What’s the best source of a lead?
A referral.
And the best way to get referrals is to use ambassador programs to turn subscribers and customers into advocates.
Startup founders and marketers love ambassador programs because they require little-to-no engineering, have low setup costs and streamlined tracking. They’re fast to implement, but they won’t help your company grow if you don’t track the right metrics and engage with your members.
In parallel, to run a high-level ambassador program, you need to analyze how many ambassadors and signups you receive from different sources using ike Google Analytic and Autopilot. And to ensure you can fine-tune your ambassador program’s content and landing pages, you need to use referral software that includes A/B testing and event tracking.
Here’s your ambassador program tool list to make it happen:
- Queue, advanced referral marketing software
“The queue system we made drops them in something like 500th place in a queue when they leave their email. The only way >to get further up the queue is to like our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter, invite their friends by email, etc. If they finish >near the top of the queue, they get bonuses.
In our case, it was free growth hacking consultancy, free webinars, free entrance to a secret growth hacking group on ?>Facebook, etc. In your case it might be early access or free products. People LOVE gamification like this, and we saw well over >100% uplift (i.e. we more than doubled the number of people we invited to the queue. On launch day, we had over 2,200 ?>people from the queue waiting for the book to come out.” - Vin Clancy, CEO & Founder of Traffic & Copy
- Maître, beginner to intermediate-level referral marketing software
This tool has many of the same benefits of Queue, but lacks many of the gamifications features. With that said, it has more >flexibility because of its ease of use and API flexibility. If you’re looking to set something up quick for your startup, then >Maître is your go-to software,
- Open-source code for referral marketing
This is a post on Tim Ferriss’s blog about how Harry’s, a men’s grooming brand, gathered over 100,000 email addresses in >one week. The post includes the templates, open-source code, and tactics they used for a successful marketing campaign. If >you’re interested in a fast ambassador launch and want only the basics, then this open-source code is perfect.
If you’re not technical, then the first two resources will fit you better.
- Grytics, Facebook Group analytics software
Grytics will help you manage your Facebook Group’s analytics regarding members, likes, comments, interactions, and best->performing posts. You can easily export this data, too. It also has a sleek interface and can pinpoint the exact areas where >your group needs improvement from content to management.
And Grytics provides you details about your most engaged group members. Here’s an insider screenshot of the interface:
To fully understand how your ambassador program works, you need to create a new email segment or attribute for them. This way you can see how they perform over time compared to your other subscribers. In other words, you need the perfect customer journey.
What is The Hustle?
Because of the many moving pieces, few companies run great ambassador programs. One company that does it exceptionally well is The Hustle, a media publication founded by serial entrepreneurs, Sam Parr and John Havel.
The Hustle is a daily email newsletter and publication targeted at millennials. Today, the email has over 275,000 daily email subscribers. Powerful.
Sam Parr founded a unique niche with their daily email’s conversational tech-bro voice, and memorable stories and reporting. A couple of more standout stories, include Microdosing: I Spent 14 Days Using LSD to Increase Productivity… Kind Of, Soylent: What happened when I went 30 days Without Food, and How Much Does It Cost to Build an App?
“In the way Vice has filled a voice somewhere between CNN and Fox News, we’re doing that with business-undertone news, focused on an affluent young audience, somewhere between CNBC and The Wall Street Journal,” said Parr.
To see what makes The Hustle’s ambassador program tic, let’s go on a deep dive.
It Starts with the Opt-in Form
First, submit your email. Notice the casual copy above the opt-in form and the lack of text on the button. I can only wonder how many times they A/B tested this form.
You can access this opt-in form through a direct link or other pages on the Hustle like this one:
What happens when you opt-in?
You see an unforgettable thank-you page. The man in the mirror is a GIF, so when you land on the page, you’ll see him nod his head over and again. Talk about a seductive landing page!
You’re officially a subscriber. Now, you’ll receive the most epic welcome email ever to exist. I know what you’re thinking:
“To ever exist? Really?”
Yes.
Many publications featured their welcome email, including here, here, here, and here. Oh, and here, too.
Here’s the welcome email word-for-word:
Notice the call to action to join their ambassador program at the bottom of the email. This link is in many of their daily emails, too. When you click the link, you land back on your personal ambassador homepage where you see the number of people you’ve referred and the prizes you can win.
