I’m proud to announce that today, Inc. Magazine has ranked Ambassador Software no. 1144 in their 37th annual Inc. 5000, the most prestigious ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. 

Developing measurement, management, and analytics functionality in-house for an automated affiliate marketing program is certainly possible, but it requires a laborious process that typically involves many internal departments, especially your technical development team. In addition to the internal infrastructure and tools necessary to scale affiliate marketing, your manually managed program will require significant investments of time and resources.

Most savvy marketers today are driven by data. And the numbers don’t lie: eCommerce referral programs work. Having a referral program can help your brand keep up in an industry where word-of-mouth travels far and wide.

In most cases, the success of a business partner program is almost always driven by a scientific blend of quantity (how many partners you have) and relevance (what are you offering to partners for sharing your brand).

Affiliate management isn't an easy task. It's not about having a ton of members in your affiliate marketing program that may or may not share your links. It's not about having a popular influencer mention your product, which may or may not lead to conversions. It is all about developing the right relationships with the right types of affiliates. 

While not all effective referral programs yield the same results, there are some steps you can take to set your brand’s referral program up for success. Long story short, your goal is to help your brand ambassadors help you.

While affiliate marketing has been around since the early nineties, we are now seeing more and more companies getting smart about their affiliate program management. What exactly does this mean? Brands are taking affiliate marketing seriously as a means of customer acquisition. They are investing more in this strategy; they are spending more time and resources to understand best practices; and most importantly, they are shifting how they manage their campaigns.

With marketers adopting more personalized strategies, like nurturing via email workflows or developing a partner program, B2B buyers are looking beyond traditional methods of engagement and are pursuing building relationships with organizations.

The rising need for influencer marketing software that can keep up with digitally savvy marketers can no longer be ignored. With 92% of 18-to-34 year-olds saying they seek recommendations from friends and family when considering a product purchase1, it's no shock that leading-edge marketing teams across industries are leveraging an influencer marketing platform to automate and optimize this referral-generating channel.

A simple search query for "affiliate marketing tips" will, without a doubt, result in thousands and thousands of posts primarily directed towards affiliates. But what about marketers looking to employ affiliate marketing strategies to benefit their businesses?

Gaining new customers for your business can be an expensive challenge, but with these customer referral program ideas it doesn't have to be! Before we jump in, let's back up and talk about the benefits of referral marketing.

When it comes to increasing leads, how can brands ensure their B2B affiliate marketing program is driving pipeline growth? Here are three ways to leverage affiliates in your overall marketing strategy.

It’s no shock that more and more businesses are investing in referral marketing these days, but executing like marketers running the best referral programs out there is no easy task. Especially since numerous research has shown that a well-executed referral program has the power to fuel higher conversion rates than any other channel1. 

Word-of-mouth marketing has been impacting businesses for as long as commerce has been around. Especially today, with the prevalence of social media and mobile technology, a brand’s products and services - and value - are a reflection of what customers have to say about them. This is why, now more than ever, it is crucial for marketers to understand and harness the power of authentic relationships through word-of-mouth marketing strategies.

Before starting Ambassador in 2009, I founded a company in the affiliate marketing space. I quickly discovered companies were generating millions and millions of dollars through their affiliate channels. It was eye-opening, and since then, I've known that affiliate marketing is a must-have for every business.

Imagine for a second that you’re planning a dinner party. You want to expand your social circle, so you send your invitations far and wide - friends of friends, past colleagues, former neighbors, etc. The RSVPs are just the brink of your event planning process. Since you want to create a foundation for future friendships, you have to show everyone a good time once they walk through your door. 

My first taste of an affiliate marketing program came with law school and online poker. While not the most common cocktail when it comes to word-of-mouth marketing strategies, I saw the network effect firsthand. I was referring friends to play poker online and making a small amount in affiliate fees. As I continued to share my affiliate links, that small amount doubled, tripled, and eventually grew to be enough to pay off my law school loans, shift my career path, and kick off my journey as an ...

When most people think of a social media influencer platform, they assume it involves finding bloggers with massive followings and buying social endorsements from big celebrities. Research shows, however, that it’s more effective to build relationships with the right micro-influencers and invest in an influencer marketing platform that allows for end-to-end campaign management - not just parts and pieces.

Did you know 98.6% of people that visit your website leave without taking action? You can’t expect every single visitor to buy what you’re selling every single time they hop onto your site, but with a few tweaks, you can encourage visitors to stay a little longer, click through a bit more, and put some extra items in their shopping cart.

As a company that is built on the importance of relationships, Ambassador is humbled and excited to be included in the G2 Crowd's Spring 2018 Grid® Report for Brand Advocacy as well as mentioned in the Relationship Index for Brand Advocacy.

Relationship marketing refers to everything your brand does to develop strong, lifelong relationships with your customers. From influencer programs to referral campaigns to affiliate marketing, relationship marketing builds brand awareness and positions your brand as your customers best option. The most important part of relationship marketing is facilitating two-way conversations with your customers.

Are you simply dipping your toe into influencer marketing or are you ready for an influencer management platform to scale your program? Whether you just sent out your first tweet to an influencer you'd like to work with or you're searching for the perfect influencer marketing platform vendor partner, we can agree on one thing: The importance of including influencer marketing in your overall marketing strategy.

When it comes to building out successful affiliate marketing programs, one of the trickiest elements is finding the right affiliates who value your product as much as you do. Sure, you can sign up for an affiliate marketing network and almost instantly gain access to hundreds or thousands of affiliates. Once you upload content and assets, all you have to do is wait to see the results (which will likely be a marginal lift in traffic). It’s fast, easy, and fairly predictable.

Social media management, website platforms, influencer marketing tools - the list of must-have tech for marketers is endlessly growing. With any new software, it can be daunting to figure out how to best integrate them with your existing ecosystem. And an influencer marketing platform is not exempt from this. Not to fear, we’re here with best practices on how to get the most out of your influencer marketing platform.

Whether you’re looking to build a new referral program or optimize your existing campaign, we’ve curated some of the most creative referral program examples that are sure to get your juices flowing!

In an age where marketing is increasingly driven by technology, searching for an influencer platform can be downright overwhelming. But asking questions is crucial to finding the right influencer marketing platform for your brand. The more you learn up front, the easier it will be to make an informed decision.

Digital marketing changes at the drop of dime, and as digitally connected brands, we are expected to anticipate those changes just as fast, if not sooner. If your brand is guilty of taking on the “all-adoptive” mentality, you may see that staying on top of the latest trend might negatively impact your bottom line, and eat up many of your resources. Now more than ever, it is crucial for marketers to understand the difference between a marketing fad and a marketing staple.

With most marketers adding an influencer marketing platform to the top of their wish lists this year, you would think this marketing strategy is a well-known one. But many marketers are still wondering, "what is influencer marketing?" Let’s start from the beginning to find out if this relationship marketing strategy is for your brand.

As most marketers are well aware of: Facebook is making significant changes to what users will see on their News Feed. Before your ad team erupts in chaos about how terrible this announcement is for brands, publishers and other third-party players, let’s take a look at how your company’s referral program can actually use this new algorithm to its advantage.

Before you dive into this guide, let's make a couple assumptions: First, your brand is already using influencer marketing. Second, you're happy with where it's headed and are looking to scale this acquisition channel. That's where an influencer marketing platform enters the picture. 

The best referral marketing strategies share a common thread: Referrals are embedded into every aspect of the user experience. For a referral program to consistently deliver truly exceptional results, your brand’s referral marketing strategy must take all marketing channels into consideration. Basically, your program should be woven into who you are and how you operate. Without structure and commitment, you’re largely hoping that good things happen and that customers inherently know to refer ...

When it comes to successful relationship marketing, we know that getting your work done requires many different web tools. In fact, the average business uses between 10 and 16 apps. You have your email app, CRM, note-taking tool, cloud storage tool, team communication app, along with project management tools and various to-do lists. Sometimes, it can be a struggle to get them all working in tandem. Now that Ambassador has 1,000 integrations, you can choose your favorite tools and easily ...

Let’s say you came into work tomorrow, opened your marketing analytics dashboard (better yet, a referral program dashboard), and saw that an Instagram influencer campaign had driven 20x ROI for your fashion eCommerce brand. Or maybe you’re the Head of Marketing for a B2B business and found that a partner webinar had driven 1,000 qualified leads and 200 new customers with an average lifetime value of $5,000. How would you react?

At the beginning of every year, marketers are scrambling to make sure their strategies are in line with ‘the biggest trends’ of the coming year. And this year is no different. The buzz around influencer marketing is echoing loud and clear - it’s THE it trend of the year.

It's the most wonderful time of the year for marketing, espeically if your brand has an influencer marketing platform in place! While 2017 may be winding down, influencer marketing is continuing to trend up. In fact, according to HubSpot, 71% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase based on a social media reference. Influencer marketing can give brands a more engaging and authentic voice with consumers, especially during the holidays when consumer spending is at its highest. 

Another year in the books! And a great one it’s been. From focusing on OUTCARE to hitting over 10 Million ambassadors using our platform to our first PongVember Tourney, it’s been a busy, rewarding, and exciting 365 days.

