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Try It FreeThis is a complete guide to how to choose referral software in 2024. We'll cover everything you need to know to select the best referral marketing platform for your business, from key features to look for to important questions to ask potential vendors.
In this comprehensive guide, you'll learn:
Let’s get started.
Referral marketing software is a powerful tool that helps businesses systematically promote their products and services through word-of-mouth marketing. It enables companies to create, manage, and track referral programs that incentivize existing customers to recommend the business to their friends, family, and colleagues. This type of software automates many aspects of referral marketing, making it a cost-effective and scalable way to acquire new customers.
In recent years, referral software has been gaining significant popularity due to its proven ability to reduce customer acquisition costs, promote brand awareness, and drive sustainable growth. According to a study by the Wharton School of Business, referred customers have a 16% higher lifetime value compared to non-referred customers. This demonstrates the long-term impact that effective referral programs can have on a company's bottom line.
Let's illustrate how referral software works with a practical example. Imagine Jake is your customer and he's a big fan of your service. He wants to share the good word but just needs a reminder and some incentive. Referral marketing software can help you create and manage customer referral campaigns that automatically remind customers like Jake to share their positive experiences. The software can send personalized emails or in-app notifications to Jake, prompting him to refer his friends. When Jake shares his unique referral link, the software tracks the referral. If Jake's friend signs up or makes a purchase, both Jake and his friend can be automatically rewarded with discounts, credits, or other incentives you've set up. This entire process is managed and tracked by the referral software, making it easy for you to measure the success of your referral program and optimize it over time.
But that's just scratching the surface of what modern referral software can do. Let's dive deeper into the advanced features and capabilities that make these platforms so powerful for businesses of all sizes:
One of the key advantages of modern referral software is the ability to customize your campaigns to align with your specific business goals and target audience. You can choose between different incentive models, each with its own strengths:
The flexibility to experiment with these different models allows you to find the optimal approach for your unique business and customer base.
A critical feature of top-tier referral software is its comprehensive tracking and analytics capabilities. Here's a breakdown of what advanced referral platforms can monitor:
This level of detailed tracking allows you to optimize every aspect of your referral program, from the initial share to the final conversion. By leveraging these insights, you can continually refine your referral strategy to maximize its effectiveness and drive sustainable growth for your business.
Referral software will track every step of your customer referral program, from shares and clicks to successful conversions.
The good news is there's a wide range of different referral marketing software to choose from, catering to businesses of all sizes and industries. However, selecting the right platform requires careful consideration of several factors:
By carefully evaluating these factors against your specific needs and goals, you can select a referral marketing platform that not only fits your current requirements but also supports your long-term growth strategy.
Implementing a referral program through specialized software can yield numerous advantages for businesses across various industries. Let's explore the key benefits in detail:
The widespread adoption of referral marketing tools by successful businesses across various industries is a testament to their effectiveness. But what specific advantages do these tools offer? Let's dive into the key benefits that make referral software a valuable asset for businesses looking to accelerate growth and improve customer acquisition:
Implementing a referral program through specialized software can significantly reduce customer acquisition costs (CAC) while boosting return on investment (ROI). Here's how:
Without a proper referral system in place, attempting to harness word-of-mouth marketing can be time-consuming, ineffective, and lacking in analytical insights. Referral software provides the structure and tools needed to maximize the potential of customer recommendations.
One of the most significant advantages of using referral program software is the substantial savings in engineering resources and time. Here's a detailed look at how referral platforms can benefit your development team and overall business efficiency:
By leveraging a specialized referral platform, you can achieve a sophisticated referral program without straining your engineering resources or delaying other critical projects.
One of the most valuable aspects of referral marketing software is its ability to provide deep insights into customer behavior and preferences. These platforms offer sophisticated analytics tools that go beyond basic referral metrics, helping you gain a comprehensive understanding of your customers and their interactions with your brand. Here's how referral software can enhance your customer insights:
The wealth of data provided by referral software empowers you to make strategic decisions that can significantly impact your business. Here's how you can leverage these insights to optimize your customer engagement and referral strategies:
By leveraging these data-driven insights, you can create a more targeted, personalized, and effective referral program that not only drives new customer acquisition but also enhances overall customer engagement and loyalty.
