How Viral Loops Help My Company Grow (con’t)

3 min readSep 26, 2023

From Business Intelligence ‘s perspective, who participated end-to-end and analyzed the effectiveness of the Referral campaigns.

Continuing from the previous article (here) about how our company has grown through referral campaigns, today I’d like to share more about how we integrate referral mechanisms into our marketing campaigns, along with some examples and personal experiences.

How we apply viral loops in marketing campaigns

Generally, two types of referral programs exist: Incentivized referral programs and Non- Incentivized referral programs.

From https://bootcamp.uxdesign.cc/product-case-study-bitclass-a1aea952d075

Solution 1: Referral campaign (Incentivized Referral)

I’d like to refer to Airbnb example.

Airbnb wanted to use ‘word-of-mouth’ marketing for accelerating growth.
By building a refer-a-friend-like program, Airbnb could reduce those fears, making travelers and their hosts more travel-ready.
To start, Airbnb offers travel credit incentives for referral only to their 2,161 existing members.
Results: 2,107 new members joined, this nearly 1:1 growth ratio was a clear indication that this program would be a likely success.

Solution 2: Stamp collection (Non-incentivized Referral)

Taking inspiration from the all-time favorite Diwali stamp campaign organized by G-pay, we reference and analyze this campaign to draw lessons and highlight key aspects, namely the why, how, and what.

Refer to the original article https://bootcamp.uxdesign.cc/product-case-study-bitclass-a1aea952d075

We replaced the Diwali stamp with a Flower stamp to celebrate Vietnamese Women Day. The campaign looked like

A practical tip when designing a Referral program: Hook model can be used to sharpen your program.

Why viral referral loops fail or do not succeed

Many Growth & Marketing people tend to prioritize the mechanics and the program, they often overlook the significance of value and user experience in sustaining a referral loop. A poor execution will hurt your program. It’s essential to start by investing in delivering an exceptional value and experience to users before delving into the specifics of Referral program or tactics. Identify the segment of users who genuinely adore your product.

Final thoughts

Viral loops can be extremely powerful. They are the greatest of all loops, and they are at the core of most unicorn businesses in the world.

The hurdle is high as it takes superior value and experience to fuel them. A good match in the viral loop and program certainly helps, but tactics cannot make up for missing value in a long run.

In the end, you really need to understand your users and their needs, have a close eye on key KPIs to ensure that your viral loops keep spinning and delivering growth.