Learn how Extole's team of referral marketing experts are taking on the challenge in 2016, and the three key tips they'e identified for making the most out of your brand advocates!

1. 3 CRUCIAL
TIPS TO WIN
REFER-A-FRIEND
IN 2016
An Industry Perspective Report
brought to you by Extole
This report is based on recommendations made by the industry experts
who participated in Extole’s webinar, Win Refer-A-Friend in 2016.

2. 2
CONTINUING THE
CONVERSATION ON
REFERRAL MARKETING
MEET OUR EXPERTS
Referral marketing is the most important acquisition channel of the next decade, letting
marketers drive measurable and reliable customer acquisition at scale by leveraging a
unique resource; their current customers. In Spring of 2016, Extole’s referral experts started
a conversation on how brands can supercharge their referral strategies and inspire their
advocates. This report takes a look at what they discovered, and keeps the conversation
going around the high potential channel of referrals.
Jen Gray
Director of Marketing
Extole
Chris Duskin
VP of Marketing
Extole
Continuing the conversation on referral marketing................................................................................................................................................................................2
Meet our experts
Who are my advocates?..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................3
Facts on referred customers
What does a marketer need to win referrals?
Tip #1: Make your referral program readily available............................................................................................................................................................................6
Tip #2: Refer and convert, everywhere............................................................................................................................................................................................................... 7
Tip #3: Keep it personal and stay in touch......................................................................................................................................................................................................9
About Extole.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................11
WBR Digital..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................11
contents
Do you want even more case studies and winning referral strategies?
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FULL WEBINAR

3. 3
SO WHO ARE MY
ADVOCATES?
Referral marketing, or refer-a-friend programs, reward advocates for referring
their friends, who then get rewarded for purchasing. So what’s an advocate?
It’s someone who isn’t a paid affiliate, partner, or even a spokesperson. An advocate is someone who
recommends and supports your brand, products, or services, not because you’re paying them to do so but
because they think what you do makes sense for the person they’re referring.
Anyone can be an advocate. While your customers are your best pool of potential advocates, anyone who
visits your site, walks into your store, or even sees your branding can become an advocate when given the
chance to do so.
Incidentally, the best referral programs are the ones that drive the most revenue and reward both the
friend and the advocate when the friend purchases or converts. This double-sided reward will help convince
an advocate who likes you to follow through with the referral and build customer loyalty while improving
retention and boosting new acquisition. A win-win for your customers is a win-win for you.
The Referral Funnel

4. 4
some facts on referred customers
“After running hundreds of referral programs at Extole for all sorts of different customers,
we’ve uncovered some metrics around the benefits of referred customers. They are
some of the best customers to bring into your user journey and make part of the family.
They spend more and they stick around way longer. They’re just overall more profitable,
supporting characteristics such as 20% higher average order values and 25% higher
lifetime values. Simply put, customers that come to brands through referrals are of
much higher quality. And then to top it off, referred customers are more likely to become
advocates, increasing the scale and effectiveness of your referral program overall. Once
these programs begin to scale, they can be optimized along the way so that marketers
can get the most value from each and every advocate share and conversion.”
Jen Gray
Director of
Marketing
Extole
Referred Customers are Better Customers

5. 5
what does a marketer need to do
to win referrals?
“The best referral programs are really woven into the customer journey. At Extole, we
built a referral API to power our own web, mobile, and app experiences that enable our
customers to drive referrals, but they also allow for interaction with the customer across
their entire journey.
A strong platform has a few characteristics - it needs to know who is sharing, what is
being shared, and how/where they are sharing. Referral is a channel that needs to be
managed and optimized so that you can improve its quality on an ongoing basis. You can
drive and extend participation, as well as instantly provide rewards.”
Chris Duskin
VP of Marketing
Extole
Do you have a referral marketing program in place?
Live audience response numbers from Extole’s webinar,
Win Refer-A-Friend in 2016.
50%
NO
50%
YES

