Creating a referral program is one of the best ways to get more individuals to market your products to a wider audience. You can encourage users to recommend others to join your website in exchange for a reward or incentive like a commission.
A WordPress referral program has repeatedly expanded a website’s clientele or readership.
Throughout the years, several brands have developed referral systems to promote their goods and services. You must have witnessed how referral or affiliate programs have increased web traffic, improved transactions, and assisted brands in reaching a wider audience.
This article will walk you through the process of designing a referral program in WordPress so you can increase your clientele.
5 Proven Benefits of Creating a WordPress Referral Program
Before we dive into the steps to create a WordPress referral program, let’s see the major benefits you get from a customer referral program in WordPress.
- Improved client loyalty: Affiliates frequently develop into brand ambassadors who spread the word about your goods to their networks and encourage recurring commerce.
- Low-effort promotional strategy: The top affiliate plugins provide automation tools, making expanding and managing your business simple.
- Referral programs offer fantastic ROI: Starting a WordPress referral program comes at a minimal cost.
- Access to a fresh clientele: Affiliate programs allow you to reach a new audience of potential clients that you might not have otherwise reached.
- Affordable development: A referral rewards program is a cost-effective approach to expanding your business since, unlike traditional advertising, you only pay them when they successfully create sales.
A referral rewards program in WordPress helps you leverage the features of the WordPress community. It enables you to develop and flourish in a community-driven system by converting happy customers into an indirect marketing team.
Why You Should Have a WordPress Referral Program
You can increase the number of people who will assist you in selling your goods and services by implementing a referral or affiliate network. You give them a tiny percentage on every sale they earn in exchange.
Simply put, a referral rewards program is like creating your own sales force without paying them a salary.
Generally, affiliate or referral marketers are content producers who earn money online by directing their fans to affiliate products. To boost sales, affiliates can try many valuable tools and WordPress plugins for referral marketing campaigns.
However, a plugin is needed if you want to run your own referral program.
Apart from tracking the traffic and sales generated by each referral marketing partner, it enables affiliates to sign up for your WordPress referral program.
Types of Referral Programs
Now, you can pick from two types of referral rewards programs.
- A WordPress plugin for referral marketing
- A cloud-based referral marketing network
Each referral platform has advantages and disadvantages. For example, you can manage your referral program straight from your website using a WordPress plugin. The rules and limitations of the cloud-based referral platform would not apply to you.
Moreover, running your affiliate rewards program doesn’t require paying the per-transaction fee for a 3rd-party network. For this reason, self-hosted referral program plugins are preferred by the majority of small businesses.
However, hundreds of affiliate marketers may immediately access your referral program through cloud platforms like Partnerstack, ShareASale, and Impact. Also, they have improved payment and monitoring systems that may help you work more efficiently.
For this blog, we’ll demonstrate how to use a WordPress plugin to design a daily login rewards program—no coding knowledge is required.
Step-by-Step Guide on How to Design a Referral Program in WordPress
WordPress makes it easy to start a referral program. Just follow the below steps:
1st Step: Install Referral Program WordPress plugin
The best option for running a WordPress referral program is AffiliateWP.
Even if you’re not tech-savvy, it simplifies designing and managing your referral program.
Thanks to the plugin’s smooth integration with various WordPress plugins, you can launch your referral program without any complex setup.
Go to our price page and select the plan that suits your company’s requirements. After purchasing, AffiliateWP is simple to install: Go to your website dashboard’s Plugins area.
2nd Step: Complete Wizard for Plugin Setup
It’s now time to set up your referral program after installing AffiliateWP.
Start by entering the license key, which is located in the email you received after subscribing to AffiliateWP.
Copy this license key and paste it into the required field.
Click Continue.
Now, pick the integrations that align with the software or product you sell on your WordPress site.
After making your selections, click Continue.
After that, the wizard will inquire about your selected payout parameters. Select the one that fits your needs.
Then, you will set the referral type and rate. You can choose between a percentage-based and a fixed-rate referral amount.
It’s possible to adjust the above settings later when required.
Once all required information has been entered, select Finish and Exit the Setup Wizard.
A notification page showing confirmation will show you that the setup procedure is finished.
3rd Step: Create a Registration Form for Referral Program
An Affiliate Area page is immediately generated when you start your AffiliateWP referral system.
This page is where your referrers can sign up and log in.
Although you can utilize this default page, you have more flexibility and branding options when you create a bespoke Referral Page.
Go to your dashboard and create a new page to create a personalized page. Include all the information you need about your B2B referral program and customize it to match your brand.
Once the page is created, follow AffiliateWP 🡪 Settings. Now, select the newly designed page in the Affiliate Registration Page box.
4th Step: Manage Referral Applications
Once your registration and signup page is up and running, you will begin to get applications for your WordPress referral program.
Go to the AffiliateWP Affiliates in the dashboard and select the Pending tab on top to examine pending applications.
Thanks to this screen view, you can review all your pending requests in a single spot. Take note of the information that possible referrers supply.
Look for signs that they know your offering and have the resources to market it successfully.
Additionally, using the AI tool for Affiliate Review, you can evaluate the referral packages with AI’s assistance to boost your efficiency.
Skip, approve, or reject applications from the following AffiliateWP screen.
5th Step: Track and Optimize
It’s critical to closely monitor the effectiveness of your B2B referral rewards program once it’s operational.
The dashboard lets you view comprehensive reports showing crucial data about your referrals, referrers, referral campaigns, and affiliate payouts.
6th Step: Offer Rewards
Determining how you will compensate your referrers is the last stage in creating the referral program.
This is an important component that can significantly impact your program’s success. AffiliateWP provides a range of customizable options to accommodate different business models and tastes.
The most popular way to compensate referrers with AffiliateWP is through commissions. These can be set as a flat sum per referral or as a percentage of sales.
AffiliateWP streamlines the referral reward process by automatically tracking all of your referrers. Just initiate payments, and this referral program platform will cover the rest.
Final Words
Designing an effective WordPress referral program increases the possibility of your website growth through word-of-mouth advertising. Following the above steps, you can quickly set up and run a successful referral rewards program that pays prospective and current clients. Don’t forget to keep a close eye on the efficacy of your referral program in WordPress, modify the incentive schemes as necessary, and stay in constant contact with affiliates.