The purpose of this thesis was to optimize Itegrity’s current reference marketing concept taking into consideration expert and customer insights alongside the psychological aspects of the decision- making process. Itegrity’s reference marketing is embedded in its yearly marketing plan and hence not focused on individually. The goal is to elaborate an individual reference marketing concept which will serve as a basis for customer success stories. An implementation approach should follow the reference marketing concept with precise suggestions on the process along the customer journey.

To develop the optimized reference marketing concept, secondary literature on reference marketing and the psychological aspects served as a foundation. This wasfollowed by an analysis of Itegrity’s current reference marketing approach and then complemented with expert and customer interviews. Further, tools for increasing sales lead generation ranging from marketing automation, content and search engine marketing to social media marketing were suggested.

The major findings include a structured reference marketing concept for customer success stories which was divided into three main parts. The outline of customer’s main challenges and pain points are followed by Itegrity’s ERP solution implementation and concluded by a call-to-action approach for a customer to act upon. To further improve online presence, customer engagement, and sales lead generation, an in-depth research on various tools was included in the discussion & recommendations section. This should provide Itegrity with a good overview on how to optimize reference marketing in a broader context, and hence attain its 2021 marketing goals. Those include improving the online presence, customer engagement and customer service in general, and to drive sales and generate new qualified leads.