referral program powered by pace methodology

Referral Program Powered by PACE Methodology Principles for Creating and Encouraging Valuable User Interactions

NextBee Media [email protected]

N e x t B e e C o r p o r a t i o n - F o l s o m , C A - U S A

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NextBee’s PACE Methodology is a systematic way of pursuing actions, which keeps focus where it

belongs: on your users’ experience. The results of extensive field experience will be discussed

throughout the following pages. Best practices for achieving success and examples that demonstrate the

methodology’s use and practice will be offered. By following the principles laid out by the PACE

Methodology, you can expect to have a strong grasp on an action-oriented approach to your users – an

approach which can be successfully implemented in nearly any situation, for nearly any type of business.

Contents

METHODOLOGY INTRODUCTION – PERSONAL. ADAPTIVE. CONTROLLED. EXCITING ................................... 3

CREATING A PERSONAL PROGRAM – WHY IT MATTERS, HOW IT’S DONE ..................................................... 4

ORGANIZING THE DESIGN OF A PERSONAL APPROACH ........................................................................................................... 4

HOW TO KNOW WHETHER YOUR PROGRAM TRULY CARES .................................................................................................... 5

CREATING PERSONAL CONNECTIONS (THAT GROW WITH YOUR USERS) ...................................................................................... 6

Empathize (with your users’ experience) ................................................................................................................................ 6

Ask (your best customers why they support you) ................................................................................................................... 6

Respond (as your users’ needs evolve, so should your program) ........................................................................................... 6

KEY PRINCIPLES OF AN ADAPTIVE APPROACH .................................................................................................. 7

DESIGNING AN ADAPTABLE PROGRAM FROM THE START ........................................................................................................ 7

A SOLID STRUCTURE AND A MALLEABLE CORE ..................................................................................................................... 8

IMPLEMENTING CHANGE (EXACTLY WHEN NEEDED) ............................................................................................................... 9

Review (how your program is used)........................................................................................................................................ 9

Refresh (your approach to engaging your users) .................................................................................................................... 9

Change (as you grow, and keep up with your program’s users) ............................................................................................. 9

SMART CONTROLS – HOW TO CREATE AND USE THEM ................................................................................. 10

IMPLEMENTING A STRATEGY OF CONTROLLED GROWTH ....................................................................................................... 10

CHARACTERISTICS OF A WELL-CONTROLLED PROGRAM ........................................................................................................ 11

BEST PRACTICES (FOR REMAINING COMPLETELY IN CONTROL) ................................................................................................ 12

Customize (for your users as much as you can) .................................................................................................................... 12

Map (the journey of your best user) ..................................................................................................................................... 12

Plan (ahead, so you’re ready when it’s time to re-engage) .................................................................................................. 12

AN EXCITING EXPERIENCE AT EVERY TOUCH POINT ....................................................................................... 13

ENTICING YOUR USERS BY INCREASING THEIR EXCITEMENT .................................................................................................. 13

THE PROGRAM STAYS EXCITING, YOU IMPLEMENT SOLUTIONS ............................................................................................. 14

YOUR USERS’ EXPERIENCE (AND HOW TO ENGAGE IT) .......................................................................................................... 15

Specify (the experience you expect your users to have) ....................................................................................................... 15

Executive Summary

NextBee


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Distill (your program goals into distinct engagement activities) ........................................................................................... 15

Motivate (with incentives that provoke an intrinsic value) .................................................................................................. 15

A REFERRAL PROGRAM WITH PACE ................................................................................................................. 16

GRAB EVERYONE’S ATTENTION WHEN YOU LAUNCH ........................................................................................................... 18

ACTIVATING YOUR CURRENT CUSTOMERS ......................................................................................................................... 18

CAPTURE YOUR WEBSITE’S CASUAL VISITORS .................................................................................................................... 19

LEVERAGE ALL AVAILABLE SOCIAL MEDIA.......................................................................................................................... 19

SOW THE SEEDS FOR YOUR SUCCESS ................................................................................................................................ 20

Appendix

NEXTBEE’S FEATURES ........................................................................................................................................... I

PRICING PHILOSOPHY ........................................................................................................................................ III

NEXTBEE’S PRICING ............................................................................................................................................. V

PROGRAM BENEFIT ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................................... VI

SOURCES ............................................................................................................................................................ VII

DOCUMENT LICENSE ........................................................................................................................................ VIII


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NextBee created the PACE Methodology to distill its experiences in the field into an easy-to-follow guide

for shaping the success of nearly any business, in nearly any situation. We know that every product,

service, and user-base is unique. What is needed is not some marketing gimmick that will work in the

short term, but a method of approaching users that will carry you through nearly any scenario.

This is what we have designed the PACE Methodology to provide.

NextBee has worked with over 300 leading brands, both large and small, to engage their customers,

employees, and affiliates, reward positive behavior, and create or increase a strong base of dedicated

program users. In the following pages, we will expand these points further to fully flesh out this

methodology, and then we will share a few real-world discoveries that have informed these practices.

Personal

•Nurturing a strong personal relationship through your program requires active collaboration with your users. This helps them establish emotional touchpoints and provides them with a sense of purpose, which will keep them feeling fullfilled. Offering a personal relationship through your program is one of the best ways to provide a quality experience and earn support.

Adaptive

•Designing a structured program which can adapt as your users progress leads to both stability and growth. Listen as your customers' actions tell you what works. Discover the rewards and incentives that inspire them. Focus your best efforts on bringing the program to your users. Both your program's functional operation and its design layout should continuously match the demonstrated preferences of your users.

Controlled

•The difference between flexibility and chaos is smart control. Extensive tracking of program user activity allows you to maintain momentum and direct your users' engagment in the most effective way possible. This approach also ensures secure data with automated protection protocols to ensure that the ingegrity of your program is never in question.