What can I say? This has been quite an extraordinary year for Ambassador. From awards to new customers to growing our own team, I'm incredibly proud of all that we have accomplished in 2017.

When I talk to marketing leaders about what they're looking for in an influencer marketing platform, I get asked fairly frequently about best practices for affiliate and brand influencer marketing. They want to understand how - and why - a platform like Ambassador is different than modern day influencer and affiliate networks. Rather than get into the technical mechanics here, I’d like to present a hypothetical situation instead. 

If you’ve ever researched successful referral program examples, you’ve probably run into a lot of the same examples over and over again - Uber, Tesla, and Airbnb. While their campaigns are truly inspiring, what if you don’t have the luxury of a full team, ranging from developers to marketing experts, who can focus solely on creating and managing your referral process?

Surprised that your favorite blogger is promoting a product from your favorite brand? Don’t be. 82% of Americans seek recommendations from friends and family when considering a purchase, according to a study we completed in partnership with Nielsen.

In almost every industry, referrals are the gold standard of customer acquisition. Research has repeatedly shown that referred leads close faster, buy more, and stay longer — all with significantly less effort and at a much lower CPA than non-referred prospects. A University of Pennsylvania study[1] found that referred customers are more loyal and profitable — by a 16% margin — than their non-referred counterparts.

I'm thrilled to announce that Ambassador has earned the ranking of #736 in the 36th annual Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in America. This achievement was not possible without the amazing team of Diplomats who consistently live our core value of "OUTCARE," which stands for:

I'm humbled and extremely excited to share that Ambassador has earned the #6 (of 100) ranking of "Cool Places To Work" by Crain's Detroit, our 2nd consecutive year on this prestigious list. Being named one of the top 10 coolest places to work in a metro area with thousands of companies is a truly remarkable accomplishment.

Customer loyalty is critically important to business success. Even though most of us know this, the numbers may surprise even the most well-informed Marketers. According to a study by Customer Insight Group, Inc., loyal customers make up 55-70% of sales for a business. Furthermore, 78% of loyal customers are more than happy to spread the word about a brand they love.

More likely than not, customers joined your referral program because they love your product and the incentives offered. While not every customer referral program will yield the same results, there are some steps you can take to set your brand’s program up for success. In essence, your aim is to help your customers help you. Here are five best practices you can share with members of your referral program so they can effectively engage their networks and send more sales your way.

If you think customer service isn’t an important part of relationship marketing, think again. Your customer service team can actually make or break your relationship marketing efforts. Best case scenario, your customer service team can take your relationship marketing efforts to the next level.

Finding individuals, customers and non-customers alike, to refer your product or service may come quick -- and even easy! However, identifying the cream of the crop, acknowledging them and finding more of those superstars, might not be as simple. We break down the best way to engage with this valuable audience and retain your best brand advocates. 

Referral marketing isn’t just about using your existing customers to gain new leads. With a well-built incentive program, you can actually increase brand loyalty among existing customers while simultaneously growing your customer base through referral traffic. That’s a win-win for you.

Whether you’re doing the bulk of your customer marketing online or offline, in today’s market you are a digital product. Everything from discovery to conversion happens behind a screen. Yet, to this day, no marketing strategy has stood the test of time the way word-of-mouth has. In fact, a recent study shows that 74% of consumers identify word-of-mouth as a key influencer in their purchasing decision. 

No longer just a trend, an influencer marketing platform is now an essential part of the overall marketing stack for many companies and brands. Even if you’re not familiar with the specifics of influencer marketing programs, you’ve most likely been a consumer of influencer marketing campaigns. Ever liked an Instagram post from your favorite blogger or social media celeb with an #ad or #spon hashtag?

Out of all the marketing strategies out there in our uber-connected world, the power of word-of-mouth is still unparalleled. And what better way to leverage word-of-mouth than with referral marketing? A study done by University of Pennsylvania uncovered that referred customers are more loyal and profitable than their non-referred counterparts -- by 16 percent! Our own research conducted in partnership with Nielsen's Harris Poll Online revealed that 82% of Americans seek recommendations from ...

“If you build it, they will come.” Well, maybe in most cases, but not for a referral program. When starting to plan the strategy around your referral program promotion, you obviously need to publicize that you have it in running. Here are 4 simple steps to effectively promote what could be your most profitable marketing channel:

Because the concept of referral marketing is still somewhat new to many companies, some marketers and growth strategists opt to start small — launching a referral program, but testing it with just a few dozen (smaller companies) or a few thousand (larger enterprise brands) customers before unveiling it to their full database of contacts. While that “pilot” approach might make sense on the surface, it almost always fails.

Here’s an existential question to answer: If you have a referral marketing program in place and no one knows about it, does it really exist? If your referral program isn’t public facing or it’s difficult to use and share with the click of a button, then you’ll severely limit your performance. The most successful brands feature their referral programs on their website, in mobile apps, and across highest-performing marketing channels — and they ensure the referral experience is painless and ...

It's not at all difficult to imagine that word-of-mouth is one of the oldest forms of marketing. Long before most people could even write — much less live-tweet an event — farmers and craftsmen were urging their customers to tell friends and family where to find the best olive oil and sturdiest spears. But old doesn’t mean irrelevant. There’s been a renewed interest in referral programs lately, so let's explore the importance of them in our digital age.

Most marketing executives understand developing and establishing a brand is important. It's not necessarily easy, and, it's only half the battle. To win, you must take it a step further. That step is to not only recognize your brand, but to develop a passion for it. According to consulting firm Bain & Company, it costs 6 times more to attract a new customer than it does to keep an existing one. What’s more, a mere 5% increase in customer retention can boost profits by up to 95%. This is where ...

Fashion, specifically, retail, is changing. With retail stores closing, marketing tactics of “discoverability” – for example, placing new products next to customer favorites – are seeing diminishing returns. According to a Morningstar report, malls across the United States are closing in record numbers, citing ecommerce as a primary reason.

Great product, winning team and strong revenue growth. Your B2B company is crushing it, so you don’t need a referral strategy, right? Wrong.

Many marketers have heard the adage, “Who’s the easiest person to sell to? Someone you’ve already sold to.”  

I’m thrilled to announce that Ambassador has earned the distinction of Best Places to Work 2017 by Inc. Magazine, an honor which was awarded to some of the fastest growing companies in America.

We are elated to announce the formal launch of our Partner Program. Over the past few years, we have had the privilege of working with some amazing marketing agencies and business consultants who have helped their clients recognize the true value and importance of word-of-mouth. 

Marketing is getting really personal. Ads for the shoes you browsed three days ago follow you around the web. Your favorite restaurant sends you regular updates about their daily specials, complete with mouth-watering photos. Your pizza place notices just how often you order from them and recommend them on social media, so they send you a complimentary pizza and ask you to become an official affiliate. It’s a bizarre mix of convenient, slightly creepy, and incredibly effective.

If you polled a group of marketing experts and asked them to name their favorite type of lead, one response would clearly stand out: Referrals.

People influence people. A trusted referral influences people more than the best broadcast message. A trusted referral is the Holy Grail of advertising. - Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO, Facebook The goal of referral marketing is simple: To harness the power of authentic word-of-mouth to drive a steady stream of high-quality referrals to your business (and grow revenue as a result). Executing against that goal, however, is a little bit more complicated. For referral marketing to work, you ...

If you’re shopping for referral software and are a bit lost on how to vet a vendor, you’re in luck, we can help! I know that adding new technologies to your marketing stack can be an overwhelming process, even for a seasoned marketer. With the evolution of the digital landscape changing and new marketing technologies constantly emerging, it's important to consider which questions to ask when it comes to referral marketing. 

You may have heard the term “relationship marketing” being tossed around recently. Relationship marketing refers to everything you do to develop strong, lifelong relationships with your customers. From influencer programs to referral campaigns to affiliate marketing, relationship marketing builds brand awareness and positions your brand as your customers best option. The most important part of relationship marketing is facilitating two-way conversations with your customers.

During my time with Ambassador, I’ve had the fortune of working with a number of incredible B2B brands to build out their referral programs. HP and SAP are two of the most notable examples, but there have been several others.

If you’ve attended college (or had to pay for it) sometime in the last three decades, you’re probably as frustrated as anyone about the skyrocketing price tag. According to one report, the cost of college has risen 538% since 1985.

Imagine you’re sending a newsletter to your new customers. In most cases you would launch your email marketing tool and start the process of creating a campaign. Now what if you didn’t have a tool, where would you start?

When you make a purchase from just about any major eCommerce retailer today, you’ll likely receive a follow-up email (or a series of emails) that deliver a few key pieces of information:

Word-of-mouth marketing drives billions of dollars in sales every year, so it’s no surprise that variations of this age-old strategy are now surfacing as performance, advocate, influencer, and referral marketing. What’s surprising is just how many thriving brands are sticking to a pen-and-paper approach for managing customer recommendations even though the consumer economy is getting more digital by the day.

We had such a great response to our recent epic referral email rundown that we had to do another one. This time, we dug into our own customer archives to share emails that are expertly optimized to drive referrals.

