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Helping Clients Through the Art of Referral Marketing with Raul Galera
Agency Ahead by Traject
English - April 09, 2021 10:00 - 27 minutes - 50.2 MB - ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsMarketing Business Entrepreneurship marketing digital marketing agency software seo social media reputation customer experience local seo local search Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Referral marketing is often a bit underrated, especially when agencies are thinking about growing their client's businesses. In part, this is because it feels difficult to control and impossible to automate.
Enter ReferralCandy, which has cracked the code on referral marketing automation, at least, for eCommerce brands who fulfill a few simple criteria.
Here's how it works: current customers receive a promotion that gives them the ability to share an eCommerce store with their friends. Their friends get a reward, like a discount. They get a reward too, such as cashback, an even bigger discount, or a custom gift. The platform can be connected to quite a few commonly used marketing apps and offers analytics on how well the program is working.
Raul Galera is the Chief Advocate at ReferralCandy, and he joins us today on the Agency Ahead podcast to talk about the power of referral marketing and what it takes to launch a referral marketing campaign on behalf of your clients.
The highlights:
[1:27] The ReferralCandy elevator pitch.
[2:59] What ReferralCandy learned about working with agencies.
[6:42] How agencies are positioning and selling referral marketing.
[8:15] Setting up the service.
[10:26] How ReferralCandy helps marketers learn about referral marketing.
[11:54] Typical questions agencies have about the program and process.
[13:25] Places to talk about referral marketing.
[15:08] How explicit should agencies be about selling referral marketing?
[17:53] How 2020 changed referral marketing.
[20:31] Raul's cause.
The insights:
What ReferralCandy Learned About Working with Agencies
In 2019, ReferralCandy started interviewing agencies to find out where the gaps were in their referral marketing strategies, and to learn how they could help. They learned a lot about how they could help agencies do more with referral marketing.
On day 1 of these interviews, ReferralCandy learned that referral marketing only works for certain types of clients.
Customers won't recommend a product if it's no good, no matter how attractive the commission or how valuable the free product they might get in return might be.
In addition to a good product, Raul learned that the stores that use this type of marketing must have excellent customer satisfaction at the end of the day.
Agencies won't start looking at referral marketing, therefore, until their clients have passed the initial growth phase.
Referral marketing just won't have the same impact for a start-up with very few clients as it would if you had a large base of followers, a large email list, and plenty of people to market to.
How Agencies are Positioning and Selling Referral Marketing
Raul says most agencies position referral services as a bundle with their other services.
He says it typically works much better as an add-on service than as a stand-alone service.
He says some agencies are very structured about choosing when to offer referral marketing services.
Setting up the ReferralCandy Service
Part of the appeal of ReferralCandy is, of course, just how automated it is.
It's also easy to use.
Raul says:
For those who like to be a little more hands-on?
He says agencies tend to stay really involved in the formation of the initial strategies.
The marketing agency also has to test and fine-tune these campaigns, once launched.
He says that businesses absolutely tend to do better when agencies get involved with the design of referral programs.
How ReferralCandy Helps Marketers Learn About Referral Marketing
ReferralCandy has posted a lot of resources to help agencies learn more about how to make the best use of their platform.
Raul also works directly with agencies to make sure they're able to make full use of the program.
Raul says there are some common questions that come up. Functionality, but also best practices.
They also want to know how they line it up with other campaigns they might be running at the same time.
For example:
Raul stresses that every client is different, but that they're usually trying to fit it all into the marketing mix they have for that client at that moment.
Places To Chat With Other Marketers About Referral Marketing
If you want to talk to other marketers about referral marketing, Raul suggests some of the Facebook groups that exist for eCommerce groups, especially those for Shopify.
Raul adds that he finds this communication to be an incredibly special thing.
How explicit should agencies be about selling referral marketing?
Raul thinks that selling these services works best when agencies bring it up to clients as a natural move for that company at that moment.
When recommendations are happening organically, then it's the right time to explore referral marketing.
"The goal for all programs is to incentivize those referrals, getting people to refer even more. You can run a Net Promoter Score survey on your site and ask customers: will you be willing to refer? You can get 90% of those saying yes, but not even half of those are going to end up referring."Raul stresses this doesn't mean customers don't like you or your products.
How 2020 Changed Referral Marketing
2020 is still shaping...pretty much everything, so Garrett asked how last year impacted the referral marketing industry.
He says one interesting thing that happened was that businesses and agencies started seeing referral marketing not just as a lead generation machine, but as a customer retention tool as well.
Customers might not buy in the next six months...but you can keep them talking.
In other words, it comes back to the buyer's journey...and the unique ability referral marketing has to touch customers at every point on that journey.
What's your right now cause?
From the moment ReferralCandy opened its doors, its company mission has been to help SMBs.
Raul lives in Spain, where the pandemic has hit especially hard. He feels lucky to work in the eCommerce world, an industry that's still alive when everything is going so crazy.
He says he doesn't have one particular cause. He's just trying to give back in any way he can.
Connect with Raul Galera
You can get in touch with Raul by email.
Email: [email protected]