Exciting

•Keeping your program fresh, intuitive, and fun works to increase excitement and helps your program users remain engaged. Developing a strong focus on both how customers interact with your program, and why, requires a constant dedication to clarity and consistancy. By following how your users enjoy using your program, you can develop increasingly addictive activities that your users will return to again and again.

NextBee

Methodology Introduction


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Organizing the Design of a Personal Approach When your program demonstrates that you care, it encourages your users to share the quality

experience that you provide to them with their friends, loved ones, and colleagues. The more personal

the experience you offer to your users, the more likely they are to share it with those nearest to them as

well as to the wider world around them.

Using your program to identify your users’ preferences and favorite activities, and developing more of

the same, is how you prove that these relationships matter to both yourself and your program

members.

How responsive are your users to email? How active are they on social media? When do they prefer to

be contacted? Does offering a discount for 20% off on the anniversary of their first purchase affect their

actions? What about on their birthday? When should the program forward a polite ‘thank you’, and

when should it trigger ad-hoc points for remaining active in the program?

These questions delve into the personal nature of your program’s relationship with your users by placing

the program even more firmly into their lives. An integrated process of reviewing the effectiveness of

your program’s functions is not intended to invoke reinvention. Your program will not act like a

traditional marketing campaign. It does not aim to bring a new message to a new audience. Instead, it

seeks to expand your audience through the natural interactions we all have every single day.

Your program is a personal approach to inspire your users to think of your program and its experience,

incentives, and rewards, whenever they think of their friends.

How to Know Whether Your Program Truly Cares At first, it may seem odd to equate business goals with relationships. Extensive real-world experience,

however, demonstrates that doing so keeps focus where it belongs, which is on designing a program

that can interact with its users on a personal level.

As we will continue to state: the users’ experience is key. Knowing what that experience is like inside

and out, and improving it at every possible interaction, is how you continue to innovate and expand the

ways your users value your program.

NextBee

Creating a Personal Program - Why It Matters, How It’s Done

“The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential...these are the keys

that will unlock the door to personal excellence.”

-- Confucius --


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Image attribution: ABC News

abcnews.com

A personal program is ready for deployment when it can demonstrate the following features and

approaches:

Memorable – You must always seek the details that can make a moment last. It is those

personal touches that always get noticed and embed themselves within our memories. They can

occur during any and every interaction.

Pleasant – Each experience must encourage the next. They must all form a near-endless

tapestry of positive interactions featuring favored products. When your products become

embedded into the positive memories of your program users, they will share it at every chance

they get.

Addictive – You want your users to spend more time with you, to use your product or service

more often, and to increase the amount of effort they expend on behalf of your business. Make

your program enjoyably habit-forming, and they will do all of these things and more.

Sharable – Make every tool available to your users to make sharing as effortless as possible.

Offer suggested content to share on their favorite social media sites. Offer in-site widgets for

sharing without having to leave your site. Provide incentives that encourage specific actions

within social media.

Every program’s primary objective is to increase sales, maintain user satisfaction, and improve both the

quality and quantity of new leads. To gain the success you seek, you must also create an environment

which makes your program memorable, pleasant, repetitious, and sharable. This is how your primary

goals will be achieved.

To demonstrate how a program can effectively engage with its users in a highly personal manner, we

offer a recent example of Twitter teaming up with NBC Universal and Comcast on a remarkably

innovative approach to engaging and leveraging their users, viewers, and customers.

1Launching in early 2014, the three technology giants

are enabling Comcast Xfinity cable subscribers to

change the channel on their TV, and begin watching

select NBC programming, by clicking on a tweet.

In addition to allowing viewers to quickly and easily

tune into their favorite shows on television, this new

in-Twitter app, dubbed ‘See It,’ will make it easy for

Comcast subscribers to watch live broadcasts on their

phones and tablets, as well as to set their DVRs to record.

This approach represents an evolution in the enthusiastic interactions already occurring between

television fans and the creators of their favorite shows on Twitter. Twitter fans will now be able to


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recruit their followers into watching their favorite shows with a simple retweet. The potential for

increasing viewership is enormous.

Creating Personal Connections (that grow with your users) Making your program truly personal involves following three important steps:

Empathize (with your users’ experience) Make every effort to walk in your users shoes. Go through the process of purchasing a product, joining

the engagement program, contacting customer service, and any other touch points where your

customers interact with your company. At each point, explore the different incentives and forms of

encouragement that could deepen the relationship.

Ask (your best customers why they support you) Think of your favorite customers. Whomever just came to mind, reach out to them. Offer 10% off their

next purchase if they’ll spend 10 minutes on the phone with you. Discuss their favorite features. Inquire

as to the effect these features have on their quality of life. Encourage an open discussion. Let them tell

you what kind of encouragement they need. As the program grows, regularly send surveys to your top

program users.

Respond (as your users’ needs evolve, so should your program) Seek out ways of demonstrating that you both listened and heard. If users offer a thoughtful perspective

through a survey response, use them in your next promotional campaign. Thank your users, perhaps

publicly, and offer a small reward. Nearly every action your users take should result in responses that

recognize their contributions.


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Designing an Adaptable Program from the Start Everyone is constantly changing. User preferences will be driven by both internal and external factors

that evolve over time. Adaptability means developing a robust program that can consistently adjust as

users change. By offering incentives and rewards, you can create a quality experience for your users - no

matter where they are in the program.

Adaptability means growing in a way that meets your users where they are, instead of asking them to

come to you. It means knowing which user segment could use a refreshing of your program’s incentives

by identifying patterns discovered through a smart analysis of user activity data.

This approach to adaptability makes your program intelligent. It is what allows you to use your program

to anticipate the need to change incentives and rewards in order to keep pace with user expectations.

