Why Holidays Are The Best Time To Start Your Referral Marketing Campaign

It’s that time of the year again when people buy new clothes and gifts for their loved ones (and maybe themselves, too!). With advanced technology, buyers are flocking to online shops instead of spending long hours in physical stores. Brands can market and sell their products to a larger community, increase conversion rates, and grow organically. Starting a referral marketing strategy is key.

The good news is that Tapfiliate is a referral tracker to help you keep track of your referral program.

What is a Referral Marketing Campaign?

As the term suggests, a referral marketing campaign is a method of leveraging your business through referrals or word-of-mouth marketing. Paid advertisements are good, but people are more likely to trust your brand if they get a recommendation from their family, friends, and contacts. As reported by Ironpaper, word-of-mouth recommendations and testimonials play a crucial role in 80% of all B2B and B2C transactions. It’s a great way to increase your customer acquisition.

How to Start a Referral Program

The idea behind a referral marketing campaign is simple—it’s the execution that requires thorough planning and hard work. It’s a great marketing channel that can be added to your digital marketing mix. Follow these steps to establish your referral program successfully.

Make sure your customer care is excellent

A happy customer is more likely to want to share your business with friends and family if their experience is positive. Sales teams and customer care need to be on the same page and provide outstanding service. This will mean your referral program is more successful.

Know your existing customers

To start a referral marketing campaign, you need to know your existing customers. If it helps, sort them according to the most active buyers and those who only purchased once or twice in your shop. Once sorted, the next step would be to establish your goals.

Don’t ignore your new customers

New customers can actually send you successful referrals. Think about keeping your referral program open to everyone, as sometimes all it takes is one customer interaction to make people become loyal brand advocates.

Set your objectives

Like any marketing strategy, referral campaigns need to have specific objectives. Ask yourself: what outcome do you expect from your referral marketing program? Are your objectives more tied to your sales and revenue, or are you looking to build a larger loyal community?

Determine your ideal customer

You already have a list of your regular customers and your campaign objectives. Before asking your customers to look for referrals, you need to determine your ideal client first. For example, if you’re selling fitness products, your ideal buyer would be adventurous and sporty people.

On the other hand, if your products are homeware and appliances, you may want to target moms or dads. You can also look into other factors, such as your ideal age group, your customer’s location, or the type of people who can afford your products.

Choose your hosting channels

When choosing the channels to host your referral campaign, social media is the best platform. Referral programs on social media influence 71% of buyers. Some of the top social media platforms are Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram. You can use referral tracker software like Tapfiliate to keep track of your referrals automatically.

Identify your incentives

Referral-based selling only works well if there is a great incentive for your customers to do so. Cash doesn’t always work, as well as discounts and credits. Try non-cash customer referral program ideas, such as a free subscription period, loyalty points, exclusive discounts, cashback, store credits, or gift cards.

Create a landing page

Inform your customers about your referral program by using a landing page where they can easily sign up. Make it as simple as possible for them to refer a friend – you could create a shareable text, a section so they can add their friend or family member’s email address, or even just give them a coupon code to share with their friends.

Why You Should Start Your Referral Marketing Programs During the Holidays

As mentioned above, shoppers look for deals during the holidays, so this is the best time to encourage your customers to seek out referrals for your business.

Here are 5 other reasons why you should implement a referral program during the holidays:

Referral marketing campaigns help you stand out from the competition

The holidays are intense when it comes to competition. Many businesses want to stand out since this is the perfect time to earn huge sales and gain new customers. Spreading the word that you have a referral program can help you stand out from the noise.

Try doubling the rewards for your referrers so they’ll be more enthusiastic about telling more people about your brand. You can even extend the campaign to new customers by giving them discounts if they can provide an adequate referral for their purchase. The point is, a good referral program campaign can help you stand out during the holiday season if you play the cards right.

A referral marketing campaign helps you meet your target sales and revenue

If your sales and revenue were low and poorly performing in the previous holiday season, you could expect them to be higher this year with a good referral marketing program and referral marketing software. By having your clients more actively engaged in promoting your products and bringing in more customers, you’ll wrap the year in success.

Referral programs can help you build a better customer base for next year

Part of a business’ yearly forecasting and marketing strategies is how to build a larger and better customer base. With referral programs, it’s easier and more cost-effective to add new people to your customer base.

For example, you have 100 active referrers for this year. If each of them can bring in at least 10 new clients to your business, and these clients are satisfied with your products and services, you’ll have 1,000 new loyal customers just coming from the holidays. This is already a great increase with just 2-3 months of a marketing campaign.

People spend more during the holidays

People feel more generous when it comes to spending money for the holidays. It’s the time when you let go of your inhibitions and spend a little more than you would normally, even with luxury goods. As a business owner and retailer, you should take advantage of the hype by implementing a customer referral marketing campaign.

One way you can jump on the bandwagon is by offering hot deals and exclusive offers throughout the holiday season. Aside from incentivizing your best customers, you can use referral codes to entice new shoppers to buy more products from your brand. As people are buying gifts for their loved ones, you should also give them gifts through rewards and discounts.

Buyers are in the market for new products

Since the holiday season is all about sharing, caring, and giving, people are on the lookout for new stuff. It might be new gadgets, clothes, merchandise, home appliances, or even new equipment for your remote work. With this holiday hype, you can also introduce new products to the market. However, the dilemma is how trusted is this new product.

This is where referral programs can be useful because you already have loyal customers that will most likely patronize your new product. After buying and being satisfied with their purchase, these customers can now be your brand advocates.

Ninety percent of consumers trust recommendations from family and friends. These days, people don’t appreciate ads that much anymore. They want authenticity, and a referral marketing campaign is one of the best ways to get their attention.

Start Your Referral Partner Marketing Campaign this Holiday Season

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was right when he said that “word of mouth is very powerful.” If you build a great customer experience, people will be talking about that. On the other hand, if your customer service is poor, people will also know about it, and it can break your business.

With this article, it’s easy to see why a referral marketing campaign is one of the best ways to gain new customers and increase your sales organically. People influence people, and customers believe in recommendations more than they do in ads. After all, a referral message is the holy grail of online marketing. So, start your own referral program now.