Jimmy KimCEO & Founder, Commerce Roundtable · Marketer of 17+ Years, 4x Founder. Former DTC/Retailer & SaaS Founder. Newsletter. Host of ASOM & Send it! Podcast. DTC Event: Commerce Roundtable

How to Use Referral and Loyalty Programs to Drive Off-Season Sales

25 May 2025 · 2 min

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1:32

In this conversational video, Jimmy Kim and a co‑host discuss how referral and loyalty programs can be powerful tools for generating revenue during a business’s slow or off‑season periods. They begin by highlighting the natural trust people place in peer recommendations, using Reddit as an example of how strangers influence each other's purchasing decisions. They argue that setting up a well‑designed referral scheme during quiet months can turn that trust into sales. The discussion then shifts to loyal customers, noting that brand‑loving shoppers are eager to recommend products regardless of season, and can be incentivized to do so. The co‑host adds practical tactics: offering double loyalty points during off‑season months, integrating referral and loyalty prompts into regular email newsletters (via banners or embedded mentions), and avoiding “check‑box” implementations that lack genuine integration. Overall, the video provides actionable ideas for marketers to leverage existing customer advocacy and structured incentives to boost off‑season sales.

Chapters

People trust recommendations from friends, right? We all know that. We see it in like the Reddit world where Reddit people— I love Reddit because it's like the perfect place. People on Reddit be like, where should I buy this? And then like 3 people chime in and they're like, okay, I'll buy from there, right? It's like so funny how people do. And these are like complete strangers. They'll listen to them, but they won't listen to different actual marketing and different things. So, you know, setting up a good referral season, referral scheme in your quiet months can be absolute gold. You know, the thing about your loyal customers is they usually love your brand, love your product, and they're happy. I know, like, for example, you talk about, like your Built clothing, like you like a lot. And regardless if it's season or not, you're always like, hey, I need a black shirt, go to Built. Hey, I need this, go to Built, right? The loyal customers are incentives and refer their friends to buy it regardless of the season.
Dude, 100%. And referral and loyalty programs, as you mentioned, are huge. Like, I think this is probably one of the more underrated, underutilized things. I think some people do it and they do it just to check the box because some agency or some guru told them that they need this and they don't really actually ever integrate and leverage it properly. And I think one thing too that could be cool is like consider like doubling points in offseason months to encourage repeat purchases. So you normally give X traditionally, maybe in your slowest months you consider doing 2X, right? And email is going to be great and perfect for really highlighting these perks. There's no reason why you shouldn't have like a banner at the top or the bottom or the middle kind of constantly reminding people about these types of things. They don't even need to necessarily be dedicated emails. They definitely can be, but just integrating them organically into your ongoing emails just to keep them top of mind is important. Subscribe to the pod.