Friends & Family

Overview

Friends and Family programs are exclusive offer sharing programs that allow VIP audiences to share exclusive discounts with a limited number of friends. Key features of this program type include targeting your top customers with an exclusive offer, 
allowing offer sharing to promote advocacy, and 
limiting the number of shares to prevent brand dilution.

There are two general types of Friends and Family programs:

1. Standard Friends and Family: Your VIP audience (top customers, advocates, employees) are provided an exclusive reward (like 50% off) and the ability to send that exclusive reward to a limited number of people. This is a great option for retailers that want to provide an early access coupon to a VIP audience and the ability to share the associated coupon with 3–5 friends.

2. Give a Gift: This type works really well with memberships. Your VIP audience is allowed to send a very exclusive reward (like 1 free month of a membership) to a limited number of friends. Generally, there is no advocate reward in this case.

Marketing

Email Promotion
Promotion for your Friends and Family program is most commonly achieved via email. Extole can send an invitation or promotional email to a specific audience of your customers (usually your most loyal subset) letting them know about the Friends and Family program and encouraging them to participate.

On-site or In-app Promotion
Extole can also generate links that you can place in CTAs on your site or in your mobile app to promote the program. These calls to action are typically placed behind a login or signup page so that the offer stays exclusive to customers who have previously engaged with your brand.

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Best Practices

• Identify your targeted segment prior to launch.
• Enable an email series that includes an announcement email, reminder email
, and last chance email.
• Make sure to incentivize this exclusive group with a higher offer than your standard Refer A Friend program.
• Utilize surprise and delight offerings for an enhanced experience.

Advocate Journey

Advocates, in the context of your Friends and Family program, are customers who are already familiar with your company. They might already participate in your Refer A Friend program or have a membership or subscription to your product. Your advocates already love your brand and would jump at the chance to share an exclusive deal with their inner circle.

Your advocates can participate in the program by clicking on the link provided in your promotional email and sharing the offer with their selected friends. They may also see the link to participate on your website after they've logged into their account or signed up for one. Either way, your advocates will be given the chance to share the offer with the specified number of people through the share experience.

Friends & Family Journey

Friends and family members of the advocate will receive an email configured to share your Friends & Family program that often includes the discount. You can also leave the coupon code out of the email and require friends to click through on the link in the email.

Rules and Rewarding

Friends & Family programs are designed to be exclusive and typically offer a more enticing reward than your standard Refer A Friend program. Rewards are most often internal discounts, such as a percentage off your company's products, a month free or discount on your subscription, a signup bonus, and so on.

Since your Friends & Family offer is often greater than other offers promoted on your site, it is common to limit the number of people your advocates can share the program with.

Performance and Data

Owing to the higher offers provided, Friends & Family programs will often deliver higher conversion, acquisition, and share rates than your standard Refer A Friend program. An increase in your registration rate can also be expected if you require your advocates' friends and family to signup to redeem their discount.

Examples

Your Friends & Family program can do more than just offer a heightened discount to your advocates' inner circles. Launching a Friends & Family program is also applicable in the following use cases:

• Early access to an event


• Exclusive discount


• Limited time offer


• Network marketing
• Capitalize on highs and lows of seasonality
• Employee program
• Surprise and delight

Reebok White Glove
Reebok launched a Friends & Family program to provide an exclusive offer for “white-glove” (VIP) members and their friends. Through the Extole platform, Reebok can track and reward their network as well as provide a high incentive for each share. This is an always-on program that allows Reebok to introduce new members as they join this segment.

Sonos
Sonos promoted their Friends & Family program to partners and employees all over the world. Language and rewards were localized by country. The program included a 

50% employee discount that was shareable with up to 8 friends. Additionally, the program offered an unlimited 20% discount for friends and partners

. Leveraging Extole’s reporting, Sonos was able to to track department and employee performance.