Wondering whether you should try to build a referral program on your own, or use a referral software?
Using referral software is better than running a referral program yourself, as software makes things easier, faster, and more efficient.
At Referral Rock, we’ve helped build referral programs for a wide range of different businesses. So whether you’re a startup, small business, or large enterprise, referral software can easily fit your needs.
Now, you may be thinking you could run a program without any help. But there are incredible benefits that come with referral software.
In fact, a survey on using automation software reveals:
- 30% of employees say automation software saves money
- 44% add that automation saves them time
- 33% reveal automation software enables them to accomplish more with fewer resources
As for the perks of running a referral program with software, we go over the top benefits below:
1. It’s easy to measure progress
Referral software gives you a comprehensive view of all your program’s statistics in one place. This software makes it easy to track the members who join your referral program, the new referrals those members create, and how many of those referrals become new customers. You can also easily track the rewards your customers earn – all right from dashboards that record these stats for you.
Admin dashboards allow you to see how many people signed up for your program, and how many referrals they’ve sent, among other things.
With Referral Rock software, you can also track referral visits on your dashboard to know how much brand awareness your program is generating. This shows how many new people viewed your referral program. Even if a referral doesn’t purchase right away, they could come back later, now that they know the benefits of your brand. Measuring traffic generated from your program shows you if the messages and offers shared by your referring customers bring people to your website.
Easily view your program analytics without any extra steps or wasted time. All aspects of referral tracking are covered!
2. You can engage more customers
If your program isn’t easy to share, it won’t gain much traction – at least as much as it potentially could. Creating ways to make sharing easy is one feature that makes referral software so appealing.
Including Referral Rock’s One Click Access links in emails will let your customers start sharing right away – no registration or passwords needed. You can add One-Click Access links to any emails where you promote your referral program, including dedicated referral program emails, transactional emails and newsletters. Just use our easy Link Builder, integrated with the software you already use to send emails. The more emails these links are included in, the easier it is to share, and the more engaged your customer base will be.
Referral software also offers the option to share through email, social media, and other popular messaging platforms – ways that customers normally share cool and exciting things with their friends. In just one or two clicks, program members can easily share their referral link with their friends.
Plus, Referral Rock lets you choose any incentives that will best motivate your target audience, for maximum engagement. This includes more advanced referral reward structures, including tiered, multi-step, referral contests and more.
Here’s more on how Referral Rock helps keep program members engaged >
3. You can automate promotions
Brands with the most successful referral programs make sure to promote their programs consistently, on multiple channels. Thankfully, referral software makes promotion a snap. Referral Rock lets you set up automated emails to promote your program at repeating intervals (say, every month). Or, you can show your referral program to a customer right after they make a purchase, with a targeted email sent at just the right time.
4. Sharing is easier
Referral software gives customers several different ways to instantly share your brand, including email and popular social media platforms. And every customer gets a unique referral link that’s easy to copy and share anywhere.
You can even create referral message templates for customers to send to their referrals right away. Customers don’t need to think of what to say – you’ve done the work for them, and all they need to do is share.
Simplify sharing even more with Referral Rock – you can let new and existing members access their portal with popular social logins like Google and Facebook, so they don’t need to enter a password. This makes it even easier for customers to spread the word about your brand and bring in more leads.
5. The setup is simplified
Referral Rock referral software makes it easy to build your dedicated referral program page and set up your rewards based on your needs. Use our easy program builder to create the best experience for your customers, including ready-made share messages, a branded member portal, and a destination for referrals to land. Launch your program in days, not months, and watch the shares roll in.
And once you build a referral landing page, it’s easy to share your program everywhere. Add links in your social media bios. Mention the program in your email signatures. Talk about it in your newsletter. Any type of communication with your customers has potential to also promote your referral program.
6. Easy tracking
A big benefit of using referral software is streamlining processes and reducing paper and clutter. No more written referral codes or referral forms flying around, and no more worries that a paper could get lost or a name isn’t entered. Instead, every referral gets tracked via unique referral links, and automatically gets tied back to the person who made the referral. Anyone in your company can log in and instantly see all updated referral data right on the software platform.
7. Members stay in the know
With referral software, your members get their own personalized dashboard that lets them track their referrals at a glance. They can instantly check on every referral they’ve made, see when those referrals become customers, and track the rewards they’ve earned.
Referral Rock’s Monthly Summary emails are another awesome way to keep members engaged and in the know. These share a personalized overview of each member’s activity every month, including referrals they’ve made, new customers they’ve created, and rewards they’ve earned. Keeping members in the loop this way also keeps your program top of mind, making members more likely to keep sharing.
8. Your program can truly reflect your brand
It’s easy to add your logo, brand colors, and any other branded images to your program – if you use referral software. With Referral Rock’s library of pre-built templates, you can change any text and images, or even go as far as overriding styles with your own custom CSS.
Referral software allows you to do so many things so your branding is seen throughout the experience.