Recognizing and acting on which segment of users prefer an incentive during the shopping experience to

encourage a sale, and which segment responds to a reward after a sale: this is an example of

adaptability in action. Providing exactly the right encouragement, in the manner most likely to be acted

upon, is where adaptability proves its worth. Users who interact with a responsive program know their

activities are being valued because the incentives adjust in response to their activities.

Market conditions change. User attitudes change. Your program’s goals do not change, and your

program does not have to either. Remember: a quality program is not about reinvention and marketing

ploys. It is about forming those deep relationships that can adapt, and even grow, when conditions

beyond our control force changes.

With a program that regularly adapts its incentive structure, including which events trigger rewards, you

are better positioned to anticipate disruptive changes. A robust program makes you ready for anything

the market throws your way. Adaptability in nature is about resiliency and growth.

NextBee

Key Principles of an Adaptive Approach

“You have to be fast on your feet and adaptive or else a strategy is useless.”

-- Charles de Gaulle --

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/c/charlesdeg119209.html


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A Solid Structure and a Malleable Core Within your overall program’s architecture, you must adapt at the personal level previously discussed.

Far from being a challenge that must be overcome for your program to be successful, adaptation should

be an integral part of the approach itself. It should be seen as the end result and primary benefit of the

program’s features, while expressing the following characteristics:

Flexible – As your users interact with your program, elements should change and evolve to meet

their needs. The acceptance and use of both engagement activities and rewards should be

automatically analyzed for patterns of preferences, while it should be understood that a

meaningful reward for a new user is different than for someone with a much longer

relationship.

Inquisitive – Using surveys and contests, program users should be allowed to choose their next

reward from a selection of options. Other innovative ways of exploring core desires should

motivate user-behavior to ensure that your program remains ahead of the curve.

Alert – Regular updates and program adjustments should continually fine-tune your program’s

approach to your users to encourage, in turn, a robust response. The more you use your

program to react to your user’s needs and wants, the greater their loyalty and willingness to act.

Approachable – Adaptation is serious business. The program, overall, still needs to maintain a

friendly demeanor. Though you must respond to your users with haste, never lose track of your

program’s voice. Be polite during all interactions and learn to deploy humor effectively, when

appropriate.

For an illustrative example of a company proving the ethos of adaptability, consider Netflix. This is a

company that started a mail-order DVD business which became so successful that it drove the iconic

Blockbuster rental chain out of business. It has since transformed itself into a content creator that

develops and streams its own programming, along with that of other

partners, on a platform available nearly anywhere there’s a screen.

2In 2013, Netflix surpassed HBO in number of subscribers at 30 million

and its programming was nominated for, and won, a slew of Emmy

awards and Golden Globes. So how did this mail-order business turn

itself into a major Hollywood playmaker to the delight of its millions of

subscribers?

They accomplished this by never resting, always testing, and staying

focused on their subscriber’s quality of experience. The path was not

always smooth, but their success in undeniable.

3Netflix began research and development of video streaming services in

2001. To demonstrate just how earlier that was in terms of internet


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development and video, we remind you that YouTube launched in 2005. It was not until a full decade

after Netflix first began its exploration into streaming that it offered the streaming service as a

standalone product completely separate from its mail-order offering.

Throughout that decade of development, Netflix continuously tested its services and abilities on small

segments of users. They also did not stop with great technology. Once quality streaming became a

reality, Netflix continued to follow their users where they wanted to go: content, content, and much

more content.

Implementing Change (exactly when needed) An adaptive program gives you the insight needed to know when to move, where to go, and how your

users currently prefer to be engaged. Building your program from the ground up, so that it always

contains elements in transition in support of greater growth, helps ensure that your program remains

relevant for the long-term. Keeping your program fresh and adaptive means developing it from the

beginning around a framework of best practices:

Review (how your program is used) Schedule at least one hour per week to review all relevant data regarding your users with your team.

Include information beyond program activity data, such as interactions tracked through your CRM

system.

Refresh (your approach to engaging your users) Aggressively schedule program updates. If an initial test of a new message, incentive, or reward on a

particular segment demonstrates a high potential for success, quickly implement it across the entire

program. Encourage all program stakeholders to pursue ways of reducing friction and increasing

engagement.

Change (as you grow, and keep up with your program’s users) Always have your program doing something, even if it means going with your gut. This does not mean

inventing busy-work. Change should be highly automated. It does mean taking risks in pursuit of

optimization, but of course you should always minimize exposure by testing ideas on segments before

introducing them to a broader audience.


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Implementing a Strategy of Controlled Growth Program growth can often hinge on small things. It is often generated through a careful balance

between the creativity and initiative of a program’s users, on the one hand, and on the other the needs

of the business. Engagement often has multiple stakeholders planning on its success, including program

users. Understanding this will help your program use incentives as leverage to gain desired behaviors

and activities.

In other words, mostly use carrots, but don’t be afraid of a little stick.

A smart program should use your users’ first names at every opportunity, know when major

anniversaries might soon be approaching, and insert the date of their first purchases in every email you

send (and thank them each time). A well-controlled program can even recognize the birthdays of users’

extended families, which can play a role when planning targeted promotions.

These features encourage greater engagement from your users and encourage long-term program buy-

in - as does insisting on a series of 3-5 tasks before promoting users to a higher program level with more

prestigious rewards. The same goes for polite messages informing users that bonus points await them

with every third successful referral, especially when they already have two.

Smart controls provide just the right type of push, exactly when needed.

User-tracking abilities have grown enormously in just the past few years, creating an opportunity for

developing highly specialized segments of users and channel sales in a way that simply was not possible

just a very short while ago. These capabilities allow you to control the growth and momentum of your

program by offering targeted and timed incentives and rewards to keep your users excited and engaged.

