Zoho And Referral Factory

Referral Factory is an easy-to-use, no-code platform that allows you to build, launch and run powerful referral programs in just a few minutes. If you’re a Zoho customer, it’s even easier because you can connect your referral program to your Zoho CRM. This guide will show you how to set up your Zoho integration so that you can run a fully automated referral program using Referral Factory and Zoho together.

This is what you'll need to launch a referral program and integrate it with Zoho:

• A Zoho account.
• A Basic or Pro Referral Factory subscription.

In this guide, we will show you how to:

1. Connect your Zoho account to Referral Factory

2. Install the Referral Factory extension

3. Build your referral campaign

4. Set up your Zoho Integration in your campaign

5. Map the data you want to send to Zoho

6. Automatically qualify your referrals in Zoho

7. Uninstall your Zoho integration from Referral Factory

In order to set up your Zoho integration correctly, you need to follow the steps in this guide. Point two is particularly important as your integration will only work if this is set up correctly.

After you have connected your Zoho integration, and you have created the workflow documented in point two of this guide, you'll be ready to connect your referral campaign to your Zoho CRM. This will allow you to automatically send your new referred leads straight into Zoho, and qualify them with a simple change status update inside Zoho. This reduces the ‘behind the scenes’ admin of your referral program and helps you see which referred leads have qualified based on their status change in Zoho, and who needs to be rewarded as a result.

1. Connect your Zoho account to Referral Factory

Click on the settings tab on the left-side navigation bar. Then click the ‘Connect’ button on the Zoho integration option. Choose the Zoho account you wish to connect to Referral Factory. 

*Note you can only connect one account at a time. 

Please make sure that you accept giving Referral Factory permission to access your Zoho account by clicking "Accept".

2. Install the Referral Factory extension 

This step is very important as your integration will not work correctly if this extension isn’t installed.  This is what will automate and qualify your referral marketing leads between Zoho CRM and Referral Factory.

The Referral Factory extension is essentially a qualification workflow that lets Zoho know the lead status that referred leads must have when they are created in Zoho as well as what the desired status of a referred lead is that will count as a conversion.

Here is the link where you can install the Referral Factory extension.

3. Build your referral campaign

Once you have connected your Zoho account and created the correct workflow in Zoho, head to Referral Factory to build your own referral program that's 100% on brand. You can customize and style your referral campaign so it matches your CI and feels just like your brand.

The drag-and-drop builder allows you to add your own logo, change the background, edit the font settings and add new content such as headlines, text, images, and videos. Read this article to find out more - Build A Referral Program That Is 100% On Brand

To get people referring - upload a list of users or customers to your campaign and email them their referral link from our platform or let them sign up for the campaign themselves. Referrers will be issued a unique referral link that they can easily share with their friends using the social media channels that you select.

When their friends click on the referral link they will be taken to a landing page where they can join your referral campaign. Essentially, this is when we capture a lead for you. This part of the campaign is very important as it’s the first thing that invited or referred friends will see about your business. Make sure you include all the information you want new referred leads to see. The goal of this page is to get new referred leads to join the campaign and submit their details.

You can read more articles on our help guide to build the best referral program possible.

4. Set up your Zoho Integration in your campaign

When your campaign is built, you need to define what data you want to send from your referral campaign into your Zoho CRM. This is done in the Settings step inside the campaign builder. 

Under the ‘Do you want to qualify referrals?’ section – select Zoho.

• Define what the status of the new user will be when they are created in Zoho. In the example below, we have chosen: "Contact in future".
• Next, define ‘What will the status of the user change to when they are qualified”, in your Zoho account. This is the status that your customer or user will have once they convert. In the example below, we have chosen: "Contacted".
• Lastly, you can also define what “Type” of Referral Factory user you want to add to Zoho - direct users, referred users, or users who have manually been added to a campaign from an existing database. In order to make sure your referred customers get sent to Zoho, select the "Referred" users option. 
  
  

  *Note: If a contact already exists in Zoho, with the same email address that they have used to join your referral campaign the contact will not be duplicated in your Zoho CRM.

  
  Once these three steps are completed, users that join your referral campaign will be sent to Zoho.

5. Map the data you want to send to Zoho

This is where you can define what user data you want to collect and send through to Zoho. Zoho requires you to send the "Last Name" and "Company" so you will need to make sure you map these out. If you don’t want to send a particular data point then choose ‘Do not send’ and this information will not be included.

Something to note - in order to send other fields through to Zoho, these fields need to be created in your Zoho account in order to successfully send the data points you've mapped out. If that field doesn’t exist in Zoho, then the contact will not be sent through.

You can also include the first name and email address of the referrer as a field when sending referred leads to Zoho. This will enable you to see who the referrer is plus their email address inside Zoho.

Once you've published your campaign and you start getting referrals, they’ll automatically be sent to your Zoho account with the lead status that you assigned. 

6. Automatically qualify your referrals in Zoho

Qualifying your referrals will make it easier for you to manage your campaign. You will be able to see in real-time how many referrals you have, how many of those referrals have successfully converted and the date that the referral converted or was qualified.

To qualify referrals using Zoho, all you need to do is update the lead status in Zoho to the status you want the user to change to when qualified.

Based on our setup in this help guide, when the lead status of the user is updated in Zoho to "Contacted", it will automatically qualify the referral in Referral Factory, letting you know which leads have been qualified.

The change will be as follows: 

Qualified = No

to 

Qualified = Yes

From the example below, we can see that Jessica referred Alex. Now that Alex has been qualified we can see that Jessica has a converted referral and needs to be issued a reward. 

7. Disconnect your Zoho account from Referral Factory

To disconnect Zoho from your Referral Factory account, navigate to the 'Settings' tab on the left-hand side.

Then click 'Disconnect'.

Once Zoho has been disconnected, you will no longer be able to send new user data from Referral Factory to Zoho.

Any data that was sent before the disconnecting Zoho will be available in both places.
Any new user data will still be available in Referral Factory as your campaigns will not be paused or stopped.