Referrals means exercising your network
Remember Harry’s? The best example of pioneering a referral scheme that was supposed to enable “exponential wait list back pressure” before a big launch.
this blog was sent to me by my first CEO who said, “lets do this and make it go viral”: How to Gather 100,000 Emails in One Week (Includes Successful Templates, Code, Everything You Need) - The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss
He also sent me the Dollar Shave Club video and said, lets make one of these and make it go viral like this!
FYI, the DSC original video was $50k+, and its success came entirely from the fact that it was still edgy to swear in the '00s and subscriptions were a new thing and their subscription was literally $1/mo to start).
We did it. It did not go viral.
Why?
Because Harry’s leadership team spent 6 months leading up to the launch, building their personal email lists and appealing to their individual networks to join the prelaunch. They were emailing everyone in their rolodexes at least every other week thanking them for their help and giving them specific ways to engage.
It wasn’t viral. It wasn’t even the referrals that made it a success. It was the fact that they got at least 1000 people in their personal networks to email their networks and share on social and yada yada, which is what caught the attention of the press. The referrals followed that.
The success came entirely from the individuals and their network.
