68% of consumers have recommended a brand in the past 6 months. But that doesn’t necessarily include your brand – even if your customers love your products and service.

And there's a simple reason why.

Promoting referral at the right touchpoints is key to a successful refer-a-friend programme. If you aren't motivating your customers to recommend your brand at the right time, you're missing out on significant revenue.

In fact, customers share brands 35% more when referral is promoted at two or more touchpoints, compared to just one.

Before we dive into more detail, here’s a quick overview of how the referral journey works.

As the video explains, post-purchase is the holy grail of referral touchpoints. That’s because it taps into the point of delight.

Finding the best time to promote your referral programme

The point of delight is when your customers are most likely to recommend your brand to others. There are numerous points in every brand's customer journey, some more delightful than others. But one touchpoint consistently performs well: the post-purchase page.

We’ve all felt that tingle of satisfaction when we’ve ordered new shoes, booked a summer getaway, or set up a better savings account. Promoting referral at this moment engages your customers at one of their happiest points in their journey with your brand. 

Points of delight by sector

While post-purchase is a point of delight for brands across sectors, other points vary. 

If you’re a fashion brand, for example, your customers are most likely to recommend you post-purchase or while unboxing (you can include an in-pack insert promoting your referral programme to tap into this). If you’re a subscription brand, the point of delight is post-purchase or when your customers receive/experience your products/service for the first time.  

Through working with 400+ brands, we’ve seen first-hand how points of delight vary by sectors. Here are some examples:

Fashion

Finance

Travel

Optimising your referral customer journey

Of course, the more points you promote your referral programme throughout the customer lifecycle, the more likely your customers are to act on it. Keeping your programme front of mind is key. 

Once your touchpoints are up and running, you can experiment with different offers to see what your different customer segments most engage with. To find out more about how referral could work for your brand, check out our sector guides.