There always remain market forces beyond the reach of any data analysis. There is no amount of data

that will allow your program to anticipate every potential occurrence. Fortunately, this inherent truth

also illuminates a valuable aspect of any well designed program.

Going through the process of personalizing your program and keeping it adaptive also serves to

strengthen the relationship you have with your users. You can always exert influence and control over

the relationship by keeping your program engaged. Engagement can help those relationships endure

during more challenging times.

Smart Controls – How to Create and Use Them

“If you can't control your peanut butter, you can't expect to control your life.”

-- Bill Watterson --

NextBee

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13778.Bill_Watterson


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Individually, attention to the types of details that allow you to exert ever-greater control over your

program may seem no more than a polite way to conduct business. As the number of users participating

in your engagement program increases, patterns will begin to emerge that can help illuminate the most

valuable direction a program can take, as well as offer insights on how to encourage your users to take

you towards growth. While the value of a controlled program can be immediately apparent, its true

worth becomes demonstrated over time.

Characteristics of a Well-Controlled Program Taking advantage of the opportunities these patterns represent requires a systemic approach to

program control. This means agreeing to guidelines on what does, and does not, qualify as actionable

information that can be used to direct to program’s growth:

Tracked – Whether through a robust, tagged, tracking system, or advanced browser-based

tracking, you must always make every effort, within reason, to expand the number of ways you

follow your users as they interact with your brand. Though assumptions can often prove correct,

it is better to not have to make them at all.

Persistent – Though a small bump in activity from one-off promotions can certainly prove

valuable, real momentum is created with consistency. A strategy must not only work to be

effective, it must work repeatedly. Otherwise, the needed ROI simply will not break through.

Sustainable – Some aspects of your program will be set on auto-pilot from the moment it is

initiated, such as a brief ‘thank you’ message for sending a referral. Others will require a greater

level of attention from the program administrator or other team members. As new

opportunities create new tasks, you must ensure the resources are available to ensure their

success.

Reliable – When program users see that their actions have an impact, they will stay engaged

long-term. Through their actions, they demonstrate a desire to form a strong relationship with

your product or service. So long as the program stays relevant, they will actively seek to nurture

the relationship’s growth themselves.


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Best Practices (for remaining completely in control) Knowing which tracked information is valuable, and which represents a momentary spike that will not

be repeated, is often referred to as ‘Hearing the signal through the noise.’ By developing and following

guidelines for reviewing your users’ activity data, you can understand the difference between those

signals for yourself. From users who indicate action should be taken, to the statistical noise that

represents momentary concerns, but no long-term pattern.

Observing how your users interact with your program, and creating guidelines for using relevant

program activity data, requires the complete integrity of your program, including the security of your

users’ information and data. Following industry-standard security protocols and exceeding best

practices guarantee that you will make program decisions based on accurate data, while assuring your

users that you value their information and protect it.

Developing and using you own guidelines is how program control can be maintained. Those guidelines

should, in general, follow three important tenets:

Customize (for your users as much as you can) You should consistently be looking at your segments and discovering more. Basic demographics are both

the standard and just the beginning. Segmenting by rewards preference may indicate something

interesting that can be further explored. You simply do not know until you try, and segments allow you

to always be trying, without the risk of testing new ideas on your entire user base.

Map (the journey of your best user) Know the path you want your users to take. Sketch out how they join the program, what they do first,

what they do next, how long you expect it to take to gain the first reward, and more. Create unique

incentives for each interaction, and know that not every interaction requires one.

Plan (ahead, so you’re ready when it’s time to re-engage)

A controlled response is always a well-prepared one. Familiarity breeds acceptance, and success leads to

even more support. It is easy to find fans of a sports team when the team is winning. Likewise, many of

those users who demonstrated little interest during your program’s launch will become much more

interested as the program’s success becomes more and more apparent. As your base of users continues

to expand the use of the engagement tools available to them, seek to leverage their activity by returning

and re-engaging your original base of customers.


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Enticing Your Users by Increasing their Excitement Every program involves tasks in pursuit of a goal. Both the design of the tasks, and the rewards,

contribute to the overall enjoyment of the program. The best programs make all of their tasks so fun

and exciting that completing them becomes addictive.

Effectively using your program to generate excitement is part learned intuition and part smart design. In

many ways you already know how. Whenever you interact, or someone in your company interacts with

one of your best customers, that person usually knows it. The company representative’s approach,

demeanor, and behavior changes to fit the preferences of each customer. Everyone understands the

importance of engaging with customers appropriately, since their value to the company is clear.

Now you can engage with every customer in just the same way, and it’s equally important that you

begin to do so, otherwise your program may not seem exciting.

Do your users mostly communicate with their friends through email or social media? Would they prefer

a coupon on a future purchase, a discount on the current purchase, or points towards a larger reward?

Do they interact more with a clean interface with different sections behind different tabs, or do they

want just one big page with all the information they could possibly need readily visible?

With the understanding of these questions firmly in hand, you can build a strong base of users who are

demonstrably excited to actively engage their friends, families, and associates for the benefit of your

product or service.

By designing your program to engage early and often with early adopters, in an effort to excite those

who demonstrate an active willingness to support your program, you lay the groundwork for aggressive

expansion and growth. These early program adopters typically demonstrate an influence that matches

their number of contacts. Friends, and many others, often look to these types of program users for

information, ideas, and products that can genuinely add value to their lives. Their opinion is held very

highly among those in their networks. When they get excited, so do their friends.

We do not mean to suggest that you should seek to become friends yourself with active program users.

Generating excitement must be smart if it is to be successful. Though some individual interaction may

occur - such as a direct follow-up to a survey response - individual interaction is not the goal. The goal is

to make the program better.

An Exciting Experience at Every Touch Point

“Life is an exciting business, and most exciting when it is lived for others.”

