Happy customers come back and stay loyal to a brand. Their happiness and loyalty don’t stop with repeated purchases, joy is doubled when shared, and they share it with their friends and people they know. They turn into the best marketing asset for your business by bringing in new customers.
A recent study says 92% of customers trust the referral or recommendations from the people they know personally.
When customers participate in your refer-a-friend program, all they expect in return is rewards. So, you have to set up a referral program in WooCommerce that benefits your customers by offering rewards for every referral they make. This blog will further guide you on how to set up a WooCommerce referral program in your store.
Set up a Referral Program to get your customers to refer their friends. Reward them both easily with WPLoyalty.
What is a WooCommerce Referral Program?
A WooCommerce Referral Program is an effective way for stores to reward their existing customers for referring their friends and family to your store. When an existing customer refers to your brand, you can reward them with points, coupons/discounts, freebies, or free shipping.
Referral programs are the best way for stores to acquire new customers and increase sales.
You will need a plugin like WPLoyalty to create a referral program in WooCommerce. WPLoyalty is one of the best WooCommerce Referral plugins in the market. It allows you to create a referral program in a few simple steps and reward customers for successful referrals. Also, the plugin includes a number features that help you run a successful referral program.
Why do you need to Set Up a Referral Program in WooCommerce?
You need to set up a referral program in WooCommerce to spread the brand name to your target audience and acquire new customers at zero cost. This is also known as word of mouth marketing or refer-a-friend programs.
Refer-a-friend campaigns are important to show your customers why you are the best. Also, to succeed in setting up a referral program, make sure to use a well-built WooCommerce referral plugin. Here are a few reasons why referral programs are important to your store.
Customers usually trust the word of their friends or families. So, a refer a friend program for Woocommerce is a trustable way to maintain proper growth. Once they love your brand, customers start promoting your product among many people via social media.
You can also encourage your customers to share the referral link with their friends via social media and reward them for the same.
When referral rates are high, it’s a reminder that many people are hearing about your brand. Also, it means your brand offers customers a quality product and a wonderful experience.
Customers who shop with your brand are more likely to stick with you. Gaining customer loyalty is another important aspect you get through setting up a referral program.
Improve Customer Engagement through offering rewards easily with WPLoyalty Referral Plugin.
Examples of Brands with a Referral Program
Brands with referral programs always stay ahead of their competitors and take their business to the next level in an easy way. Here are a few brands that set up a referral program in their store and run it effectively, and these types of referral programs are said to be the customer’s favorite.
Uniqlo
Uniqlo is a clothing store specializing in only Winter clothing for both men and women. On designer brands, they provide discounts.
“Give $10 and get $10” is the rule they use at their store. The customer will get $10 Off on their next purchase, and the new customer will get a $10 Off discount code.
So, both the customer and the new customer will get the same discount, and $10 Off at their luxury winter sale is a big deal.
ColeHaan
ColeHaan offers shoes and other fashion accessories to people. “Give $25 and get $25 is the rule they follow at their eCommerce store. The existing customer will get $25 Off on their next purchase, and the new customer will get $25 Off on their first order.
Brilliant Earth
Brilliant Earth is a jewel store; they have set up a referral program so that the existing customers will get $100 Off on their next purchase, and the new customer will get a surprise gift when they complete their first order.
How to Set Up a Referral Program in WooCommerce?
To Set Up a Referral Program in WooCommerce you will require to use a referral plugin in WooCommerce like WPLoyalty. The following sections will walk you through the steps to set up a rewards program in WooCommerce, so you can retain customers and increase repeat sales.
We will be using the WPLoyalty plugin in this guide for creating an example referral program – Give 10 Get 10
In the reward program example, your existing customer (the referring person) will earn $10 for each successful referral. The friend will get $10
Launch WPLoyalty to Set Up a Referral Program and stimulate customers with exciting offers.
Step 1: Install and Activate WPLoyalty
Before we start, please make sure you have installed the WPLoyalty plugin and activated it. You can download the WPLoyalty plugin from your account.
A step-by-step guide for installing and activating the WPLoyalty plugin can be found in the documentation.
Once the installation is done, you will be directed to the WPLoyalty dashboard.
Step 2: Create Rewards(Coupons)
It would be best if you created the $10 reward before you created the referral campaign. WPLoyalty handles the campaigns and the rewards separately. So you first need to create the $10 reward.
WPLoyalty offers four different reward types:
- Fixed Discount
- Percentage Discount
- Free product
- Free shipping
You can choose any of the reward types. But for this guide, we are going to create a fixed reward of $10
Go to your WordPress dashboard -> WPLoyalty -> Rewards -> Create a reward and choose the “Fixed Discount” type.
