26 why Enterprise Brands use Referral Automation to Generate New Business & Engage Customers

TWEETABLE REASONS

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When we talk to enterprise B2B and B2C CMOs, Sales and Customer Marketing Executives, we occasionally encounter

Marketing only has so much to spend and we have to generate high-quality leads so sales

can do their job.

I don’t know. Won’t we get referrals

without running an actual referral

program?

I know we need to tap into our brand

advocates for referrals, so we’re going to

consider it in 2020.

uncertainty about whether a referral program will work for them.

And we’re marketers and sales people too, so we get it. When in doubt, we find this request usually brings some clarity:

“Let’s take a look at your pipeline.”

Sometimes that’s all it takes to

marketers and sales people that an automated referral program might be

CONVINCE

PRETTY SMART after all.

And if that doesn’t convince them that they’ve got customers, partners and employee advocates who are just waiting to help them generate loads of new business….. then we offer them more proof.

26 Actually,

we offer them

That usually does the job.

MORE TIDBITS OF PROOF

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If we assume that your happy customers are savvy enough to recommend you to the right potential customer then you are well on your way to establishing a valuable conversation and a new business win.

- Peter Levitan, Business-to-Community

A REFERRAL IS A WHITE-HOT LEAD.

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gain a competitive advantage, with 43% of those who use referrals acquiring more than 35% of new clients through the program. The most obvious benefits of a well-executed client referral program include higher close ratios, shortened sales cycles, and overall client retention.

- Gigaom

BRANDS THAT IMPLEMENT CLIENT REFERRAL PROGRAMS

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are an effective way to attract higher quality customers. “They are an old idea that’s getting more traction these days, and we now have solid evidence of their financial benefits.” - Christophe Van den Bulte, Wharton School

Customer referral programs

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study ever published on the financial evaluation of customer referral programs. “We actually have hard financial numbers, not vague feel-good stories or abstract statistical coefficients. Our findings and methodology are something that financial managers can actually understand and apply immediately.”

- Forbes with Wharton School

THIS IS THE FIRST

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and higher retention than other customers, making them more valuable in both the short and long run. - AMA

REFERRED CUSTOMERS GENERATE HIGHER MARGINS

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-B2B News Network

CUSTOMER REFERRALS ARE ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL ENDORSEMENTS A BUSINESS CAN OBTAIN.

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we’ve already talked about funnels and acquiring customers and Facebook ads. All these things work together with customer referrals. As we said, it was one of the most underutilized channels. I believe that because often we focus on the front of the funnel and converting people but, let’s see here, the end of the funnel is just as important as the beginning. Once you acquire a customer that’s kind of where the second part of the journey begins and you’re able to get people to turn your best customers into your best salespeople. I truly believe this is possible for most businesses out there.  - Smart Marketer, Austin Brawmer

I’M SUPER EXCITED BECAUSE

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to get word out about your small business can be enough to bankrupt a small company—especially if you’re competing against much larger competitors. Comparatively, paying for referrals is often a far more affordable marketing strategy. And considering that a referred lead is six times more likely than an ordinary lead to end in a sale, offering compensation for referrals can be money well spent. - Funding Gates

THE COST OF TRADITIONAL MARKETING AND ADVERTISING

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and customers who were referred by loyal customers have a 37% higher retention rate. - Deloitte

1 IN 3 PEOPLE COME TO A BRAND THROUGH A RECOMMENDATION

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generates over twice the sales of paid advertising in categories ranging from skincare to mobile phones.

- McKinsey

WORD OF MOUTH

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begin their purchase journey with a referral from their network. With a referral in hand, buyers control the rest of their purchase journey, trusting validation and messaging from their network significantly more than from vendors.   

- Forrester, Sheryl Pattek

UP TO 80% OF TODAY’S BUYERS

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executive buyers tell us that referrals are far more effective than other approaches for gaining access to them. Yet the referral strategy is ignored in most corporate sales organizations. If you want your salespeople to have greater success accessing executive buyers, then it’s time to consider this important yet forgotten strategy. - Mark Lindwall, Forrester

In our research

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have never been trained in what referral marketing is, nor how to effectively conduct referral marketing in their territories or accounts. They are clueless as to how to professionally develop referrals to new opportunities. This lack of training not only precludes an effective gain-access strategy, it also perpetuates sales behaviors that undermine additional customer referrals from those who give them.

