Referral (customer-get-customer) programs are probably nearly as old as word of mouth itself, but they are still the simplest and most effective solution to leveraging word of mouth – the most powerful marketing channel out there.
As someone who has been involved with word of mouth marketing for years, what I find super interesting about referral programs is the opportunity for Web technology to make them even more effective. One of the best examples of this is eWinWin‘s social pricing technology, essentially a group-buy application that gets customers to sell to friends in order for everyone to secure a lower price.
Online Group Buying is not new (and has a rather chequered past), but with the rise of social networking platforms, it’s just got a lot easier. For example eWinWin, veteran and market leader in the group-buy game has now launched a social pricing widget for social networks. Want to buy something? Pop the widget on your page and see the price fall as more people commit to buying it. eWinWin’s social pricing application turns buyers into sellers. It’s Dell Swarm without the hassle.
Check out the video.
