While several Referral metrics can be tracked within Okendo (see here for more info), the Referral Conversion Rate and Coupon Redemption Rate are the two metrics that merchants have the most control over.
Referral Conversion Rate
Defined as the number of recipients that made purchases using a referral coupon divided by total referral links clicked in a selected period, shown as a percentage. A benchmark to aim for is a 6% - 8% referral conversion rate. (Note: In the Okendo admin this is further broken down into Email and URL conversion metrics)
Coupon Redemption Rate
This tracks the percentage of coupons redeemed by Referrers and Recipients in a selected period.
In this article, we'll cover:
Optimizations
1. Effective Program Configuration
While setting up your referral program within Okendo is a very simple process, there are a few settings that require a bit of strategy.
Ensure that your referral sender and referral recipient rewards are attractive
For recipients, the reward should be greater than your newsletter signup so that they are incentivized to engage with the referral instead. This is because referred customers have better conversion and retention rates than first-time customers signing up for a newsletter.
Enable the marketing consent setting to acquire as many new contacts to your list as possible. This will allow you to nurture your newly referred customers and run remarketing campaigns for them as well.
Ensure the right permissions have been granted for Okendo to sync data to and from Shopify.
2. Branding
On-brand Referral widgets and emails help encourage more engagement from customers. Below are a few examples of styling considerations that should be made when configuring your widget.
Add a banner image that includes your logo or fits your brand.
Use copy that matches your brand’s tone and voice. This keeps the referral and shopping experiences consistent and coherent across your site.
Configure the widget’s colors and fonts to match your store’s branding. This further helps provide a cohesive experience for users since it makes the widget feel like it’s truly part of your site.
3. On-Site Promotion
Your online store is where both referral senders and referral recipients will interact with your program. With that in mind, to increase engagement and encourage referral conversions, it is important to make sure your referral widget is easy to find:
Add a link to your Navigation and/or footer
By linking to your referral widget in your site navigation and/or the footer, you provide an easily discoverable and persistent way for customers to interact with your program (see more here).
Create a referral widget popup
Use any link or button to trigger the referral widget in a popup by adding a snippet of CSS (see more here).
Enable the post-checkout referral module (Shopify Plus only)
The post-checkout referral module allows shoppers to make a referral immediately after completing a purchase. This high-engagement option takes advantage of Shopify Plus’s checkout extensibility feature and allows Okendo to embed the referral form directly into the Shopify thank you page.
4. Post-Review Module
Unique to Okendo, the post-review referral module makes it easy to solicit referrals immediately after a customer leaves a review. Installing this module is as simple as clicking a few buttons in the Response Form menu and can be configured with a star-rating threshold so that only positive reviews (and presumably happy customers) are shown on the referral form. See more here for our article and a walkthrough video of this feature.
5. Promote Referrals via Owned Marketing Channels
By leveraging your owned channels (email, SMS, push notifications), you can further spread awareness and drive engagement with your referral program. Follow the recommendations below to drive as much traffic as possible to your referral's widget.
Announcement Campaign
This tactic of announcing your referral program is great if you’re new to Referrals and just launching your program. It allows you to target your engaged customers and turn them into brand advocates.
Email header/footer
Similar to adding a link in your website nav and/or footer, this is a persistent way to promote your referrals program in nearly any email that your team sends.
Evergreen content block
By creating an evergreen content block, you can easily promote referrals in any email campaign. This can be added to campaigns at your marketing team’s discretion and/or can be configured to display conditionally based on whether or not a customer has already signed up for your referral program.
Coupon Reminders (Klaviyo)
As we know, it’s very easy to get distracted online–this is especially true for online shopping. By creating a coupon reminder in Klaviyo, you not only have a chance to get a referred shopper back to your website but also increase your odds of the shopper converting by being able to directly share their coupon code with them (Note you can follow the steps outlined here, but use the "Received Okendo Referral Coupon" event instead).
Target Happy Customers
Klaviyo and Attentive are both powerful tools for creating lists and segments. Based on review responses and/or NPS responses, you can target your happiest customers via Email or SMS to solicit referrals (learn more here).