-- Helen Keller --

NextBee


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Typically, a user reaches VIP status, or its equivalent, through regular purchases. In other words, those

who spend the most money receive the most attention and get the best deals. Your program offers the

ability to engage with a different VIP. Someone who may not regularly commit to outsized purchases,

but who does demonstrate an outsized influence.

Leveraging this influence on your behalf, and being rewarded for it, achieves the same effect as the

traditional VIP – only instead of one person making many purchases, it is several people making several

purchases. Many of these users will also demonstrate an ability to influence the preferences of their

friends, thereby creating virtuous cycles of new users who become active referrers, leading to higher

sales, greater program growth, and more new users – which continues the cycle.

The Program Stays Exciting, You Implement Solutions Understanding the need to engage more directly with those program users who demonstrate preferable

attributes, and defining what those attributes are, can be two very different things. Often created from

a mixture of demographics and activity data, the segment that represents your VIP users regularly

shares the following characteristics:

Social – Your top program users will engage across two or more social networks in addition to

regular email. They may not be heavy users in all of them, but they do demonstrate a regularity

that shows a high comfort level with each. Your program must meet them where they are,

everywhere.

Positive – Top program users always go above and beyond with regularity. They’re always up for

a good time with their friends. They fill out surveys, take an active role in contests and

sweepstakes, drive group achievements, and go out of their way to encourage others to do the

same. Use their responses to understand which activities will be broadly popular.

Engaged – Top program users will often make the effort to add additional information in

comment boxes. In fact, the purpose of comment boxes in surveys may be solely to identify

those who are likely to become power users of your program. Those who use comment boxes

indicate a willingness to be more involved with the growth of the program.

Consider the popular subscription program, Amazon Prime. Typical subscription models of engagement

offer a discount on a product or service if the customer agrees to a regularly occurring purchase. The

value is in the product. The value of the subscription for the customer is the product at a cheaper price,

plus the ease of a regular schedule managed by someone else.

Amazon did not follow this model when developing their Prime program. Instead, they viewed the

entire customer experience holistically. Customers were already receiving a discount on most items

when compared to traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Doing more of the same – providing a greater

discount – was viewed as providing a reward for behavior that was already occurring, instead of an

incentive that would encourage greater engagement.


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Instead, Amazon placed its incentive in the

context of what would excite their users the

most: time. By offering “free” two-day

shipping on most items, they created a

successful engagement program that placed

its value in the online shopping experience,

and then offered an incentive that

increased the attractiveness of that

experience.

6Amazon’s Prime program has been an

enormous success since its launch in 2005.

By the end of 2012, it had an estimated 10 million users. Amazon reports that its members are their best

customers, regularly purchasing twice the number of products when compared to the company’s non-

Prime member customers.

Every business is, of course, unique. No one will be able to replicate Amazon’s, or anyone else’s exact

path to success. Nor does anyone need to try. You are already well aware of the process involved with a

new customer who is making a purchase, since you already know the steps they have to take and the

overall experience they have while making a purchase.

Your Users’ Experience (and how to engage it) You know your customers’ experience already. By making use of their activity data, you can come to

understand what, within that experience, they value. Creating this opportunity for a systemic increase in

user engagement generally requires following three important steps:

Specify (the experience you expect your users to have) Make certain that you retain complete focus on the value you want to bring to your users’ experience.

Explore where that experience can be improved. Always ask yourself, and your top program users, how

the essential elements of the experience you offer can be leveraged for greater engagement.

Distill (your program goals into distinct engagement activities) Focus the goals of you program and separate each of them into different engagement points. Develop,

deploy, and test different incentives for each engagement point. As you continue to progress and

engage across multiple platforms, and in multiple ways, look for methods of streamlining your approach.

Motivate (with incentives that provoke an intrinsic value) Provide incentives that invoke an intrinsic value you share with your users. If unsure, then make this a

point of inquiry when asking your favorite program members. Then combine that intrinsic value with the

inherent value of the incentives you choose. It is often a balance between the intrinsic value and

perceived monetary value of different incentives and rewards that drives user activities.


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Many programs are designed around a set of features, often considered key to a program’s success. Key

to whom? One common misconception is that it is more profitable for vendors to provide a set

functionality and then upsell you more access.

For example, you may be restricted by the number of

messages or promotions that can occur within a set

time period. Perhaps you are only allowed to send one

survey a month, with no segments. Maybe only a few

reports are provided with no access to raw data.

Whatever the restriction, it is a poor approach.

By rephrasing this ‘How do I get…’ question, you bring

your focus back to where it is supposed to be:

personalizing your customer’s experience. From there,

you can begin building your program using the tools

that are right for them.

Maybe your users enjoy sharing their experience after

receiving an email from you which asks them to do just

that.

Maybe they would prefer the ease of posting a picture

of a great product on social media directly from an in-

site order confirmation.

Some customers might even love the thrill of sharing a cool find from inside their online shopping cart,

just before the purchase – especially if it means a small reward when they do.

If you do not currently possess actionable data on your customers’ preferences, go with your gut. Trust

that you know your customer. You will likely discover that you are correct in your assumptions.

Also, plan on testing. Learning what really gets your users excited leads to developing activities your

users will find addictive. Listening closely to what their actions say is the best way to remain adaptive.

A Referral Program with PACE

“Every encounter with a friend, online or offline, can become the first step towards a new

customer, a new fan, a new follower, a new advocate who wears your brand like a badge of

honor on their profile and in every regular interaction they have.”

-- NextBee --

NextBee


Page 17

From there you can begin to re-evaluate and build on your incentives to create a structure that directs

your customers’ energy towards the outcome you seek – more and better referrals that lead to a

measurable increase in sales.

You create this type of control through incentives. Once your customers are excited, the excitement

itself will be the incentive that directs this energy toward a productive outcome.

