The online/web version of a member's referral report displays the referrals that you have provided to that member in a simple, easy-to-understand format. You can access this report through a member's profile in your web browser, or you can send a link to the referral report in the Mass Communicator. Your members can also log in to the Members Only section of your website to view the report.
If you would like more information on referrals, how we track them, and exactly what is being recorded, please see our Referral Tracking Explanation article.
To access a member's referral report using the MC Trade browser, open their profile using the Profile Search or by clicking on them from recent activity. Scroll down to below the profile's listing information and click View Referral Report:
The report will open in a new tab/window in your browser. At the top, you'll see your organization's name or logo. To add or update this logo, go to Admin > Association Info and click on the Logo URLs tab. Note that the logo URL you enter here will display at 100%, so be sure to use an appropriately-sized image.
By default, the report will show the past year of referrals. You can click on either the start or end date to view a calendar and select a different date range. You'll also see the name and address of the member you selected. Click the member name to visit their website, or click their address to map them. You can also see the category listing in which they appear in your online directory, and you can click on that to view their directory listing.
Below this information is the referral chart. There are two versions of the chart: Total Referrals Per Month (the default chart), and Referrals by Type (available on the second tab in the upper left corner of the chart). Total Referrals Per Month calculates all referrals from all sources for each month and displays a line chart of the date range selected:
On the Referrals by Type chart, you'll see a bar chart showing the total of each different Referral Types for the date range selected. To see the exact number for any type, hover directly over the bar and you'll see the corresponding number appear. Below the chart, you'll see a key indicating the type of referral for each different color-coded bar.
You can hover over each type on the chart to view a description and subtotal for that type. Again, for more detailed explanations on what is included in each of these types, please see our Referral Tracking Explanation article.
Next, the total referrals, impressions, and leads are shown, with the lead rate calculated. Total Referrals includes all referrals of any type within the date range selected. Total impressions refers to the number of times the member was displayed online, either as a general directory result or a banner ad. Total Leads refers to the number of times a visitor clicked to view the member's specific information, including a detailed listing display or a banner ad click-through. Note that if you use any custom referral types, you'll need to configure those to be included in these totals in Admin > Set Preferences > Referral Report Settings (click here for details). Finally, the lead rate displays the percentage of impressions that were converted to leads (total leads divided by total impressions).
If the member has a banner ad, they'll see a separate breakdown of banner ad views and banner ad clicks, with a click-thru rate calculated for all banners. If the member does not have a banner ad, those items will not appear.
Beneath these totals, you have the option to display the member's Value on Investment (VOI) - the quantitative calculation of value in dollars that they are receiving as a result of their referrals. To enable this section and set your custom dollar amount values for each referral type, go to Admin > Set Preferences > Referral Report Settings (click here for more details).
The member's annual dues amount is used to calculate the VOI percentage based on the time period they selected for the report. Note that if they selected only a 6-month date range, their current annual dues amount will be pro-rated over that time period. Only the current dues amount is used in this calculation - past, inactive amounts are not included.
Finally, if you'd like to show this referral report to your member, you can email them the direct link. Go back to their profile (the report opens in a new tab, so just click back to the tab displaying their profile). Click on Email Referral Report.
An email form is displayed, with the selected profile's email address entered by default. If you'd like to send the link to the referral report to a different email address, simply type that in instead. You can also change the subject line, and type in a message if desired. The link to the referral report will be dynamically added to the bottom of the message when you click Send.