The contracts have been signed, sales has made the handoff to success, the proverbial bags have been packed. We're on our way down the customer journey! Be sure to clear out any obstacles for a well-paved path to singing your praises and repeat purchasing. Do your thank you pages include your referral program? Is there a refer-a-friend pop-up on the home page?

Just like every other component of marketing, a referral program requires a well-planned strategy to meet and exceed goals. Strategic thinking becomes increasingly important when it comes to one often overlooked aspect of referral programs — developing an incentive structure.

If you’ve done any research on successful referral marketing use cases, you’ve probably run into a lot of the same examples over and over again.

Marketing changes every day. Just a few years a ago, a flashy street-side sign advertising your company’s name and location was enough to attract new business. Even a print ad in the Sunday paper was sure to remind your closest prospective customers to stop by your brick-and-mortar store. Over the last few years, marketing - along with its platforms, audiences, and capabilities - has advanced.

If you’ve checked out our recent on-page SEO blog post, then you’re no doubt incorporating what you learned to help your content rank higher - things like ideal content length, optimizing your h2 tags and the importance of targeting the right keywords.

Countless online conversations about your brand are happening every day. Oftentimes, curious customers have learned all that they need to know about your brand long before your company can formally introduce its own products or services via marketing campaigns. Forrester reports that by 2020, 80% of the buying process is expected to occur without any direct human-to-human interaction.

The marketing industry is filled with more tactics to consider than you can count and a host of strategic solutions positioned to address challenging pain points. Every once in awhile, the opportunity arises to hone in on a persistently untapped channel to create a new marketing category.

Did you know that 74% of consumers identify referral marketing as a key influencer in their purchasing decision? To put it simply, customers value share-worthy experiences and have gotten used to passing on good news to others.

So, I have a confession to make. A year ago, I had no clue “referral marketing” was anything but a buzzword. I certainly didn’t know referral marketing software existed. Sure, I understood the value of referrals (I’ve been a marketer for many years — it’s hard not to understand the value of organic word-of-mouth). But referral marketing? In my experience, referrals weren’t truly optimizable or scalable — two core characteristics of any modern marketing strategy.

Today, Ambassador was ranked #23 on the Crain’s Detroit Coolest Places To Work. It’s an amazing accomplishment and I am truly humbled to share the news with you.

According to a recent survey conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of Ambassador, 82 percent of people say they seek recommendations from friends and family when considering a purchase. Brands that encourage customers to share recommendations via referral marketing are building off of a natural inclination to share with others. Instead of wondering about the organic conversations that online audiences are having about your brand, companies can leverage a platform that scales and transforms ...

The marketing industry is shifting toward a customer-centric, solution-seeking, data-driven model and marketers are encouraged to follow suit. Marketers have to know how to crunch numbers, spot trends, spark interest, make changes, and make connections - all while surpassing the competition.

I’m proud to announce that today, Inc. Magazine has ranked Ambassador no. 321 in their 35th annual Inc. 5000, the most prestigious ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. This achievement is an honor we now share alongside other innovative companies in America; including Microsoft, Zappos, Dell, Square, and Dollar Shave Club among others.

Close your eyes. No really, close your eyes and let your fingers dance across your keyboard. Open your eyes. Now, break up the jumble of text with a few haphazard bullets, lists, and stats. Then, log in to your dashboard and publish your improvised masterpiece on your company blog. You can blast the email list while you’re at it too. Before you hit send, make sure that there are a few words underlined in blue to give your helpless clients an escape route to the nearest website. Congratulations, ...

According to a recent survey conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of Ambassador, 82% of Americans say they seek recommendations from friends and family when considering a purchase. The majority of brands, whether B2B or consumer companies, have an audience of prospective customers seeking information from your existing clientele.

Think about the last time you went mattress shopping. Was it via a referral program and a few clicks later, a mattress folded up in a box arrived at your front step? Or was it in a traditional brick-and-mortar store? What was the latter experience like? Did you get the hard sales pitch about how a particular mattress would suddenly help you capture eight solid hours of sleep each night, and did that salesperson awkwardly hang around as you tested out a mattress? Even worse, if you actually ...

Imagine that a customer has just discovered your brand. They think that your company is on to something amazing. They know exactly which friends, family members and colleagues would benefit from this information. They reach for the nearest electronic device, but without a referral program in place, it's up to them to decide how they'll share the good news.

The term search engine optimization, aka SEO, is one that most marketers generally nod their heads toward. In fact, according to a Fleishman-Hillard and Harris Interactive Annual Global Study, “89% of customers begin their buying process with a search engine.” We know the value of this popular marketing channel, and we understand the importance of including it as part of our overall marketing strategy, but why is it that SEO is still a giant mystery to most marketers?

So you've got an influencer marketing platform in place and you think your influencer marketing strategy is set to take your brand to the next level. Maybe it’s a campaign with a trending blogger with a very large following; maybe it’s a program with an industry expert going on a international speaking tour next quarter. But are they worth the fee? Will they help your brand speak to your audience in an impactful way? Will they care about your brand as much as you do?

When it comes to word-of-mouth and referral marketing, it’s easy to assume that the energy industry — specifically, solar companies — aren’t a great fit.

It’s rush hour in Big City, USA and every route into the city is blocked with gridlock traffic. What’s the hold up? It appears that a few drivers have decided to aimlessly follow the vehicle in front of them instead of obeying actual traffic signals. Some drivers are even looking in their rear-view mirror to determine their next turn. Others have become so infatuated with their reflection that they bump into the nearest obstacle.

A 2015 study by the Pew Research Center found that 64% of American adults own a smartphone — an increase of nearly 30% in merely four years. And, though not terribly surprising, the study also found that smartphone ownership is especially high among young Americans and those with high income and education levels (the traditional sweet spots for marketers).

If you follow marketing thought leaders or read best practice blogs, you’ve seen the evolving roster of trending ways to spread the word about your business. Beneath every trendy marketing buzzword lies a metric milestone that your company wants to surpass or a barrier that you need to break. But somewhere between the viral headlines and virtual tips, successful companies are digging deep to engage customers and drive revenue.

When it comes to word-of-mouth and referral marketing, there may be no industry that benefits more from — and aligns better with — referrals than health and fitness.

Let’s set the scene. Your company caters to an audience of digital natives ranging from knowledgeable customers to intrigued fans. One group is extremely familiar with your brand and fluent in your products and services. They are the ones who leave comments, give feedback, know your Twitter handle, and begin using your hashtags as soon as they go live. The other group has heard good things about your business and is interested to see how your brand can meet their needs. They are a little more ...

For companies looking to harness the power of word-of-mouth to expand their audience, prospects, and fans, affiliate programs may be the answer. Here are a few common questions we hear from clients looking to develop an affiliate marketing strategy:

Think about the last time that you took out a loan or used an accountant to prepare your taxes. Even if your experience was positive, was it exciting enough to inspire you to refer the company to your friends, family, or colleagues? Did you run to your phone to tweet about the experience, or send a mass email to your contacts singing the company’s praises?

A timely delivery. A responsive customer service department. An innovative product. Great brands are built upon nuanced and valuable customer interactions, but today’s businesses rely on analyzing metrics to succeed. Have you noticed that audience growth, website engagement, and conversion rates seem to dominate modern marketing conversations? It’s no surprise. Companies are starting to acknowledge that much of their success relies on the preferences and behaviors of customers. We know that ...

In the last year, publishing powerhouses have sent a wave of frenzied readers in the direction of their competitors as iconic magazines like Jet Magazine, Lucky Magazine and Details shut down for good. In the midst of other indefinite mergers and layoffs, it’s safe to say that the publishing industry is still reeling from the recession’s tumultuous media landscape. Even as today’s editorial teams reach for the hottest writers and coolest social media platforms, it seems like the publishing ...

Traditional marketing teaches companies to think of customers as a bridge between inventory and sales. In the age of hypervisibility and technology, brands are adding resources to their marketing stack that allow them to build unique experiences instead of merely monitoring customer behavior. The most successful brands have started to rethink how their customers progress through the eCommerce funnel. For good reason, customers have the potential to become advocates, fans, and referrers of your ...

Let’s face it, nothing is more unnecessary (or redundant) than talking about your website on your website. As content marketing and a host of other inbound strategies rule modern marketing conversations, it becomes less and less likely that one landing page is sufficient enough to spread the word about a new aspect of your business to the masses. Creating a static website page assumes that your customers are curious enough to be on the lookout for new developments and roam your site at their ...

As marketers, we all know that it’s easier to keep a loyal customer than acquire a new one. In fact, strengthening your customer relationships and increasing your customer retention by 10 percent can actually grow your company's value by 30 percent. Which is no surprise since most executives state the best source of new business is a referral from a satisfied customer. Referrals, engaging content, voucher codes, and customer success teams are all ways that businesses can improve the morale and ...

Editor's note: This is an excerpt from our most recent eBook, "The Path to Becoming a Visionary Marketing Leader," which explores four of the biggest marketing trends through the eyes of four marketing visionaries. To read the full eBook, click here.  As marketing leaders, one of our primary jobs is to position our business for the future. To do this, we keep tabs on marketing trends and opportunities, and take action when we see something that could help us create lasting competitive ...