An incentive does not necessarily have to translate into something with a clear monetary value. The

right incentive, or series of incentives, involves three primary characteristics:

Thoughtfulness – The incentive should express a deeper than casual knowledge, much like

choosing a gift for a significant other.

Understanding – A shared point-of-view demonstrates empathy beyond the mere knowledge of

what your users’ value. An incentive can demonstrate an outlook on the world that you and

your users share. Sometimes, the real reward is helping others.

Reflection – Your users, clients, and employees must see themselves in the incentive. The

rewards must invoke those values you actively wish to see expressed in this world.

Incentives are an investment. They induce future behavior that will be profitable. Keeping your

incentives fresh is how your referral program will remain exciting for the long-term.

Again, this does not mean providing always-greater rewards with an increasingly expensive price tag. An

engaging incentive can be a badge on a profile, special access to VIP offers, public acknowledgement

and encouragement, or something as simple as a one-phrase, hand-written, thank-you note sent to a

single random customer each and every month.

An abundance of attention to detail is typically required when designing a new program. It needs to be

technically integrated and aesthetically pleasing; it needs to offer initial messaging and include

incentives that grab the attention of casual users and long-term customers.

After such intensity, it is only natural to ask, “Now what?”

When designed well, a program will almost always create excitement and gain some of the needed

attention on its own. A strong plan and solid execution will accelerate results.


Page 18

Grab Everyone’s Attention When You Launch You want to begin with a bang, and there are few better ways to do this than by dangling an enviable

reward before everyone’s eyes. We strongly encourage launching your program with a sweepstakes that

features a special reward. Remember to be creative - ‘special,’ does not have to mean ‘expensive.’ There

can also be many ways to encourage and promote the program through a sweepstakes.

Incentivize User Activity – Give additional sweepstakes entries for every person who signs up

through a new user’s referral. Create milestones, such as five consecutive days of activity, to

trigger more entries. Offer shared bonus points to both referrer and referee when the referee

joins.

Speak with a Unique Voice – Develop a Program Voice and a Core Message. Create a single

document encompassing every benefit, and keep it updated as new benefits are added. Use and

adapt your Core Message to ensure a sustained consistency.

Segment Early and Message Often – You know your customers best. Use that knowledge to

create your own customer segments based on the demographics of your best users. For the first

three months of you program, and perhaps longer, send a unique invitation to join the program

to each customer in each segment of customers who are not additionally already subscribed

program users.

Activating Your Current Customers Be ready to engage with your customers often in the first few months of your program. As customers,

they are the ones who want you to succeed the most. They have already given you their hard-earned

money. They are already invested. Your goal is to encourage an emotional investment as well. Though

they may already be primed to like you, a little encouragement couldn’t hurt.

Send Surveys to Your Customers – Merely by asking their opinion you can encourage your

customers to join the program while gathering important data. Ask them to choose a new

reward from a selection of three or four options. Learn how frequently they would like to

receive the program’s newsletter. Discover their favorite social media sites (including ones you

may not know).

Provide Ad-Hoc Points – Increase the engagement level of those customers who become early

adopters by randomly rewarding those who show initiative. You can even reward a whole

segment in order to jumpstart the creation of a community.

Directly Contact Early Achievers – Those users who achieve the first rewards the most quickly

can offer a wealth of actionable information. Learn their favorite activities for gaining points.

Ask what they would suggest to other users. Give them a status reward by featuring them in an

upcoming newsletter.


Page 19

Capture Your Website’s Casual Visitors Creating a strong appeal to your current customers places you in a good position to capture the

attention of new and casual visitors to your website. New customers and program users will likely share

similarities with your current customers when it comes to choosing whether or not to join. This means

that your program can now serve as an additional reason why casual visitors may become dedicated

customers. You can capitalize on their similarity in support of both your business and your program.

Add a Program-Specific SEO Page – People often search for deals by using terms that combine

product and service names with words like ‘discount,’ and ‘special offer,’ or the ever-popular

‘free shipping.’ Develop a new page on your site that can direct these users to information

about your program and an invitation to join.

Create a ‘Something of the Week’ – Almost without fail, a regularly posted and interesting

‘something’ spikes attention web visits. It can be an image or video related to you, a user

submission, or merely the internet-standard image of a cute kitten.

Compel Your Casual Visitor to Take Action – Identify friction points and then offer bonus points

or special incentives to encourage action at those key points. The easiest action is no action:

auto-enroll new users into the program and give them points ‘just for joining.’ The first reward is

often the most important, it nearly always guarantees future actions and activities. Work to

create a viable way for new users to achieve that first reward.

Leverage All Available Social Media A well-known film director once quipped, ‘80% of success is just showing up.’ It’s humorous because

though there’s truth in it, any successful person can tell you that it’s not true at all. Consistently

showing-up and performing at a high level, day-after-day - that’s what leads to success.

This age-old wisdom applies perfectly to the modern communication platforms of social media. Letting

your followers know they can rely on you to consistently post quality content is the first step towards

gaining a dedicated following. Here are a few more ways such a following can be attracted and grown:

Do the Maintenance Work – It’s not all about just posting adorable cat videos. Consistently use

a program-specific hashtag and always retweet those who use it too. Be ready to freely give ad-

hoc points to encourage viral behavior.

Be a Resource to Your Followers – Provide useful information that relates to your market or

industry and encourage your followers to share. Let your users know that you appreciate them

by posting ‘thank you’ messages to the Facebook wall of up to five users per week. Follow-up as

quickly as possible whenever a user poses a question to you on social media. Whenever

interacting with users, ask them what they like about the program and then tweet their

answers.


Page 20

Anticipate Viral Images, Gifs, and Videos – Sites like reddit.com, imugr.com and the cute kittens

featured on icanhas.cheezburger.com are often the first to display top-ranked content that goes

viral on Facebook and Twitter later in the day. Use those sites to anticipate and capitalize on

viral messages.

