10 Ongoing Referral Program Engagement Hacks

Getting ongoing engagement from your program members is a critical aspect of running an effective referral program. The single most important thing you can do is stay relevant to your members. You don’t need to annoy them, but sending a gentle nudge or reminder may be exactly what they need to get back into gear. Today, we’ll cover the best referral program engagement hacks that will keep your members motivated to refer their friends.

Referral program engagement is crucial

You’ve learned how to ask for referrals and invited people to your program. And when you launched the program, member engagement was high. But now, things seem to have slowed down.

Sometimes, members forget about your program, or don’t realize they can share with multiple friends. And even the most active members can get distracted. It’s your job to keep them engaged.

How to know if referrers are engaged?

You thought once a member referred a friend, they would automatically continue to refer more and more people. But that’s not true. Just because someone signs up for your referral program doesn’t mean they’re active and engaged.

Here at Referral Rock, we consider program members active when:

• They visit the Member Portal
• They share with a friend via the program
• One of their referrals clicks their referral link
• A referral is added in their name (for members that can add referrals directly)
• They earn a reward for sharing

But not all engagement is created equal. The main engagement metric you’ll need to pay attention to is shares. “Shares” measures any time someone clicks on a share method and refers a friend. Ideally, someone will make multiple shares over time to add to your total.

Tracking member visits, or the amount of times people visit the member portal, is also helpful in measuring engagement. After all, most referring will happen through the portal. But you’ll need to make sure these visits actually translate into shares!

Monitor these and other metrics on our Analytics Dashboard.

Our top strategies for referral program engagement

How can you remind members about your referral program and keep them engaged?  Luckily, there are quite a few easy strategies to promote your program to existing members. With regular promotion, you can remind members about the referral program and increase the odds of having continual engagement.

1. Send dedicated reminder emails

Sending reminder emails is a simple way to boost engagement. People tend to forget, and sending them an email about the program and its benefits can help re-engage members.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to be too forward or pushy with your message. A simple email stating, “Don’t forget: share with your friends and earn rewards!” can be persuasive enough. Be sure to add a link to the referral program and an image to draw interest.

With Referral Rock, you can send personalized Monthly Summary emails to all your members, which give them an overview of their sharing activity for the past month and remind them to keep referring.

You can also send automated referral emails to all customers at set times (we recommend sending these monthly to quarterly), or individual customers when they meet certain requirements (say, a few days after they purchase or complete an onboarding).

Pro tip: Why not send a timed email right after a customer earns a reward? Congratulate them on the reward, give them the info they need to redeem it, and encourage them to keep sharing to earn another reward. If you’re using a tiered system like Morning Brew does, show how many referrals are needed for that next reward.

2. Remind customers of the program in other emails

In addition to direct referral program reminders, you can devote a small section of your existing emails to referral program promotion. One sentence is all you need. This lets your emails do double duty: you’ll promote referral program engagement without overwhelming your customers.

• For example, if you send email newsletters, mention the referral program at the end of the email.
• Or, if you want customers to see your  program when they’re happiest, insert a sentence in the transactional emails (thank-you or invoice emails) you send right after a purchase.
• Some brands, like Casper, place links to their program in review emails.
• In addition, you can add a quick link to your email signature. This way, anyone who receives an email will also get a reminder and link to the referral program.

Providing your customers with a quick link to the referral program can help boost engagement. Plus, they’ll know exactly where to find it when they’re ready to refer someone.

3. Update your member portal

4. Make accessing the program as easy as possible

Since the member portal is where program participants will share from, you’ll want to make it super easy for members to access it (and keep accessing it). With Referral Rock’s One Click Access links, advocates can access their member portal and their referral link right away, with no password needed.

Embed these personal links indedicated program emails, newsletters, email signatures, thank you emails, and any other places where you promote your program in an email. Referral Rock integrates with many email service providers, so creating and distributing these links is a seamless process.

5. Offer tips for how members can share

It doesn’t matter how simple your program is – providing a list of best practices or sharing tips can help boost engagement. Everyone needs a little encouragement, right?

There are a few prime times to send a helpful message to your members.

• Start them off on the right foot: When someone signs up, send them a message with some sharing tips.
• A week or two after sign up: Chances are, members will probably share as soon as they sign up. But they may forget after a while – a email with best practices is a great reminder for them to start sharing again.
• Throughout the program: Consider different ways to reach out to members on a regular basis, providing tips and other program updates.

