ReferNow Launches Word-of-Mouth Referral Marketing, Management and Measurement System
3/20/07 – Santa Monica-based ReferNow, Inc. last week threw its hat into the growing referral marketing and word-of-mouth market with the launch of ReferNow.com, a web-based tool that the company says simplifies the creation, management and measurement of sophisticated referral-marketing campaigns.
ReferNow was formed by Internet entrepreneur Kevin DeMeritt, who designed ReferNow.com to leverage marketing dollars for companies that spend a significant portion of their resources on advertising, and for those businesses that rely heavily on referrals.
According to DeMeritt, “ReferNow was designed to get customers talking about and recommending their favorite businesses to everyone they know. All of these people, and the people they know, are your potential customers.”
ReferNow says that the ReferNow.com site includes an intuitive centralized, web-based dashboard which it says provides all of the tools a business person needs to manage a successful referral marketing campaign: coupons, point management and reporting (representing the number of referrals made, the number of referrals sent and the number of referrals that have resulted in new business).
ReferNow’s Nicole Wicks says the site was the result of DeMeritt’s experience marketing his company, Lear Financial.
“For five years, he worked hard to perfect a referral program for Lear, and during that time he realized that the model he built could be used to manage referral programs for any business,” said Wicks. “And it has worked—Lear Financial has grown from $5 million in sales to over $75 million in nine years—and he consistently states that he couldn’t have done it without his customers helping his business grow.”
“Once people started telling their friends about Lear, business really took off,” said DeMeritt. “Creating an easy, stress free method to encourage referrals was the best marketing investment I have ever made. A referral-generated lead costs next to nothing, and represents a highly qualified potential customer, who usually is ready to purchase.”
The company says that since its launch last Wednesday, it has signed up more than 15 companies, and Wicks says they are roughly looking to have 2,000 members by year-end.
In order to reach that goal, the company is offering all new users a 30-day free trial, allowing them to set up a referral campaign and use the complete system to see how well it works. Users are charged a monthly fee after the trial. Wicks says the company’s initial marketing includes online keyword campaigns, viral videos, public relations and direct marketing.
Funding for development was provided by DeMeritt, with private investors being brought in subsequently, according to Wicks.
ReferNow – www.refernow.com
