The bottom of the referral funnel—the conversion—gets a lot of attention, and for good reason. You’re making an investment into referral marketing, and you want to see results, often in the form of increased sales and new customer acquisition. For many companies, the target conversion for referral marketing is not necessarily a sale and could be another type of event. With Friendbuy, you can tailor your referral funnel to include custom event tracking so you can use your referral program to encourage the conversion events that make the most sense for your brand.
Check out how these Friendbuy customers are already using custom event tracking and learn more about the ways your company could be using this feature.
1. Intuit TurboTaxChoosing tax filing software is a major decision for most people, which is why TurboTax tracks multiple conversion events to monitor the entire referral funnel. After advocates refer a friend, the company can see how many people create an account, how many of them finish their taxes, and how many of that group use the software to file. The custom conversion events Intuit has created to monitor this progress through the funnel include:
- A sign-up event when a friend signs up for TurboTax and creates an account
- A completion event when taxes have been completed
- An e-file event when taxes are filed, which triggers a $25 gift card reward for advocates
Once a friend has filed, the advocate gets rewarded. Intuit is notified about every conversion event so they can take action between each step. This might include sending reminders to friends to take advantage of their coupon codes or sending celebratory emails to advocates when their rewards are issued.
2. Afterpay
Buy now/pay later brand Afterpay uses custom conversion events to keep an eye on the bottom of the referral funnel. The company can track how many referred friends create an account compared to how many of those follow through on a purchase. Using this type of custom conversion event allows Afterpay to create targeted marketing messages for friends who have created an account but not yet made a purchase, such as SMS reminders of coupon codes, emails with personalized URLs (PURLs), and so on.
The company monitors two conversion events in Friendbuy. It tracks new account creation as a result of referrals so it can market directly to referred friends, and it tracks purchases—which trigger $10 rewards for advocates—so it can gauge the overall performance of the referral program.
3. Tallo
Tallo, a platform that connects talent with career and educational opportunities, uses referral marketing to grow its user base. Because Tallo accounts are free, there is no purchase or sale to track. However, the company can easily track how many referred friends create a free account and initiate the user engagement through Friendbuy’s custom event feature.
The company has created a conversion event for when friends sign up for an account, which triggers a sweepstakes entry for advocates. (A sweepstakes is just one of many referral program ideas you can use to encourage advocates to share with multiple friends and increase your brand presence.)
4. Young Alfred
Insurance companies are a great fit for custom conversion events because they can reward advocates when a new customer submits an application for a quote. This enters the referred friend into the sales funnel and allows companies to market directly to new leads who have already established some level of trust because they were referred by a trusted advocate.
Insurance company Young Alfred gets the most from its referral program by rewarding advocates with a $10 Amazon gift card when friends submit an application. The conversion event is an application submission for a free quote, which triggers the reward fulfillment process for advocates.
Optimizing Your Conversion Rate
Once a referred friend has engaged with your brand, optimizing your conversion rate depends on a few factors. The goal is to get the most from your existing traffic—you have already put effort into getting the attention of these potential customers, so it makes sense to reduce the cost per acquisition by optimizing the referral funnel.
Amp Up Your Incentives
Have a compelling offer that doesn’t compete with your other marketing efforts. If your referral program offers the best rewards, customers will naturally gravitate toward it. It also helps to offer a desirable incentive, such as free products, healthy discounts, and access to VIP programs.
Optimize Ease of Use
Make it as easy as possible for friends to complete the conversion event. You can do this by minimizing the number of clicks required to get to the right webpage and pre-populating fields in a form as much as possible. The more you can do to prevent potential customers from abandoning the process, the better your referral funnel metrics will be.
Use A/B Testing
Friendbuy’s A/B testing feature allows you to identify the most popular offers and the content that resonates most with your audience. We recommend testing one element at a time to determine which changes make the most difference.
Promote Your Program
Of course, reaching your conversion target requires promoting your referral program and taking steps to optimize the earlier stages in the funnel. The more people you get in at the top of the referral funnel, the more conversions you will get at the bottom.
How to Create Custom Conversion Events
Custom events can be created for either advocates or friends. If you want to set up an out-of-the-box conversion event for when a friend completes account registration or enters an email address, you can do it on your own in the platform. For other types of conversions, just reach out to your account manager for help. We offer flexible solutions that allow you to use Friendbuy’s APIs to customize your conversion events for your specific needs.
In addition to the customer examples above, some of the other types of custom events you can create in Friendbuy include:
- Incentivizing friends with an Amazon gift card if they download an app
- Rewarding advocates when friends download an app and make a purchase
- Encouraging friends to try a new product
- Rewarding advocates when friends join a VIP program
No matter what type of business you have, Friendbuy can work with you to create a reward structure that encourages sharing and grows your referral funnel.
Optimize Your Referral Funnel with Friendbuy
When you work with Friendbuy, you don’t just get our world-class referral marketing platform—you also get access to an experienced team that is committed to your success. From basic referral marketing strategy to custom feature implementation, we have your back every step of the way.
Download The 2021 Referral Marketing Blueprint for E-Commerce today to learn more about how your brand can benefit from digital word-of-mouth marketing.