You don’t have to use every single one of these message types. In fact, it’s best to send them at intervals.  For example, if you send sharing tips right after someone signs up, you probably don’t have to send them a week later. Wait a couple weeks and allow members to grow familiar with the program on their own.

Referral program sharing tips to send customers

Customers usually share their referral link through email, social media, or a direct link. Here are some sharing tips to help them with every channel:

Sharing through email:

• Point them to the easy sharing buttons in their referral program member page.
• Provide them with a pre-drafted email message to make the sharing process easier. All they have to do is insert an email address and click send.

Sharing on social media:

• Explain the benefits of sharing on social media – they can reach multiple friends with one message, at the click of a button.
• Encourage them to add the referral link to their social media bios. This is an easy way for their friends to see the link without them having to constantly share posts.
• Explain that, if they add a referral link to their social bio, it’s best to still occasionally share a post with their link if possible. Posts allow them to give a little more detail about the offer and are more visually appealing.

Sharing a direct referral code or link:

• Show members where they can find their personal referral link or referral code.
• Let them know this link can be shared however they want – through text, in person, messaging platforms, etc.
• Encourage members to use their QR code to share their link on the go (if you’ve made this option available).

6. Change up your reward types

Keep your members on their toes by changing your referral program rewards. For example, if your reward is a coupon, why not change it to a gift card? You can switch between different rewards each month or quarter to see what drives more referrals. Alternatively, you might consider increasing the value of your reward.

7. Change up your reward structure

Another way to refresh your program is to change its rewards structure. You can set up a tiered reward system with bigger and better rewards for more referrals. Some people are competitive by nature, so introducing a challenge in your program can help keep them motivated. Don’t make the tiers too far a stretch, however. Make sure the rewards are achievable – you don’t want members to get discouraged from sharing.

A variation on this is a stacked structure, where members earn on every referral, but rewards get bigger after someone reaches a certain number of referrals. For example, maybe a member will earn $25 for their first five referrals, and then earn $50 for every referral after that. Giving members something to work toward adds an element of gamification, and creating dimensions in your reward structure can increase engagement.

Pro tip: If you aren’t giving out rewards to referred friends yet, we recommend that you start. People might be more inclined to share if they can also give a reward to their friends, because that way it won’t feel like they’re “selling out” their friend just to earn rewards for themselves.

8. Run special promotions

It’s easy to start ignoring the things we see constantly. Sometimes, simply changing the title of your referral program is enough to catch your customer’s eye. You can change the program according to seasons, events, holidays, or even company anniversaries. For example, your February promotion can be a “Spread the Love” campaign, while one in December can change to “Share Some Cheer.” Title and imagery changes are a simple way to boost engagement from your members, and can be even more effective when combined with a new, relevant reward to match the promotion.

9. Show referrer successes

Don’t be afraid to brag about your customers who earned rewards for referring friends. People are motivated by other people’s success, especially if they can see actual results. By highlighting how successful customers have been with your referral program, you can persuade others to be more proactive.

Consider adding a referral program spotlight in your monthly email newsletter, social media channels, or on your website. You don’t have to mention the specific person’s name. But you can highlight their success, like how many total referrals were sent, how many referrals turned into customers, and how many rewards were earned.

Some ways to highlight success

• Highlight which members were rewarded: “Jack earned $50 this week from referring his friends!”
• Announce successful referrals: “10 of our new referrals made their first purchase!”
• Mention the referral count: “We had an impressive 12 new referrals this week!”
• Praise the top member: “Amy referred a whopping 10 referrals this month!”
• Tally member sign-ups: “We are beyond excited: 16 customers signed up for our referral program this week/this month/today!”

10. Ask members for suggestions

A simple way to engage members is to ask them for suggestions. By reaching out to members for their input, you make them feel like they’re part of the team. They’ll also be more excited to share your program, since they’ve been a part of putting it together.

Reaching out to members can be done in a few ways: You can run a poll on your social media channels, send out an email with survey questions, or invite them with a link to a quick questionnaire. Some general questions are to ask what they like, what they dislike, and what they would change about the program. You may get some great responses that cause your program engagement to skyrocket. Plus, knowing more about what your members want enables you to further craft your referral program to fit perfectly with their needs.

Create ongoing referral program engagement

As you can see, there are a number of referral program engagement hacks to keep your members motivated to share. Try one of the many tips above, in addition to promoting your program, and increase your member’s participation.