How To Use WhatsApp for Getting Referrals [7 Practical Ways in 2025]

Has it ever happened to you when you used a product and liked it so much that you recommended it to your friends and family? Finding the perfect product not only enhances the quality of your life but also helps a business grow. 

One of the ways people use to refer to suggestions is via WhatsApp. WhatsApp is a go-to option for people to interact with their friends, sharing everyday information and relevant products to their groups. 

From a business perspective, WhatsApp Business Platform is an excellent way to reach out to your customers and promote your offerings more naturally. 

With WhatsApp’s messaging and group chat capabilities, you can ask for referrals or share social proof directly within the chat. 

That being said, in this blog post, I will tell you how to use WhatsApp to market your business organically by leveraging referral marketing. So, let’s get started with it!

What is referral marketing?

Referral marketing is one of the oldest forms of promotion, where the primary goal is to incentivize your current customers to recommend your offerings to others. In this strategy, you are expanding on the relationship you have built with your current users to drive newer sales for business growth. 

In most cases, you incentivize the referrers to market your offerings using word-of-mouth to new customers. For example, you can offer a flat discount on the next purchase or free shipping. This way, there is a reason for customers to recommend your products without you having to waste a lot of resources to grow your audience base. 

When you consider the traditional lead acquisition channels that require significant investment. In fact, customers that you convert from referrals offer 16% more CSV. On top of that, referred customers are easier to retain in comparison to cold leads acquired via marketing or advertisements.

What is the importance of referral marketing?

As I said before, referrals are a great way to get new customers without increasing your spending on marketing and ads. Also, getting your products recommended by someone people trust greatly streamlines the sales process as you would not have to nurture leads across various stages of the sales pipeline.

Additionally, referrals allow you to build solid relationships with your customers, enabling you to retain them for the long run. By having a robust referral marketing strategy, you can transform your customers into brand advocates to keep generating leads for your business. 

Furthermore, referrals acquired through word-of-mouth marketing are most likely to stick with your business for a long time in comparison to the ones acquired via outbound methods. Plus, having your brand known across the customer base with referrals boosts the chance of attaining substantial business growth. 

What’s the role of WhatsApp in your referral marketing strategy?

Compared to more traditional channels, WhatsApp is a much more real-time channel. It is more interpersonal and provides prompt interaction with customers. Here are some of the reasons why it is crucial to have WhatsApp as a communication channel for getting referrals:

• High engagement rates - The messages sent on WhatsApp are most likely open and read. In fact, WhatsApp boasts an open rate of 98%, making it the top channel for customer engagement.
• Personal interactions - Referrals on WhatsApp are easy to ask because the communication does not sound forced. You can have 1:1 interactions with customers in real time to convince them to try out your products.
• Quick sharing - Your current customers can easily share referral links with their friends using WhatsApp. You can also share these referral links straight to your customers' inbox or as a part of a referral marketing campaign at scale. 

Ways to utilize WhatsApp to get more referrals

Now that I have talked about the benefits of using WhatsApp for referral marketing, below are some of the practical ways to get more referrals to drive business success: 

Proper segmentation of your customers

Before you can think about building a streamlined WhatsApp referral marketing strategy, you need to have a clear idea of which set of customers to reach out to for maximum effectiveness. In order to identify that, you have to divide your audience into smaller groups for better monitoring. 

Segment your current customers into custom lists based on how recently they bought your product and how was their experience when interacting with your brand. Customers who had a positive WhatsApp sales experience are much more likely to refer your business within their friend circle.

A CRM platform like Zixflow can easily let you divide your happy customers into a separate list whom you can reach out to at once using bulk WhatsApp messaging.

Run WhatsApp referral campaigns

Run WhatsApp Broadcast initiatives to engage your current customers and inform them about your referral program effectively. Make sure to include clear and compelling details about the referral offer by highlighting what participants stand to gain and how simple it is to get started.

Below are some of the examples of WhatsApp Broadcast messaging templates that you can use to promote your referral program: 

Here are a few WhatsApp message examples you can adapt to promote your referral campaign:

• “Hello! We’re grateful for your recent purchase. Want to get X% off your next order? Simply refer us to a friend!”
• “Hi! We hope you’re enjoying your experience with us. Share the love by referring us to someone you know and receive an instant X% discount on your next order.”
• “Hey! Loved what you bought? Recommend us to your friends and earn a discount voucher worth Rs.X for every successful referral!”

To create and send out your WhatsApp Broadcast campaign without complications, use a reliable WhatsApp API provider like Zixflow. Just sign in, link your WhatsApp number, design your message template, and you are ready to launch your referral campaign effortlessly.

Provide top-notch customer service 

Before you start asking customers to refer your business, you have to ensure they are satisfied and happy with the experience they had with your business. The best way to do that is to provide prompt customer support and resolve their queries as soon as possible. 

