How to avoid referral marketing

pitfalls

Learn how RingCentral and TSYS overcame common referral marketing challenges so

you can avoid them.

referral marketing challenges

RingCentral has had 3 different referral marketing programs. They launched their first referral marketing program between 2010 and 2011 as a homegrown referral program.

RingCentral’s Homegrown Referral Program

What Worked What Didn’t WorkeCommerce made it easy to generate leads.

Small leads made for low revenue contribution.

Great customer loyalty. Difficult to resolve attribution which caused a high number of customer complaints to Sales.

Small customers making small referrals resulted in good conversions.

Strained communication between Sales, Marketing and the Advocates.

RingCentral Second Homegrown Referral Program

What Worked What Didn’t WorkAutomated fulfillment removed manual hassle.

Complex system with many points of failure and no visibility to troubleshoot.

Improved ways to refer with social media and email.

Many layers to the program and no way to know if something failed.

Sales integrated into the process.

No visibility for customers into their referral status.No way to easily get Advocate data/reporting.Significant resources needed to manage the program’s operation.Lacked clear communication back to Sales.

How RingCentral evaluated these

Challenges

From these challenges, RingCentral understood that they needed a purpose built referral marketing program that specialized in referral marketing instead of general customer advocacy. After looking at different referral platforms they settled on Amplifinity for its targeted solution.

Why the Amplifinity referral program continues to excel

for RingCentral• Sales can enter verbal referrals• Sales can check the status of referrals in their own platform• No breakage• Easily update creative with no IT needed• Easy reporting showing direct ROI• Advocate homepage with real time transparency into their referral

status• Operational resources reallocated from maintenance to program

improvement and growth• Customers and reps like it• Easily add and change promotions• Can dive deep into the data of the program• Thorough validation of Advocates’ email• Eliminates the possibility of Friendly Fraud

referral marketing challenges

TSYS went through a similar process. Like RingCentral, TSYS had four different referral program approaches before trying an automated referral marketing program.

1. Non-managed partner and affiliate program2. Verbal Sales program3. Employee program4. Referral resource center portal where a bank teller would

enter a referral manually

TSYS’s homegrown referral programs

While these programs had some good results, they were too difficult to keep up and therefore couldn’t be grown due to:

• Lack of tracking• Manual fulfillment• Lack of Sales enablement• Operational hassles• Technology problems

How TSYS evaluated their challenges

From the experience with the four other programs they understood that they needed to build a new approach.

By collaborating with different departments they figured out the gaps in their current programs and created a team to meet regularly to decide on vendors and design in order to choose a vendor that would incorporate greater efficiency and scale their referral program.

How TSYS overcame their challenges

TSYS chose Amplifinity based on Amplifinity’s experience creating successful B2B referral programs and its ability to fill the gaps they had in their other referral approaches by:

• Offering Advocates the ability to select what reward they want

• Creating full automation to incorporate organizational efficiency and scalability

• Automating nurturing emails to help reengage Advocates and keep them active

• Handling the complexity of W9 collection and CAN/SPAM

• Integrating into Sales’ technology to enable participation

• Offering extensive referral method options for all Advocate types

This referral marketing program resulted in:• Strengthened Salesforce use• Time saved• Improved Sales participation and therefore program enrollment• Improved ROI

How TSYS overcame their challenges

TSYS Program Results“Integration of our referral program into Salesforce was critical for getting our sales team involved. Amplifinity made the implementation process seamless, and allowed our sales team to easily invite our partners to the program. In the first 4 weeks the referral program had almost paid for itself with over 75% of our referral leads turning into opportunities.”

Andrew Brabec, Marketing Manager TSYS Merchant Solutions

Discover how the right referral program features can deliver amazing

ROI for you with the ROI calculator today!

Learn how to start a referral program at Amplifinity.com