Social media is making it easier than ever to experience (or invade) events that would traditionally arise through word-of-mouth or, you know, formal invitations. It’s true, audiences of customers and friends enjoy getting the special treatment, but it feels a little odd when exclusive opportunities are promoted for the world to see.

Welcome to the digital content creation club! You've double-checked your spelling, triple-checked your facts, and confirmed that each hyperlink opens up in a new window. Now, prepare for one of the most gratifying, yet fleeting moments of your entire life (or afternoon). It's finally time to press the publish button and share your ideas with the world. Publishing a new piece of content may seem like the finish line, but in the grand scheme of your content promotion strategy, it's just the ...

Think about the last time you searched for a restaurant review before heading to dinner. Have you ever stood in a store aisle, with your phone in hand, traversing the web to see how other people are talking about the products that are lined on the shelves in front of you? Most likely, you’re nodding along. In addition to seeking trustworthy recommendations from friends, most consumers today search online to learn more about brands before committing to a purchase. With technology at our ...

Every “social media guru” and “marketing maven” touts the importance of engaging with your social following in an authentic and conversational way. Most brands have an individual or a team that makes critical decisions about publishing curated information to their audience, but how many companies are building customer loyalty through these online chats? Sure, there are top brands like Google, Taco Bell, and Southwest Airlines, who have built social media empires but what about your company? Are ...

For many marketers, referral marketing, advocate marketing, or word-of-mouth marketing (whatever you want to call it for now) is a new type of MarTech. In fact, many of you may be learning about it now for the first time. There's no Gartner Magic Quadrant. There's no Forrester Wave. There's no definitive place to explore all of the vendors in the space, let alone a simple way to separate the low-cost, bare bones players from the robust, proven, all-in-one platforms.

Diversity |diˈvərsitē, dī-| noun: a range of different things. How do you consume content? Do you prefer reading? Listening? Watching? In today’s digital world, it’s more important than ever to have something for everyone. Whether that’s a blog, eBook, infographic, video, case study, or podcast, your prospects have different preferences for their journey through the sales funnel. So, how do you turn your content marketing plan into a well-oiled, diverse machine?

Back in the day, the customer journey began with the ding of the overhead doorbell of the convenience store and concluded as items were neatly wrapped at the cash register. If your company was lucky, a memorable in-store visit would result in positive recommendations from happy customers that eventually reached a host of potentially loyal customers. Today’s customer experience is a little different. Customers expect brands to be active online and proactive in responses to customer complaints. ...

Editor's note: This is an excerpt from our most recent eBook, "The Executive's No-Nonsense Guide to Referral Marketing." To read the full eBook, click here.  If you polled a group of marketing leaders and asked them to name their favorite type of lead, one response would stand out: Referrals.

On a fairly regular basis, we work with brands that come to us with separate affiliate, influencer, and referral programs. Or, they demo Ambassador thinking they’ll need different solutions to manage the various variants of a referral. Here’s what we tell them: At the end of the day, a referral is a referral.

Do you want to build buzz around your product or service to a segmented audience? Do you want to discover influencers in your customer base? Do you always look for fresh ways to spark a conversation with your customers? Of course you do! It’s 2016 and brands have to find unforgettable ways to stand out from the crowd and engage with an audience that makes sense for them (all while meeting the bottom line).

If there’s one question we hear more than any other from customers looking to start or scale a B2B referral program, it’s this: Do B2B referral programs actually work?

We’ve come a long way from the belief that the same brand messaging should be present on every channel, but today’s marketers must consider ways to seamlessly and cohesively reach customers wherever they are. In our tech-crazed world, it’s easy to confuse multichannel marketing with multi-platform marketing that fills email inboxes, appears on social media feeds and entangles customers into your brand as they trek through the worldwide web. Although email campaigns, social media outreach and ...

According to the Pew Research Center, the millennial generation is on pace to become the nation’s largest living generation with a population projection of 75.3 million people. The dominance that this sacred demographic, ranging from ages 18 to 34, has had on marketing conversations over the last few years is no surprise.

Referrals are indispensable for any company looking to organically grow their business and build brand awareness. Let’s face it, a simple referral from a friend can land a lot softer and convince a lot faster than traditional marketing outreach. According to a survey conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of Ambassador, 88% of Americans say they would like some sort of incentive for sharing a product via social media or email. And while most modern marketers understand the basics of email ...

The situation is a familiar one. Your email inbox begins to fill up with emails that read “Labor Day Sale!” and suddenly you’re typing in the coupon code LBDAY16 for 20 percent off your purchase. Chances are, if you manage an eCommerce shop, your customers have also used vouchers or coupon codes at some point to make a purchase. It’s a great way to capture first time-buyers and bring back your most loyal advocates for repeat purchases.

Over the last year, I’ve had conversations with numerous sales and marketing executives about one of the world’s oldest — and most effective — customer acquisition channels: Referrals. Most of those executives have gone on to help their organization implement successful referral marketing programs, but some have flat-out failed to generate the results they expected. In most cases, those failures were easily preventable.

Your company makes wonderful products that are expertly researched and developed to fill a gap in the market. You have a success team equipped with technology that ensures reliable and accountable customer service. Your marketing team is churning out resonant content that builds buzz among interested buyers and repeat customers. But, for some reason, you still don’t have a good grasp on your loyal customers and they aren’t responding well to the perks that you offer.

 All marketing efforts boil down to the same theory: casting your net far and wide over a very targeted area and coming back with more of a higher quality than what you had initially. Today’s net probably holds stellar outreach, compelling content, and experiential hooks along with new leads, but the idea is the same. Every company is tasked with developing irresistible messages that convince customers to embark on a strategic, shareable, and scalable journey. At least that’s what growth ...

Being a contemporary brand means marketing to consumers that have a plethora of platforms and an endless stream of apps that simplify their daily life. So in the SaaS world, how can you build technology that incorporates the same ease of use for business consumers? By developing integrations that plug into their current integrations workflow with the least effort possible.

Editor’s note: This is the second post in a two-part series about how CMOs, VPs of Marketing, and other marketing leaders can spend their budgets smarter. To read the first post from Shawn Fergus, click here. In an age where marketing is increasingly driven by technology, most CMOs know that one of their most important responsibilities has little to do with marketing. Instead, it’s all about procurement — specifically, the process of assessing and buying the right marketing technology to ...

Do you remember the last marketing tool that your company adopted? How many problems did it solve, one or many? If you can answer immediately and point to specific resolved dilemmas or achieved business goals, then we're that much closer to the future of MarTech. There is a lot of marketing technology out there, so how can marketers combat this oversaturation to find proven, reliable, and logical solutions that will address their company-specific pain points? Brands should develop a ...

On most mornings in the Ambassador office, we hear the whistle of a passing Amtrak train as it surges to a stop then heads south to downtown Detroit. On most nights, the flickering lights from the Royal Oak Music Theatre signal the end of another team-building, goal-crushing, and gong-dinging day. So why are we so in love with metro Detroit? Because we understand that the Detroit community extends further than the city center. The city reveals itself in its most authentic form within the spirit ...

As one of the world’s oldest market research firms, Nielsen’s Harris Poll Online has “analyzed every aspect of American life.” From consumer habits to television viewership to politics, Harris Poll is the gold-standard for conducting research. For instance, did you know that adults who were read to daily, or at least weekly, are more likely to report six-figure incomes? Harris Poll helps to answer the questions that we didn’t know we needed to know. So, when the opportunity arose in early 2016 ...

Swimming Against The Current Of all the trends that continuously ripple through the industry and dictate the future of innovative marketing, nothing is poised to replace the integral business strategy and influence that disruptive CMOs can offer. Disruptive CMOs are a must for any company looking to build an agile innovative marketing strategy that moves as swiftly as audience demands, consumption behavior, and industry-wide technology. Ambassador spoke with former HubSpot CMO Mike Volpe, to ...

In a perfect social media world, your clients, followers, readers, and subscribers would hunt you down for new information, comment incessantly, and become loyal fans in the matter of minutes it takes to devour a new piece of content. Your queue would also fill up with perfectly edited and backlinked new content in sweet conjunction with the editorial calendar, creating a consistent pulse of branded content. Sounds nice, right? Well, come back down to earth.

When you hear the phrase “traditional marketing” do you instantly imagine a group of branding geniuses, clad in their power suits, brainstorming over a wooden desk that’s covered in creative briefs, mock-ups, discarded notebook paper and half-empty coffee mugs? Do you ever wonder how our marketing predecessors were able to get their hands on late-night snacks, without a delivery app, while burning the midnight oil just waiting for inspiration to hit? Did you watch all seven seasons of Mad Men ...

It’s a dark, rainy, cold night and two cars are driving home from the opposite ends of the city. Car 1 starts making a sputtering noise around the same time that Car 2 starts smoking from the hood. Each car slowly comes to a complete stop just as the drivers pull over to the side of the road. Both drivers reach for their phone to call a friend and realize that they have 10% battery left.

