The five mistakes below are the most common killers of referral program traction. Here’s how to avoid them so your referral program will have consistent momentum.
Biggest Mistakes (Classic Programs) | Do This Instead (Rolling Programs) |
#1: Big Launch Mentality Most businesses rely on a single mass email to launch their program then get disappointing results. While there may be a pop of initial referrals, the “big launch” does nothing to generate ongoing referrals. | Build program awareness into everyday customer experiences to generate perpetual referrals. Utilize opportunities to promote the referral program across the customer’s lifecycle:
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#2 No Reward for the Friend When designing a program, everyone focuses on the rewards earned by the sharer. Many businesses don't give anything to the friend being referred.
Yet, the reward for the friend is the secret key to getting a larger volume of sharers. | Including a reward for the friend gets more people sharing by:
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#3: Missing the Landing/Connection How the friend is introduced to the business is often forgotten about. Most programs drop the friend right on their website and fail to use their unfair advantage.
| Bridging the connection between the sharer and your business is what makes referral programs work.
Lean into the advantage and convert more referrals with:
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#4 Too Many Sharing Hurdles Most programs require signing up, asking for friend’s names up front, or getting approval. Extra steps are silent killers of any process. Don’t make your customer jump through hoops just so they can share your business with a friend.
| Reduce steps and meet sharers where they are to get more people sharing by:
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#5 Forgetting the Follow Through Most referral programs treat sharing as a one-and-done activity. After the initial share, there's radio silence. Result? Your best sharers forget the program exists and never refer anyone else. | Getting a customer to share is step one. Getting them to share over and over again pays the real dividends. You can keep the referral window open longer and get more repeat sharers by:
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Here are more details on how you can avoid the top 5 referral program mistakes:
1. Create Continuous Promotion
Focus on building program awareness into everyday customer experiences to generate perpetual referrals.
Regularly promote the referral program across the customer’s lifecycle with:
Proactive Invites
Identify new people to invite to the referral program based on key events. Then, send automatic invites to them at the right time:
When they purchase
When a project is complete
When they’ve expressed interest in you (say, signed up for a newsletter)
If they were referred by an existing member
Recruiters
Get the frontline team involved as recruiters. Have these and other team members “recruit” people to the referral program during 1-on-1 interactions:
Sales reps
Customer Service
Field reps
Partners/consultants
Office managers
Entry Points
Make the program discoverable at all customer entry points, by placing links where customers pass by:
Email newsletters
Update emails
Your website (banners, footers, site navigation, CTA buttons, etc.)
Your customer portal or behind a login (in-app)
Checkout or thank-you pages (right after a purchase)
Social media profiles and posts
Mobile app
Account notifications
Transactional emails
Business cards, postcards, or other printed material (use a QR code for easy online access!)
In-store signage (with QR code)
2. Don't Neglect the Friend Reward
Including a reward for the friend gets more people sharing by:
Making the sharer look good - Some people care about rewards for themselves, but everyone cares about looking good to their friends.
Punching through the inbox - A “Send this gift to a friend” email gets more opens vs the sea of needy “reply to me/buy this” emails.
What’s the best reward option to give the friend?
It should be something that makes it a “no brainer” for the friend to say “yes” to you, and that reduces risk and hesitation before buying.
We recommend tying the reward back to your business, to give an added reason to make that first purchase or fill out that lead form:
Free Voucher (if possible to experience value of business before purchasing)
Discount or store credits
Extras (upgrades/perks)
But if needed, you can also offer cash or a gift card as the friend gift.
What if I can't offer a friend gift?
If you think you can’t offer a friend gift, think again. Get creative - there’s always something you can offer, and your messaging will sound much better.
We recommend:
Repurposing existing offers - rewards don’t need to be exclusive to your referral program
Using complimentary offers - think about any free value you already provide (trial, consultation, demo, estimate)
3. Nail the Landing/Connection
Bridging the connection between the sharer and your business is what makes referral programs work.
Lean into the "unfair advantage" (the trust the friend has in the sharer) and convert more referrals with dedicated referral pages that:
Mention the sharer’s name
Include messaging that shares a personal experience
Highlight the friend’s special offer
Explain what the friend can expect next
Referral Rock has two easy options for you to create a personalized referral page:
Personal Referral Page (contact form)
Referrals are sent to a page (built in Referral Rock) dedicated to the referral program with a contact form on the page.
Use a form (on page) to capture referrals
No referral conversion integrations required
See Form Capture for more details.
Personal Referral Page (click & redirect to your website)
Referrals are first sent to a page (built in Referral Rock) dedicated to the referral program with a CTA button on it. Then, after clicking the CTA button, referrals are redirected to your website.
Uses an existing form on your website to capture referrals (i.e., contact form, application, trial, checkout page, etc.)
Referral conversion integration required (we can help with this)
See Click & Convert for more details.
4. Pull the Sharing Experience Forward
Don’t make your customer jump through hoops just so they can share your business with a friend.
Reduce steps and meet sharers where they are to get more people sharing by:
Giving a share link on first contact vs asking to register/signup/join (try our One Click Access links if you're using external emails)
Asking for required information after the share
Keeping the referral sharing simple and to the point
Making sharing CTAs easy to find and use
5. Keep Sharers In the Loop
Getting someone to share is just step one. Getting them to share over and over again pays the real dividends.
Keep the referral window open longer and get more repeat sharers by:
Building trust by showing all their activity
Make sure they know how to use their My Referrals and My Rewards tabs
Send Monthly Summary emails with an overview of their sharing activity in the past month
Proactively sending status updates
Send referral event emails to let them know when a referral is qualified or approved, and reward emails to alert them a reward is ready to claim
Bringing them back to a central location to share again
Use the entry points we talked about above to get them back to their portal!)