Digital Humanism Takes On Its Most Exceptional Form In Referral Tracking Programs

From digital machinism to digital humanism with referral programs

The best practices for marketers are constantly evolving. But not long ago, technology did what we always swore it would do – it took over . . . marketing communications that is. But more specifically, an extreme form of automated communication became a highly adopted manner of outreach to prospects for B2Bs. In fact, it was adopted to the degree where personalization and human relationships were almost completely discounted (as opposed to referral tracking programs). This included prospecting in the form of automated calls and emails that aren’t personalized.

Gartner views this as digital machinism and in the blog, Embracing Digital Humanism, they define it as, “A view that sees the minimization of human involvement through automation as the central focus of technology.”

And this belief is beneficial to some extent. But unsurprisingly, potential customer felt a disconnect when businesses implemented a fully automated form of communication. And with the large amount of genericized marketing noise assaulting them they soon started to block it all out with spam filters and Adblock. Recently, there has even been the development of the Jolly Roger Telephone – an automated system that that screens both human and robot telemarketers to prevents them from reaching you and wastes their time by keeping them on the phone.

And while “We must recognize the profound impact digital technology is having in the work, the way we shop, the way we interact, the way we live,” said Brian Prentice, research vice president at Gartner. “Businesses should seek to understand how our shared humanity can define the systems they create and control.” This is where digital humanism comes in.

Digital humanism is defined as technology that’s main focus is on people. Digital humanism adds amazing power to technology by enabling people to play a greater role in the success of technology while consistently increasing the benefits technology can deliver by emphasizing the human connection and relationship building. Within digital humanism, referral tracking software takes relationship building and customer engagement to the next level.

Grow your ROI by giving power to the people with a referral program

The best practices for marketing have come back around to personalization and a relationship focused sales approach but still emphasizes the power of automation for B2Bs.

Powerful relationships are at a referral program’s core. Referral tracking software harnesses the persuasive power of your customer, partner and employee’s peer relationships and incentivizes them to warmly introduction your brand through trackable social sharing, email, personalized URL, or offline referrals. Within referral tracking software, companies that have advanced automation gain additional value by being able to empower these relationships with intelligent insight, including:

• Referral tracking
  
• Advocate referral data
  
• Advocate nurture emails
  
• Automatic transfers of referral data to your CRM
  
• Advocate’s personalized portal to view their referral data and status

Automation takes on a human aspect in referral tracking programs by functioning as a mechanism for further personalization, insight into customers, engagement by advocates and optimized management of the referral program to enable ease of use for admins.

Adoption of technology that harvests and nurtures relationships is key to current and future success. Through the avenue of referral tracking programs within digital humanism, businesses are able to take advantage of the fact that:

• Customers are 400% more likely to buy a product recommended by someone they know. (Nielsen)

Driving more companies like DIRECTV and ADP to adopt referral tracking programs with:

• Leads generated from referrals convert 4X better than marketing leads. (emarketer)
  
• The LTV of customers is 16% higher than that of non-referred customers. (Harvard Business Review)
  
• Referred customers churning 18% less than non-referred customers. (Harvard Business Review)
  
• A conversion rate of 35% from referral to purchase. (Amplifinity)

Discover if a referral tracking program is the right channel for you to start embracing digital humanism and capture unparalleled ROI by taking the quiz, Are referrals a fit?

(36)