Earlier this month, the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced that digital streams would count toward album certifications. The announcement simultaneously captured contemporary consumption patterns and redirected 58 years of musical history. This was big news for popular artists like Rihanna, whose newly released Anti album sold only 460 physical copies on its release date, but earned a platinum certification (1,000,000 sales) in just 15 hours, thanks to digital streaming.

If you take a look at the personalities that big brands are scouting to become brand ambassadors, the lineup starts to look a lot like the red carpet for last night's 88th Academy Awards. Think Chris Hemsworth for TAG Heuer, Rihanna for Puma, Chiara Ferragni (of The Blonde Salad fame) for Pantene, and Drake for the Toronto Raptors. These well-known names and faces have a ready army of fans and have achieved a high-level status across several social circles. Companies are starting to leverage ...

When you think about the future of marketing, what do you see? Completely automated workflows and campaigns? Predictive analytics that help us actually achieve the Holy Grail of marketing (right message, for the right customer, at exactly the right time)? Technology stacks that intuitively and seamlessly connect with each other to deliver dynamic insight? All of those things might come to fruition (some are already here). Or they might not. As most of us know from experience, predictions are ...

The best way to convince your customers to simply and consistently share referrals for your product or service is to develop a highly productive, low-maintenance referral marketing program. Of course the idea of building buzz around your brand with face-to-face interactions and friend-to-friend suggestions sounds amazing, but how can this translate into a major inbound marketing advantage and turn into a new stream of revenue? It’s pretty simple. Learn how to scale a referral program and grow ...

In the referral marketing world, there seems to be a debate brewing over the most effective way to identify, enroll, and engage ambassadors. In one corner is the belief that carefully enrolling only your most loyal and passionate ambassadors is the best approach. The thinking here is that those people, who already love and support your brand, will happily and aggressively work to generate referrals and new business for your company.

Every new business strategy starts with a good idea. Before the preliminary budget talks, Gantt charts, and timeline-to-launch meetings, you have to convince your boss and other team members to rally around the right decision. Whether you’re the Referral Marketing Manager or an ambitious member of the marketing team, it’s probably likely that you (or your team) have a goal tied to revenue/sales.

If you’ve read anything about referral marketing... You’ve probably seen a handful of common referral statistics thrown around. Typically, these numbers are presented to convince you that every customer relies on word-of-mouth, that referral marketing is insanely valuable, and that you’re crazy not to use it.

It's hard to imagine a time when items weren't available to purchase online or through a mobile app, but we're only two decades into the eCommerce era. This instant-access age is book-ended by static brick-and-mortar stores and the unforeseeable future that awaits all new trends. According to eMarketer, eCommerce purchases are predicted to account for 8.8% of the total retail market worldwide by 2018.

So your referral program is up and running and just like we suggested, you've enrolled your loyal customers. But what about everyone else? Don’t quite know where to start? Well, let's start by thinking of when and how to ask for referrals.

If you polled a group of CMOs and asked them to name their favorite lead types, you’d probably hear a common refrain: Referrals. Anecdotally, it makes sense, but research backs up the value of referrals, too. Numerous studies have shown that referred customers close faster and stay longer. Meanwhile, research from the University of Pennsylvania suggests referred customers also buy 16% more than their non-referred counterparts.

If a commercial plays on Super Bowl Sunday and the whole office isn’t chatting about it on Monday, did it even happen? We don’t think so. With big brands spending millions on Super Bowl advertising every year, the Super Bowl game offers a big (and costly) chance to hit or miss the word-of-mouth marketing mark. According to a Prosper Insights and Analytics survey, 17.7% of Super Bowl viewers say that the commercials are the most important part of the day. Thanks to social media, online ...

Among the chill of cold calls and flurry of follow-up emails, nothing quite compares to the warm, fuzzy feeling of solidifying a beneficial customer relationship. It takes time to transform a lovely lead into a lifetime customer, so brands must prioritize great customer relationships.

Referral marketing's best-kept tips and secrets  The best kept secret of the most successful referral marketing campaigns is to treat your programs just as you would any other high-value customer acquisition channel — invest in process, expertise, and technology while incorporating it into every aspect of your marketing strategy.

                    Click for sound                           Many brands are venturing outside of their office and within their network to find early adopters that can take out some of the mass marketing legwork by driving word-of-mouth. For many companies, the ideal marketing campaign is self-sustaining — an organic ripple that migrates throughout target markets and accurately represents your brand.

As a company built by referral marketing experts, we know how important it is for brands to reward loyal customers and generate new leads and revenue. We’ve discovered time and time again how beneficial referral marketing is for our business. Of course, as a referral marketing company, we use our very own flexible solution to manage and optimize our referral campaigns. And what kind of transparent brand would we be if we didn’t give you an inside look at our success?

Where were you the night you discovered Netflix’s most significant show ever, Making a Murderer? Perhaps a friend texted you about a wonderfully weird series that you should start watching right. now. at. this. very. moment. Maybe you encountered a cluster of wide-eyed co-workers gazing at a shared monitor, swapping conspiracy theories. You might have even overheard a group of strangers passionately arguing about misplaced car keys and innocence.

For centuries, people have made big decisions and developed everyday preferences using the simple yet resounding power of word-of-mouth. It’s no coincidence that you and your best friend share a few of the same favorite things. Who doesn’t love hearing about a great product or service from a trustworthy source? 

Think about the last time a word-of-mouth referral program influenced one of your purchasing decisions. Maybe a friend shared their love of a subscription service like StitchFix, a co-worker sent you a referral code for free Uber credits, or a neighbor recommended their favorite contractor. Or maybe it was as simple as a friendly suggestion on where to go to dinner. Regardless, you probably acted on the referral, in part, because it came from someone you trusted.

Word-of-mouth drives billions of dollars in sales every year, and the holiday sales season presents a huge opportunity for innovative companies to empower their happy customers to help them to build brand preference and hit revenue goals.

Traversing the landscape of marketing programs can be tricky business, especially when industry terms overlap. Take affiliate marketing and referral marketing, for example.

This is an excerpt from our latest e-book, “How To Turn Your Customer Base Into New Revenue.” To download the full version, click here. With word-of-mouth marketing driving billions of dollars in sales every year, it’s no surprise that it’s one of the most coveted sources of marketing. And when it comes to consumer relationships with brands, 74% of consumers identify word-of-mouth as a key influencer in their purchasing decision. In fact, the best source of new business is a referral from a ...

With word-of-mouth marketing driving billions of dollars in sales every year, it’s no surprise that it’s one of the most coveted sources of marketing. Positive word-of-mouth interactions can exponentially drive sales when leveraged through referral marketing programs. Ambassador partnered with WOMMA, an association dedicated to ethical word-of-mouth and social media marketing, to discuss the future of the industry and how we, as marketers, can look beyond social media.

Coming off the heels of the #WOMMASummit, we’re taking a deeper look at the value of word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) and exactly what it means beyond social media. While increasing brand awareness is a natural outcome of WOMM, when does brand awareness transition to brand preference and revenue?

With word-of-mouth (WOM) driving billions of dollars in sales every year, it's more important than ever for companies to focus on WOM and referral marketing efforts. Here are 8 stats about word-of-mouth marketing that you need to know right now.

Virality is often times the first word that marketers think of when it comes to harnessing the power of word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM). While it would be nice for every single campaign to end up on Mashable or Buzzfeed, WOMM has invaluable impacts on your brand beyond one-time viral marketing campaigns. Here are three reasons why it’s important for your brand to invest in the power of word-of-mouth marketing:

Word-of-mouth interactions have been impacting businesses for as long as commerce has been around. In today’s digital world, word-of-mouth opportunities are always at our fingertips, so much so, that we pulled some stats to show the value of this age-old phenomenon. The Value of Word-of-Mouth Marketing infographic below shows exactly what can happen when modern businesses use robust, scalable, and automated referral marketing software to take advantage of this high value, low cost marketing ...

Net Promoter Score and referral marketing work hand-in-hand to take your business to the next level. We’ve broken down the key points you should know about each, and how they work together to increase your revenue.

Gamification is becoming more and more popular as marketers create better brand experience through gaming, loyalty programs and behavioral economics, with the aim of driving user engagement. Over 70% of Forbes Global 2000 companies surveyed said they planned to use gamification for the purposes of marketing and customer retention. It’s, at times, an addictive interaction for customers that yields results in the form of more sales, improved experiences, and intensified brand loyalty. Which is ...

Marketers at B2B and B2C companies often times have different objectives when trying to reach their target audience. A B2B marketer spends substantially more time on thought leadership content, while B2C marketers aim to connect to their consumers on a brand level that is entertaining and “top of mind, tip of tongue.” Regardless of audience, the ultimate goal for marketers is to drive revenue. And whether your company provides enterprise solutions or toys for kids, the use of referral marketing ...

Marketers at B2B and B2C companies often times have different objectives when trying to reach their target audience. A B2B marketer spends substantially more time on thought leadership content, while B2C marketers aim to connect to their consumers on a brand level that is entertaining and “top of mind, tip of tongue.” Regardless of audience, the ultimate goal for marketers is to drive revenue. And whether your company provides enterprise solutions or toys for children, the use of referral ...

