E-Mail Referral Campaigns

This online-only refer-a-friend promotion attracted 58 new checking account holders

Details Of Refer-A-Friend Offer

Existing customers asked to create their own referral list

Arrowhead Credit Union ($1 billion, San Bernardino, California) has had success using e-mail to promote its refer-a-friend campaign.

Referral campaign is promoted via e-mail

“The promotion was offered strictly online,” says Tracy Judy, VP/Marketing.

“We communicated the offer through an e-mail that we sent to every member who had given us their e-mail address,” she says.

The e-mail explained the referral campaign and then provided a space for members to simply populate fields with the names and e-mailaddresses of their friends and family members.

The member then e-mailed the message back to the credit union.

A new message was then generated and e-mailed out to those on the member’s referral list.

“We personalized the message so that the friend or family member might be more inclined to open it,” she says.

The opening line of the e-mail read,“Susie wanted to pass on a good thing…”

Incentives for the member and their referral

“We associated some pretty attractive incentives for referring friends and family,” says Judy.

She explains that the credit union isn’t looking for a single-service relationship so the incentive increases when the new member adds certain products or services.

“The credit union rewards the new member with $50 if they open a free checking account tied to direct www.arrowheadcu.org deposit,” she says.

“Additionally, the member can earn $50 if they sign up to use online banking and bill pay.”

The member who referred their friend or family member is also offered a $25 incentive. Members can make multiple referrals.

“So far we have 58 new checking Details Of Refer-A-Friend Offer accounts with direct deposit from the online offer and 27 people have signed up for bill pay and online banking.”

She also notes that 29 of the new checking account holders have also signed up for direct deposit.

“Once we got the e-mail process in place, all new accounts really have only the cost of the incentive,” she says. “It’s viral marketing at its best.”