What Can Your Referral Program Learn From Roku?
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"Plenty of companies have referral programs," writes Kimberly Smith, "but how many can say theirs converts at about three times the rate of other online marketing campaigns and brings in over 500 new product sales each month?" In a case study at MarketingProfs, Smith explains how Roku—which makes devices that stream Internet content to televisions—achieved these results:
Testing incentives. The company experimented with rewards that ranged from cash and gift cards to charitable contributions. But a free month of Netflix became the sole incentive when surveys revealed that 80% of Roku customers were also enthusiastic Netflix subscribers. After this switch in the referral program, registration rates skyrocketed (from 1,000 per month to 8,000), referrals doubled and product sales increased by five-fold.
Simplifying the registration process. They use a simple form that doesn't scare customers off by asking for more information than they actually need.

Offering a variety of sharing options—including email. "Social media may be the hot channel everyone's looking to for customer recommendations," notes Smith, "but Roku found that more than 70% of its program registrants chose email for referring their friends."
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Comments
Roku is definitely one customer who truly gets the value of their advocates and continuing to optimize their referral program with Extole. We are happy to see how well the program has worked for sales as well as their understanding of what works for their advocates and look forward to continuing our partnership with Roku.
Anjanette Hill-Mendoza, Sr. Dr. Customer Success at Extole
I think the key to there success is that they tested to see what was the best offer for conversion. With out testing they would have never come to the conclusion that the Netflix offer had the highest rate of return. Not only did they gain more customers but they accessed more information about there prospects and customer base all done with email because the database is king when it comes to marketing. It is the foundation to the marketing house you are trying to build.. Nice job Roku! +1
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