Referral Programs: 7 Common Myths The internet is a vast and highly unregulated source of information. Consequently, it’s no surprise that much of the data found online is inaccurate. This is particularly true when it comes to the topic of referral programs.

It’s a tough world out there these days. Businesses are having a tough time bringing in new customers from anywhere but traditional channels. But don’t fret! In any economic climate, any business (both B2B and B2C) can rely upon referral program software as a beacon of cost-efficient, high-value, revenue marketing technology.

4 Pitfalls to Avoid in Your Referral Marketing Strategy Getting people to give your business a referral is one of the best ways to increase awareness and boost revenue. Like any marketing effort, you'll want to make sure your referral marketing strategy is sound before investing resources. Here, we'll present four pitfalls to avoid before launching your referral marketing program.

  Dreamforce is a busy time for everyone. From breakout sessions to keynote speakers to parties, there is always something going on to keep you occupied from sun up to sun down. So, how do you make the most of your time at Dreamforce? Our VP of Operations, Will Stevenson, will be in attendance for the 3rd time and these are his 5 tips for making the most of your time at #DF15:

Social media is all about creating a community around the brand you’ve worked so hard to build. It’s where your greatest advocates reside and where you can find many of your most loyal customers. Referral marketing is all about tapping into those consumers that are willing to recommend your company. Whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram or your email list, having a strong social media presence will give you a sense of where to find brand ambassadors that are willing to ...

All businesses, small or large, use certain tools that give their marketing, sales, engineering and operations teams a boost. From Hubspot to Slack to Salesforce to Pivotal Tracker, these tools can improve the day-to-day efficiency of your teams. Here are four business tools that you should be using right now:

There is numerous research on why having a referral program in place is a "must" for most brands. In fact, according to the NY Times, 65% of new business comes from referrals. That’s right. More than half. This means that all of your marketing efforts - ads, social media, email and all of your other other campaigns combined - are still not as powerful as a recommendation from another customer. What’s more, Nielsen research has revealed that consumers are four times more likely to buy when ...

All too often, marketers view brand loyalty as something that occurs after customer acquisition. However, as Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks astutely points out, "If people believe they share values with a company, they will stay loyal to the brand." And referral marketing programs have been shown to foster brand loyalty long before prospects convert into paying customers. Encouraging brand loyalty through word-of-mouth marketing, before prospects convert, can result in a lower customer ...

Can you feel the heat? If so, you’re not alone. CMOs are being held to higher standards each year to improve efficiency of spend, maximize ROI, and provide transparent impact to bottom-line sales revenue, CMO.com reports. And showing a positive return on investment isn’t just important for gaining buy-in from the rest of the C-Suite. It’s personal, too — in many cases, ROI is how a marketer’s job performance is evaluated. And then there’s the age old question: how do you prove ROI? Especially ...

It’s disheartening, but if you’re using point solutions for marketing tasks, your web developers may hate you. Using multiple point solutions for individual marketing tasks will create a silo-system that makes it harder for marketers to stay organized and analyze data. This silo system also limits the capabilities of your IT team, causing them to potentially encounter compatibility issues and technological redundancies that reduce efficiency levels. Contrary to a multiple point solution, ...

Building a strong brand awareness strategy isn’t just a great idea — a solid strategy helps you directly impact your company’s bottom line sales figures. A great brand awareness strategy requires a multi-faceted approach to improving brand engagement with past, current, and future customers. In a world where 70 percent of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated, it is incredibly important that brands establish a loyal following of active customers. To truly ...

Any company that claims to have never made a marketing blunder is not to be trusted. In the infamous words of John C. Maxwell, "A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them." Marketing mistakes happen — and so do reporting blunders. How you adapt to, fix, and learn from your marketing reporting blunders is what matters.

FOMO: Fear of Missing Out. According to a Mashable article by Samantha Murphy Kelly, "Report: 56% of Social Media Users" Suffer From FOMO," it's a common problem. People who suffer from severe FOMO would give up chocolate for social media if ever presented with such a cruel choice. Most marketers probably already suffer from mild to moderate FOMO, but marketing FOMO is a greater problem than worrying about missing out on the latest online gossip; it's the fear of missing out on the latest ...

In an economy where every marketing dollar is scrutinized, it is crucial to know where your budget is best spent, and carefully selecting how your business can get the best bang for its buck. Both referral marketing and affiliate marketing are imperative to the success of most organizations. Let's take a closer look into how the two differ, and why you can't have one without the other.

At their core, Net Promoter Scores (NPS) are based on simple, one-question surveys that are meant to gain insights into consumer mentality. The surveys encourage responders to select a numeric rating for how likely they are to recommend a company's product or service to friends or colleagues. Responders who answer with a 0 - 6 are listed as “detractors," 7 - 8 are "passives," and 9 - 10 are called "promoters."

It's not at all difficult to imagine that word-of-mouth is one of the oldest forms of marketing. Long before most people could even write — much less send three Tweets per minute — farmers and craftsmen were urging their customers to tell friends and family where to find the best olive oil and sturdiest spears. But old doesn’t mean irrelevant. There’s been a renewed interest in referral programs lately, so let's explore the importance of them in our digital age.

Any marketer who has navigated through all of the changes in the past decade would most likely admit that the journey has been amazing and quite unpredictable. Just over ten years ago, the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, still worked out of his dorm room at Harvard. At that time, cell phones were just becoming commonplace, and the Internet had cemented itself as a pervasive part of our lives. A decade ago, it would have been difficult to predict the impact of social media platforms on ...

Do you know the legend of William Tell? In the early 1500s, the emperors of Austria were seeking to take over what is now known as Switzerland. In a cruel act of dominance over one particular Swiss village called Altdorf, an Austrian governor (Gessler) placed his hat on top of a tall pole in the marketplace, and he demanded that the villagers bow to it whenever they passed by. During a visit to Altdorf, William Tell and his son refused to bow to Gessler’s hat, so they were arrested and ...

The 5 Latest Email Marketing Trends for 2015 and Beyond Even with all the hype surrounding social media, instant messaging apps and the dozens of other communications channels available to us in today’s tech-savvy world, email marketing remains one of the most powerful tools a business has in its arsenal. As of 2013, there were approximately 3.8 billion email users world-wide. Email is still the most preferred way for consumers to receive marketing communications. According to a study by ...

Social media may seem like a marketing tactic that doesn’t require much strategizing to be successful. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, many businesses make the same mistakes over and over, and then wonder why their SMM isn’t producing the results they were hoping for. That said, here are 10 super simple social media marketing tips to consider when creating a successful social media marketing strategy.

Twitter's lead generation cards can be a lucrative source of really high quality sales leads for your organization.

Ugh.

Email marketing is a gold mine. If you leverage email marketing correctly, you'll be able to drive traffic and conversions from your email campaigns. The key is creating awesome email campaigns that work, instead of the typical run-of-the-mill newsletters we all receive.

6 Ways to Get People to Love Your Brand Most entrepreneurs understand developing and establishing a brand is important. It's not necessarily easy, and, it's only half the battle. To win, you must take it a step further. That step is to not only recognize your brand, but to develop a passion for it. According to consulting firm Bain & Company, it costs 6 times more to attract a new customer than it does to keep an existing one. What’s more, a mere 5% increase in customer retention can boost ...

The 5 W's of a Successful Business Blog At last count, there were over 152,000,000 blogs on the internet with a new one being created every half a second. Blogs come in many shapes and sizes, offering everything from entertaining content to information and education to news and just about anything you could ever dream up. For businesses, blogs provide an avenue to both engage with existing customers and to attract new prospects from anywhere in the world. Blogging is absolutely essential to the ...

We've been fans and members of the GrowthHackers.com community since the very early days. One of the principle objectives of growth hackers is to increase the virality of their products through word of mouth marketing and referral programs. We're focused on providing tools that growth hackers need to achieve this objective. It was in this spirit that we wanted to provide this analysis to the community.

10 Easy Tips to Reduce Your Abandoned Shopping Cart Rate If you’ve been in the online retail industry for more than a day, chances are you’re all too familiar with the dreaded abandoned shopping cart. Every time a prospect puts something in their online shopping cart and fails to complete the transaction, you’ve lost a sale. And it’s a real problem. According to Baymard Institute, the average abandonment rate across ecommerce industries is a whopping 67.91%.

Hacking the Endowment Effect Loss Aversion, Scarcity, & Customer Acquisition

5 Social Media Marketing Metrics You Should be Measuring If you asked 20 marketing experts what the most important social media metrics are, chances are you’d get 20 different responses. The truth is, SMM is a very broad topic, and there isn’t a one-size-fits-all way to measure success. Yet, it’s critically important to understand what is (and isn’t) working so you’re not wasting valuable marketing dollars heading in the wrong direction.

Create a Monster Inbound Marketing Strategy in 7 Easy Steps Any marketer worth their salt knows you must have a powerful and highly effective inbound marketing strategy to be successful. In fact, as of the beginning of this year, 60% of businesses had adopted some type of inbound marketing as part of their overall strategy. Hubspot found that inbound marketing generates 54% more leads than traditional outbound efforts.

