Have you ever thought about how it would be to have a customer base that acts as a part of your marketing team? Having them drive organic growth through positive word-of-mouth for your business.
WordPress Affiliate Marketing via Referral programs is a strategic approach to make this a reality by incentivizing customer referrals with a share of the profits.
By fostering a community of brand advocates, you can cultivate a loyal customer base and expand your reach effortlessly. This cost-effective marketing strategy strengthens the relationship between your business and its most valuable asset: its customers.
Referral programs are cheaper than traditional marketing tactics but more effective in tapping into the target customer base with increased brand loyalty. In certain sectors, word-of-mouth marketing practices like a referral program produce more than twice as many sales as paid advertising.
So, no doubt it works. Now let’s see how it can benefit you and how you can take advantage of it.
Why Create a Referral Program in WordPress?
To acquire customers at a low cost
After launching a business in the e-commerce space, the biggest challenge one faces is bringing continuous customers to his store and the large cost associated with it.
As opposed to traditional advertising, a referral program can be a far less expensive approach to acquiring new consumers. Because, in this approach, existing customers are advertising for you, incentives are only given out when a new consumer registers or purchases. So, the risk of investing money in marketing is way less here.
To increase brand loyalty
Referral programs provide a way to show your customers that you value their input. By becoming brand ambassadors for your business, they also feel a sense of ownership, leading them to stick with you for a very long time.
This way, referral programs can result in better client interactions and improved loyalty to your business.
To gain trust for your business
People are more likely to trust recommendations from friends and family over any form of formal advertising from the brand itself. 91% of B2B buyers reported that word-of-mouth affected their purchasing decisions.
This suggests that referral programs can help better gain your potential customer’s trust. This is especially helpful if your business is in its starting stage and trust is what fuels your business to grow by having new customers.
To improve customer lifetime value
Referred clients often have a better lifetime value than those obtained through other channels. This is because they are already familiar with your brand through their family or friends.
So when they know they can trust your brand cause someone else he/she knows to trust you, they are more inclined to make further purchases.
Also, they feel safe to stick with your business, and that increases the lifetime value of the customer.
How to Create a Referral Program in WordPress
Now let’s look into how you can start a referral program in WordPress, in the easiest way using a referral plugin for WordPress Affiliate Marketing.
First, log in to your InstaWP dashboard and click on Create Your First Staging Site or Add New if you have already created another site.
Now, from the appeared window, go to the eCommerce tab, select WooCommerce, and then click on the Create Site button.
Your site is now ready to access. Next, log in to the site.
Now, to start creating the referral program, from the WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins and click on Add New Plugin.
Now, under the Plugins, search for EchoRewards. Install and activate the plugin.
Next, navigate to the EchoRewards menu which appears on your WordPress dashboard.
Under the EchoRewards tab, you will find different referral setting options.
From the Referral Settings and Rewards Settings tabs, you can select how you would like to reward your new customers and successful referrers, whether it is by a percentage of sales or a fixed amount. You can also specify the discount amount, the name of the EchoRewards menu, the referral icon, and more from this section.
Also from these settings, you can set a limit on how many times a customer can refer in a month, set discount capping, and the minimum purchase amount to apply referral coupons. In addition, you can dive into further customizations by selecting specific products/categories to include/exclude from the referral program.
These settings help to keep your referral program in check and help mitigate misuse of your rewards.
Another exciting feature of this plugin is the Floating Referral Widget which helps to draw the attention of your visitors to your referral program and drive higher participation in it.
The widget also provides an instant way to share coupons with friends and others with access to the coupon code in just a click which provides a smooth user experience for your referrer.
You can enable this floating widget from the Referral Settings tab.
The plugin also provides email notifications for coupons and rewards. Referrers can send their coupons via email to anyone with a message. The referrer also gets a notification on their email whenever someone uses his/her coupon.
On the next Email Settings tab, you can configure this referral email when someone sends a referral coupon code via email. You can also configure the reward email that referrers will get when they receive a reward.
Go through these settings and click on Save Changes after the changes.
That’s it, Your referral program is launched!
Your customers can now get the referral code from their “My Account” page and share it among their friends and family from your site.
They can also find their referral coupon status and invite status from the account.
But that’s not all, the plugin also provides insights on how your referral program is doing.
From the Report & Analytics tab, you will find insights like the total amount of referral coupons used, sales made with referral coupons, the total discount provided with coupons, and new users gained through referrals on a weekly, monthly, or even yearly basis.
You are now equipped with everything to run your referral program successfully.
Conclusion
Launching a referral program can be a good strategy to achieve organic growth for your business. It has less risk involved than traditional marketing practices.
With referral program plugins like EchoRewards, it is now very easy to launch and manage your referral program efficiently. If you still don’t have a referral program, think about it.
Find out your target audience and work on taking advantage of this growing referral program phenomenon for your business.
FAQ
How to Create a Referral Program in WordPress?
A: The easiest way to create a referral program in WordPress is by using a plugin. There are quite a few plugins that help you to launch a referral program easily. One example can be EchoRewards, which allows you to start a referral program for any WooCommerce store within minutes.
What are the benefits of having a referral program?
A: Referral programs are cheaper than traditional marketing tactics but more effective in tapping into a more targeted customer base. As your existing customers are promoting your business to new customers and you don’t have to pay anything in advance, it is a safe marketing tactic in terms of investment. Also, it is easier to gain the trust of potential customers as people are more likely to trust recommendations from friends and family over any form of formal advertising from the brand itself.
