Resident Referral Program - How (well) do they work?

Thanks to everyone for your experience and ideas. We want to get our now “Rent Ready” homes filled soon (via lease to own), and now have switched mostly to marketing; not doing much now on renovations except for a few minor completions and details. We have decided to go with the resident referral program and trying to decide if $100 in Walmart gift cards is enough to get residents excited. Have considered going to $200 in gift cards or some type of combinations of cards and/or rent credit. Hope to have the program up and going this week. Also, we will be developing a flyer to deliver to apartment dwellers in the area too. We also are talking it up around town and offering $'s to merchants who make referrals. Have tried Craigslist, yet not getting much from it since our town is a bit away from a big city. Still need to get to those dreaded potholes. What else should we be doing?