Boosting Customer Loyalty in 8 Easy Steps Customer loyalty is critically important to business success. Even though most of us know this, the numbers may surprise even the most well-informed Marketers. According to a study by Customer Insight Group, Inc., loyal customers make up 55-70% of sales for a business. Furthermore, 78% of loyal customers are more than happy to spread the word about a brand they love. In addition, a study by Bain and Co. revealed that an increase in customer retention of ...

How to Improve Your Online Reputation These days, consumers are turning to the internet more than any other source to learn about brands and make purchasing decisions. In fact, according to a study by GE Capital, 81% of consumers say they turn to the web to do research before making a purchase. What if the information that’s floating around in cyberspace doesn’t necessarily paint your business in the best light? While you can’t completely control what’s said about you on the web, you can take ...

5 Tips to Keep in Mind Before Using Social CRM Software Once upon a time, businesses went out on a limb to embrace social media networks for sheer people power. There were obvious reasons for businesses to move to the social enterprise. Some of those benefits were loyalty, consumer support, brand building, awareness, and traction.

Leveraging the Power of Visual Social Media Recently we offered up some of our own thoughts on what to expect from social media for the coming year. One of the things that we believe will continue to grow in popularity over the coming months is visual media. Why? It’s simple, really.

6 Ways to Improve Your Marketing Strategy "People shop and learn in a whole new way compared to just a few years ago, so marketers need to adapt or risk extinction"

Mobile Marketing Statistics That You Need to Know Americans spend an average of 158 minutes on their mobile devices everyday. That's more than 15% of their time awake. Perhaps more surprising, 75% say they bring their phones into the bathroom, and another 15% admit to answering their phones during sex. In other words, people love their mobile devices.

This post is a response to a recent discussion on inbound.org. Normally, the information I get from inbound.org is top-notch, however on this particular topic, I found many myths perpetuated and I wanted to address them head on. If you take only one thing away from this post, let it be this; Google wouldn't produce and support a single page javascript framework (angular.js) if Google couldn't index it. Furthermore, Google builds many of its projects internally using the framework, which it ...

Dr. Dre, Beats, and the Source* of Hip-Hop Wealth By now you have heard of the alleged pending Beats by Apple deal. If not, here's what you've missed:

3 Reasons Why Your Enterprise Needs Brand Ambassadors Building brand awareness involves… well, you know the drill. Producing quality content, being active and engaging on social media, sending out email newsletters to the masses… lather, rinse, repeat.

5 Reasons Why Word of Mouth Marketing is King In a digital world where everything is available to us at our fingertips, it’s easy for businesses to get caught up in the many marketing avenues the web has to offer. While things like social media advertising and email marketing are still great tools, the single most powerful way to reach more people and turn those prospects into paying customers is through word of mouth marketing. Here are 5 reasons why.

9 Tricks for Lowering Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate In March 2014, researchers found that an average of 67.91% of online shoppers abandon their carts.

7 Content Marketing Myths, Busted Most of us have learned over the past decade or so that you really can’t trust everything you read on the internet, especially given the fact that just about anyone can share information – many times about topics they’re not nearly qualified to talk about. The subject of content marketing is no exception.

Developing a Powerful and Successful Call to Action One of the most important components of any marketing campaign – whether it’s email marketing, mobile, social media or traditional offline methods – is a clear and powerful call to action.

Turn a Negative Customer Experience Into a Positive One One of the challenges businesses have to deal with in a real-time online world is a negative customer interaction. These can happen anywhere a customer engages with your brand – in store, online, phone support, social media, etc. Before social media, when a customer had a bad interaction with a business, the best they could do is tell their friends or write to the business using a feedback form. Neither of which would usually result in any ...

Every day more and more businesses take up the challenge of social media marketing, but many forget a crucial component for success: identifying the correct channels in which to invest.

Using Social Media to Generate and Nurture Leads If you’re looking for a way to reach more customers, there’s no doubt about it. Social media is the way to go. Digital marketing giant eMarketer estimates that social media platforms boast over 1.73 billion users worldwide. A number that’s expected to climb to 2.55 billion by the year 2017.

Commit to tracking social media ROI in 2014 Online marketing budgets are increasing in 2014, and a larger piece of the pie is being attributed to trackable ROI. 77% of organizations polled in the Econsultancy Marketing Budgets 2014 Report are "committed to partnering, and implementing technology solutions to optimise marketing ROI." Agencies are less optimistic, only 54% believe that their clients are committed to actually optimising ROI.

4 Social Media Myths That Are Holding You Back Social media is inherently buzz-worthy. It’s what everyone’s doing, and what everyone’s talking about. Unfortunately, some of the things being said about social media, particularly social media marketing, are not as true as we have been led to believe. In fact, some of these misinterpretations could actually be preventing your business from maximizing the benefits of this powerful online marketing tool. Here are 4 social media myths to watch out ...

5 Ways to Put “Social” Back into Social Media Marketing These days, social media marketing (SMM) isn’t just an option, it’s a necessity. Understanding the importance of this marketing strategy and mastering it are two different things. It’s not enough to just set up profiles and create accounts on various platforms. To get the most out of your social media program, you have to find a way to put the “social” back into it. The good news is, this isn’t as hard as you may think. Here are a few ...

Social Media Trends – What’s On Tap for 2014? There’s no doubt about it – 2014 is set to be another explosive year for social media marketing, particularly for businesses. It’s always good practice to make some strategic forecasts and predictions in each area of your marketing plan. This can help you better hone your strategy to help you achieve and exceed your goals for the coming year. Here are some of our predictions for what we believe social media has in store for business in 2014.

Social Validation is the Key to Amplifying Your Customer Base Social validation is one of the greatest motivators in our daily lives. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, once our basic physical and safety needs are met, the next set of needs includes a sense of belonging and love, followed immediately by esteem needs — things like status and respect. Both groups tie directly into the concept of validation from one’s social group.

4 Tips for Recruiting Passionate Brand Ambassadors Regardless of which social media marketing culture you embrace, we can all agree on the ultimate goal of gaining more customers through word of mouth marketing and increased brand awareness. One of the most effective ways of accomplishing this goal is by recruiting people that are passionate about your business, product and/or service, and are willing to spread the word for you. These people are called brand ambassadors and here are a few tips ...

Referral Marketing: The Primary Use Cases We believe there are three primary use cases for referral marketing software. However, there are a number of ways that you can use referral software to track, incentivize conversions, and increase referrals and revenue.

The 13 Best Chrome Extensions for Marketers Being a marketer in the age of digital media requires savvy management and communication skills. Whether you need assistance with emails, sales leads, or help consuming the world's massive amount of content, the following Chrome Extensions have got you covered.

Motivate Sharing: A Look at Non-Financial Referral Program Reward Structures More and more companies are generating real revenue from referral marketing and affiliate marketing channels. To maximize their effectiveness, though, it's important to understand how the two are different, and create specific plans for each. To create an effective strategy for a word-of-mouth campaign, it's helpful to understand the motivations of both affiliates and ambassadors.

DHL: The Trojan Mailing Campaign

Attract, Convert, Close, Delight and Then What? Attract, Convert, Close, Delight. If you are an inbound marketer this is your mantra. Tell me truthfully, do you spend an equal amount of time nurturing customers in each stage? Most of the marketers I talk to tell me that they spend less and less time as they move through the stages of the inbound methodology.

It is common for brands and consumers to communicate one-on-one every day. Brands talk to people online and spend money creating inspiring and educational content to grow their following. Users on social media share branded content, helping promote businesses through word of mouth marketing.

Abandoned Cart Best Practices; A Revenue Retrieval Guide You want conversions, not just traffic. If you experience a high cart abandonment rate, you're not alone. In a study conducted by Baymard Institute, the average online shopping cart abandonment rate is 67.44%. For most eCommerce companies, a small decrease in the cart abandonment rate can significantly boost the bottom line.

Now is the Perfect Time to Get Your Customers to Sell for You Today's consumer lives across a multitude of digital networks. In these networks people are sharing more about brands, people, products and places they like, love and hate. An increasing number of people are growing their social capital and their influence by sharing information, and recommending businesses online. All of this sharing is more than chatter in the ether. Earning a positive recommendation is the equivalent of getting ...

Ambassador provides a Stripe integration to help you manage your recurring commissions for referral, partner and affiliate programs. If you have a subscription based service and bill through Stripe this integration couldn't be easier!

We're very happy to announce that Ambassador now integrates directly with SurveyMonkey's Net Promoter Score® survey, and will create an Ambassador account for anybody that answers the Net Promoter Score® survey ("On A Scale Of 1-10, How Likely Are You To Refer A Friend?") with a 9 or a 10.

Trust is the building block of every relationship—including those that begin and grow online. So ask yourself: Does your website increase your credibility, or does it destroy it? Do you know what makes the difference? Here’s a look at tips to help you gain the trust of your website visitors.

Jon Henshaw isn’t exactly sure how he got here — an SEO expert with a background in human development and a master’s degree in counseling psychology. Oh, not to mention he’s a wild-eyed entrepreneur and co-founder of Nashville-based online marketing platform Raven. So how did he get here? How did he become an expert in search engine marketing? The same way anybody gets anywhere these days—pretty much by accident.

