Referral marketing is the process of encouraging your existing customer base to promote your products or services by giving them rewards or benefits. This is usually done by word-of-mouth through social media platforms etc and can be a highly effective form of marketing. People often confuse I am marketing with affiliate marketing but the main difference between referral and affiliate marketing is that the former involves targeting k
VfArl own customers to promote your business and the latter involves third party influencers to promote your business. Referral marketing can be really effective because you already have a set of target users who would refer your business to others and you don’t need money to generate a target user database, because the referrers are your current users you don’t need to convince them about your product, they would personally vouch for your product and go that extra mile to convince others. Since the referrers are users of the product themselves the people whom they talk to would feel more comfortable with trusting the product as a fellow user is recommending it. Most often referral marketing involves people referring to their known circle, so as a whole conversion ratio is one of the highest in this type of marketing. Further users already motivated by having a good view of your product would require less lucrative rewards to promote your product. So overall the ROI of referral marketing is one of the best. And the opportunities keep on increasing as you increase your user base.
Why You Need a Referral Marketing Software?
As with most types of marketing, in order to ensure optimal performance, a lot of factors need to be monitored continuously like, audience segmentation, timely emails to your users, offers based on demography locality, creation of referral codes and trackable custom referral links etc. This involves a lot of work which, if done manually is very difficult to maintain efficiency at scale. You can simplify your workload and make the entire process more effective and efficient by automating the process, using tailormade referral marketing software tools.
Tips to Choose the Best Referral Marketing Software
Before you begin your search for an efficient and effective referral marketing tool, it is important that you are clear as to what you are hoping to get out of the tool. Referral marketing tools can offer you a lot of benefits and can be an effective way to build brand loyalty, grow customers, and increase revenue. Referral marketing strategies can also provide you a way to capture new leads, incentivize existing customers, and track, analyze, and further improve your referral marketing campaigns. Here are certain tips that you should follow to get the referral marketing tool that would suit you best.
- Make sure you consider the size, demography and geographical location of your current client base, and ensure that the software that you end up using lets to cater to those particular users by providing local language support, local festivals and events updates, and campaign delivery using local time.
- You need to make sure that the tool is compatible with the marketing software you’re currently using for your other campaigns. This will enable you to have a seamless experience overall.
- Most customers today are frequently on their mobile phones so it is necessary to choose a tool that offers mobile app support.
- A major aspect of a successful tool is its scalability. As your business grows, so will your user base, make sure that the software you use is scalable up to your long term business goals at an affordable price. Make sure you choose a tool that will support your needs as your client list grows.
- Speaking of price, Cost is an essential aspect to consider before you choose a referral marketing tool. It is essential to understand the subscription plans of any tool you are considering. Some tools might offer discounts and promotions initially and might turn out to be expensive later. Some tools might have a more lucrative monthly plan which might seem logical at first but when you settle down with the tool you might find that the annual plans of the tool are turning out to be more expensive than other tools in the market.
- You also need to consider the customer service of the tool, a lot might happen during a campaign for which you might need the help of the customer service, make sure the tool you are going for has prompt and good customer service.
- Ensure that the tool you use, offers clear reporting so that you understand exactly how your campaign is going, also advanced analytic features will help you in understanding the areas with room for improvement, so as to optimize these areas in future campaigns and perform A/B testing to increase ROIs. Live campaign reports are always a help to optimise ongoing campaigns.
- Businesses today also think a lot about security, make sure you choose a tool that offers adequate security that will keep your customer’s data safe and secure.
- Make sure to use a tool that is compatible with most of the marketing and analytics platforms that you use. You need to know if it works with other software that you’re currently using like your email marketing and marketing automation tools, like Mailchimp, Google Analytics, Google Adwords, Facebook, and other social media platforms, CRMs like salesforce, leadsquared, etc.
- The best practice would be to shortlist a few tools based on the above-mentioned tips and guidelines and just do a thorough research on them on the internet, like reading reviews and other blogs of users who have used the tools before, learn about their experiences, if possible connect with them and get your doubts and questions clarified. and then make a shortlist of product that you try for yourself within the trial period and get a first-hand understanding of which tool would suit you the best.
While choosing a referral marketing tool some of the essential features you should ensure that the referral marketing platform should offer include:
- campaign management
- referral tracking
- referral campaign analytics
- customer analysis
- customer loyalty programs
- campaign customization
- user segmentation
- referral program automation.
Once you understand what you need in a successful referral marketing tool, you’re ready to start shopping.
ReferralHero Review: Product Features
Customizations
- Widgets or forms – You can use the widget to get started immediately or integrate with your own form.
- Design – You can easily customize campaign creatives and colors to match your website’s design and theme.
- White-label – There will be no mention of “Powered By” on the widget and emails. Nor will there be any backlinks to Referral hero. It is all your brand.
- Memorable referral links – Give your users a referral link that they can memorize like their first name to increase engagement.
- Social sharing – Choose where your users will share their link and even customize the message based on the social media platform
- Localized approach – Translate all the text into any language you want.
Advanced Features
- Automated emails – Built-in, behaviour-oriented automated emails to communicate with your users and keep them engaged.