Here’s the first half of the landing page:
Now, not everyone who enters will become a referrer. Maître, a viral marketing software, conducted a study of 3.6 million referral emails and found most people don’t refer even one person. In turn, by only referring a small number of friends (2-3), you can push yourself to the top of the leaderboard. In fact, to be in the top 10%, you only need to refer one person. If you refer two people, you’re in the top 5%
Before we continue, many people may be asking what’s the difference between a sweepstakes, giveaway, contest, and ambassador program. A giveaway is another way to say “contest” or “sweepstakes.” Why? More conversions. The word “giveaway” receives 27% more conversions than “sweepstakes” when running a sweepstakes.
A sweepstakes is a game of chance. A contest requires skill and exclusion. An ambassador program is a contest that anyone can win - a combination of a contest and community.
Who participates in ambassador programs?
Forrester’s Social Technographics explains the different audiences that will engage with your promotion: Spectators, Joiners, and Creators.
- Spectators click through to your giveaway, but their interaction doesn’t go further. For spectators, use a well-designed landing page and clear messaging, so they leave with a good impression of your brand.
- Joiners participate in low-barrier ambassador programs and may engage further through referrals, commenting and sharing.
- Creators love user-generated content giveaways and ambassador programs. Because many of us have iPhones, there are many more content creators than a few years ago. As content has become easier to create, expectations have increased, too.
The Hustle’s ambassador program caters to Joiners because they require you to hit a certain level of referral tiers to get rewards.
What do you give away?
The Hustle gives away a ton of swag and free tickets to their events. In fact, they’ve changed their referral tiers as they’ve received a better understanding of the customer lifetime value of their average referrer.
Ideally, what you give away should have a viral component to it. The most viral gift The Hustle gives away are their stickers (think of it as their Apple logo). Most people slap the sticker on their laptop resulting in thousands of free impressions.
To give each gift a viral component, The Hustle team always goes over the top. One of their referrers posted an image of the prizes she received. Notice the extras, including the handwritten letter and branding on the packaging.
As Sam Parr says, “Everything is content.”
Make sure to keep the prizes relevant to your niche and brand. If The Hustle gave away an Apple iPhone, then they’d have many people on their email list interested in iPhones, not their daily email and events. At the same time, don’t make it too specific or you’ll scare people off.
To save money, think of your prize in regards to benefit, not cost.
Now, for the second half of the ambassador landing page:
Notice how the second half details the exact steps to getting more email subscribers using testimonials. Few - if any - brand ambassador programs do this. By the time you finish reading the testimonials, you feel confident enough to sign people up for The Hustle.
##What happens when you refer enough people to receive a prize?
You get another email with excellent copy and a few call to actions. First, they ask you to fill out a form to input your shipping address.
Here’s the genius part: Since they know you have a strong incentive to fill out the form, they also ask whether you’re a founder, type of content you enjoy reading, desired outcome from the ambassador program, and what websites you follow. By the time you hit “Submit,” you’ve given The Hustle a detailed look into your life enabling them to market to you better.
At the end of the form, they also link to a YouTube video of the co-founder, Sam Parr, introducing The Hustle on a more personal level:
Now back to the second part of the prize email:
If you have any questions, they link to their ambassador guide FAQ. This is one my favorite parts of the ambassador program. The FAQ answers every question the prospect might ask.
Moreover, it reminds them of how easy it is to refer people because they include a few testimonials similar to the ambassador homepage.
Here’s a short snippet of the testimonials on the FAQ page:
The last call to action is to refer more people. Most marketer put this CTA at the top of their email, but The Hustle doesn’t believe you should ask first. They’re objective is to build trust. And it works quite well - 200,000 plus subscribers.
What’s up with the private community?
This is where the magic happens. An engaged community is priceless, but it takes a significant amount of work to facilitate. You need to post excellent content almost every day, respond to comments, approve members, and introduce new members.
The Hustle founders know this, so they’re constantly testing out content from polls to live streaming with influencers.
Imagine having the exclusive benefit of a Q&A with Tim Ferriss because you’re one of The Hustle’s ambassadors. Benefits like this live stream encourage thousands of more people to become ambassadors.
To reiterate, they post new content every day. I’ve seen many people try to create ambassador programs, but give up after a couple of months - they can’t continue providing value.
Can you?
Ask yourself:
“How do I provide value to keep my community engaged without burning out?”
**There are several ways to do this. **
- Make other active members moderators or admins to encourage them to create great content.
- Interview influencers, so you don’t have to create original content.
- Document your personal journey of failures and successes with tactics.
- Congratulate your top members regularly.
Keep it Going
Don’t stop posting great content. As soon as you stop posting content, the group dies. As the community leader, it’s up to facilitate the relationships.
Don’t depend on anyone else to do it.
For more information about community building, check out this presentation.
All Credits to the Author
Josh Fechter
Growth Evangelist @Autopilot
A visual marketing software for automating the customer journey