Rise and Refer Recap: Q1 2025

“We’ve seen that referred customers are twice as valuable as those that aren’t referred.”

- Astrid and Miyu, Rise and Refer Q1

Setting the scene...

Wednesday morning, 26th February. Pink vibrancy and coffee-fuelled conversations about conquering acquisition rescued an otherwise grey, rainy day.

Much like the weather, customer acquisition channels loom like a dark storm of rising CPA and low ROI. Thank goodness for Rise and Refer. 

On floor 24, the room was abuzz with brands keen to hear tips and success stories on how referral can optimise acquisition in 2025, with exclusive appearances from Astrid & Miyu, Secret Escapes, Incubeta and Attentive.

It was a morning of: "That's a great question…”, interactions with a packed-out room, and on-the-spot answers. And free pastries.

Key moments

Today’s theme, summed up by CRO Darren Loveday, borrowed from the iconic Fred Reicheld, looks like this:

"The future of profitability and growth lies in getting customers to return and bring their friends.” 

In other words, today you’ll learn how referral and AI can acquire and nurture more valuable customers. But how does that look in real life?

Please welcome Becky from Astrid & Miyu and Selina from Secret Escapes, hosted by our Director of Client Success, Rob Grant.

Cutting to the chase, Rob poised, "How has referral boosted your acquisition?"

Becky emphasised the seamless integration of Mention Me with the Astrid & Miyu tech stack and loyalty programmes, excitedly explaining that referred customers are twice as valuable as non-referred customers. We’ll explore this more later on.

Then Chris Venus, VP of Customer Success, rounded off the first half with an actionable roadmap for referral success — a referral goodie bag for savvy marketers. So much was learned all before 10am.

Time for a quick break.

As decibels rose from conversation and connections, so did anticipation for Cam Roegiers’ seamless, slideless interactive talk on driving LTV, including a big reveal: Mention Me is launching a micro-influencer programme – so watch this space!

Now for the hotly debated topic of combining organic and paid acquisition strategies, an all-star panel hosted by Partner Manager Hannah Callaghan and Senior Client Success Manager Victoria Huet, featuring Julia Trischetta, Director of Customer Success, Attentive; and Victoria Graham, Client Director, Incubeta. 

Quizzed on the future of acquisition, Julia confidently outlined:

“Today’s shoppers, even more so than two years previously, expect personalised experiences across all touchpoints. Brands leveraging AI to meet these expectations are excelling, converting casual shoppers into loyal VIPs.”

The Rise and Refer conductor, Amara Mir, concluded the morning by inviting attendees to stick around for chats, questions and queries about all things acquisition with our team. After applause, the room obliged.

Astrid & Miyu's success

“We had previously set up referrals through our loyalty programme, but this meant we could only target customers who had opted in to the loyalty programme. Mention Me expanded that customer base, enabling us to target a much larger audience.”

• Valuable Customer Acquisition: Since implementing Mention Me, referred customers have proven to be twice as valuable as non-referred customers in just the first year.
  
  
• Segmentation and Campaign Strategy: The use of segmentation allows Astrid & Miyu to run tailored campaigns for Loyalty programme members and non-members, encouraging new sign-ups as part of the referral journey.
  
  
• AI Integration: Astrid & Miyu employs AI through Mention Me’s Sentiment Analysis, identifying the top five opportunities based on customer feedback. One key opportunity presented to the CEO was the need to streamline their communication strategy both in-store and online. 
  
  As a result, their teams now work more collaboratively, ensuring these strategies are aligned and effectively reducing silos.
  
  
• Innovative Incentives: A standout initiative was their Black Friday Campaign, which avoided additional discounts. Instead, customers were encouraged to refer friends for a chance to win monetary vouchers. This strategy led to increased sales over November and December without further discounting.

Secret Escapes summary

I caught up with the Secret Escapes team at the end, asking them about their favourite part of Rise and Refer, who said:

“I loved the slides at the end because it drew out different things like paid and organic, not just CRM, which was really interesting. Mention Me is coming to our office next week, and I’m almost like: ‘bring this presentation so I can show my team!’ It’s great to hear about how referral impacts other channels.”

- Selina, Senior CRM Manager

“I like how we’re already with Mention Me, but there were still a lot of new and interesting things and perspectives that we can take to other parts of the business. I learnt something new today!”

- Aliah, CRM Executive

Takeaway thoughts...

Our team was asked a few times about alternatives to traditional discounting in referral strategies. The solution? Focus on incentives like gifting, charity contributions, and exciting competitions, or using language like ‘celebrate someone with 15% off’ making the incentive less about money, and more about building connections.

We’ll leave you with the words of Becky from Astrid and Miyu:

"In our Black Friday campaign, we opted not to offer a discount. Instead, we encouraged our existing shoppers to tell their friends about the sale. As an incentive, we provided them with an opportunity to win a voucher for both themselves and their friends….our purchase rate significantly increased over November and December."

That’s curtains I’m afraid — here's to implementing these learnings and continuing to improve your approach to customer acquisition, making every referral count. Until next time, folks!