These are awesome releases! RSU is crushing it in 2016! Facebook sharing and Refund Referrals have the ability to have a BIG impact on our business and we’re really excited to test them out. We also like the idea of arming the participant with a Coupon Code to try and get their friends to sign up. We already do this as grassroots marketing with certain people in each city but this gives us the ability to do it in large scale!
– Night Nation Run
We are happy to announce a major upgrade to our referral program. We have supported Referral Tracking for over 2 years – allowing races to see which people are referring the most other participants. We are now making it simple to reward people who refer, incent the people they are trying to attract to your event, and more powerful referral mechanisms.
Specifically, there are four main components to this upgrade:
- Automated Refunds Rewards for Referrers
- Automated Coupons for Referrers to attract their friends
- Enhanced Share capabilities, such as powerful Friend Tagging on Facebook
- Integrated Email Marketing
Automated Refund Rewards for Referrers
We offer complete flexibility to set up your own rules for motivating Referrers. For example, you can set up a $2 refund for each new participant the referrer attracts. Or set a threshold of 5 registrations and then give the referrer $20. You can also set a minimum amount so you do not “over-refund” a referrer.
Refunds are automatically credited against their original transaction – so there is no worrying about doing checks or PayPal transfers. And RunSignup is making these refunds absolutely free of any processing fee (we usually charge $1 for refunds).
Automated Coupons
You can now give registrants a unique coupon code for them to share with their friends and family. You set a coupon amount (say $5) and an expiration for X hours after the registration. This gives the referrer something to offer to their friends, and sets a deadline for registration – say 72 hours – to drive registrations.
The coupons are generated at the time of registration. They are set up as sub-coupons so you can track the performance and ROI of all of the referral coupons together.
New Sharing, with Facebook Friend Tagging
We have redesigned the pop-up registrants see upon checkout (and given you some options for how this looks). The new Pop-up gives registrants more options for sharing – Facebook, Email, Twitter. It has a stronger “Call to Action” that tells the registrant the Refund Rewards they can receive if they get friends to sign up, as well as the special Coupon offers their friends will receive.
We have also implemented a new Facebook features (we had to apply for special approval with Facebook to enable this feature) that allows for Friend Tagging. This makes sure the invitation is seen by friends.
Email Marketing
You can also remind participants to encourage referrals by sending them customized emails with their personal referral code in the email. Set up a new time-limited coupon code for them to share for each email so you can track the ROI effectiveness of the email blast.
Summary
Coupled with the new Team Size Discount and automated refund, this is a great capability to get increased participation for your race by encouraging viral marketing.