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Importance of Customers and Referral Marketing

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As marketing technology continues to evolve we're seeing a bigger shift towards more customer-focused marketing products and platforms. Companies are using personalized in-app messaging and referral programs to create better product experiences for their customers.

This shift is due to companies wanting to incorporate more one-to-one relationships with their customers instead of the traditional one-to-many approach. The marketing technology available today makes it possible to scale up these campaigns. Where before personalization and managing customer referrals was a highly manual and capital intensive process.

Personalized In-App Messaging

Think about it, what makes your product or service stand out from the rest of the products a customer interacts with everyday? Sure the ultimate value they get from your business is important, but if you're trying to show them your value and become part of their digital life it becomes challenging.

That's where personalization comes in, by adding in user attributes or sending messages based off of particular actions you can increase the activation and retention rates for your campaigns.

intercom app messenger
source: https://www.intercom.com/

Examples of great personalization are from products like Intercom where their platform can be used to start a conversation with users based off activity or inactivity inside an app. This helps create those ideal 1:1 customer interactions that users respect and will help make your product stand out from your competition.

intercom messenger
source: https://www.intercom.com/

Rewarding Positive Word of Mouth

Another way companies are moving towards customer-centric marketing is by implementing referral programs. This rewards customers who are fans of your product/service and need that extra incentive to start telling their friends about your company.

The reason programs like these work so well is that the rewards are double-sided, which puts both parties on the same level. Many consumers aren't interested in becoming a third-party salesman for your company.

Another reason these invitations have high conversion rates is the personal nature of a referral. The referrer is transferring the trust their friends have in them to your product or service.

reward user behavior
source: referralsaasquatch.com

When a user decides they want to make a referral for your company you have to make that experience as smooth as possible. The user is already taking time out of their day to do you a favor, so why would you make them jump through extra pages, sign-up forms, etc. just to make a referral.

Successful referral programs embed right inside the product in order to reduce the amount of work a user has to do to make a referral. Which leads to higher user engagement, referrals and conversions for the referral program.

referral program example 2015
source: referralsaasquatch.com

Customer-focused marketing products and platforms are helping companies create better product experiences for their customers. Whether it's with referral marketing programs or personalized in-app messaging the goal is ultimately the same thing - Make a product or service your customers will love.