- Broadcasts – You can use a built-in broadcast feature instead of a separate service.
- User Segmentation – Automatically categorize your users into different groups based on their engagement and activity so you can target them with different incentives and messages.
- Smart leaderboard – Give your users a leaderboard that adapts to them individually by showing them where they could be if they invited one more person.
- Automated distribution of Coupons/access codes – Create sophisticated referral programs with coupons or access codes and make sure each code is unique.
Powerful Analytics
- Identify best ambassadors – Identify the most active and engaged referrer. Then reach out to them and make them feel more motivated.
- Intricate Details – Track channels, sources, device used and location so you know what is working and what is not.
- Individual user analytics – Find out where they come from, who they have referred and when.
- Data Export – If you are comfortable in excel or have a separate analyst team or use a separate data analytics software, you can easily export the data from referral hero into CSV format.
Comprehensive Platform Integrations
If you are looking for integration with a CRM or a marketing or analytical platform or a data pipeline or a warehouse. Referral Hero has a plethora of options for you from Facebook, Leadsquared, Salesforce, Adwords, Google Analytics, Zoho to Zendesk, Slack, Hotjar, Mailchimp, etc. There are simple integration facilities to make your everyday life easier such as Gmail, Google Sheets, MS Excel, etc.
Tracking Pixel
Just drop a cookie into your user’s browsers and use it to gain their behavioural insights and target them accordingly to increase conversions
Built-in Security Features
- Anti-fraud algorithm – Works for you 24/7, in real-time. No setup needed.
- ReCaptcha – Add your ReCaptcha key to protect against bots
- SMS verification – Force your subscribers to verify their phone number.
Developer Friendly
- API – reliable and scalable API
- Webhooks – An easy way to integrate with any third-party & receive data in real-time
- Client-side SDK – Perfect user experience with powerful Javascript SDK.
Use of Referralhero Across Industry Segments
Use of referral hero can be found in various online industry segments, including SaaS, e-commerce, Online Travel, edtech, food tech, hospitality etc.
ReferralHero Pricing Plans
They have a 14 day trial period but you need to pay upfront & if you are not happy you need to notify them within the 14 day trial period for a 100% refund. They have 3 plans, which basically the difference is the number of allowed subscribers & the features available. The Basic plan starts at $49/month, it has basic features & lets you have a maximum of 2500 subscribers, next would be the Pro plan at $99/month with more features & a maximum allowed 15000 subscribers, lastly is the premium plan with all the features letting you have a maximum of 50000 subscribers at $199/month.
ReferralHero Review: Dashboard Overview
The dashboard is very easy to use, & more often than not you will definitely find what you are looking for in not more than 2-3 clicks. The experience is such that each functionality is located where you would expect them to be. The customizations & the effortless creations of highly targeted campaigns will surely make you feel that you have made the right choice. The advanced analytic features & the clear reporting help you analyse your existing campaigns & optimize them even further, the ease of use & maintaining your projects is simply worth it.
ReferralHero Review: Signup Process
The signup process here is kind of like a Wizard-like interface where you seamlessly arrive at the Referral Hero dashboard. The first step is a basic form that asks you to key in your name, work email (although personal emails work) & choose a password. Once you complete this step. The next step is basically a survey form that is aimed at learning more from you about your requirements, your organization & where you came to know about referral hero. The next step would ask you about your primary focus with referral hero & then gradually you will get to your dashboard by answering a few more questions aimed at customizing your experience. Before you know it you will be in the dashboard already working on your first campaign. There is no prompt of a requirement of your credit card or to make you choose a plan. You will be able to experience the entire process of making a campaign from scratch & then just at the last step when you have your campaign ready & want to take it live you will be prompted to choose a plan & put in a payment method like a credit card & then just go on with the plan of your choice & if you are not happy, you get a refund within the 14-day trial period.
ReferralHero Review: USPs, Pro Tip, & Advantages
- Affiliate Marketing
- Campaign Management
- Contact Management
- Employee Referral Management
- Feedback Management
- Lead Management
- Loyalty Program
- Referral Partner List
- Reward Distribution
ReferralHero Coupon Codes, Discounts, & Deals
ReferralHero Alternatives and Competitors List
Here is a list of referral marketing platforms that reviewers voted best overall compared to Referral hero. Just perform a basic online search and check reviews from current and previous users of these products, and find the best fit for your needs.
- InviteReferrals
- Post Affiliate Pro
- Influitive
- Refersion
- Viral Loops
- GrowSurf
- Referrizer
- ShareSomeFriends
- ReferralMagic
- InviteBox
- Hello Referrals
- ReferralMD
- Referral Key
- PartnerStack
Conclusion
If you are looking to create a referral marketing campaign that would increase your organic brand recall and overall brand presence in addition to increasing conversions at an affordable price, then you will find that Referral Hero is exactly what you need. That’s especially if you want to quickly create and deploy multiple campaigns, without paying a fortune to a referral marketing agency, at a fraction of the cost and with similar if not more ROI, all this at the convenience of sitting at your desk with a few clicks.