Customer Referral and Affiliate Systems for Events
Customer referral is useful in every business, and event holding is not an exception. In the past, it was common to offer discounts or free samples to customers who would refer a customer. The customer referral system is the modernized version of this old tradition. In this method, your audiences become your event's marketing agents. By absorbing others, they bring benefits for both you and themselves. Regarding events, this system can be applied in three sections.
Selling tickets: you can give a commission fee to someone who increases your ticket sales by referring customers and absorbs visitors to your event.
Booths: offer a commission fee to someone who refers you a participant for buying a booth, because this person has helped in generating income out of the event.
Sponsors: sponsors are quite influential in the event's income-generating process. Offer a commission fee to anyone who refers you a sponsor or makes a sponsor close a contract with you. Consider the commission either as a fixed amount or as a percentage of what the sponsor provides. The sponsor may attend with its product; a printing office, for example, may become your sponsor and, instead of paying money, stand in charge of printing all the event's print products. You need to have a strategy beforehand and consider the referrer's commission.
The modern referral systems are called affiliate systems. Assign exclusive links for advertising usage to those willing to collaborate with you in absorbing the event's audiences, so they can advertise your event online. To make sales through such links, including absorbing visitors, booth holders, or sponsors, pay a fixed payment or commission to the advertiser.
This system has its unique complications. If it is applied properly, it will significantly affect your event's success. The tracking may not be conducted accurately; someone may have referred 50 visitors to the event, but it is not trackable for you. However, some modern applications are designed for this method and have solved the problem; you can use these applications on your website.