“We feel confident working with the Friendbuy platform. Our top ten advocates generated over 2,500 new subscribers by sharing referral links in just a few weeks.”
Rachel Smith
CRM & Analytics Manager, Nuuly
Nuuly generated a lot of buzz leading up to its launch. Their teaser site had been live for months, and users were clamoring at the gate to rent URBN brands as soon as the site went live.
But the marketing team at Nuuly knew that to achieve sustainable success, it would need to continue acquiring new customers, as cost- effectively as possible, month after month. Nuuly needed a user-friendly and brand consistent referral program.
As a new brand, Nuuly had never created a referral program before. The marketing team was nervous about hiring a third party to help; the last thing they wanted was to add extra steps that might complicate their service for potential customers.
Friendbuy put those concerns to rest.
“Subscription-based business models need referrals and word-of-mouth marketing. We knew we needed it, but there was no one at Nuuly that had ever worked on a referral program.”
Friendbuy’s onboarding team helped Nuuly get a referral program up and running quickly. They then walked Nuuly’s marketing team through the user-friendly Friendbuy platform.
After implementation, setting up Nuuly’s referral program was a snap. Friendbuy’s customizable referral templates laid the groundwork for Nuuly’s baseline “give $10, get $10” referral program—which allows members to invite friends and give them $10 off their first month’s subscription. In return, referrers also receive $10 off a month’s subscription for each friend who subscribes (up to 12 months).
With Friendbuy, reward fulfillment is automatic, so Nuuly’s team can be almost entirely hands-off after the campaign is live. Friendbuy also includes configurable fraud checks, so it’s easy to block bad actors from receiving rewards through the program.
Best of all, Friendbuy is always tracking campaign performance in the background. When Nuuly wants to know how its referral campaign is performing, built-in performance metrics make it easy. When Nuuly wants to optimize its campaigns, Friendbuy’s built-in A/B testing makes it easy to experiment and get creative with every part of the referral funnel.
“We went all-in and integrated customer lifecycle touchpoints. We made it super easy for our customers to refer a friend at relevant times. That’s been so successful in terms of new subscriber acquisition.”
Since Nuuly’s launch, its referral program has taken off in a big way. Nuuly’s top 10 brand advocates regularly share referral links on social channels like YouTube and Instagram, and those referrals alone have ushered in over 2,500 new subscribers. Some people have each referred over 500 new subscribers.
For Nuuly, this word-of-mouth is a strong driver of sales. They have a strong influencer presence, especially within the Instagram space. When a brand advocate gets complimented on an outfit, it’s easy for them to text a link with a $10 credit to their followers.
It’s a powerful combination: Immediate desire coupled with a referral from a trusted source. And with brand advocates leveraging referral links, Nuuly continues to generate organic traffic and maintain its high retention rate.
During the holidays, Nuuly doubled their referral offer to “give $20, get $20”—and holiday sales were far-and-away their best numbers since launch.
Like many other retailers grappling with COVID-19, Nuuly is now scaling back its spend on paid media and other paid channels. Now more than ever, the referral program powered by Friendbuy is pivotal to Nuuly’s continued organic growth.
“Out of all of our organic channels, referrals drive the most growth—so Friendbuy has been really important. We rely heavily on the platform and referrals to scale our organic mix.”
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