A referral marketing program is simply creating or developing a process that will generate more business for you. You can do this by offering other businesses services or products, taking their place as a seller on one of your social media sites, or even giving them some of your product to sell!
The key element in any successful referral marketing plan is consistency. Consistency with what? With leaving referrals for others!
By sharing resources and advertising yourself consistently, it creates an environment where people are naturally going to refer you to someone else for help. And if they don’t know you well, they may not feel comfortable doing so.
But if they do, then they’ll likely want to work with you because you left a good reference for them. This way, you’re helping them boost their sales while also strengthening your brand.
Create a referral marketing program
Creating a successful referral marketing program starts with deciding what type of product or service you will offer your referrals. This article’s focus is on offering your colleagues, friends, and acquaintances an incentive to do business with you by creating a reward-based referral program.
A reward-based referral program doesn’t necessarily mean buying something for yourself but instead giving someone else a chance to earn some rewards by introducing you to another individual or company. For example, if you love yoga, then why not create a link to a free class for a friend? Or if you are looking to test out a new coffee shop, invite your colleague to come along as well!
By offering such incentives, you increase your chances of your referrals being successful in doing business with you. If they were both happy with their experience, then they will spread your name around which can only help your business. They may even tell their friends about you!
Another way to implement this concept into practice is having monthly giveaways – like coupons for a good restaurant or a discount item at a specific store. An easy way to do this is via email or social media groups that your community members are already a part of. Reaching out to them creates an opportunity for them to refer you and win something themselves.
Personalize the experience
Being personal is one of the key components in successful referral marketing. This means not only using your product or service but also creating an individualized experience for each person that references your products or services.
Referring to someone by their first name instead of their last will show them more respect.
By being personal with people, they’ll feel appreciated and needed which will create a lasting impression about your company. It’ll make them want to do business with you because they like you!
Running through all of your referrals’ names can be time-consuming so don’t try to do it yourself. Hire professionals to help you achieve your goal of generating new customers via referrals.
There are many ways to use personalized content to generate referrals. Some of the methods include:
Having an active refer-a-friend account on your site where you invite friends to leave feedback (just remember to moderate these comments).
Addressing the other person by their first name and adding their nickname if they have one in your system.
Use their proper name and add “hey there” or similar preambles depending on what type of article you’re writing.
Be consistent
Consistency is one of the most important things to look for when running a referral marketing program. This means staying during business hours, keeping social media posts frequent, and always offering your referrers something they can use or earning rewards for recruiting people to you.
Consistency is also key in finding new referrals. If someone knows they will get paid even if they fail, then they are going to give you their contact information much more readily.
By having a steady engagement, word gets out that you pay for talking about you! And once it’s spoken about, others will feel comfortable doing the same. Your recruits may even spread the word themselves by posting about you on social media.
It’s all about perception – how other people perceive you will affect whether or not people work with you.
Track results
A good referral marketing program has effective tracking mechanisms to know what is working and what is not. You can use hard data, soft data, or both to track your success. Hard data like sales and email messages are great markers for determining if someone has purchased because you prompted them to or not.
Soft data includes information such as survey responses and testimonials that tell you about the impact of your product or service on your referrer’s life.
You should be gathering all this information throughout the entire lifecycle of your referral program — from the initial invite to the final sale. This way you can see how much influence you have on conversion rates and overall business growth.
Offer incentives
As mentioned earlier, one of the most important things to have as part of your referral marketing program is an incentive. This could be in form of a discount for another product or service you sell, a special prize (like a free item), or even a small cash payment!
Your referrals will keep coming back if they are given something for referring them. It’s like paying them for doing their job!
The more people you refer to us, the higher reward you get!” is a great way to incentivize referrals. A simpler way to do this is by offering a discount on the next order for those that bring in three new customers.
Tell your audience about the referral marketing program
As mentioned earlier, one of the most important things to know as part of a referral marketing team is how to tell others about the company you are promoting.
As marketers, we’re always looking for new ways to reach more people – which is why it is so crucial that you know how to promote yourself properly.
It may sound ridiculous, but unless you are very socialized or have learned how to pitch in person before, this can be tricky.
Fortunately, there are some easy rules to follow when telling other professionals about your business.
Create content that encourages people to join
Developing your referral marketing program starts with creating engaging, valuable content you can share with the world. You will want to make sure this content sparks interest and stimulates action.
Your referrals will be more likely to do something if they find what you have to offer interesting or useful. Plus, most people these days have limited time so offering helpful information is a great way to draw in new members.
Content doesn’t necessarily need to be about membership per se but could be instead like a how-to article or a short business tip. Whatever it is, ensure that it resonates and helps others!
Another way to develop your referral marketing program is to connect with other successful groups around the internet. Creating online communities is a popular tactic used by many brands to grow their audience. By joining such communities, you become part of the community, which then benefits the member as well as the brand.
Encourage referrals to join your referral marketing program
As mentioned before, your business depends heavily on word-of-mouth marketing for its success. If you don’t encourage people to share their experiences with others, no one will!
That’s why it is so important to create an atmosphere where your colleagues and superiors feel comfortable referring you to as many partners and clients as possible.
By having a positive perception of your company, they will want to help spread the good word about you. Create an environment that encourages collaboration and teamwork by offering incentives and rewards for referral sales or other actions.
You can also advertise online review sites and forums to find out what your competitors are doing well and copy some of those strategies.
Running a referral program is a lot of work, which is another reason to make sure everything is organized and streamlined. Make sure you have enough resources to keep up with all of the requests for assistance.