The Ultimate Referral Marketing Playbook 2022

Ready to get started on building your referral program? In this playbook, you’ll learn the A-Zs of referral marketing. By the end, you’ll be able to build, launch and optimize your own referral program and grow your ecommerce business with the help of your best and most loyal customers.

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What's in the playbook

A quick dive into the definition of referral marketing and compelling reasons to get started.

A short explanation of what a referral program is and why businesses should invest in one.

A thorough step-by-step explanation of how referral programs work and things to take note of when getting started.

When should you choose cash rewards, discounts, or even custom gifts? Referral rewards and incentives help attract people to your referral program. In this chapter, we share tips and insights on choosing the right incentives for your referral program.

Why do you need to optimize your referral messaging? In this chapter, we explain its importance, go over some referral messaging examples and provide best practices to help you create your own referral messaging in different aspects of your referral program—slogans, emails, and landing pages.

You may think that the referral program reward is the most important part of a referral program. You’re not wrong, but if happy customers don’t know about your referral program, then how can they take advantage of it? Here are some ways to effectively promote a new or existing referral program

Now that you’re done setting up your basic referral program, the next step is to figure out how to keep track of referrals that your campaign brings in. Attribution can be difficult without a proper system. In this chapter, we’re looking at global referral rates as a benchmark for your referral program

If you’re at your wit’s end figuring out how to make your referral program more effective, fret not, in this chapter we’ll share the top secrets of referral features to improve your referral rates.

Down to the last bit of building a great referral program, we’re dissecting real-life brands that have seen amazing results with their referral programs—Atmoph and Branch Basics.

Chapter

Title

Chapter Summary

01
What is referral marketing?
A quick dive into the definition of referral marketing and compelling reasons to get started.
02
What is a referral program?
A short explanation of what a referral program is and why businesses should invest in one.
03
How does a referral program work?
A thorough step-by-step explanation of how referral programs work and things to take note of when getting started.
04
How to choose the right referral incentives?
When should you choose cash rewards, discounts, or even custom gifts? Referral rewards and incentives help attract people to your referral program. In this chapter, we share tips and insights on choosing the right incentives for your referral program.
05
How to perfect your referral messaging?
Why do you need to optimize your referral messaging? In this chapter, we explain its importance, go over some referral messaging examples and provide best practices to help you create your own referral messaging in different aspects of your referral program—slogans, emails, and landing pages.
06
Promoting your referral program
You may think that the referral program reward is the most important part of a referral program. You’re not wrong, but if happy customers don’t know about your referral program, then how can they take advantage of it? Here are some ways to effectively promote a new or existing referral program
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Chapter 1

What is referral marketing?

Let’s say you’re invited to a dinner party in a few weeks, and you want to bring the host a nice bottle of wine. You normally drink white, but the host drinks red.

What do you do? Instead of looking through the wine rack trying to find the right bottle, you reach out to a friend who you know drinks red.

What do you do? Instead of looking through the wine rack trying to find the right bottle, you reach out to a friend who you know drinks red.

Because you trust your friend, you make that purchase, and your friend gets 10% off their next order in return. You bring the bottle to the party, the host loves it, and they want to know where you got it. You refer them to it with the same incentive bonus, earning you another discount.

Do you see where we’re going here?

When you think about customer acquisition channels, your mind probably wanders toward strategies like SEO, paid advertising, and influencer marketing. But there’s a missing piece to the puzzle that multiplies the effectiveness of all your acquisition efforts: referral marketing.

Until now, paid advertising channels have been the primary acquisition source for brands, but the new iOS and third-party cookie changes are making this harder. In fact, in the second quarter of 2021 social media ad prices increased by 14%, according to Barron’s

With referral marketing being a tactic that relies on direct recommendations from trusted shoppers, it’s one of the strongest acquisition tools that result in a high return on investment.
To see the best results, referral marketing needs planning and dedication from your entire team.

From the marketing department to product, and even customer support, your program’s success all comes down to the right planning and promotion.

Referral marketing is a strategy to encourage a brand’s customers to organically recommend products to family and friends, usually through an incentive like 10% off for both the referrer and referred friend.

The goal? To acquire new shoppers and track customer advocacy.
Here’s a fun graphic below that breaks down how referral marketing works.

And truthfully, creating a referral strategy is worth it: not only are referred customers four times more likely to refer others to a business they’ve purchased from, but there are several other benefits.

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Referral Marketing Playbook
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