Customer advocacy marketing is marketing that harnesses the voice of happy customers to market to prospects.
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Referral marketing software helps companies promote their products and services by using their customer base as a source of leads. It harnesses the power of satisfied customers (word-of-mouth) to influence potential buyers and acquire new customers. Customers are incentivized to become advocates through a variety of rewards: points, vouchers, coupons, discounts, loyalty cards, free products, status perks, and sweepstakes entries.
These platforms automate referral campaigns, the enrolling, tracking, and rewarding of customers, sometimes including gamification to encourage engagement. It is related to and sometimes bundled with Affiliate software and Influencer Marketing software.
Referral marketing software can be embedded within a company’s website, in their social media pages, or integrated within their mobile applications. Social media is becoming a dominant force in this space and the use of referral apps is increasing.
Most referral marketing platforms will offer the following features:
Referral Campaign Management
Referral Tracking
Rewards Management
Customer / Contact Management
Gamification
Lead Engagement
Multi-Channel Marketing
Referral Templates
Fraud Protection
Analytics
Third-Party Integration
The software can be implemented on one or more of these platforms: Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone/iPad, Mobile apps.
Before purchasing referral marketing software consider the following points:
Does it integrate with your CRM, Marketing Automation, and Email Marketing software? This is important for referral tracking efficiency and for keeping up-to-date and consistent information across your platforms.
Will you benefit from a product that is tailored for your specific industry? For example, some products are oriented toward retail, financial services, or manufacturing.
What are the channels you need to support?
Does it readily integrate with major eCommerce sites and social media?
Are you a B2B or a B2C company? A few products are geared specifically towards B2B referrals.
What analytics does it support? Does it provide intelligence regarding customer behavior and participation, top influencers, referral rates by channel, and revenue generated by campaigns?
There is a wide range of pricing options depending upon the features. Several vendors offer scalable products with basic, intermediate, and enterprise versions. Costs can range from as low as $12 a month for entry-level offerings and up to $800 a month or more for enterprise products. Sometimes pricing is driven by the number of customers supported.
A few vendors will require that you contact them for a demo and quote. Some offer free trial versions. A small number offer one-time licensing fees of around $2,000.
These are some of the more popular referral marketing software products: