How to Optimize Your Referral Program

Zaps. The word itself ignites a spark, especially if it's referencing a way to simplify your marketing workload. If you're a busy marketer looking for a way to optimize your referral marketing workflow, keep reading for how to automate tasks so you can focus your time and energy on what matters most.

Zapier + Ambassador: A Powerful Way to Optimize Your Referral Program

Zapier connects the apps you use everyday to automate your work. Basically, you can use Zapier to connect Ambassador with your favorite third-party applications. From newsletter software to billing applications and Salesforce and HubSpot, these integrations keep your referral program running smoothly while seamlessly syncing data between your platforms.

So what are the best, most useful zaps to keep your referral program humming? Here are my top five zaps to optimize your referral marketing program. You might actually be able to grow your program, engage brand ambassadors, AND have enough time to grab a coffee!

1. Referral Program + Email Marketing

This zap lets you easily add referral program members to a segmented list in your email marketing system. Keeping the program top of mind is key to keeping your referral program’s engagement high. As an added bonus, bring each of your ambassador’s unique share links into a field to be dynamically populated into your engagement emails. This shortcut will allow you to provide an immediate way for your ambassadors to share your brand.

2. New Brand Ambassadors + Website Subscribers

Use a form powered by your marketing automation system to create new subscribers.
By customizing and automating a landing page form on your site, you can keep traffic on your site, while providing a seamless experience for new members signing up for your program. Manually adding ambassadors into the system is not scalable. By automating the process, you allow your team to focus on the things that matter, like engaging and measuring the progress of your referral program.

3. Member Activity + Referral Program Management

Help the entire team be more efficient by posting a Slack channel message whenever  ambassadors take specific actions within your referral program. Why? Keep a pulse on your program and internally celebrate the milestones of your program, while also giving the team running your ambassador program an immediate way to see who is making an impact on your program and reach out to those ambassadors to keep the engagement up.

4. Data + Referral Campaign Analytics

With this recipe, you can capture event related data in a spreadsheet to create your own custom reporting machine. By using our webhooks to track specific metrics in a spreadsheet tailored exactly to what you want to see, you can quickly filter, share, and optimize based on your unique needs. Additionally, using this zap allows you to run limited time campaigns alongside your main campaigns, as well as reward for events that you may not want to reward for long term. These could be things like ‘most shares’, or driving signups for the Ambassador program itself. This can help to boost engagement during key sales cycles, promotional events, and new product launches.

5. Automate Referral Payouts + Custom Workflows

This zap puts you in control to trigger commissions within Ambassador with custom workflows. We understand and work with many companies that have very complex use cases, and sometimes, that means an out-of-the-box solution is not the answer. By using Zapier with Ambassador, you can trigger commissions for custom workflows, allowing you to send a bonus commission in circumstances beyond our single and recurring-event commission structure, without requiring additional campaigns.

Zaps for Referral Program Success

No matter what other apps you use, chances are Ambassador integrates with them via Zapier. Here are a list of popular Zapier integrations that users utilize to be more productive.

Have other great zaps to share? Tweet me at @ambassador and I'll share them with our readers!