Challenges
Developing and optimizing a critical referral program with a small and agile team
James DeStefano, Sr. Director of Customer Marketing and CRM at Casper, knows that buying a mattress is a personal journey. Everyone has a story about losing a precious night of sleep or a bad mattress-buying experience. James and his team work hard to connect with customers, solve their problems and turn first- time buyers into loyal brand advocates.
But for a lot of brands—especially in the ecommerce industry—emotionally connecting with customers can be difficult.
Casper needed a scalable solution to process and validate referrals and fulfill rewards. It also needed critical visibility into program performance and insight into how to optimize and improve referral campaigns.
The problem? Casper’s team is lean. Developing a solution in-house would demand heavy time and resources. Casper needed a partner with a sophisticated yet turnkey solution—a partner like Friendbuy.
“To achieve our desired adoption, we needed referrals to seamlessly usher customers through the ecommerce experience. We also needed split testing to optimize and to continue growing our referral program.”
Solution
A turnkey referral platform with built-in A/B testing
James was drawn to Friendbuy for its easy-to-use referral capabilities, its deep reporting and A/B testing functionality, and its experienced and knowledgeable support team.
With the guidance of Friendbuy’s Customer Success team, James zeroed in on referral offers that would drive scalable customer acquisition. Over the next three months, he ran multiple A/B tests to arrive at the offer that had the strongest impact on share rates and profitability.
That offer still stands today: when a customer refers a friend, they receive a $75 Amazon gift card and the friend gets 10% off their first order.
With Friendbuy, Casper was able to operationalize this offer, get the program up and running quickly, and ensure seamless reward fulfilment. And when James wants to iterate on the offer or analyze campaign performance, Friendbuy’s built-in analytics and A/B testing make it incredibly easy.
“Friendbuy’s team is amazing. At Casper, we have a company culture that moves extremely quickly and we’re very data-oriented. The support we receive from Friendbuy, coupled with the visibility they provide into program performance, is unmatched.”
With Friendbuy, Casper was able to operationalize this offer, get the program up and running quickly, and ensure seamless reward fulfilment. And when James wants to iterate on the offer or analyze campaign performance, Friendbuy’s built-in analytics and A/B testing make it incredibly easy.
Results
7x higher ROI than the average marketing investment
Compared to Casper’s average marketing endeavors, the Friendbuy-powered referral program contributes a 7x greater return on investment (ROI). It is by far one of the most efficient customer acquisition channels in Casper’s arsenal.
Through ongoing A/B testing, Casper was able to increase their already phenomenal referral conversion rate by an additional 13%—resulting in a huge boost in referral revenue and customer acquisition growth.
And through automation, Friendbuy is able to validate legitimate referral purchases without requiring James to lift a finger.
Now, Casper is looking at ways to incorporate Friendbuy into its future growth plans. The brand is expanding and outgrowing its moniker of “mattress company.” As their plans develop, James plans to stand up even more Friendbuy-powered referral programs to drive awareness to Casper’s new products.
“Friendbuy saves us considerable time and money. Casper is a nimble and lean company, and we wouldn’t be able to maintain that agility if we were focusing on referral fulfillment, processing, validation, or any of the things that Friendbuy automates for us.”
