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To build a successful e-commerce company, you need a growing base of dedicated customers who keep coming back for repeat purchases—and who ultimately promote your brand by referring their friends.
By weaving referral marketing into your existing marketing initiatives that target current customers, you can increase repeat purchase rates and dramatically boost the lifetime value (LTV) of your customer base.
How does referral marketing turn e-commerce customers into brand advocates? Here are three powerful examples from Friendbuy’s own customers that have used referral marketing to drive repeat purchases and increased LTV.
1. FIGS incorporates referral messaging into its existing e-commerce customer lifecycle emails.
A referral program can motivate brand advocacy among satisfied shoppers looking to earn a reward for their sharing efforts. Although those incentives are offered primarily to expand a brand’s customer base, they also enable repeat purchases, which strengthens brand relationships and increases the customer’s potential LTV.
FIGS incorporated its referral program into its email campaigns—specifically its post-purchase and new customer welcome series—to better utilize ongoing marketing efforts and reward existing customers for advocating for the brand. The company sends its loyal customers a personalized email each year on their anniversary of becoming a FIGS customer, and the email includes a $20 reward for sharing FIGS with their friends.
FIGS identified that the lifetime value of their advocates (customers who refer friends) is higher than that of customers who don’t participate in their referral program. Even without accounting for the revenue growth driven by referrals, participation in the brand’s referral program signals a more loyal customer who offers greater long-term value.
2. Thinx ensures its checkout process seamlessly allows its return e-commerce customers to utilize their referral rewards.
Not acknowledging or resolving friction in your e-commerce experience is a fast way to lose customers. By integrating rewards directly into the checkout process, you can make it effortless for customers to redeem their rewards.
Thinx implemented Friendbuy’s account credit capabilities at checkout to make it simple for existing customers to redeem their referral rewards. The more seamless the experience, the more likely your customers are to continue shopping your brand, referring new friends, and collecting rewards.
3. The Bouqs Company solicits customer feedback and incorporates a referral incentive to “promoters.”
If you regularly send surveys to your customers, then you already have a perfect channel for promoting your referral program. The Bouqs Co. has found that customers who leave positive reviews are excellent advocates for the brand and are eager to refer their friends.
Through Friendbuy’s integration with customer feedback software Delighted, The Bouqs Company is able to prompt customers to refer a friend if they leave a review with a positive net promoter score (NPS).
The integration makes it easy to embed a personalized referral link directly within the Delighted survey. By displaying an enticing referral offer immediately after the customer has shared a positive experience, you can harness customer satisfaction and entice your top advocates to share your brand with their friends and family.
Build an Army of Brand Advocates
Happy, devoted customers are the greatest asset your company can have. With the strategies above, you can use referral marketing to transform one-time e-commerce customers into repeat buyers and loyal brand advocates.
Ready for more examples? See how referral marketing helped Nuuly drive more than 2,500 new subscribers in just a few weeks. Read the case study here.