Sow the Seeds for Your Success Many of the suggestions offered above track closely with the first-quarter action plan NextBee provides

to all their clients. Many more strategies remain for promoting your program to a growing community of

dedicated users. No matter the strategy, we often encourage our clients, as well as ourselves, to keep

the following points in mind:

Display a Sense of Humor – Note: this is different than, ‘Be Funny.’ It essentially means

provoking laughter while also being nice. Humor that mocks can, and will, quickly backfire.

Provide an Ego Boost – Go out of your way to design a program that reminds users what a great

decision they made by joining the program. When users consider your brand, it should work as a

mirror which reflects their best characteristics back to them.

Remain Useful – Offer important information, and keep your users updated on current trends.

Work to develop a program that becomes a true resource for your users by helping them to

remain up-to-date and connected with what matters in their lives.

Controversy – Don’t go courting it, but don’t be afraid of it either. A program that is afraid to

ruffle feathers in pursuit of its goals does not inspire confidence from its users. Make bold

decisions and stand by them.

Be Dramatic – Especially on social media posts. Write with a flair you normally wouldn’t and

reference events in flamboyant terms. It’s amazing!

Aim for the Heart – Humor works well because it provokes socially acceptable emotions. Pulling

the heart strings with a touching message can have a similar effect.

You do not need to take this general approach and posture always, though it is often effective to deploy

a healthy mix of many of these suggested items. If you have solid messaging that works, but suddenly

starts to go stale, it’s a good list to remember to ensure you are still following core principals.

The strategy you use to engage and grow an active base of loyal users will change as your program

progresses. A successful launch is only the first step. Consistently following a well-defined plan will

encourage the likelihood of any program’s growth and success.


NextBee’s Referral Program Features

NextBee’s Features

Key Motivators for Program Participants

Users easily send customer referral invitations through email widgets featuring no-fuss current contacts importing

NextBee’s social dashboard creates simple referral sharing with nearly every social media site

Printed cards extend customer referral tracking offline, allowing for easy introductions to take place anywhere and anytime

Dynamic program leaderboards provide motivation and keep everyone reaching for more points

Customized vanity customer referral links help encourage email marketing and active sharing by personalizing the experience

Personal coupon codes encourage specific behaviors through user segmentation and targeted rewards

Guaranteed Results through Smart Controls

Generate viral buzz, featuring internet meme images with embedded tracking links to always know what your users are sharing

Telephone sales tracking increases program optimization and tracks all sales and customer referral activity

Pro-actively recruit key social influencers and deploy specialized engagement strategies just for them

Promotional sweepstakes and contests maintain a high level of enthusiasm for the program

Follow up on every prospect. Build opt-in wish lists and reminder lists, and even create your own lists from all referral program recipients

Develop your own rewards custom combinations of popular referrer, referee rewards, and even promotion partner rewards

Appendix

NextBee


Best of the Breed Technology Platform

Secure SSO – make it easy on everyone by using current customer account login for the referral program

Track each step and every part of any multi-step sales process to identify and reduce key friction points

Increase confidence with integrated fraud detection and proactive blocks of suspicious behavior patterns

Cross-channel entry points allow for complete integration of ‘my account’, Facebook, and order confirmation pages, as well as specialized micro-sites

Grow your referral rewards program beyond your borders with easy internationalization roll-out and 24/7 support

Stay current with intelligent, responsive and mobile-friendly pages and on-the-go referral features

Commitment to Success of the Program

Expert assistance in deciding incentive structures based on a knowledge base of extensive experience

Quality graphic design assistance to enhance your referral program’s message and increase its effectiveness

Creative copywriting services are included to support the growth of your referral program

Custom support portals to quickly assist any user who has a question and provide needed guidance

Regularly occurring one-on-one focused meetings to analyze and evaluate program performance

Fulfillment support for nearly any reward – cash, gift cards, physical items, and much, much more


Pricing Philosophy

How Do You Measure Potential? It can be hard to account for the cost of a customer or client that is not there, just as it can be difficult to

ascertain how much more valuable a skilled employee or team might become with the right incentives.

A comparison between the value of a repeat customer and someone one who only buys once is slightly

more straightforward. Even then, however, the definition of ‘repeat’ must be carefully considered or the

average value risks becoming meaningless.

When NextBee is approached, the question forms in many ways. How does NextBee structure its

programs to ensure the investment is worth the cost? What methods are used to measure success?

When can the company expect to see a return on its investment?

No matter how it may be framed, how quickly our programs becomes ROI positive is the most important

question we are ever asked.

No one can see the future, and there are always risks to any endeavor. However, we hope to provide a

‘behind-the-scenes’ look at the value received when compared to the costs of deployment, as well as

the additional value you should expect to receive from the implementation of the programs themselves.

The NextBee Guarantee

Unlimited Tech Support – Days, nights, weekends, holidays: we’re here for you, always, at no

extra cost.

One Platform, Forever – All upgrades, enhancements, and new features can be made

continuously available for your program’s use.

No Price Increases – Stay within your program and most new benefits become yours at the

monthly price you pay now.


Pricing Considerations

NextBee looks at a variety of factors when determining the cost of a program. Every client is unique.

Some are quite capable of handling their own customization needs, while other clients rely on NextBee’s

expertise extensively. Either way, you will only pay for what you need, nothing more. NextBee is focused

on what works – for our clients and for ourselves.

Campaign Duration (numbers quoted are leveled to $100 for comparison)

Short Term - 75% less than the cost of doing it yourself*.

Long Term - Equal to 25% of your first year returns.

Customization (numbers quoted are leveled to $100 for comparison)

We provide the API for you to customize for FREE.

Back End Customization - 75% less than the cost of doing it yourself*.

Front End Customization - 90% less than the cost of doing it yourself*.

