you are often asking them to buy something from you. You are asking them to take out their wallet and buy. This causes a lot of friction between the prospect and your brand. But referral programs are different. Instead of asking them to buy from you, you are simply asking for their contact information. Often, this is just their email. This is easier for the prospect to do. And since referral programs also have rewards, they are more attractive to prospects than outright promotions.

It is with this reason why you should make your social share template attractive. This is the first thing that your prospect will see. So it is important to make it catchy and colorful.

NOTE: Facebook shares have a rule not to include text in images. Be sure to take that into account when creating your social shares template.

Referral Influencer Landing Page Template

One of the fastest way to promote your referral program is to have an influencer landing page. This is a special landing page that you create exclusively for influencers. Often, this will have an exclusive discount code that includes the name of the influencer along with a sign up form where prospects can sign up as referrals.

What makes influencer landing pages special is the fact that it combines your brand with the influencer. This is done for more than influencer marketing. It also combines your name with an influencer’s name, giving you more credibility and social boost.

Now it is very important to learn how to fuse brands in an influencer landing page. Not only does it need to contain your brand colors, it should also contain the influencer’s brand colors as well. This can be tricky if the colors don’t match or are hard to combine. But with a little flair or graphic artist assistance, it can be done.

Referral Friend Landing Page

The friend landing page is the first page the prospect’s friend sees when they find your program. Often, this is the page where the friend signs up or buy from your site. This works extremely well if you will reward the friend in the process. The landing page will often contain the reward that the friend has signed up for.

For these pages, it is more important to be direct to the point. After all, you no longer need to convince the friend to sign up. They are already there to sign up. So instead of bombarding them with text or images, you should present the form and the reward instantly.

Referral Banner

The referral banner can come in different sizes. It can be a huge featured image that is usually located in your online store’s front page. Or it can be a small banner that is in your blog’s sidebar. The goal of the referral banner is the same as the call-to-action. It is to direct the attention of your website visitors to the existence of your referral program and to get them to sign up.

Referral banners need to be catchy. More than the colors, you also need to have an exciting headline to go with it. Try to test if an animated GIF will work with your audience. After all, your goal is to get their attention.

Graphical assets are a must in today’s e-commerce business. It is not enough to have images for your products in your online store. You should also be active in making graphical assets for your marketing promotions. A referral program may seem simple. But it needs all the graphical promotions it can get. Hopefully, this article has given you some ideas on the areas that can use some graphical elements. This is not a checklist but this will give you some ideas on where to start if you want to insert some graphics into your ecommerce referral program.

The goal of graphics is more than just to get your prospect’s’ attention. It is to make a statement as well as make your promotions easier on the eyes. Creativity helps. Just putting together an image that is the same as the next online store will not work. Think about what’s unique about your customers and create an image that will reflect that. Find inspiration in other online shops but don’t be afraid to put your own unique twist to your images.