Companies are using Rewardful in a variety of ways to grow their business via word-of-mouth marketing. The most common programs are:
Customer referral programs
Public affiliate programs
Influencer marketing programs
Partner marketing (platforms, integrations, complimentary services, etc.)
Note: you can run multiple (or all) of these programs using the Multiple Campaigns feature on the Growth plan.
Depending on the program you intend to run, the approach to recruiting people to your program will differ.
The most common source of affiliates and advocates are your existing customers. Some companies start by segmenting out their most engaged users and inviting them to join their referral program.
You can invite all your existing customers right off the bat. However, you could also invite your customers to join at specific moments:
Right after they initially sign up (as they’re near their peak of excitement)
After hitting an initial success point (ie. key milestone in their customer lifecycle)
After completing a Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey
After renewing
Outside of your existing customers, there’s several great ways to generate affiliates for your company. Some examples include:
Post a link in your marketing site's footer (or top navigation)
Reach out to your network and friends
Reach out to relevant bloggers or journalists in your industry
Search relevant keywords in Google and reach out to the top-ranked sites
Post your program on your social networks
Reach out to influencers in your market
Join affiliate groups on LinkedIn/Facebook and engage with the members
Cross-promotion / partnerships with complimentary solutions (ie. Send to their email list or refer when the customer expresses a relevant painpoint.)
In summary, where can I find affiliates?
Your existing customers
Post a link in your marketing site's footer
Post a link in your email signature(s)
Post a link in your transactional emails
Reach out to your network and friends
Reach out to relevant bloggers or journalists in your industry
Search relevant keywords in Google and reach out to the top-ranked sites
Post your program on your social networks
Reach out to influencers in your market
Join affiliate groups on LinkedIn/Facebook and engage with the members
Cross-promotion / partnerships with complimentary solutions
Recruiting your ideal/dream affiliates
One of the most important things to understand about landing your dream influencer is that they generally won’t organically come to you and signup inbound. Just like landing your dream customers, you often need to reach out and convince them it’s a good fit.
Take a few minutes to jot down the top influencers in your industry.
Some Ideal Affiliate criteria are:
Similar or overlapping audience
Complimentary product or service
Existing users or customers that have a huge audience
Make a list or spreadsheet of the top 20-50 influential people in your industry that would be your dream affiliates. After you’ve mapped this out, you should begin finding potential ways to build a relationship with these people and recruit them to your program.
Be patient and keep working hard on recruiting affiliates. It can take several months for your program to ramp, but it’ll soon have a multiplier effect on your sales as one affiliate can generate several customers for you.