Nowadays, referral programs are a vital key strategy for growing a business all thanks to the internet. It's an excellent way to organically spread information about a business.
Did you know?
- 84% of individuals trust recommendations from people they know. These referrers are the most influential form of marketing.
- Word can quickly get around. It's the main factor for over 20% of all purchases.
- Customers that learn about a business through word of mouth can bring in twice as many other customers because the customers they bring in will most likely do the same.
There are many success stories of businesses (Cash App, Uber, Robinhood, etc) growing at an exponential rate thanks to their referral program. But you want to hear about the ways to promote a referral program, don't you? There are many success stories of people turning it into a full-time job only from promoting their links/codes.
In this article, I will list many unique ways to promote a referral program that could be the key to your promoting success! Before we get started, I would like to mention a few relating articles that you might be interested in:
Related Articles:
10 Ways to Promote a Referral Program
As digital marketers, people often disregard the power of referral programs. People are more likely to trust a referral than a random advertisement because they're more likely to relate to the referrer. Here are the stats of how much each generation trusts referrals according to Extole:
- Gen Z: 83%
- Millennials: 85%
- GenX: 83%
- Boomers: 80%
- Silent Gen: 79%
Now let's jump right into the ways you can promote a referral program!
1. YouTube Videos
With the growth of YouTube and it's improved algorithm, you can promote your referral links through making informative videos. With the proper keyword research and a well-created video, you're likely to rank and get more viewers which means you have more chances of people using your referral code.
Most referrers place their links in the video description or in their videos! If you're great at making high-quality videos, then YouTube would be a great way for you to promote your link/code.
2. Facebook Ads
If you're great with Facebook ads and have the experience, then you could potentially have great ROI if you know your audience. I wouldn't recommend jumping straight into Facebook ads if you're new and inexperience because it can be costly.
If you're promoting a code, then it's usually fine. Unless you're promoting a referral link, you should definitely create a blog and share your blog with the link on it instead. Facebook is usually strict against promoting referral links and they can ban your Facebook advertising account without any warnings.
If you're familiar with Facebook's platform but don't want to spend money, then you should try promoting in Facebook groups!
3. Facebook Groups
With Facebook groups, you can promote for free. You have to comply with certain Facebook rules because sharing a referral link directly can get your link blacklisted or even a ban from the group. People hate referral links. The only way is to build trust and make an informative post. Just like sales, you have to gain trust in your audience/customers.
There are Facebook groups for sharing links only and I have to admit that these groups will most likely give you zero conversions because everyone's main purpose here is to do what you are doing.
4. Blog Commenting
Blog commenting can be an effective way if you're targeting articles with high traffic. The only problem is that most blogs will have to review your comment before approving it. What I suggest that you do is to write a quality comment about their article and add your code/link at the end. Bloggers are more likely to approve a comment with value than comment with only a referral.
One example that I can share is this article of mine:
If you take a look and scroll to the end of this article, you'll see that there are many people posting their referral links. I'm usually more lenient so I approved most comments.
5. Business Cards
This method is great depending on what you're promoting. I learned about this method at a concert and realized its potential.
I was walking out of a concert one day and saw people passing out business cards. Curious enough, I decided to take one and you guessed it, it was a referral code. It was an Uber referral code to be exact. Everyone was intoxicated, they needed ride homes, and not every person has Uber.
With these business cards promising $10 off their first rides, I'm sure these people made a killing.
6. Tell Your Friends
And I'm not saying to tell them directly. Tell them when you're in the appropriate situation. For example:
Friend: I'm short on change and need a ride home. Can you take me?
You: I'm busy right now. If you sign up with my Uber referral code, you can get $10 off your first ride. It's basically free since you're not too far away!
Again, you can tell your friends for whatever programs you're promoting when you're in the appropriate situation.
7. Contact Influencers
There are influencers all over social media and it can be effective if you're promoting with the right person. If you're promoting your Uber referral codes, then maybe contact influencers in the party/clubbing niche. If you're promoting Cash App, then it's best to promote in niches where people want to make money online. There are many niches that you can choose from. Some influencers have fake followers and fake engagements so you should be cautious before making a payment.
I paid an influencer one time in the car niche and he had 107k followers. I paid $40 and didn't receive any conversions. There are stories of people having success with this type of method but you have to find the right one.
8. Mobile SMS
Many company apps will give you referral links and sharing them instantly via mobile SMS. I find this method not as effective but you can give it a try to test it out.
I wouldn't recommend this method because as much as I hate getting spammed, I wouldn't want to get spam from my friends.
9. Web Push Notification
With web push notification, you can directly promote a user's web browser as their browsing the web. That's because most of these users allowed for web notifications from websites in the past. There are businesses out there that will sell you their advertisement spot to users around the world via web push notification.
It can be greatly effective depending on what you're promoting.
10. Forum Signature
There are thousands of forums on the internet. Some with a tremendous amount of traffic and some with targeted traffic. Many of these forums offer users to place a signature below all their forum posts. If they allow referral links/code, then definitely take advantage of that.
Similar to referrals, I promoted my affiliate link via forum signature and became active on a certain forum. Within a month, I got over $1,000 in sales. If I can do the same with affiliate links, I'm sure you can do the same with referrals.