9. Increased ROI
With 83% of people trusting recommendations from people they know, referral marketing has become one of the most credible forms of advertising. And since they trust their friend’s recommendation, referred customers are more likely to buy from you, stick with your business, and continue generating sales by referring their own peers.
Referral software lets you leverage this trust effectively, by keeping customers engaged and making sure their entire referral experience is smooth.
Plus, referral programs are cost-effective and low-risk. Pay just once for referral software, and after that, you’ll only pay when referrals become new customers. It makes sense to invest in referral software and tap into the power of your customers’ recommendations.
10. Acts as free advertising
Whenever and wherever someone mentions your referral program, it acts as an advertisement for your business.
Imagine having 20 loyal customers sharing their referral links across social media, where all their friends and followers can see it. Those 20 people just put your business in front of the eyes of hundreds of people, all because referral software made it easy for them to share their referral links directly on social media.
You’re easily able to measure the impact of that link sharing, because software monitors those links and tracks all of the referrals for you. Plus, with Referral Rock referral software, you’ll know exactly how much brand awareness they’ve generated thanks to our referral visit tracking.
Plus, that type of positive promotion helps increase your brand awareness and social currency in the market.
11. Boosts virality
As mentioned in the last benefit, referral programs give you the opportunity to advertise your brand. Between your promotions and your customers’ word of mouth, you have a massive potential to grow and go viral!
Referral software boosts that growth even further, offering ready-made templates, referral messaging, and more channels to promote your program in a few clicks.
You can also leverage virality by focusing on customers who started buying from you because of your referral program. Get them to share with their own friends, and you’ve created a continuous cycle of sharing
Referral Rock lets you automatically email referred customers, and ask them to join your referral program right after their first purchase – this feeds the program in a viral loop.
12. Automates payouts
Referral software takes away a lot of the hassle that comes with running a referral program.
One major benefit is reward automation. Rewarding your customers right away is crucial to your program. After all, rewards are a big reason people join in the first place.
Instead of manually tracking every movement and sending rewards when a referral comes in, this can happen automatically using referral software.
Participants will instantly receive their earned rewards, without you having to do a thing. This keeps your customers happy, and sets you free to focus on more important things.
Many types of referral software only handle simple “give one, get one” rewards, but Referral Rock gives you the most flexibility in paying out, managing, and automating rewards.
You can trigger rewards based on status updates in your CRM, e-commerce platform, or other system of record. This is especially useful if you want to give rewards for qualified leads as well as converted referrals, or give out bigger rewards the more referrals someone makes!
Plus, you can automate reward fulfillment with a variety of payout options, including cash, gift cards, discounts, donations, and custom rewards.
See how you can customize rewards in Referral Rock >
13. Fraud prevention
Another benefit of referral software is it can block repeat sign-ups and alert you whenever any strange activity is happening.
For example, you don’t want someone referring the same person twice and double dipping in the rewards. Or, say one of your referral codes ends up on a coupon site, and you notice an influx of people using the code… but not signing up.
You can disable the customer that code belongs to so that they don’t get any undeserved rewards. This is especially helpful if your reward is a sum of money or a gift card.
14. Technical support
Is something not running right? Are you wondering how to change something in your referral process, or integrate other software with your referral program? With referral software, help is just a few clicks away. Most companies offer in-app messaging, email support, and a knowledge base to address any of your needs.
With Referral Rock software, you’ll work with a dedicated onboarding specialist to stay on track. You’ll receive one-on-one assistance to design, integrate, and launch a referral program on your timeline. Thanks to chat support, async video assistance, and a library of documentation, connecting your systems is painless. Plus, we’ll advise you on how to follow program best practices for best results, and help you test everything to ensure your automations run smoothly.
15. Integrates with your existing tools and systems
Already using other sales and marketing software? Not a problem. Referral software is built to easily integrate with your existing workflow and third-party tools, including CRM, e-commerce platforms, or other systems of record. You can also connect to your marketing tools to promote your referral program in a way that makes sense with your existing workflows.
Referral Rock integrates with over 50 of the tools you already use, for seamless connections with your existing processes.
16. Did we mention that it’s easy?
When you run a referral program on your own, it’s hard to keep track of every single customer and referral. That’s especially true if you have a long sales process, as is the case for for many B2Bs and custom services.
Referral software can help simplify everything. You don’t have to track who joins your program, where referrals come from, or which customers have a pending reward. There’s also no manual documentation or spreadsheets needed to keep your info up to date.
Software does all that tedious work for you, so you automatically grow your customer base and still focus on other areas of your business.
If you plan on running a program but don’t want to spend too much time launching and managing it, then referral software is right up your alley.
At Referral Rock, we have the expertise to get your program up and running quickly so you can start seeing results as soon as possible.
Take Referral Rock software for a spin
You’ve seen all the major benefits of using referral software to run your program. Save time, effort, and money? Don’t have to build it yourself? It’s a no-brainer.
Stop making your life harder by running a manual program. Sign up for free to try referral software for yourself, or book a demo to learn more about how Referral Rock can work for your business.
