Popular and famous examples:
1: Dropbox permanently increased signups by 60%, with users sending 2.8 million direct referral invites in April 2010.
Details:
- Dropbox was using traditional online marketing methods including SEM and affiliate marketing that were generating a $288-$388 cost per acquisition (CPA) in highly competitive space with Mozy, Carbonite, etc.
- This wasn’t working because their product is a $99/year product – the math doesn’t work.
- They switched to a double-sided incentive program inspired by Paypal’s $10 give/get referral program.
- Instead of cash though they gave extra storage space to both the referrer and the referred friend upon sign-up
- Permanently increased sign-ups by 60%
- Users sent 2.8 million direct referral invites in April 2010
- In Sept. 2008 the service had 100,000 registered users
- In Jan 2010 (15 mos.) the service had 4,000,000
- 35% of daily sign-ups are via the referral program
- No traditional ad spend
2: Referrals helped PayPal get 7 to 10% daily growth, catapulting their user base to over 100 million members.
According to David O Sacks, original COO and product leader of Paypal, Paypal used to literally pay people to invite their friends. It turned out to be a better marketing ROI. Once they achieved a critical mass of early adopters they dropped the Refer-A-Friend bonus, but they kept it for Merchants. This allowed PayPal to grow like crazy. They dropped the Merchant bonus too, once they reached their target numbers.
3: Airbnb.
“Airbnb created a referral program to offer travel credit to existing customers for each friend that booked a trip or posted their own place and received a booking. The program launched in a private beta to 2,161 existing members and brought in 2,107 new members, nearly achieving a viral growth factor of 1.” [Source]
4: Uber.
Simple enough! The bar at the bottom is a cunning little piece of gamification. Everybody wants to fill up bars. (Also, gotta love the suits that they put you and your friend in.)
5: Spotify
Spotify’s referral program is one-sided, benefiting only the referrer. I suppose it means that they really believe in the intrinsic value of their product: Everybody likes free music, but there’s usually some inertia associated with switching. A friend’s recommendation can help change that.
6: Evernote
Evernote has a dual-sided referral incentive program that gives people additional space and/or Premium membership.
Here’s a blogpost that Evernote wrote about their referral program: http://blog.evernote.com/blog/2013/09/16/earn-rewards-for-sharing-evernote-with-friends/
Multiplayer Games:
Referral programs really shine in video games. Having your friends play with you tends to enhance your gameplay experience. It feels more social- you can hang out with your friends in the game world instead of in real life.7: League Of Legends.
If you click through the link, check out the snazzy badges! Video games have always understood how to play up that development/growth dynamic.
8: World of Warcraft.
Interesting use of language. You RECRUIT a friend. You’ll get free game time when a friend signs up, which is pretty lucrative. You save money.
Here’s a blogpost that explores World of Warcraft’s referral program in greater detail: Bad-Ass Referral Programs: World of Warcraft.
9: Neopets.
10: Heroes of Newerth
Here’s a whole list of games that use refer a friend programs: http://massively.joystiq.com/tag/recruit-a-friend/
11: ShortStack
12: DigitalOcean
13: SpiderOak
Really pretty, stylish interface!
14: Eventbrite
15: Skimlinks
Love the strong copy and the balloon visuals. Gives a sense of “elevation”.
16: Marin Software
That’s a lot of money!
17: Box
18: Zopim
Beautiful interface!
19: Elance
Simple and straightforward. They use the term “qualified referral”.
20: MediaTemple
Nice double-barrelled program. Cute visual and clear call-to-action.
21: FatCow
22: iStockPhoto
“Our way of saying thanks for spreading the love” is a nice way to describe a referral program, making sure it doesn’t seem clinical and salesy.
23: Lunatik
Lunatik’s referral program is a little more “involved” than most. It’s more accurately described as an “ambassador” program, looking for greater commitment from its participants, with a greater payoff. This sort of system works better with more “intense” brands that would-be ambassadors enjoy being associated with.
24: Zoho Mail
A Dropbox-style referral system that adds additional capacity to the product.
25: Pond5.com
26: Hubspot
27: Autotask
28: Copy.com
“Make it rain gigabytes.”
29: Linode
30: RefAround
RefAround is a referral matchmaker site. This is perhaps the most interesting thing in this blogpost- while it doesn’t have a referral program of its own, the site essentially aggregates offers from active referral programs. This wouldn’t be feasible until a certain critical mass of referral programs is reached, so it’s compelling evidence for the pervasiveness of referral programs.
Maybe we’ll end with that?
Here are some other sites that have referral programs:
31: softlayer.com/partners/referral/
32: widen.com/customer-referral-program/
33: iloveubuntu.net/ubuntu-edge-referral-contest-continues-four-days-still-available-participation
34: interactivebrokers.com/en/software/am/am/manageaccount/trader_referral.htm
35: teamworkpm.net/referralprogram
36: flightfox.com/referrals
37: toodledo.com/referal.php
38:audiojungle.net/make_money/affiliate_program
39:usenetserver.com/en/referralprogram.php
40:asme.org/about-asme/professional-membership/asme-referral-drive
41: zenfolio.com/zf/tools/links.aspx
42:smartsheet.com/referral-rewards
43: ipage.com/referral/
44: help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93326
45: sugarsync.com/faq/referral_program.html
46: sponsoredtweets.com/tweeters/referral-program/
47: neustar.biz/about-us/partner-programs/referral
And many, many, many more. This barely even scratches the surface. Countless gyms, yoga classes, banks and other service providers have referral programs. Even the US Army has a referral program of sorts. There are probably tens of thousands of referral programs in the world, if not more. Why? Because they work.
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