Customer referral programs are the cornerstone of effective referral marketing, and modern referral software provides powerful tools to make these programs not just functional, but truly engaging and impactful. Here's how advanced referral platforms enable you to create and refine referral programs that stand out:
By leveraging these advanced features, you can create referral programs that are not only visually appealing and fun for participants but also strategically designed to drive meaningful results for your business. The ability to continuously refine and optimize your program based on real-time data ensures that your referral marketing efforts remain effective and aligned with your evolving business goals.
Advanced referral software serves as a powerful ally for your marketing team, automating a wide range of tasks and processes to enhance efficiency and effectiveness. Here's a more comprehensive look at how these platforms can streamline your referral marketing efforts:
By automating these crucial tasks, referral software not only saves your marketing team valuable time but also ensures consistent execution of your referral program. This allows your team to focus on high-level strategy, creative initiatives, and data-driven optimization, ultimately leading to a more successful and scalable referral marketing effort.
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Try It FreeHere's a fact:
Different software comes with different sets of features.
However, there are some common features that you're likely to get with each referral marketing tool.
They include:
Automation is amazing. It saves you a great deal of time, energy and makes life simpler.
Email automation is one of the most common features you'll find with any referral marketing tool.
What does this feature do?
In a nutshell, it automatically:
Here's another great feature of referral marketing software: analytics and reports.
In short, a tool that comes with this important feature lets you:
Not all of your customers will be as sweet as a rose. Some of them might try to engage in fraudulent activities, such as hacking the process to get numerous incentives.
The best tools have an anti-fraud system that identifies suspicious participants and lets you disqualify them. Some tools offer a suite of anti-fraud tools such as blacklisting/whitelisting, bulk fraud deletion, and reCAPTCHA.
Think about this for a moment:
Branding creates loyal customers.
It's a sure way to appeal to people's emotions and make them feel more connected to your company.
The good news is that referral marketing software can help you provide a consistent, on-brand experience for your customers.
In other words, you control the copy, design, and messaging of your referral program.
You can choose between various referral program templates and fully customize everything to your liking. Whether you're a florist who decided to sell online or a tech startup that will release the next big product, you're likely to find a template that fits your specific needs.
Another super awesome feature of referral marketing software is that you can promote your referral program across all marketing channels.
For instance, you can:
Here's another cool feature: referral link generation.
This feature lets you provide each of your customers and subscribers with their own referral link. Participants can share the link through different channels, such as via email, social media, or send direct email invites.
Rewards management systems are integrated into your software and help you stay organized. You'll get access to a real-time dashboard that will reveal your campaign's overall performance. What's more, you'll be able to view your winners and stay on top of rewards. You’ll always know when you need to approve or fulfill a reward.
If you're a newbie to the world of referral marketing, all this terminology and jumble may be a little bit overwhelming.
How do you know which software is the right one for your business?
Is there some magic ball that has all the answers to your questions?
We're here to help!
When selecting a referral marketing software for your business, there are some things to consider when creating your pros and cons lists for each tool.
Here are six things to consider before we dive into the top referral marketing software options out there.
Referral marketing software won't be the only tool you'll be using to grow your business. There's a range of other tools you'll need on a daily basis.
That's why it's crucial that you go with a tool that offers integration with other tools you love to use.
By integrating your referral marketing software with other systems, you can automate your referral program from end to end.
Luckily for you, many vendors offer third-party integrations, Zapier integration, and REST API to connect with your software.
For instance, by connecting your system with MailChimp, you'll manage to grow your lists and build automated emails. Or, by connecting with a third-party tool like Revue, you'll be able to add a referral program inside your newsletters.
Here's a fact:
Unexpected things can happen when transitioning to a referral marketing tool.
You may hit a roadblock with the integration process. You may struggle to customize the referral program to fit your branding. Perhaps you'll underestimate the complexity of integrating your system with other tools critical for the business.
Maybe everything will go swimmingly, but you know what they say: hope for the best but prepare for the worst.
That's why you need to go with a vendor that can offer a 5-star customer support experience. The support team has to be accessible at all times and responsive to give you the answers you are looking for.
To get a feeling of the customer support team, try getting in touch with a problem. See how responsive they will be in solving your issue. Another idea is to look for online reviews and see what customers say about each vendor.
In the perfect world, money is no problem.
But in the real world, budgeting is a critical part of running any business. It ensures you are staying within your means and not going into debt with overhead costs.
On the one hand, you want to get the best referral marketing software out there, and on the other hand, you must be careful not to go over budget.
