Are you Getting the most out of your Referral Program?

A successful referral program not only generates more sales but also significantly increases your ROAS (return on ad spend).

In order to do this you should identify as many touch points in your referral funnel where you can position a call to action, asking a customer to join your referral program.

Review the suggestions below and see how many of the following customer touch points you are using in the promotion of your referral program.

First things first, we highly recommend that you include a refer a friend landing page on your website. The purpose of this page is to give existing customers information on the benefits of joining your campaign and to convert them to a brand advocate. Using Gather, you can embed your advocate opt-in form on the page. Returning advocates can sign into their referral dashboard on this page too.

Navigation Menu

Include a link to your refer a friend landing page in your site navigation menu.

Announcement Bar

Include an announcement bar on your website, with a link to your landing page.

Homepage Carousel

If you have a carousel of your latest offers and announcements on your home or product pages, include a link to the your referral campaign landing page.

Site footer

Including a link in your site footer makes your referral program accessible anywhere on your website.

Order confirmation page

When is an existing customer most likely to convert to an advocate? When they have just made a purchase. Include a link to your referral campaign on your order confirmation page catching customers when they are most engaged with your brand. You can include this a banner or as a pop-up which will re-direct happy customers to your referral campaign landing page.

A post purchase pop-up removes the friction of signing up as Gather can automatically enrol the customer when they click to join the referral program, allowing them to immediately start making referrals.

Gather Floating Button

With Gather you can display a floating button anywhere on your site that will open your referral program opt-in form. Gather allows you to set the rules for where your button is displayed and set triggers that will open referral program in a sidebar.

EDMs

Did you know that Gather integrates with Klaviyo and Mailchimp? You can turn existing customers into advocates automatically and send out communications asking them to refer their friends.

There are many ways in which you can funnel customers into your referral program. The more calls to actions you use the more successful your referral program will be.

A successful referral program is not set and forget, experiment with some of the above to work out which is most successful for you!

Embed your Gather Opt-in Form Inline on your Website.

Introducing Gather's latest functionality: Embed your opt-in form inline in your website.

Now you can collect leads from anywhere on your website by embedding a Gather opt-in form directly into your pages and blog posts. This is a great way to increase your conversion rate and grow your email list.

Here are some of the benefits of using Gather's inline opt-in form embed feature:

• Increased conversion rates: Embedding your opt-in form inline makes it easier for visitors to subscribe to your email list, which can lead to higher conversion rates.

• More targeted leads: You can target your opt-in forms to specific pages or blog posts, so you're only collecting leads from people who are interested in what you have to offer.

• More control over the design: With Gather's inline opt-in form embed feature, you can customize the look and feel of your form to match your website styling.

Here are some tips for using Gather's inline opt-in form embed feature effectively:

• Place the form in a prominent location on your website, such as above the fold.

• Make sure the form is easy to see and fill out.

• Use clear and concise language in the form fields.

• Consider offering an incentive to encourage visitors to submit the form, such as a free ebook or discount code.

Want more details on how to embed your opt-in campaign? Check out our detailed ‘How to’ article.

NEW FEATURE - Login Gather generated leads, from Klaviyo, without using name and email

Every new lead you generate with a Gather Opt-in campaign assigns the lead a unique hashed ID which is synced along with other properties to your Klaviyo account.

You can use this custom property in an email button to log the lead back into the campaign without the need to pass their name and email through the URL.

Using the property in a liquid variable, instead of the name and email, enhances the lead’s data privacy by obfuscating personal information. By replacing the name and email with a hash, the individual's identity is better protected.

You can use this feature in 2 ways, to automatically login in the lead, removing the requirement to re-enter their name and email address, or you can prefill their name and email address in the log-in form.

To detailed instructions on how to use this new feature, check out the following article in the Gather Academy.

A 1-Click Button to Increase Opt-in Conversions

Reward codes are a great way to incentivize leads to join your mailing list, but they create friction and make it hard to redeem. With a Gather Opt-in campaign and Shopify cart, you can now apply a newly signed up lead’s reward code directly to their Shopify cart with a 1-click call to action button.

This feature makes it easy for new leads to use their reward and enjoy your products, which can lead to an increase in conversions. It also enhances the customer experience by providing a seamless shopping experience and eliminating any potential roadblocks in the purchasing process.

To use this feature, simply apply a call to action button to your successful pop-up opt-in confirmation screen.

Using the 1-click button to apply reward codes is a great way to increase conversions, enhance the customer experience, and maximize customer satisfaction.

