While B2B referral marketing and consumer refer-a-friend campaigns often have different objectives when trying to reach their target audience, the objective is still the same.

Are you trying to get a referral marketing campaign off the ground? Or perhaps your brand is already running a referral program, but it's getting tough to manage the process with spreadsheets and post-it notes. With word-of-mouth marketing driving billions of dollars in spend annually, it's no shock that more and more marketers are looking to put a referral marketing program in place.

We've seen a massive shift in the way businesses market online, especially when it comes to word-of-mouth. This is why it's crucial to leverage referral marketing automation to help marketers track, manage, and scale initiatives across the enterprise.

If a friend or colleague refers their favorite product, service, or platform - what would be your first response? Typically, people ask “why do you like it?” or “what makes it different?” or “what was your experience with it?” Which is why it’s no surprise that online reviews can play a vital role in your brand’s referral marketing program. In fact, according to BrightLocal, 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

 If your company is new to referral marketing, how do you develop a program from scratch? How do you harness the power of your existing customers and turn them into your most vocal fans? What do you offer as rewards? How do you ensure that your program optimizes for new leads and brand loyalty, all while remaining manageable and measurable?

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?