6. 6
TIP #1: MAKE YOUR
REFERRAL PROGRAM
READILY AVAILABLE
This may seem obvious, but a key to referrals is making your program easy to
find, and making sure it’s clear and consistent to anyone who approaches it.
Your marketing email list is a fantastic place to start promoting your program and it easily expands to the reach
of your email marketing channel. It can also be a reactivation tool to bring past customers right back into the
pool - reengaging with them and offering them an incentive to share, earn a reward, and purchase again.
Making your audience aware of the offer and reward you’re giving them can be a very tricky process with all
of the marketing speak that we’ve come to know and use habitually. A few words in your website header can
really make all the difference in the number of clicks you will drive.
Sharing for everyone who comes across the program is not only necessary, but also a great way to track
even more advocates. Whether or not you’re a customer - referral programs that sit behind a login severely
limit your revenue potential. Your program should have no logins, no fine print, just an easy way to share the
brands or products your consumers, visitors, and those passing through your site love.
Marketers also have the opportunity to target specific products and content with their referral programs.
Sharing unique and specific content is really powerful. It can entice more friends to convert when they’re
referred to an item or product rather than to an entire brand.
Open Sharing, for everyone key
takeaways
“Let everyone share! Your
referral program should
be always on and available
everywhere at any time so that
whenever someone wants to
share or convert, they can.”
Jen Gray
Director of
Marketing
Extole

7. 7
TIP #2: REFER AND
CONVERT, EVERYWHERE
One of the best ways to streamline referral funnels is by enabling your referral
program across every single channel.
Mobile Sharing

8. 8
When we look at the top referral campaigns, we always see multiple devices in play for a program, as
advocates share on their computers or phones, and their referral messaging crosses the device divide when
it moves from one half to the other.
Remember, customer journeys aren’t just about your online experiences. Every customer journey includes
social, word of mouth, telephone, in-store, and many other touch points. With offline referral messaging,
some companies saw their overall referrals grow and now half of their referrals are actually happening
through offline word of mouth.
Is your referral program optimized for mobile web?
Live audience response numbers from Extole’s webinar,
Win Refer-A-Friend in 2016.
24%
YES
76%
NO
The Offline Effect
key
takeaways
“Referrals need to be cross-
device. Make sure you can go
from the desktop and convert
on a mobile device or a tablet.
You need to be able to easily
update your program across
all different channels and then
the referral opportunity needs
to be available offline as well.”
Jen Gray
Director of
Marketing
Extole

9. 9
TIP #3: KEEP IT
PERSONAL AND STAY
IN TOUCH
The reason email is one of the best performing channels is they come directly
from the advocate to the friend. Personal email addresses have resulted in
much higher open rates, higher click-through rates, and higher conversions.
The ability to customize a message makes it even more personal. Friends
love interacting with their friends much more than they love interacting with
marketing messaging, so let them customize it.
When a referral link is clicked, the referred friend is taken to a “friend landing page”. The names and pictures
of the advocate provide a personal welcome to the friend, allowing coupons and referral codes to be
presented for copy and/or auto apply.
Personalize the friend Landing

10. 10
Next you want to nurture your advocates. Airbnb does a really good job of clearly showing users their
referral rewards earned by crediting to their account. Many programs miss an opportunity here, not only to
draw more attention and sharing but also as a reactivation opportunity. People are more likely to buy when
they see their available credit sitting right in their account. By auto applying it to the account, you’re getting
those friends to shop now while it’s top of mind as opposed to leaving the site and maybe coming back later
to shop.
On the reward side, showing referred friends that the referral reward is waiting for them ahead of time,
drives conversions much faster.
key takeaways
“The more communication with your advocates and friends the better. Welcome referred
friends into the program. It’s a great way to personalize that friend landing experience.
Let the share message come directly from the advocate to the friend and let them share
in their own words. Make sure they can customize those messages as much as possible.”
- Jen Gray, Director of Marketing, Extole
Visible Referral Account Balance

11. 11
ABOUT EXTOLE
ABOUT WBR DIGITAL
At Extole we believe referral marketing is the most important
acquisition channel of the next decade. We exist to help
marketers drive measurable, reliable customer acquisition at
scale. Our industry-leading referral platform helps brands take
advantage of a unique resource they already have in front of
them: their current customers. More than 500 retail, financial
services, consumer subscription, and B2B companies use
Extole to acquire new customers using our platform.
share.extole.com/jen share.extole.com/chris
WBR Digital’s team of content specialists, marketers, and
advisors believe in the power of demand generation with a
creative twist. With senior executives from medium-sized
businesses and Fortune 1,000 companies attending more
than 100 WBR events each year, we are uniquely positioned
to energize your organization’s marketing campaigns with a
full array of marketing and bespoke content services.
This report was prepared by Andrew Greissman, Digital
Report Author and Researcher.
refer us!