Using SMS referral campaigns is one of the easiest and most effective ways to grow your database. Why? Well, let’s talk a little theory and then we’ll get into the practical side and how SAM by Textmunication supports your referral initiatives using the most popular form of communication today, SMS messaging.
What is referral marketing?
Referral marketing really started with word of mouth which is the nucleus of our social interactions. Word of mouth has always sort of been one of those immeasurable tactics for marketing teams because without the proper toolkit, how was it possible to put performance metrics around those valuable phonetics? Referral marketing is one of the greatest ways to drive sales and conversions especially after a positive brand experience. Those positive brand experiences become reputable and that drives consumers to share those experiences with their friends, who are other like-minded consumers. Like they say, birds of a feather flock together. Also referred consumers also convert at a higher rate than some of the leads you are currently trying to win the attention over.
What are SMS referral campaigns?
SMS referral campaigns is a SMS-based campaign model that allows to send a SMS campaign to specific mobile subscribers. Then it gives those recipients the ability to refer a friend, family member or colleague right in the palm of their hands. Another important aspect to referral campaigns is data selection. That means you are given full control of the fields that your referral recipients see when they are entering that special someone they are referring to your business.
You can include data points such as first name, last name, email, phone number, birthday, city, state, country, age, occupation and more! Then the amazing thing about having all those data points is you can further your target ability based on those specific categories. Pretty sweet huh?
This referral campaign feature is actually available right now on SAM by Textmunication. Just to get a little more concrete you can see how easy the referral set up is. You can check out this how to how to video that our team created which will show you how it is done. It really is a simple step by step process to incentivize your current subscribers so they can help you grow your database.
Ways you can incentivize referral campaigns?
Now you know what a referral campaign is and also know what a SMS referral campaign is. The next step is always finding a valuable incentive to get them motivated enough. Here is a list that we have seen working with our clients and doing some market research:
- Offer the referrer a gift card
- Offer the referrer a discount on a product
- Offer the referrer a discount on a service
- Offer the referrer a credit or code
- Offer the referrer something free
- Offer the referrer some branded merchandise
The goal is to create micro-influencers out of your subscriber base. Again positive brand experiences are contagious so make sure that you are implementing a referral experience to catch and use it as a synergy to improve your reach and potential to communicate with more like-minded subscribers.
Want to try our referral campaign feature on SAM by Textmunication? Click here to get started.