Lesson 1.
Referral programs promotion explained
So, what’s more to a successful referral? Catch 22: while referral programs are a promotional instrument, to get the most out of it, you have to promote them. The most essential part of a referral is delivering it to the right people: those who are likely to become engaged clients.
Getting it done consists of two parts:
finding out who your target audience is;
finding the best ways to reach these people.
Become excellent in targeting: attract your dream lookalike audience
— Knock-knock!
— Who’s there?
— Do you have a minute to learn about our brilliant taxi services?
— Nope, thanks.
Sad story, right? Yet this is exactly the case if you start spreading your referral codes among random people. It is also known as “spray and pray” method. Guess what? It doesn’t work.
What does work? Targeting. Precise, hardcore targeting. Who are the people you want to reach?
The bitter truth of marketing is that most of the time, people you want to attract are very much like the clients your company already has. This is called “lookalike audience”: people who are really corresponding with the existing clients. Their resemblance is based on interests, demographic characteristics, place of employment, behaviour. Among all the people of the world, they have the biggest chance to commit to your company.
You can figure the “lookalike audience” out in several ways. The simplest one is using the Facebook SDK. Since SDK is already integrated by Onde for your company, it’s easy to do. Facebook collects a lot of data on people who use (and even don’t use!) it. Yes, it’s a bit creepy, but also very handy for businesses. Here are some of the data Facebook has for you:
- “Demographics”. This tab shows the education level, relationship status, job status, age, and other characteristics of your audience.
- “Events”. The tab is demonstrating what people do with your app. For instance, people with high app launch percentage are the most active users. They are probably happy with the app and ready to advice it to the others.
- “People”. The tab that helps you to understand what your customers care about. Say, if the majority of your clients are active Instagram or Snapchat users, it’s pretty clear where to advertise, right?
As soon as you know who your clients and clients-to-be are, it’s time to systemize your knowledge.
