Every referral program has four key metrics that can be evaluated in order to determine why your program is or is not successful. We call this the Referral Funnel.
Referral Visits are the number of visits (i.e, traffic) to your referral landing page and website from the referral program. Referral Visits gives you insight into how many people (total and unique) are engaging with your member’s referral links. These visits have value on their own as well as being the first entry point a new referral has with your company.
This article will go into more detail about the Referral Visits metric, show you where in Referral Rock you can track Referral Visits, and give suggestions and guidance for how to increase referral activity derived from your referral program.
Goals
Increase traffic and awareness of your business
Metrics to Track
Referral Visits Total AND last 30 days
Referral Page Views Total AND last 30 days
Note: Referral Rock will automatically track the number of visits to your referral page but for greater insight into all pre-referral activity across your entire website you need to install the referral.js SDK.
This article walks through the steps for installing the referral.js SDK on your site.
Things to Consider
If you haven’t already, you should start tracking Referral Visits to your website.
First, make sure that the other sections of the referral funnel are operating as expected. Referral visits are a direct result of members joining and engaging with your program.
If Referral Visits are low AND member stats are high (i.e., members are joining and engaged) then this means potential referrals are seeing the members share messages but not engaging with it.
Ways to Improve
Audit the Referral.js SDK - Make sure the Referral.js SDK installed on your site. If you see lots of sharing, but no visits, it could mean this is broken. Test the referral process to confirm. Audit your homepage and referral destination to see if referral visits increase.
Follow steps here to install Referral.js SDK.
Edit your Share Messaging - The share messages (social, email, text) are often the first interaction a potential referral has with your company. Consider changing the image and copy of these messages (on the Share page) to make them more exciting or relevant to potential referrals.
Does the message connect with new referrals?
Does it feel authentic and coming from a friend?
Does it highlight what’s in it for the referral (i.e., benefits of your service/product)?
Does the social message jump out (you’re trying to stop people while they’re scrolling)?
Is the social image clear and related to your product/services?
Revisit your Referral Reward - Rewards or discounts are great for getting potential referrals to engage and take action. They help create urgency by offering a unique opportunity not otherwise available.
If you’re not already offering a referral reward (dual-sided) then we strongly recommend that you consider it as a best practice.
If you are offering a referral reward then consider either increasing the amount or changing the reward type to make it more appealing/relevant.
Rewards are great ways to grab attention so make sure they stand out.
Communicate with your members - Your members are a great source of information. Pick a few of your most active ones and ask them how they might further personalize the messaging when sharing their links.