If you’re reading this, you probably already know how powerful generating referrals can be for your business. “With data for more than 28,000 Internet respondents in 56 countries, it has been seen that 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family above all other forms of advertising.” (source: Going Viral: Sayantari Ghosha, 2018).
Dropbox is a great example of harnessing the power of referral marketing to grow and increase loyalty with its customers. They were originally spending $233 – $388 to acquire a new user, but thanks to a successful referral program launched back in 2012, Dropbox was able to accelerate user growth by 3900% and drastically reduce their cost to acquire a customer at the same time.
The reward for referring a friend to Dropbox was more space in your Dropbox account, which everybody at the time needed. So, the reward had a high monetary value to every Dropbox client but a low monetary value to Dropbox. It was a total win-win!
If you’re looking to follow in the footsteps of Dropbox and leverage your engaged customers to help you grow your business, then you’re in the right place. This post will give you a series of Referral Marketing Tips from referral marketing experts on what you can do to get more referrals.
Suppose you have at least 1000 customers, fans, or followers to start asking for referrals. You could generate around 227 referrals. This doesn’t seem like much, but it’s essentially launching a referral program that can help you grow by 27% in one year. That’s a great return on a new marketing channel.
This is why it’s more important than ever to start thinking about how to get referrals for your business. To do that, you’ll need to:
Step 1: Build a referral program (so that you can generate referral links for all your customers and fans).
Step 2: Promote your referral program so that you can start getting referrals!
Once you’ve created your referral program, it’s time to onboard referrers so that they can spread the word about your business. If you don’t ask, you won’t get it.
Actively promoting your referral program should be a key part of your marketing strategy this year, so to help you get that right, we’ve compiled a list of effective and automated ways you can ask your customers and fans to refer their friends and family to your business.
Let’s get started!
1. Promote Your Program Inside Your Product or Website
You can turn your product or website into the star asset of your referral program by using these digital channels to prompt people to join your program while they interact with your brand. Promoting your referral program on your website is one of the proven tactics you can use to get more people to join your referral program. Here are some tactics for you to try on your website.
- Build a dedicated referral page inside your website or product, and link to it from your main website menu.
- Make a sticky bar promoting your referral program.
- Create a banner inside your platform
2. Just ask!
A simple way to get clients to refer friends is to just ask them – use the channels you already use to communicate with your customers to ask them to join your referral program.
In the point below, we’ll talk about generating referral links for your CRM contacts. If your staff can access a customer referral link easily, then every conversation they have with customers could be a possibility to ask for a referral.
You’ll definitely get more engagement in your referral program if you reach out to customers directly, so get in touch with them and let them know what incentives they have to spread the word about your business.
3. Generate referral links for all your CRM contacts
If you use referral software, you can generate referral links for all your CRM contacts and sync their links back into your CRM. This means every customer touch point in the future is an opportunity to ask for a referral.
4. Spread the word on social media
Find out which platforms your customers spend the most time on and use your social media channels to reach them there. You can leverage your social relationships to attract new referrers to join your referral program. If people are already interacting with your brand online, then it’s the perfect place to advertise your referral program.
5. Utilize your company’s physical assets
Your company has many real-world assets that you can use to create awareness for your referral program. You can include information about your referral program with a strong call to action in the following ways:
Hand out fliers, brochures, and business cards that have a QR code to promote your referral program.
Add a QR code or link to your your menus or price lists.
6. Integrate your referral program with your digital assets
In addition to your physical assets, your business has a lot of digital real estate that you can use to promote your referral programs. Insert the details of your referral program into the following:
- Your invoices
- Your employee email signatures
7. Expand your audience
Widen your net and find people who aren’t existing customers to invite them to join your referral program. This could be your business network, your business suppliers, your employees, or even a business you have partnerships with.
8. Hire an influencer to market your program
Influencer marketing has been around for years, and the reason brands use it is to create hype and talkability around a product or new offering. Why not create the same hype around your referral program? Influencers are a great way to give your referral program the social proof it deserves and show people that this is the real deal!
9. Embed your referral program in your blog posts
If your marketing team is already publishing great content that aligns with your target market interests, then you could prompt the readers of your register to refer friends, too. Here’s an example of how we’re promoting you for a referral right now 😉
Those are nine ways you can promote your referral program to get more referrals. But remember, the number one reason people will refer you to their friends is because they trust your brand and feel comfortable recommending you to their friends.
If you follow the steps above to promote your referral program and ensure you run a great business that people trust, you’ll have an excellent foundation to start growing the number of incoming referrals you get every month. Brands that have incorporated referral marketing in their business have seen an increase of up to 32% in the amount of leads being generated every month. We hope you have the same success in your business!
How can I increase the likelihood of referrals?
The answer lies in providing excellent customer service.
Here are some tips to help you provide outstanding customer service and increase your chances of receiving referrals:
- Offer excellent customer service: make sure your customers feel heard and valued. Listen to their needs and concerns, and work to exceed their expectations.
- Make sure you communicate the benefits and expectations of your referral program clearly. If you simply design your referral program, this should be easy.
- If you already have a reward program or a loyalty program, make sure you tie your referral program into those to keep things simple for your customers to understand.
- Offer a great reward to the customers that refer, so they feel their values and their interests are met too (not only yours).
- Ask for referrals: don’t be afraid to ask your satisfied customers for referrals. Let them know that you appreciate their business and would be honored to serve their friends and colleagues.
Remember, happy customers are your best ambassadors, so make sure you give them a reason to recommend your business to others.
How can I build a referral program that works?
Here are some Referral Marketing Tips for creating a referral program that will help you acquire new customers and increase sales.
1. Define your goals
Are you trying to increase the number of new customers and get referrals, increase the number of demos booked, or increase the leads flowing into your sales pipeline? Once you have defined your goals, you’ll have a clear idea of what the call to action in your referral program should be.
2. Choose the right rewards
It’s important to choose rewards that are valuable enough to motivate your customers to refer their friends and family but not so expensive that they eat into your profits. Consider offering discounts, vouchers, free products, or even cash rewards.
3. Choosing the right incentive
Make sure you have a GREAT reason for the person invited to convert. This is the secret sauce that most marketers miss 🤫 Choosing the right ‘incentive’ in your referral program is more important than choosing the right reward. The incentive is what you offer the person being invited, and a good incentive is crucial.
4. Make it easy to refer
Your referral program should be easy to understand and easy to use. Provide your customers with clear instructions on how to refer their friends and family, and make it easy for them to do so. Consider using a referral platform or tool to streamline the process.
5. Promote your program
Your referral program won’t be effective if your customers don’t know about it. Promote your program through all the methods we’ve highlighted above in this post.
6. Track your results in detail
Once your program is up and running, it’s important to track and analyze the results of its performance. Use referral analytics tools to track the number of referrals, track conversion rates, and other key metrics like what channels your customers share their referral links on.
Build a strong referral programme and actively promote it to maximise the potential of referral marketing as a business growth tool. You can build a referral programme that will help you get new clients, boost sales, and raise brand awareness among your customers’ friends and family by establishing your goals, selecting the best rewards, making it simple to refer, advertising your programme, and monitoring your progress.