As luck would have it, there are plenty of options out there that give you the best of both worlds. In other words, you can find a solid software solution that offers powerful features at an affordable price.
If a budget constraints you, make sure you check the pricing plans for each vendor and look into the specific features each plan offers. One good idea is to go with a vendor that has a free trial so that you can give the software a go before making a monthly or yearly commitment.
The scalability of the system is another thing to check before deciding on a software. If you're a larger enterprise or have plans to grow your company in the future, make sure you verify the maximum capacity supported by the software.
Here are some things to ask your vendor?
Let's say there's a popular referral program you want to replicate. Maybe you're a fan of the Airbnb program and want to implement something similar at your company. In this case, the best option is to look for a referral marketing tool that can help you create the exact referral program that you were inspired by.
The truth is that some referral marketing tools have a long set-up time. Even worse, the software may be too complex and have a long learning curve that can make it challenging for your team to get up to speed.
With that said, if you want to say goodbye to weeks-long set-up times and get your team working in the new system fast, then make sure you go with a tool that fits these criteria.
The best thing you can do is read online reviews by previous users to get a feel of the set-up time and complexity of each software on your short list.
Now that you’ve gone and learned about the features and benefits of referral marketing tools, it’s time to check out some of the best systems around today. We give a short overview of their best features and look at the pricing.
Company | Best for | Free trial | Pricing | Website |
---|---|---|---|---|
GrowSurf | B2B SaaS, B2C Subscriptions, Financial Services,
Online Education, Online Insurance |
Free trial | $179/mo | Visit |
Referral Rock | eCommerce, Auto, Staffing | 14-day free trial | $200/mo | Visit |
Extole | Enterprise Retail, Finance | No | Not provided | Visit |
Referral Candy | eCommerce stores with at 100+ transactions a month | 30-day free trial | $49/mo + commission | Visit |
SaaSquatch | Marketplaces, Telecom, eCommerce | No (demo upon request) | $1,750/mo | Visit |
Rocket Referrals | Insurance Agencies | No (demo upon request) | $180/mo | Visit |
Viral-Loops | Businesses looking for an affordable lead generation tool | 14-day free trial | $34/mo billed yearly | Visit |
InviteReferrals | Online Businesses | 14-day free trial | $99/mo | Visit |
GrowSurf is a referral program software for tech companies that makes launching and running referral programs quick and simple. The software is a cost-savvy solution that can be managed and changed quickly without the help of IT/devs. Another thing you can expect with this software is quick campaign creation (you can launch in under a day!) and super fast customer support. The price is another big plus. It's suitable for businesses of all sizes.
Growsurf offers scalable paid plans based on participant limits:
Request a free
demo
to learn more.
Referral Rock's referral marketing software promises to help you get more customers and increase your brand awareness. The software is easy to use and requires minimal effort to run. The customer support team is fantastic and extremely responsive. All in all, it's a great referral program software that will help you automate your campaigns in days instead of months. On the plus side, the product team is constantly coming out with new features.
Referral Rock offers three paid plans:
Starter ($200 per month) that is limited to 500 Members and 1 Program
Growth ($400 per month) that is limited to 5,000 Members and 3 Programs
Established Business ($800 per month) that is limited to 10,000 Members and 5 Programs
There's a 14-day free trial that lets you test the live program with up to 5 members.
Extole is another outstanding software provider that's an expert in turning customers into advocates. The software lets you build referral programs tailored to your brand that will turn more of your customers into advocates and increase brand awareness. The software's interface is user-friendly and digestible, making the process of managing your referral programs much easier. Customers seem to be satisfied with the product, their ROI, and the efficiency of the Extole team. What's more, it comes with powerful out-of-the-box features to support all of your referral marketing needs.
This vendor doesn't provide pricing details.
ReferralCandy is a referral marketing software that helps you grow your sales through word-of-mouth marketing. The software integrates with all the popular eCommerce platforms such as Shopify, BigCommerce, and Magento and other tools like Klaviyo, MailChimp, and Google Analytics. It's a great pick if you need a simpler referral system with a generous set of features to help you boost your customer acquisition. On the plus side, the system is fully customizable to fit your needs and relatively easy to set up.
ReferralCandy lets you choose between two paid plans:
Premium ($49/month + commission) that comes with features such as unlimited customers and automatic fraud protection
Enterprise ($3,999 /mo billed annually) that comes with features such as unlimited customers, account manager, and priority support
The vendor offers a 30-day free trial, giving your team plenty of time to test out all the features.
