Today’s loyalty programs really focus on three things:
1. Getting customers to buy more
2. Guy customers to buy more often
3. As a result of 1&2, increasing the overall lifetime value of a customer
Referral programs encourage customers to drive more word-of-mouth. In exchange for their referrals, they get discounts, cash or free products.
But what about social sharing?
There is a lot of value in getting people simply to:
a. Share your page with others
b. Connect with you on social
c. Tweet about you
d. +1 you (to be honest, I’m not seeing the value in that, yet, but Google promises there will be)
e. Invite friends
However, few marketers are actually incentivizing that behavior. Now, I just came from Zuberance, a SaaS solution for driving advocacy via social recommendations, so yes, @robfuggetta, I do believe that a company’s biggest advocates don’t need to be incentivized. But what about everyone else? You’ve got them to your door, why not nudge them (just a bit) to do more?
If you don’t agree, consider the above actions again:
a. Share your page with others: What do you pay-per-click to drive that very same traffic? What’s your CPM just to get your brand in front of others?
b. Connect with you on social: How much effort do you have to go through to get someone to sign-up to receive anything from you? Not to mention, the opportunity with social goes well beyond email and, for goodness sakes, snail mail. Social works so well because you are connected to your users in REAL TIME and if you’ve done your job well, THEIR social networks. In fact, Ad Age did a study that shows posts get 2X the clicks and conversion from posts shared by their friends than brand initiated posts.
c. Tweet about you: Again, I don’t think I need to repeat myself. Twitter drives impressions and high click volume because it’s a clicking medium. While conversion does seem to be lower overall, how many times have you actually paid to get someone to click and view your ad?
d. +1 you: If Google does it’s job right (and I by no means am a believer quite yet) search becomes social and then it will be about HOW you’re rated AND IF you’re rated that will impact those search rankings you’ve worked so hard for.
e. Invite friends: Alas, we are back to referral programs 101. Marketers have been doing it for years but it’s never had the reach it does now. Companies like Dropbox offer free storage to drive referrals, my housing development is offering $2500 cash if we get a friend to buy and lots of others offer other freebies, SWAG or discounts. BUT they usually only pay up if someone actually purchases, not for simply giving you a shout out.
So what can you do?
1. Start thinking beyond passive sharing. With a little nudge you’ll find a lot more of your users, visitors and customers will share pages and content if you offer them up something in return. Share widgets, while becoming more popular for sharing content, don’t exactly work for getting people to share product pages, websites, or to connect with on social channels.
2. Be creative with your rewards. No one said it had to be expensive. Offer up SWAG, donations to public charities or free upgrades or add-ons that actually increase usage and adoption (and thereby retention). It’s a win-win.
3. Measure it. It’s time to start measuring the value of social sharing, following and referrals like you do your other programs in order to understand the ROI and justify the costs. How many shares are you getting, how many fans and followers, how many inbound clicks? Put a value against that. Shares = impressions, fans and followers are worth the same you pay for an email address or lead, inbound click = CPC.
Net net, there’s value in a customer beyond what they buy. Social has made a consumers reach electronic and exponential. Stop looking at them with a $ sign and start looking at a shoe shopper (who maybe can’t afford that pair of boots right now) as someone whose value comes from sharing those boots with their girlfriends. But don’t expect something for nothing. This shopper may need some “convincing”. So give ‘em the opportunity to earn rewards. You get an opportunity to build a relationship with them (because if they earn, the odds are they’ll return) and you get to share a message with their network. You turned a passive shopper into an opt-in and an advertiser. Now THAT is worth paying for.