- Forrester

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THE VAST MAJORITY of PROFESSIONAL SALESPEOPLE

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with responsibility for achieving your company's revenue goals, you are missing huge opportunities to share your company's success by ignoring the art of referrals.     - Norbert Kriebel with Scott Santucci, Bradford J. Holmes, Michael Shrum

IF YOU ARE A SALES, MARKETING, PRODUCT, OR OTHER LEADER

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say a positive referral from a Facebook friend would make them more likely to buy from or visit a retailer, this is clearly something all marketers need to figure out quickly. - Altimeter Group

Considering that 68% Of consumers with a Facebook account

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78 percent of marketers singled out referral marketing (also known as “advocate marketing”) as producing “good” or “excellent” leads. - Software Advice Study of 200 Senior Level Marketers

WHEN EVALUATING THE QUALITY OF LEADS BY CHANNEL

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should be moving towards the top of the heap in terms of marketing investments. - Gartner

REFERRAL MARKETING

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57% use customer referral programs. This data shows us how powerful referral programs can be for companies with a large and established customer base. The more customers you have, the more opportunity there is for successful referral marketing campaigns as well as the more time, resources and budget you can dedicate to the project. Large companies are dedicating close to 10 employees to their customer marketing efforts. - Demand Metric study

OF THE COMPANIES REPORTING SIGNIFICANT REVENUE CONTRIBUTION

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to attract patients, hospitals can deploy technologies that will help them secure and keep those patients as loyal consumers of their system. More importantly, these new practices will help organizations start to build their health systems as referral destinations within their communities, protecting their referral bases and significantly growing revenue, which ultimately makes marketing dollars exponentially more valuable.    

- Jamie Gier, Chief Marketing Officer, SCI Solutions

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FOR A SMALL FRACTION OF WHAT CMOS SPEND MONTHLY

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roughly 30% better than leads generated from other marketing channels. - Tony Nissen, R&G Technologies

REFERRAL LEADS CONVERT

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is 50% more influential than an average customer.   - Rob Ruggetta, author of Brand Advocates

A BRAND ADVOCATE

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have a 37 percent higher retention rate. - McKinsey

CUSTOMERS WHO WERE ACQUIRED THROUGH WORD-OF-MOUTH

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77% of the emails were collected via referral, meaning about 20K people referred about 65K friends.

- Jeff Raider, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Harry’s

THE REFERRAL MECHANICS WERE AMAZING

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By incorporating tracking on the brand and partner sites, the brand gains full visibility of sales from click to point of sale. It can use this data to inform sales and marketing of popular offers, set realistic sales targets and reproduce the offers in other advertising channels.

- Rob Durkin, Co-Founder and Head of Innovation at FusePump

THIS, FOR ME, IS THE HIGHLIGHT OF REFERRAL MARKETING

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Recent data shows that search marketing spend continues to grow, but its overall budget share is declining. What this means is that marketers are looking for more cost effective ways to acquire better customers. And not just any customers, but customers with high lifetime values (LTV), high brand loyalty, low attrition rates, and a willingness to tell their friends about your brand, products, or services. Enter the third acquisition channel, referral marketing. No longer the stepchild, referral marketing has stepped into the spotlight as marketing’s Cinderella. It helps brands acquire new customers at scale by rewarding their existing customers. Because these customers are marketing on a brand’s behalf, the messages are trusted and result in acquisitions. The data backs it up. The AMA claims referral marketing generates customers who have higher LTVs, are more loyal, and contribute higher margins per year than other customers.        - WOMMA

LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT THE MOST COMMON ACQUISITION CHANNELS, SEO AND SEM

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lies in understanding the “Customer Referral Cycle”—the way customers refer others to your company who, in turn, generate even more referrals. Businesses can ensure a healthy referral cycle by moving customers and prospects along the path of Know, Like, Trust, Try, Buy, Repeat, and Refer. If everyone in an organization keeps this sequence in mind, your business will generate referrals like a well-oiled machine.        - John Jantsch 26

THE SECRET TO GENERATING REFERRALS

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Amplifinity’s referral amplification software turns customer, employee and partner advocacy into revenue. Our platform provides complete referral tracking and management with 100% accuracy so none are missed. Enterprises like ADT and DirecTV trust Amplifinity to enable high-quality acquisition while providing an engaging, fully-branded experience for their advocates.

AMPLIFINITY.COM