With the upcoming technological upgrades, trend of online shopping has increased a lot. Due to this, the customer trust has declined. It is because of the absence of product in a physical form in front of the customer before buying. The customers may expect much more from the product and the product may fail to deliver. This may result in a business failure. On the other hand, it can grow very fast if someone mentions your product with their family members and friends in as a good experience. Companies also get services of custom mobile app development agencies to get their mobile apps so that they can promote referral programs from the apps. The business flourishes when a happy customer gives a good feedback. It is advised to get the customers to give a feedback or refer the product at any forum. Referral from a trusted person may turn many reluctant customers in the favor of a product.
This trend is also observed in the app market. The demand of an app goes up significantly upon referrals from loyal customers. Here are a few examples to prove the importance of referral in an app world:
- DropBox:
Dropbox has set a standard in the competitive market with a growth rate of 3900%. The reason behind such drastic growth is their referral program.
Dropbox started by offering a free 500MB space to the referrer and the referred if the referred person started using their app upon the referrer’s request. This is known as reciprocal incentive in the customer department. The company offered the customer with an incentive to motivate them to refer their products to their friends and family members.
- Airbnb:
Airbnb also adopted the double sided referral program by offering the referrer and the referred a 25 dollars travel credit, which was only available after the referred person completed his first trip. This ensured that their marketing strategy will not be misused by some customers. In addition to that, they offered 75 dollars credit the referred person hosted any guest for the very first time. This strategy yielded in doubling of their customers in a very small time frame.
- Uber:
Uber also followed the trend of double sided referral scheme and offered a 5 dollar cash incentive to the drivers for every new rider. They gave promotional code to each of their driver which they forwarded to their riders. When the rider referred the promotional code to their friends, they get rebate on their rides upon successful referral.
All these marketing examples showed how the company used referral strategies to boost their app downloads. However, there are a few points that must be considered before launching the app referral strategy in the market.
- To establish a customer base, always do some research on the company’s loyal and frequent customers. This category of the customers should be targeted.
- It’s a human nature to get attracted towards the incentives that are offered for free or on a rebate. Always adopt double sided referral programs to motivate the customers into referring your app.
- Always conduct a survey about when the number of downloads increase and offer your referrals during that time frame. Advertising on media helps a lot as well.