By leveraging WhatsApp’s quick and mobile-first approach, you can send timely responses without making your customers wait for a long time. Additionally, all your conversations are recorded in a single chat so there is no switching between multiple apps or inboxes. 

After you have successfully helped a customer with their query, you can then send a referral request asking them to recommend your brand to their friends.

Below is a simple process you can follow: 

1. Make sure to address and handle the query the customer had
2. Follow up after the resolution 
3. Send a personalized referral request
4. Highlight the incentives and make it easy to redeem 
5. After successful referrals, remind customers about their rewards

To automate your WhatsApp messages, you can either create a WhatsApp chatbot or set up automated workflows that get triggered based on predetermined conditions. You can take advantage of Zixflow's code-free interface to craft custom chatbots for automated customer engagement. Check out the following video to see how:

Implement a WhatsApp loyalty program

Loyalty and referrals go hand in hand. In order to build a solid referral marketing strategy for your business, you first need to have an equally robust loyalty program. Once a customer is part of your loyalty program, you can greatly increase the chances of them referring your business to others. 

By integrating referral incentives like discounts, cashback, or exclusive rewards into the loyalty program, you can motivate existing customers to recommend your brand to friends and family. 

Moreover, WhatsApp makes it easy to track referrals using unique codes or links, and you can instantly notify customers within the same chat.

Using WhatsApp, your support reps can send prompt messages informing them how they can take advantage of your referral program to earn rewards for their future purchases.

Ask for referrals at the right time

Sending referral WhatsApp messages willy-nilly will not yield you the desired results and result in wasted resources. So what can you do to maximize the ROI for your resources? Identifying the right time to send these messages is important to ensuring their effectiveness. 

You can consider a few instances to send these kind of messages:

• After they have used your products for a while
• Once you have delivered their order
• When they leave a positive review on your site or social platform
• After they purchase from you again
• After resolving their query satisfactorily

By integrating WhatsApp with your infrastructure and setting up automated flows to track all these instances, you can automatically send referral requests once the customer completes any of the desired actions.

Provide attractive incentives

The success of any referral program heavily depends on how appealing the reward is. To encourage customers to refer your brand through WhatsApp, you need to offer incentives that genuinely excite and motivate them. 

These incentives can take many forms such as percentage-based discounts, flat-rate vouchers, cashback offers, loyalty points, free gifts, early access to new products, or even exclusive perks like VIP memberships. The key is to align the reward with what your customers truly value.

For instance, if you run an e-commerce store, a "Refer a Friend and Get ₹5% Off" deal might be more effective than a generic thank-you message. If your business is subscription-based, you could offer an extra month free for every successful referral. 

Make sure the reward is both easy to understand and instantly redeemable through WhatsApp itself. This removes friction and keeps users engaged. You can also consider tiered rewards, where customers earn bigger incentives the more people they refer, creating a sense of progression and gamification.

Monitor your referrals

Tracking referrals is crucial to the success of any WhatsApp-based referral program. Without a proper tracking system in place, it becomes difficult to measure performance and reward customers accurately. 

By monitoring who is referring whom, how many successful conversions are coming through each referrer, and which channels are performing best, you gain valuable insights into customer behavior and program effectiveness.

To streamline tracking, you can assign unique referral codes or personalized links to each customer. These can be shared via WhatsApp messages, allowing you to trace exactly which users brought in new business. 

Modern WhatsApp API platforms like Zixflow can help you automate this process by integrating WhatsApp with your CRM or marketing tools to capture referral data in real time. You can even use workflows to notify customers when their referral is successful and deliver rewards directly in the WhatsApp conversation.

Effective tracking not only ensures transparency in the process but also helps you fine-tune your messaging and identify your most loyal advocates. It turns your WhatsApp referral program from a one-off initiative into a sustainable, data-driven growth engine.

Ready to leverage WhatsApp to start getting referrals for your business 

Referrals remain one of the most powerful and cost-effective ways to grow your business, and WhatsApp offers the perfect platform to supercharge them. 

With its direct and highly engaging nature, WhatsApp allows you to build stronger relationships with customers to turn satisfied buyers into active promoters of your brand. By crafting targeted referral messages and offering irresistible rewards, you can turn every conversation into a conversion opportunity.

No matter if you are a D2C brand, a SaaS company, or a local business, a WhatsApp-based referral strategy can help you tap into word-of-mouth marketing at scale. 

And with WhatsApp tools like Zixflow, setting up and automating these campaigns becomes effortless. So, if you have not already, it is time to leverage WhatsApp not just as a support or notification channel but as a platform for customer acquisition and loyalty growth.

Sign up for Zixflow using the 7-day free trial and get started with your WhatsApp efforts right away!