How To Build A SaaS Referral Program? - A Stepwise Guide

SaaS referral programs are interesting to build and at the same time some amount of effort is also required. However, there is a way to build a SaaS referral program which you can follow. But, before moving on to building programs one should be thorough about the basics of it.

With the simple process given below, you can try building a SaaS program for yourself. Whether it is a business or for any other purpose it will make your work much easier.

Steps To Build A SaaS Referral Program?
Step 1. Customers Should Be Motivated To Share Your Product Or Service
Step 2. Know What Your SaaS Referral Program Should Be About
Step 3. Decide Your Incentive
Step 4. Choosing The Right Referral Tool
Step 5. Outlining Terms and Conditions
Step 6. Promoting Your SaaS Referral Program
Step 7. Track Your Results
Conclusion
FAQs

Steps To Build A SaaS Referral Program?

Step 1. Customers Should Be Motivated To Share Your Product Or Service

Satisfied customers are the reason for a business or a service to sustain and flourish in the market. So, your business or your service should satisfy them and let them share about your business with others. But, how does this contribute to building a successful SaaS referral program?

Well, you should have the perfect business to attract customers and customers should be happy with your service. Incentives and rewards do attract customers but customers will not refer your SaaS product to their personal network until and unless they are satisfied with your service.

You can start by conducting research or online reviews so that you gain some data about what customers think about your product. By doing this you will be able to gain in-depth data and accordingly, you can take necessary actions.

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Step 2. Know What Your SaaS Referral Program Should Be About

Do not be confused because this is something almost similar to an elevator pitch. An elevator pitch is something that you propose an idea in front of someone within 20-30 seconds. Similarly, your referral program should be something that should grab the attention of the customers.

However, you should try to keep your referral messaging short and to the point. Given below are some examples that you can try out.

• Try to get 16 GB of free space by inviting your friends to Dropbox
• Also do not forget to invite friends on Evernote
• Refer as many friends as possible so that you can earn rewards

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Step 3. Decide Your Incentive

Businessmen would want customers to share their products with as many people as possible. But, this does not happen in the real world. This is when you decide to give incentives that will make your referral program much easier.

Do not go for incentives that will make the customers uninterested and boring but try to bring something new and catchy to make customers share your product. Given below are some ideas that you can try out.

• 50% discount on your next bill
• Free upgrade (premium version)
• Cash credits (example $50 to offset next bill when a friend signs up)

Step 4. Choosing The Right Referral Tool

There are several tools that you may come across for referral marketing. Most of these tools are great but you should find out the most suitable one for you. Tools are used to set up programs manually and this helps a lot. But, in order to track down the effectiveness of your program tools are necessary for doing the job. Some tools that you can try considering are Growsurf, ReferralHero, and Viral Loops.

Step 5. Outlining Terms and Conditions

It is important to make certain conditions while creating a SaaS referral program so that bases are covered. Customers will be looking at it and they will see whether you are ready to make referral bonuses. If a referral done by a person has been done successfully then the person can turn into a customer.

Other than these you would also want to make sure to specify the people who are eligible for referral bonuses. People should know beforehand about the offers that you want to make to them.

Step 6. Promoting Your SaaS Referral Program

Building a SaaS referral program successfully is not the end of it. There is something that you need to do and that is ‘PROMOTIONS’. You can take the help of social media to promote your referral program so that a large number of people will know about it.

There are several ways you can promote your referral program. For example, given below are some methods you can use.

• Send in-app messages to your customers.
• Use Facebook to promote your referral program
• Take the help of other social media like Reddit

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Step 7. Track Your Results

Without tracking the results you will not be able to judge your growth. Therefore, it is important to track and as well as to measure your results. First of all, you have to think about how you can track your results. You can take the help of some popular metrics systems for tracking.

Some of the most popular metrics include the following things.

• Percentage of people who have become referrers
• The percentage of the numbers of referrals sent
• Conversion rates like conversion of sign-ups through referrals

There are many more metrics that you should be able to think of based on your goals and targets. Make sure that your goals and target are met because that is what you have been working for.

Conclusion

In the end, you need to make sure that the referral program that you created is a success. Success should be in any senses not just focussing only on one thing. The next thing after building a SaaS referral program you should try out advanced level techniques for referring your services and products.

FAQs

What are the four elements that I should consider while building a referral program?

The four elements that you should consider are:

• Offers
• Communication
• Execution
• Supportive Programming

How to create an effective referral?

There are various ways that you can create a referral quite effectively. Focus on what the customers would want and accordingly, you can drive them to make your referrals effective.

What are the examples of SaaS referral programs?

Some of tools for SaaS referral programs are:

• Dropbox
• Evernote
• Shoeboxed
• Notion
• Drift