The Executive's No-Nonsense Guide to Referral Marketing

If you polled a group of marketing leaders and asked them to name their favorite type of lead, one response would stand out: Referrals.

Truth is, research has repeatedly shown that referred leads close faster, buy more, and stay longer — all with significantly less effort and at a much lower CPA than non-referred prospects. In fact, a University of Pennsylvania study found that referred customers are more loyal and profitable — by a 16% margin — than their non-referred counterparts. And our own research (a 2016 survey of 2,000 Americans conducted by Harris Poll) revealed that 82% of Americans seek recommendations from friends and family when considering a purchase.

Referrals aren’t just the channel-of-choice for consumers, either.

New research from HubSpot found that 60% of decision makers rely on word-of-mouth, friends, and referrals when making purchasing decisions for business software — the highest percentage of any channel cited in HubSpot’s survey. And a recent study of B2B customers using Ambassador's platform showed the powerful results B2B referral programs can create. Here's a snapshot of the data we pulled from that research: 

Thing is, you probably already knew referrals were incredibly valuable. The question is, do you have a strategy in place to track and measure them? Are you modeling your program — if you have one at all — after proven best practices? And are you leveraging the right technologies to optimize your campaigns, scale your program, and drive referral ROI as high as possible?

Learn how Ambassador can help you with its referral marketing software solution.