For more information on how to enable this in your Gather campaign, check out the following article.

Extend your Referral Program Reach with Gather - New Feature

This new feature from Gather unlocks a new way to extend the reach of a Lead-Gen Referral Program.

A typical journey for a referral program, designed to increase leads or opt-ins (lead-gen referral program), may look like the following:

Customer enrols as an advocate -> customer invites friends -> a friend accepts an invitation by opting in -> both friend and advocate are sent their rewards.

Where this study shows that referred friends tend to be more loyal, there is an opportunity to incentivise referred friends to enrol as advocates themselves and go-on to refer their network.

This extends the reach of a Lead-Gen Referral Program, and with Gather this can be done with 1 click.

As soon as a friend accepts the invitation, they are presented with an option to enrol on the referral program with 1 click where they can begin to refer their friends.

This journey is suitable for the following types of referral programs:

• A launch referral program. This is if you are launching a new product or brand and are building a launch list (or a waitlist).

• A competition or a giveaway where the more friends an entrant refers, the more entries they get.

• A simple newsletter referral program. For example, when a friend is invited to subscribe, they may land on a page featuring the latest issue of the newsletter (so they get a feel for the newsletter content). This is where they can be served a form to opt-in. When they confirm their opt-in, they can be presented with a button to invite subscribers.

Why is this Feature A Good Fit for a Lead-Gen Referral Program?

Gather offers two types of referral programs:

• A Lead-Gen Referral Program. This is where referral success is determined on an opt-in (for example a newsletter referral program).

• A Conversion Referral Program. This is where a successful referral is determined by a sale conversion. An example of this is a referral program for an e-commerce or DTC brand.

Unlike a Lead-Gen referral program, when a referred friend accepts an invitation as part of a Conversion Referral Program and receives their incentives, they would need to go on to complete a purchase for the referral to be marked as successful.

The opportunity for asking a referred friend to enrol as an advocate comes after they make a purchase decision (i.e. they become a customer first). In the case of a Conversion Referral Program, a post-purchase call to action is used to convert new customers into advocates.

Click here for detailed instructions on how to implement this new feature in your lead-gen referral program.

If you run a Conversion Referral Program, This article runs through how you can leverage this new CTA button as a part of a conversion referral program.

Make Reward Code Redemption Easy for Referred Friends - New Feature!

We’re thrilled to announce a new feature for referral programs on Gather, that helps make it easier for referred friends to redeem their reward codes, on the Shopify platform.

A call-to-action button can now be served to your customer’s friends when they opt-in to accept an invitation.

In addition to providing referred friends with their reward code, referred friends can now be directed to a URL of your choice, with a click of a button.

If your ecommerce store is on Shopify, you can automatically apply the friend’s reward code to the checkout, by including the reward code as a variable in the CTA URL.

Shopify provides the ability to auto-apply a reward code to checkout, by adding it to the store homepage URL. In the example below, the friend’s unique code itself is added as follows:

https://gather-demo.myshopify.com/discount/{{reward_code}}

This new call-to-action button simplifies the discount redemption process, which helps drive more successful referrals.

With 1-click, referred customers can effortlessly redeem their rewards, enhancing their overall shopping experience.

Click here for detailed instructions on how to implement this new feature in your conversion referral program.

Launch your advocates' dashboards from Klaviyo without using their name and email address

New feature: Launch your advocates' dashboards from Klaviyo using liquid variables

All new advocates in a referral program are assigned a unique hash ID. Gather allows you to launch your advocates' dashboards from a Klaviyo email using liquid variables that pass the hashed ID, rather than a name and email address, through the URL.

This means that you can now send out personalized referral program reminders and enable advocates to launch their personal referral dashboard without having to pass advocates' names or email addresses in a URL.

Here are the benefits of using this new feature:

• Personalize your referral program reminders: You can now send out personalized emails to advocates in your referral program reminders without having to disclose your advocates' names or email addresses in a link to open their dashboard. Personalised messaging with greater data privacy enables more referrals.

• Improve your click-through rates: By using a liquid variable to launch your advocates' dashboards, you can improve your click-through rates on your referral program reminders. This is because advocates will be more likely to click on a link that takes them directly to their dashboard, where they can see their progress and make referrals.

• Boost your referrals: By making it easier for your advocates to engage with your referral program, you can boost your referrals and sales.

We hope you enjoy this new feature! To find out more about how to implement this feature check out the following article in our academy: Launch advocate Dashboard from Klaviyo.