Service Level (numbers quoted are leveled to $100 for comparison)

Accessing and using our tools after training is FREE

Monthly Checkpoint Program Management - 90% less than the average salary of a Marketing

Manager**.

Weekly Checkpoint - a dedicated Account Manager providing status reports as frequently as you

want them - 75% less than the average salary of a Marketing Manager**.

A clear understanding of your own goals in any program is necessary for a true cost analysis to be

conducted. NextBee prides itself on working closely with its clients to help ensure ROI expectations are

met and exceeded.

By keeping the implementation costs low, the additional value generated by increased sales, more

frequent sales and more productive employees occurs quickly. The growth is often measurable in a very

short period of time.

*NextBee has a team of highly skilled in-house programmers. We know the general cost of an experienced programmer and

make use of economies of scale to greatly reduce this cost for our clients. The cost comparison is based on our experience and

experiences may vary. In fact, that’s why we offer you the API for free.

**The average salary of a Marketing Manager in the United States as reported by Salary.com on 01/15/2014


The Value Received

NextBee’s pricing structure must reflect more than the base cost of deploying a program. It needs to

encompass the full value of the service NextBee provides, as well as the considerable time, effort, and

talent demonstrated daily by NextBee’s employees. Consider the following:

A study conducted by Goethe University’s School of Business and Economics found the average

value of a referred customer to be 16% higher than a comparable customer.

Inc.com recently ran a report noting that repeat, loyal customers spend 67% more on average

than new, first-time customers.

A similar study conducted by Mainspring on behalf of Bain & Co. concluded that it was actually

impossible for ecommerce companies to earn a profit from one-time shoppers.

CBS reported on a review of 31 case studies that showed the average cost of replacing an

employee to be the equivalent of 20% of their base salary.

An analysis of a business survey conducted by Gallop found a 50% increase in productivity for

companies that engaged their employees with incentives the most vs. those that did the least.

NextBee’s programs can create repeat customers and clients made more valuable by referrals, along

with engaged employees proactively improving the company’s bottom line. All programs include baked-

in tools designed for quick and easy analysis, allowing you to see exactly how well your program is

working in real time. These are the benefits NextBee considers when designing our pricing philosophy.

How those benefits translate to your specific situation and unique business depends on an open and

honest discussion of your current abilities, limitations, and goals. NextBee prides itself on the flexibility

of its approach and the scalability of its software. We remain committed to providing incentive solutions

to companies of all sizes, in every industry and market.


NextBee Pricing The following pricing reflects general categories and does not represent the specific build that will be

required for your program. Please visit NextBee.com to contact one of our Senior Sales Executives for

further details on our competitive pricing structure.

Standard Access This license suits the needs of most businesses that have a presence across multiple channels (such as

web, social, and mobile) but whose marketing initiatives are managed by central marketing teams.

Program with Web Only Integration $1500/per month

Program with CRM Integration $2400/per month

Program with Channel Specific Settings $3600/per month

Program based on a Custom Build $6000/per month

Teams Edition This license is built for the needs of organizations that have multiple brands or agencies responsible for

managing multiple accounts, each with its own technology stack and targeted audience.

1 to 3 Portals $5400/per month

3 to 10 Portals $9600/per month

10 to 25 Portals $15,000/per month

25 to 50 Portals Custom Quote

Corporate Bundle This license caters to the specialized requirements of businesses with franchises, or organizations where

regional or vertical industry specific marketing teams operate independently.

For 1 to 5 Command Centers $8400/per month

For 5 to 50 Command Centers $12,000/per month

For 50 to 300 Command Centers $18,000/per month

For 300+ Command Centers Custom Quote


Program Benefit Analysis No two clients are alike, and neither is their base of users. That does not mean it is impossible to know

the value your program provides. It does indicate a need to understand that there are two segments of

users who will actively contribute to your program’s growth.

*1st Segment - List Driven/Explicit Invites

Awareness ratio: xxx% // Customers who get invited

100% // ######

Enrollment ratio: xxx% // Customers who enroll in the program

80% // #####

Impacted by Rewards

Estimated average engagement ratio 1:5 // Program users engaging friends

1:5 // #######

Impacted by Incentives

Estimated response of invites 10% 10%

Potential acquisition base: ______________ ######

*Figures used for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to reflect the performance of any particular program. Results vary based on market conditions and program features.

*2nd Segment - Evangelize Program to Attract Participants

(no one-on-one invites)

Awareness ratio: xxx% // Customers who know the program exists

100% // ######

Enrollment ratio: xxx% // Customers who enroll in the program

20% // ######

Impacted by Rewards

Estimated average engagement ratio 1:3 // Program users engaging friends

1:3 // #######

Impacted by Incentives

Estimated response of invites 10% 10%

Potential acquisition base: ______________ ######

*Figures used for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to reflect the performance of any particular program. Results vary based on market conditions and program features.

Please note that small adjustments in the example figures produce drastically different results. You

know and understand your customers better than anyone, which means you know that you can rely on

their goodwill to engage a certain number of new and existing customers. For many others, the rewards

offered, as well as the incentives used, will greatly impact the engagement rates and activities of both

your current customers and new ones brought in through the program.

Contact NextBee for a more thorough understanding of this ROI analysis.


Sources

1http://a.abcnews.com/images/Technology/ht_twitter_comcast_ll_131009_16x9_992.jpg 2http://www.inc.com/peter-cohan/3-start-up-lessons-from-netflix-master-of-adaptation.html

Netflix Graphic:

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303902404579149883903402974 3http://www.forbes.com/sites/chunkamui/2011/03/17/how-netflix-innovates-and-wins/ 4http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Twitter-Use-Rises-Across-US-Age-Groups/1010119 6http://www.geekwire.com/2013/amazon-prime-10m-members-counting/


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