Once we have a working referral program, success can be measured along two dimensions, Participation and Activity. Participation is simply how many (or what percentage) of your customers are active. Activity is how much each participant is doing, and how frequently. A great program drives participation and activity.

Increasing activity is relatively straightforward, in an “underpants gnome” sort of way. You have two levers:

Simple, eh!

Why does activity matter? More active customers spend more and are more loyal. It may seem that people are active because they are loyal, but there is evidence that they are loyal because they are active!

You want to be more active? Do more things. You want customers to be more active, give them more things to do. A standard referral program is a great way to get your customers started because it is easy to do and giving rewards is a good way to motivate.

But you should also consider:

Ratings and Reviews - Who is creating user-generated product content for you? Are we tracking them? Do we know who is doing it more? Do we know how often? Add this to the list of activities

Product Sharing - Those ancient ShareThis links you have on your product page, yes, the ones that Oracle uses to gather your customer cookie data. They have been languishing for years. Lets refresh them with personalized share links that your customers can send through email, SMS, and social. When their friends click on them, you will know not only what products are interesting, but whose shares drive interest.

Content Sharing - Whether you or your fans create the content, use an Extole link to share the content and you can see who is sharing, and who is influencing.

Invitations - Got a store opening? An event? New product? Instead of just sending out a link or an email, create custom share experiences for customers or influencers. You probably have figured out by now that it will give you a better sense of who influences whom.

Friends and Family - We love this one. A limited-access referral program that harnesses your closest fans, employees, partners, advocates, influencers, and gives them limited access to a great deal that they share with the people they love and the people they influence.

Your customer may only refer twice a year, but can we grow the activity level 50% simply by providing new programs that give different types of activity?

Of course, while variety is the spice of life, it can be just as effective to figure out ways to increase the frequency that your customer does what they already know how to do. If the have figured our referrals, they will likely have lower friction when doing it again, so lets try to get them to do it more.

If you want people do do things more frequently, you have to get their attention more often. The best way to do this is to understand that Variety is Visibility. When you can change the rules enough to make it interesting, but not so much that it makes in incoherent, you can get people to engage more often.

Here are a few ideas for increasing activity through variety:

Exploding offer for First-timers - Without a doubt the most fertile moment for customer advocacy is the moment they make their purchase even if they won’t get a product for days or use it for weeks. So create a “newby” promotion that is just targeted to new to file customers at the point of purchase.

It may seem counter-intuitive to increase activity by restricting a program to people who have never been active before, but it makes sense. But when you get people acting early you are priming them to expect referral as an ordinary course. Less friction means less barrier to re-share.

Bursts - End the quarter (or start one!) with a bang! Increase your reward for a short-term burst and see if you can get your customers to come out of the woodwork.

Holiday Calendar - Tie activity to your broader calendar. Back to school is great sharing time, so it the holiday season. Customize your programs so that they look fresh.

Get a Little Crazy - Do you ever get sick of coupons (or Amazon gift cards!). So do we. Extole offers over 200 types of rewards, and we can help link into your own internal systems to get more. Offer a Clear card to get your customers through security faster, or a restaurant card.