💬 Many of you reading this know the potential of referral marketing when executed well for SaaS - there are many successful case studies about top brands (like Dropbox, Uber, etc) that saw amazing success thanks to referrals.
And with the right mechanics and variables in place, with a focus on tweaking/optimisations, you can increase your odds of seeing similar success within your context.
To help you think through what's possible and know about areas of opportunity for you to improve your program's performance, I put together ideas/tactics and strategies for to consider testing.
💬 In the below checklist referral tactics I share, I made sure to include some key references, examples, and even tooling/software to explore further.
It's worth putting in the time do proper research (competitors and checking out what top SaaS startups do) when it comes to referral programs. In particular a big component is choosing the right system for referrals, which can either two-sided or multi-tiered (you can also do one-sided, but it's not a recommendation in most cases). The reason why picking the right system is critical is because it dictates a lot of other components, with the main one being the incentives.
Here are the benefits of the two types - it's just a matter of whether or not it makes sense in your context:
Two-sided
Multi-tiered
Only thing is with multi-tiered systems is that they are quite hard to setup (especially if doing anything custom) - there's only a handful of providers, and I highly recommend Gather Customers as the platform of choice.
Action: see checklist point #5 for software recommendations.
A key consideration here for SaaS companies, regardless of size, is focusing on rewards/perks which are tied to the product offering - i.e. credits, discounts/upgrading of plans, storage space, etc - whatever makes sense for your context.
Example - Milanote
Related to the above, think about perks/rewards related to certain segments of users/customers.
You want to be strategic about unlocking a natural 'referral' pathway for customers - i.e. how you refer for normal paid plan users vs freemium vs enterprise customers are naturally, in most cases, quite different.
That's why thinking about a more 'closed/exclusive' referral program for certain segments (especially higher-tier/enterprise customers) is something to consider.
In conjunction with both checklist points I've highlighted, you could consider having two referral systems for consumers and the likes of enterprise customers.
You can display one (for normal consumers on lower-tiered plans, or even those on freemium), and one for enterprise (which you can choose to either be public or selective/invite-only).
I've touched on this a bit earlier in the first checklist point with choosing the right referral system - my recommendation from experience is to invest in technology that can handle end-to-end management of referrals - i.e. can handle tracking of links, analytics, rewards, comms, design/UX, integrations, automation, and other items.
Which referral platforms/tools do I recommend checking out?
I actually created a resource which delves into some of my fave tools that I've come across (with many I have used).
In terms of specific software I recommend for SaaS, I recommend checking out:
Recommendation 1 - GrowSurf
Key reasons why I recommend GrowSurf:
Recommendation 2 - SaaSquatch
Key reasons why I recommend SaaSquatch:
You need to treat your referral program page just like your other pages - you want to optimise for conversions and getting 'buy in' from users/customers.
Some of the core areas you should be including are:
What are some good reference examples of referral landing pages?
Example 1 - Fiverr
Example 2 - Quickbooks Australia
There's no point having a program in place if you aren't going to actively promote, or at least make it easy for customers/users to opt in.
Make it evident across your email marketing automations/campaigns, website/landing pages, and of course, within the product dashboard.
One of the other key components as part of any program is ensuring that both the referrer (sharing) and referred emails (received) are optimised for performance.
Here are some tips and examples for both:
Referrer
Referred
Free resource: I created a dedicated checklist for optimising referral emails (on both sides) which you can check out.
In terms of a specific example for a promotional email to get users sharing with friends, I love this email from TicketTailor.
Similar to what you should be optimising on your program's landing page, communicate it via email marketing campaigns - and tailor copy, CTAs and headlines that make contextual sense to the targeted segments you're sending to.
^ The example above from TicketTailor does a good job at this.
Why not angle your program as part of an acquisition (demand gen) and/or remarketing/warm audiences?
Work with creators/thought-leaders through the likes of TikTok/LinkedIn to highlight how users can save when they refer more friends/colleagues.
Related to some of the checklist points I've mentioned, you want to setup automated email and product in-app notifications for certain segments that are more likely to participate.
You just need to plan out the attributes into buckets to then trigger reminders/notifications where they make sense in the CX.
Referral systems don't need to have just one use case - you can also use these systems for the likes of viral competitions (awareness/acquisition).
A few startups have done an awesome job with this initiative that has 'viral mechanics' in place, with a major component being referrals of friends to 'enter' some sort of competition.
Here's an example of Shopify using Gleam (a popular competition software)
It's a great case study worth reading - check it out here.
Oh, and certainly recommend checking out Gleam if you're interested in doing a viral competition strategy for a TOF campaign.
To make this initiative work in your favour for your SaaS brand, it's not simply 'set and forget' - not if you really want this to be a key lever for growth.
There's plenty of case studies and proof to show this can work, but many brands just can't seem to crack it.