Fill in the necessary details – Choose reward as coupon immediately – Choose the discount value as $10 and click on Save and Close.
Now that the fixed discount reward has been created, then create a referral campaign. Let’s see the steps further.
Step 3: Create a WooCommerce Referral Campaign
Go to your WordPress dashboard -> WPLoyalty -> Campaigns -> click on the “Create New Campaign” button. This will bring you a screen with different types of campaigns. Choose the “Referral” as the campaign.
For this referral program, we are going to reward both your existing customer as well as the new customer.
Create a Referral Campaign by filling out the details as shown in the screenshot below and clicking on Save and Close.
When creating the campaign, choose “coupon reward” as the type of reward for Existing Customers and also for the New Customer / friend. In the coupon reward field, choose the “Get $10 off” reward you created on Step 2. Save and activate the campaign.
Step 4: Customer’s Page
It’s now time to let your existing customers discover your referral program.
WPLoyalty provides two options for your existing customers to discover your referral program
- A“Customer Reward” page
- A chat like Launcher widget
Your customers can get their unique referral link from these two options.
1. Customer Rewards Page:
WPLoyalty automatically creates a Customer’s rewards page under the My Account section of WooCommerce.
Your existing customers can login to their account page (My Account) and go to the “Points and Rewards” (a.k.a Customer Reward page) to get their unique referral link.
2. Launcher Widget
Launcher Widget helps your customers to easily discover the rewards they have earned and various ways to redeem their reward. Also, this chat-like widget is available on the page so it’s easy for customers to keep track of their rewards.
Your customers can click on the ‘My Rewards’ button that is at the bottom right corner of the page. Customers can look out for their rewards and use it on their future purchases.
Once the new customer makes a purchase successfully, the referral and the referee will get the $10 fixed discount reward. Your customers can use this $10 reward on their next purchases.
Social-Share Rewards (Optional)
To make the referral program work even easier, you can create a social shares campaign and allow customers to share it easily via WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, and Email. Customers can do this by clicking on the social media logo.
To know how the social media share campaign works, let us guide you through one of the social media campaigns (WhatsApp).
Visit the WPLoyalty site – Click on campaigns – WhatsApp share – Fill in the details and Click on save and close.
You can reward customers with points for sharing the referral link on WhatsApp. For instance, ‘Share the referral link on WhatsApp and Get 10 points’.
Share Message: The message customers send to their friends, and you must add a referral short code to share the referral link, as shown in the screenshot below.
Once the social media campaign is created, your customers will see a logo below the referral link. By clicking on the logo, your customers can share the link with their friends and family.
Encourage Customers to participate in your Referral Program by launching WPLoyalty.
Conclusion
Referrals are trustworthy, and they will definitely build trust in your brand. People usually shop when their friends or family suggest a product. Woocommerce Referral programs will help you acquire new customers; on the other hand, they will retain your old ones.
To run the best ecommerce store, every brand needs the best WooCommerce plugin. Like cream in ice creams or jam in bread, it’s all about having the best plugin for your eCommerce store. So, set up a referral program and give a reason to your customer to stick with your brand, which is very much necessary.
To get an idea of how to reward customers for referrals, read from the blog. Click here
To understand more about what a customer reward program is, Click here
To offer a rewards program, you must be aware of WooCommerce points and rewards plugin. Click here to get an idea.
You will need a WooCommerce Referral Plugin like WPLoyalty to create a referral program in WooCommerce. WPLoyalty – Points, and Rewards for WooCommerce provide a complete set of referral marketing features. Through this, you can reward your referral and the referee with exciting discounts and deals.
Creating a referral program in WooCommerce will require a plugin like WPLoyalty. Once installed and activated, create a referral campaign using WPLoyalty and launch the referral program for your customers. The plugin automatically tracks the referrals and rewards customers for successful referrals.
Please install and activate the WPLoyalty plugin for WooCommerce and then create a referral campaign. Once the referral campaign is published, your customers will get a unique referral code and link to refer their friends and family to your store. You can also set up rewards for successful referrals using WPLoyalty.
The four types of referrals are – Direct referrals (word of mouth marketing), Email referrals, Incentive-based referrals, and social media referrals.
You can set up a referral link by installing a referral plugin like WPLoyalty. Then, create rewards and referral campaigns to get a unique referral link for each customer.
You can reward a referral with points, a fixed discount or percentage discount, freebies, or free shipping. Install the WPLoyalty plugin in your WooCommerce store and start creating a referral program. WPLoyalty supports all the above reward types.
The four key referral elements are authenticity, connection, consent, and follow-up.
Many stores have set up referral programs, and most of them have succeeded in it. Customers tend to trust the recommendations of their close friends or families rather than advertisements.