Chris Garrett is a self-proclaimed Internet addict who’s putting his addiction to good use. Throughout his career, Chris has worked for brands ranging from Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble to local mom-and-pop startups and charities. Nowadays his work can be found on Copyblogger, Amazon, and Chrisg.com. Recently we picked Chris’s brain about content marketing, online writing, and the all-important (and ever-elusive) perfect user experience.

Meghan Lockwood is a natural-born writer and storyteller with a gift for good conversations. After starting her career as a financial analyst at Merrill Lynch (and realizing that managing rounding errors was a less-than-inspiring career path) she is now putting her raconteur-skills to work as a content manager for HubSpot. Meghan kindly agreed to chat with us about HubSpot, inbound marketing, and the future of the world as we know it.

When it comes to managing relationships with customers, many businesses have neglected a great opportunity: Customer service . . . through social media! As the number of customers expecting to receive "social customer service" continues to rise, it's important that brands are listening, because its well worth your time.

A lot of the attention surrounding the provision of customer service via social media tends to focus on B2C brands: How can I resolve shipping issues? Can I book tickets online? Et cetera. However, B2B customers are people too. Despite a longer and more complex lead-to-sale time, they also expect a strong customer service infrastructure from B2B brands.

You know that building brand loyalty takes more than the occasional Facebook post and Twitter update—it requires two-way communication between your customers and your brand, as well as the ability to provide value to your social media community.

If the world of social media is just one giant party, then companies should probably know this: Your customers are talking about you behind your back.

 By now we’ve all heard about Instagram rolling out video functionality for its users—a big move for Facebook and an obvious swipe at Twitter’s Vine platform. But it makes sense that Facebook would want to tap into video content. According to Mist Media, the average user spends 88 percent more time on a website with video, and videos embedded in emails can increase click-through rates by as much as 90 percent.

Every successful marketer has integrated some level of email outreach into their overall strategy, but the best of the best know it takes a delicate balance of budget allocation, selective communication, and analytics to make sure their efforts prove well worth the investment.

Does integrating social media into your emails really make a difference? After all, most people read their emails on Gmail or Outlook, not Facebook; so what can change just by bringing traditional email marketing online?

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word email? If you said Tom Hanks or Meg Ryan (à la the 1998 romantic comedy You’ve Got Mail), good effort! But this isn’t the ’90s. In 2013, email marketing is an essential part of not only romance, but also referral marketing strategies.

We’ve said it before, but we’ll say it again: The best way to generate referrals is by engaging with your customer base on a personal level. And now it seems the online advertising industry has finally caught on to this approach.

Marketing through Twitter has always been a challenge for businesses. With 400 million Tweets per day, it’s hard to cut through the clutter and collect valuable information from one’s followers.

At the heart of any successful referral program or social media strategy lie relationships—how you foster true loyalty from your customers and prompt them to evangelize your brand to their friends and family.

Viral marketing was once the most talked about method in online marketing circles. It’s understandable. What better way to get millions of people simultaneously talking about your brand than by leveraging social media’s mass exposure? There’s just one problem: Once a message goes viral, the online discussion is entirely out of a company’s control.

6 Amazing Stats That Prove Word-of-Mouth Marketing Is Here to Stay 

As we learned in our most recent infographic, Advertising: Do You Buy It, trust in advertising is changing. With this in mind, more and more online businesses are coming to the conclusion that word of mouth referrals are key to their marketing success. Let's take a look at this evolving channel and why you should tap into your customer's positive feedback.

There seems to be a strong inverse correlation between the use of social media and users’ attention spans: as social media becomes more popular, people are less willing to spend a lot of time reading long form content. Therefore, one might conclude that the obvious answer to this dilemma is to shorten your content, otherwise known as “microcontent.”

4 Metrics Critical to B2B Success—and How Referrals Can Help Get You There Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither are Fortune 500 companies. It takes time, determination, and an accurate understanding of the key metrics driving the success of your brand (or empire).

Research shows that the positive word of mouth (WOM) surrounding brands outpaces negative by a 6 to 1 ratio. But this doesn’t happen on its own! Whether you’re a B2C or a B2B business, nurturing relationships with your customers is one of the most important factors for leveraging positive referrals and decreasing customer attrition.

The marriage of social media and e-commerce continues to blossom. And with American Express’s recent announcement of its new “pay-by-hashtag” feature on Twitter, the love between these two Web industries has never been stronger.

In another big move as a part of LinkedIn’s transition from résumé service to professional social network, the company recently announced the release of new visual profiles.

While Tumblr is a powerful tool for businesses to leverage when looking to engage fans online, the microblog’s mobile app has always been lacking in its integrations with other social media sites.

With more and more businesses recognizing the value of online referrals, it’s easy to overlook why the advertising technique is so effective in the first place—it’s social! Every day friends and colleagues interact with each other on social media sites in ways that weren’t possible even two years ago. But guess what? They’re interacting with your brand as well.

Referrals Are the Most Cost-Effective—and Trustworthy—Ad Strategy Your customers may trust your product, but your advertising strategy may be a different story.

It should come as no surprise that the average consumer's trust in advertising is staggering. But stagger as it may, consumers are still listening, and consuming branded content like never before. The question is: Have we evaluated the outlets that show the greatest promise to build consumer confidence and boost our bottom line? Let's take a closer look at how consumers perceive advertising, and how we can better earn their listening ear.

Friction comes up a lot in our lives: in relationships, work, and politics—it’s pretty common, and oftentimes unavoidable. But in the case of managing a successful referral marketing program, friction can mean the difference between having loyal customers versus having brand ambassadors. Thus, reducing the amount of friction that your customers encounter should be a top priority.

If your referral rewards program is the body of your social media strategy, then a headline is the friendly face that will draw in customers.

Over the course of seven years, Twitter has evolved from a simple microblogging service to an indispensable tool for referral marketers. With only 140 characters, a business can reach thousands of supporters across broad swaths of demographics. But one tweet only goes so far.

Why should your target customer purchase a product from your brand rather than from a competitor’s?

It seems that LinkedIn has been on a mission to prove that professionals can be social too. And on April 4 they took it one a further by adding a Facebook-style Mentions feature to status updates and conversations.

An optimized referral landing page will make your referral marketing program much more successful. Last week, we shared simple changes that can significantly improve your conversion rate. For a visual representation of these steps, have a look our most recent infographic, The Ultimate Referral Partner Landing Page.

Here’s a question: If you were designing a referral partner landing page for your referral rewards program, what components would you include? Industry standards such as a call to action and a lead form come to mind, but a lot more goes into effectively converting customers into brand ambassadors.

Landing page optimization is a cornerstone of any referral marketing campaign. After all, once you’ve done the hard work of making a sale, how can you convert satisfied customers into brand ambassadors?

Welcome to the Referral Marketing Software Café! Take a moment to look over our menu of marketing collateral suggestions. With any of these fantastic and fresh content offerings, and the right positioning and messaging for your target audience, you’ll be driving new sales and referrals in no time.

In the time it takes you to read this sentence, a potential sale may have already left your site.

Have you ever noticed that brands are like people? In order to attract—and keep—loyal customers, your brand should resemble someone you’d like to grab a beer or coffee with on the weekend, or someone you know you can call anytime just to talk about life. Basically, your brand should be trustworthy. But much like the art of developing lasting friendships, it takes time for customers to feel comfortable enough to refer your brand to their friends. And while referrals are the most effective way to ...

At the end of a busy day of shopping, it’s nice to be rewarded by the brands you patronize. After all, the only thing better than buying presents is receiving them.

It’s widely accepted among dog trainers that the most effective and humane way to train a dog is through positive reinforcement. Basically, it means you reward the animal’s behavior that you want to see repeated and ignore the behavior you don’t.

Most B2B companies know that social media is a great tool for not only increasing awareness and engagement, but also generating high-value customer referrals. If you didn’t already know this, then keep in mind that the closing ratio for nonreferred leads is only 10 percent versus a 60 percent closing ratio for referred leads.

The social media world is like high school: every week there’s a new rumor circulating. But a big one seems to be gaining traction recently: Facebook hashtags.

Moving your brand onto social media sites presents a lot of great opportunities for online marketing, but simply setting up a Facebook page won’t be enough to help you reap the full benefits. While marketing has always been about communicating with customers, social marketing is actually a two-way conversation. This brings up an interesting question: What does your brand sound like to real people?

Unless you’ve been living under a social media rock, you’ve likely come across the option to register for a website using your existing social media identity. Privacy issues aside, using social login is a great way to acquire not only more users, but also customer information that’s critical to establishing a truly social brand. Here’s why:   1. Social Login Helps Deter Shopping Cart Abandonment Research shows that on average, 75 percent of ecommerce sales don’t occur because site visitors ...

On March 7, Facebook announced the first major redesign of its News Feed (the center column of the home page) in more than three years, which places greater emphasis on visuals and provides options that allow users to tailor the information they consume based on their specific interests. The changes are considered to be a win for Facebook users and a big win for referral marketers.

Happy birthday, Foursquare! This free geolocation app was launched back in March 2009, and it’s sure grown a lot in the last four years! As of January 2013, Foursquare re