How to Optimize your Referral Program and Boost Sales

Want to get more traffic and sales from your referral program? You don’t need to know how to promote a Shopify store or take the best affiliate marketing course to learn how to make your campaigns better. This article will learn some optimization strategies that will triple your referral campaign’s boosting power.  

Review Your Referral Program

The first step in optimizing your referral program is to take a closer look at your referral program to see how it performs so far. You should take a closer look at the traffic that it is attracting and how the audience is responding to the program. You may need to fix something in your copy if you find that you are not getting as much response. 

PRO TIP: When reviewing your referral program, it is essential to track your traffic source. This will give you an idea of where your traffic ‘hangs out.’ That gives you some valuable information that you can use in your marketing and future ads. 

Practice Remarketing

Once you have a steady flow of traffic flowing to your website, it is time to do some remarketing. When someone buys from you, it gives you their details and the products that capture their interest. You can then use this data to recommend related products. The best part is that you don’t have to do it manually. There is software that you can use for this purpose. This software can help you contact your past customer with relevant products. You can even get them if you have limited-time discounts and specials. 

Don’t Forget Cart Abandonment.

A referral program can only boost your eCommerce website in terms of traffic and sales. But it cannot help you directly with cart abandonment. You still have to set up your systems to do your follow-ups to get people back into their carts. 

However, referral programs can help you with this issue indirectly with more people promoting your website, your social proof increases. So even if some people are on the fence when buying your products, referral promotions can encourage them to proceed with the purchase. 

Choose between Cash Rewards and Discount Incentives

When deciding on your rewards, it is easy to get confused about cash rewards and discount incentives.

If you choose cash rewards, you have to give away money for every successful signup. This is the path that Paypal has selected for its program. It worked for them because it resulted in an instant boost in users.

If you choose discount incentives, you don’t have to give away cash. You deduct a percentage from their purchases. This is a better approach if you have an eCommerce website. It doesn’t require you to spend on anything, and you will still have a reward that you can give away. 

Choose between Cash and Percentage Discounts 

Another factor that you have to consider is whether you should give away cash or percentage discounts.

Cash discounts are when you deduct a specific amount from the total price of the product. This is great for higher-priced items because percentages will usually result in higher deductions.

Percentage discounts, on the other hand, are ideal for lower priced items. Plus, it is suitable for eCommerce websites with average-priced products. This is best for a site-wide application. 

Make Your Program Shareable on Social Media

If you want more people to sign up for your referral program, you have to make it shareable on social media. More and more people are hanging out on social media websites. They even go there more than Google. So if you want more eyes on your referral program, you need a social share button so that your referrers can easily share it in one click. 

Fortunately, this feature is often built inside some referral programs. You need to activate it, and this will instantly display a social media button beside your referral system. There are even some sharing models where you can assign points for each share. You can use this if you want to give them a prize when they successfully share your site with other people. 

Try Joining Your Referral Program

If you want to know how your referrers feel when they go through your referral program, you have to do it yourself. This means signing up for your referral program and trying to see the entire user experience. Think of it as putting yourself in the shoes of your referrals. You will get access to the program and the emails that go along with it. From here, you will be able to discern if it is an effective way of promoting your business or if you need to make some changes. 

Incorporate a Questionnaire

You may notice that some referrals don’t ask for referrals directly. Instead, they take the audience through a series of questions before qualifying them. When they are qualified, that’s the only time that they ask for referrals. This is an excellent approach for optimizing your program because it helps you make your program more effective. A quiz is always a perfect way to get to know your customers so that you can give them exactly what they want. 

View Your Program in the Eyes of an Influencer

Another benefit that you’ll get from having a referral program is it can help you attract influencers. This is the secret behind the success of new websites like Drum Set Lab and Hunting Bow Lab. So how can you optimize your program for influencers? You can do it by looking at your program in the eyes of an influencer. Think of ways on how you can make your program more attractive to influencers. Do you need to launch exclusive influencer-only programs? Do you need to create events like contests and giveaways? These will depend on how attractive your program is based on its rewards and audience feedback. 

Taking a step back to optimize your campaigns can help boost your business. So the next time you ask, ‘How do I promote my Shopify store?‘, you may want to start with examining your referral program. For all you know, it is the only improvement you need to get more traffic and sales to your business.