SaaSquatch is a loyalty, referral, and rewards platform geared towards B2B and B2C companies across various industries, including finance, media, and SaaS. It's a great tool if you want to create custom referral programs, build customer loyalty, and accelerate your revenue growth. The software lets you do all kinds of things. You can create multiple programs and run them simultaneously. You can configure the program to meet your needs. Heck, you can also get access to some great tracking and analytics tools.
SaaSquatch offers three paid plans:
Pro ($1,750/month) that includes 200k Program Members, Setup Support and Coaching, and Drag-and-Drop Widget and Email Editor
Enterprise (quote upon request) that includes 1M+ Program Members, Setup Coach and Architect, and 8 Hours of Custom Design Services
Managed (quote upon request) that includes Active Program Manager, Monthly Program Review with a Dedicated Customer Success Manager, and Unlimited Active Programs
The vendor doesn't offer a free trial, but a demo is available upon request.
Rocket Referrals is a referral marketing software that is specialized for insurance agencies to help them automate referrals, improve customer retention, and manage online reviews. Although it's geared towards insurance companies, businesses in other industries that care about maintaining long-lasting client relationships have been using the system as well. All in all, the system is integrative, seamless, and easy to use.
You get to choose between three different plans:
Pro ($180/month)
Pro + Text ($195/month)
Pro + Premium ($215/month)
What's more, there are enterprise plans available. You can work with the Rocket Referrals team to tailor an Enterprise plan to meet your needs. The Enterprise plans come with advanced support, customized features, enhanced data analytics, and more. There's no free trial, but you can book a one-on-one demo.
Viral Loops is a referral marketing solution that aims to make customer acquisition easy and affordable for everyone. It's best suited for businesses that need an affordable lead generation tool and agencies looking for new marketing strategies for their clients. The software is easy to use, letting you launch a full-blown campaign in a few clicks. You can even make use of pre-made templates inspired by top brands in the market, such as Airbnb and Dropbox. The tools let you perform a range of tasks, such as creating dedicated landing pages, integrating the system with the tools that you already love using, and tracking and analyzing your campaign's performance.
Viral Loops lets you choose one of the following three plans:
Start-up ($34/month billed yearly) that includes up to 1,000 Participants, Pre-launch Campaigns, Newsletter Referral, and Viral Giveaways
Growing ($69/month billed yearly) that includes everything from the Start-up plan + 3,000 participants and API Access
Power ($208/month billed yearly) that includes everything from the Growing plan + up to 25,000 participants and Priority Support
There's also a 14-day free trial that lets you test all of the features from the Growing plan.
InviteReferrals is a powerful and yet easy-to-use referral marketing software that helps you acquire new customers without breaking the bank. It's the ideal solution for online businesses that can't afford to spend large bucks on paid ads to attract customers. Creating customer referral campaigns is a piece of cake, and the software will track every step of the campaign, from shares and clicks to conversions. Oh, and there's also multi-language support.
InviteReferrals offers three paid plans:
Basic for $99 per month that includes 1,000 new referrers/month and 3 campaigns.
Standard for $249 per month that includes 3,000 new referrers/month and 6 campaigns.
Enterprise plan that comes at a custom price. The pricing of this plan is at a higher end.
The vendor also offers a 14-day free trial for the Basic and Standard plans.
One thing is for certain:
All businesses, including B2B, B2C, and e-commerce, have a lot to benefit from a referral marketing software.
From creating referral programs and email campaigns to tracking the performance of your campaigns, these types of tools provide real-life benefits for lowering your customer acquisition costs and growing your business.
The quickest, most risk-free way to choose the best software for your needs is to take advantage of the free trials most of these tools offer and get a feel of the system. Demos will work even better.
To sum up, each of the eight referral marketing tools we featured in this post has strong points that make them perfect for different types of companies. We hope that at least one of these suggestions has appealed to you while reading this extensive post.
Now it's time to go out there and acquire those new customers like a pro!
GrowSurf is modern referral program software that helps product and marketing teams launch an in-product customer referral program in days, not weeks. Start your free trial today.
Is now the right time to launch your referral program? Here are the 5 signs that your business should be looking out for that signal referral program success:
Feeling short on time managing your referral program? Learn how to automate your referral marketing program that scales with your business needs.
Looking for referral program inspiration? In this post, we've compiled 41 referral program examples, with screenshots of their websites, emails, and user flows.