Doubling down on referrals

Hi, I’m Saurabh👋. I write in-depth analyses on the growth of popular companies. I cover their early-growth strategies, current growth levers, and the business-building lessons we can learn from them.

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Read time: 2 minutes 38 seconds

Almost every company has referral programs. Yet, very limited companies reap the most out of it.

At a personal level, I have worked on referrals at both Cuemath and Udaan. In fact, growing referrals was my first KRA at my first job. Since the user base was small at that time in Cuemath, I was able to connect with many territory partners on a one-to-one basis. This helped me gather insights on how they perceive referrals. Fast forward to 5 years later, in Udaan’s WonderMart, I saw the real potential of referrals. 6 months into the business, we had roughly 30% of the customers referred by their friends. That’s some crazy referral numbers! 

What worked? - two things. Give a little, Get a little, and Gamification

While most referral programs are designed to give a little and get a little, not many utilize gamification to its true potential.

Morning Brew does this amazingly well.

Look at their referral program

It has achievable (and aspirational) milestones with both physical and digital rewards. It clearly shows you how far you are from the next reward and it clearly highlights how you can move ahead towards the next milestone.

At Udaan’s WonderMart also, we had a gamified, milestone-based referral program with rewards growing exponentially(digital rewards only) as the users moved ahead on their referral journey.

❔Why Morning Brew Referral Program works?

🎯A clear, achievable goal: Instead of generic “refer friends”, designed with specifi, memorable goals such as refer 3 friends - Get the premium newsletter every sunday. Refer 5 - Get stickers

🥤A tangible reward: Free rewards that unlock on achievements.

📱Social currency: Rewards designed to show off to your friends. For example Morning Brew stickers - which mostly go on your office laptops and Morning Brew mug which sits right next to your desk at work.

🗝️Applying gamification to your referral programs

Define your reward structure: Ask your audience, look at your current referral data and identify clear, achievable milestones that appeals to different user cohorts.

Link tangible reward: Design both digital (coupons for the next purchase, free newsletters, early sale updates) and physical(stickers, bottle, trips) rewards unlocking at milestone achievement. Make progress bars showing customers where they stand on their referral journey.

Choose your moments: Identify moments when the customers have a net positive feeling about your brand. This could be after a purchase, renewal, upgrade or moving from free to premium or a satisfactory chat with your customer service team. Nudge users around these achievements to refer.

Build for social:  Build seasonal contests and publish share-worthy leaderboards that encourage users to share their achievements on their socials.

Until next time! 👋

Saurabh