In today’s digital age, businesses have vast choices of marketing channels to reach and engage with their target audience. Yet, a personal referral from peers and family members remains one of the most influential and trustful types of advertising.
Nielson reports that 84% of people would trust a recommendation of a brand/company from people they know. So, obviously, a well-crafted referral campaign is crucial to encourage and accelerate natural word-of-mouth.
One of the inexpensive yet effective ways to do that is with email referrals. And implementing it with SmartSender.io can be the icing on the cake. So, let’s discover how to harness the power of referral marketing with the best referral email examples.
Why are Referral Emails Important?
There are countless reasons and studies to back up the importance of referral emails. The following are a few of them:
- More personal: Everyone trusts their friends’ and family members’ referrals more than any marketing messages. Incentivized referral emails allow businesses to tap into this trust and get more people talking about their products or services.
- Cost-effective: Traditional marketing channels such as paid search and social media advertising are costly, while automating your referral emails cuts the expenses immensely.
- Increased Conversion and Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). A survey by Influitive revealed that 69% of B2B companies report a faster time to close sales with referral programs. According to the same study, companies reported 71% higher conversions and 59% higher CLV.
- Higher Retention and customer loyalty. Referrals demonstrate how much you value your customers’ opinions and trust them to represent your brand. This strengthens customer relationships, leading to increased loyalty and repeat business. As a result, the retention rate will be increased significantly. A study by Deloitte reported a 37% higher retention rate among referred customers.
And above all, when creating a well-thought-out referral program, you significantly enhance your referral revenue, spend less on customer acquisition and reward your loyal customers. Case in point, a survey by Customer Gauge reported that referred opportunities closed at around 20 days as opposed to 100 days for non-referred deals.
So, let’s unveil the secret behind crafting successful referral programs with the best referral email examples.
A Key to a Powerful Word-of-Mouth| Referral Email Examples
According to the Google/TNS/Ogilvy study, 74% of customers said word of mouth influenced their decision to purchase.
Clearly, a well-crafted referral program is necessary to encourage natural word of mouth. That’s why at SmartSender.io, we did in-depth research to come up with the best tips and practices that will help to create a powerful referral program. Let’s dive into it!
1. Offer an incentive
An ethical, valuable bribe is necessary to convince your client base to use your product or service. It often entails rewards, referral bonuses, or a free trial plan that your clients can earn in return for sharing.
Before sending your offer, choose the type of incentive which works the best for your business:
- One-sided: This is an incentive offered only to the referrer. Basically, you offer a reward to your customers who share your product or service with their friends/family members. This program is ideal for new businesses wanting to increase customer acquisition shortly. However, it would be less impactful regarding effectiveness on ROI and retention rate.
- Two-sided: This program mutually rewards the referrer and the referee. For example, you can reward your loyal customer 40% off your products/services, while the referred one gets 15% off their first purchase.
On top of that, don’t forget to calculate the average CLV before sending rewards to your existing customers. Calculating the average CLV metrics helps to identify how much money you can spend on customer acquisition.
Say, your customer typically spends 100$. In this case, your initiative for each new customer shouldn’t exceed that amount; otherwise, you lose a great deal of money.
2. Timing is Key
In order to drive instant results, your referral program should be timed properly. So here is the ideal time to get your customers hooked on your reward offer:
- Post-purchase: When your client’s engagement is at its peak, it could be an ideal time to offer the program and encourage them to share with their peers and families.
- Follow the reviews. Frequently asking for customer feedback can help to improve your business performance and value. Moreover, if your customer leaves a positive review about your product or service, it means they are satisfied with their experience. This is a golden opportunity to prompt them to share about your business.
- After the renewal: If your customers renew the subscription plan, it means they are satisfied with the service. Use this chance to encourage a referral among the people they think need it.
3. Automate your Referral Campaign
Above all, to maximize your results, it is absolutely vital to automate your referral program and send targeted emails. Why? Here are some clues:
- Automated emails generate more revenue. According to Campaign Monitor, automated email campaigns generate 320% more revenue than non-automated ones.
- A chance to personalize. When it comes to creating a successful referral program, personalization is the key to making your email feel more personal and relevant. Start by addressing the recipient’s name using a friendly, conversational tone. This will increase the CTOR rate immensely.
- Ability to segment your customers: Among countless benefits of using an automation platform, email segmentation is hands down the winner! Being able to send targeted emails with relevant offers based on customers’ real-time behavior and their needs and preferences can significantly increase engagement and conversion rates.
- A/B test your referral offers. Email automation allows you to test campaign variations with different subject lines, content, or design. It enables you to come up with better choices based on what converts the most.
Additionally, don’t forget to target your audience and promote your offer on multiple channels. Smartsender.io’s all-in-one automation platform allows sending Web push, telegram, and SMS messages along with emails.
Unleash your creativity with marketing automation platform. Retain, regain, re-engage customers in a few clicks.
And in case you are struggling with ideas, visit our Marketplace, where various predetermined workflows with ready-made templates await you.
In short
Referral email marketing is a powerful way to grow your business. You just need to offer the right incentive with the best referral email examples to the right person at the right time.
The best way to do that is by assigning the Smartsender.io automation platform to carry out the work.
Among numerous advanced functionalities, the system allows users to send personalized, segmented messages via multiple channels, including telegram, SMS, web push, and emails.
