As seen in the example above, effective referral marketing is quite powerful. You can use referrals to reach new audiences, grow your business, and strengthen relationships. By offering a service or product that will help others succeed, you’ll be creating credibility for yourself and your company.
Having more people connect with your services or products through word of mouth is one of the most effective ways to grow your revenue. When someone knows you well and believes in what you offer, they will usually tell their friends about it.
This is referred to as word-of-mouth advertising or referral marketing. By tapping into this power, you are giving other people a way to promote you for rewards or incentives they receive for doing so.
It’s a win–win situation!
Referrals are a cost-free way to gain exposure for your business. What these “loved ones” get from you isn’t necessarily money, but instead something that directly benefits them — such as advice or a good time.
By adding value to another person’s life, you’re promoting your brand and building trust at the same time. This is an integral part of any successful business–you would know.
There are several easy ways to begin using referral marketing to boost your business.
Personalize your website
When creating or editing your website, make sure you are personalizing it for your audience. Add content that appeals to them, use their language, including things they may like, and highlight who you are as a person!
Your personality will influence how people perceive you, which is important in referral marketing. People will be more likely to refer business to you if they feel you care about what they have to say and contribute to the community.
Add links to your social media profiles, keep blogs updated, and emphasize your achievements and qualifications – all of this help create a perception of you being trustworthy.
Interact with others by posting comments and responding to messages, showing some love, and acknowledging good work – this creates a supportive environment. If someone has done well, compliment them and suggest other actions they could do to improve their service/product.
These can all add up to create trust, along with referring businesses to you via your website and social media accounts.
Publish your website for effective referral marketing
Now that you have done some of the hard work by developing your business, it is time to start promoting yourself!
The first step in effective referral marketing is having a strong online presence or “publishing” your site. This includes creating a professional-looking domain name, hosting your website on a trusted web host, and publishing and editing your content using quality writing software.
By being well-presented with a clear message, you will draw more attention to yourself and your services, which can lead to new referrals and clients. You want to make sure everything about your site reflects who you are as an individual and your service offerings, so do some research and self-check before hitting publish!
Once your website is live, begin sharing it with others through social media sites, word-of-mouth, and printed materials like flyers and pamphlets. Doing these things helps spread your brand, increases exposure, and creates opportunities for conversations and interactions with potential customers.
Offer a reward for effective referral marketing
A successful referral marketing strategy is not about offering your audience rewards for doing something, it’s about offering them incentives to do something else!
The more time they spend shopping online, the better for you. The longer they stay at one site, the more exposure that site gets – which is great for their business and company image.
So why don’t people give away all of their money to buy things? It’s because they want to feel like they got THEIR OWN MONEY FOR WHAT THEY ARE BUYING!
Referrals are the same way. People will work with you if they believe in what you have done for them before.
What kind of reward can you offer potential referrals? An additional discount, free content or samples, or even cash!
Create a bulletin board or website where people can share their experiences. Let others know how much money they saved by using your service, or how happy they were with your product or expertise.
Include links to your service so that readers can go directly to read those reviews. Add comments under each review letting people know about any special offers or discounts related to the product being reviewed.
Add color and style to your site to make it look professional. Create easy-to-find resources such as blogs and eBooks. Use social media to spread the word about your services. And keep improving your skills and knowledge about internet marketing.
Distribute promotional materials
A strong referral marketing strategy does not end with offering your products and services, it also means distributing appropriate materials to help others promote you for a reward or gift.
This can be anything from printed off-the-shelf business cards to cost-free posters you create yourself. The key is to have enough material so that people can choose to use them as referrals or not, but when they do want to refer someone else for a reward or prize, there are tools available to help them!
These rewards can include credit card applications, health checks, and surveys/tests about your product or service. By providing these, you increase your chances of getting people to talk about you since everyone needs something like this.
But remember, even if they don’t, no one should be forced to invite anyone into their team. If someone doesn’t want to be referred, then don’t push it — instead try somewhere else next time.