Building your Online Business? Referrals are likely your top marketing strategy. Learn how to tap into this “free” marketing.

Getting referrals is all about the relationships you cultivate over time. There are many ways to get referrals, but the best way is always to provide value for your clients. If your clients are happy, they will be more than happy to recommend you to friends and family. One of the best ways to give value is to ask for feedback after every interaction. Some people might think it’s too difficult to ask for feedback, but feedback is one of the best ways to improve your services and determine what your customers want.

Opportunities for Referrals

 A recent study by the Harvard Business Review found that companies who focused on creating referrals could convince more than half their customers to do so. In contrast, only 20% of customers were willing to refer to companies that did not create a referral system. Using referrals is an easy, free marketing technique that can simplify and accelerate your business. If you’re looking to build your business, you’ll need to ask for referrals. Here are some tips on how to approach it. 

• Create a catchy title for blog posts that will catch the attention of people using Google searches or who are browsing through your content. 
  – Create marketing collateral, infographics, or a blog post about your services on LinkedIn or any Social Media platforms and share it to your website. In this way, your clients can share this, leading to getting a prospect in time.
  – Always personalize your content for your target market; this is the best way to engage and build value to your current customer with your company.
  
• Make sure you approach the right person at the right time. 
  Make sure that you are approaching only those people who are happy with your services. The absolute best time to mention your referral program is when your client is at their happiest – such as after receiving pretty good service from you, having an issue solved through customer support, or after they’ve given positive feedback about your products/services.
  
  – You need to create/build value first to benefit from the closeness and trust that relationship already has. You can’t approach your new clients for a referral at the first time meeting them, and I don’t think that is the best time to ask for a referral. 
  
• Make a list of your target customers to send the referral request and what you want people to know about your company.
   – You want to make sure that you are asking for the right person, figure out the type of clients you will ask, are these people aligned to your company goals and values? What are their business demographics? You need to identify first who these clients are for you to be more effective in getting referrals.
  
  – Have a list of your clients’ positive feedback. Make sure to send the referral request to those people who are happy with your services/product. These clients are likely to provide you with a favorable recommendation with whom they are willing to share you, and they are the most helpful to refer you to their friends.
  
• Draft a referral request email.
  – One of the traditional ways of getting referrals from your current customer is through email requests. 
  You may see the sample email request below:

Hello [Customer Name],

I’m so glad to hear you’re happy with the service that we are providing to you so far. I knew we could help, and I’m pleased you’re seeing results so quickly.

Given the success you’ve seen. I wondered if you know of any colleagues/companies that might be a good fit to benefit from our services. I would love to help them achieve similar growth that you’ve seen.

Regards,
[Your Name]

How to get Referrals

Now that you already know how and when and who to approach in getting referrals, we will tackle how to execute those. There are a lot of great reasons to use referrals as part of your marketing efforts. Try these steps to make your referral program a success.

Start by asking your customers for referrals.

• Ask your customers to refer as many friends as possible. You can create a referral form on your website or tell your clients about it via email, a social media platform by posting the links and in-person.

Add a landing page for the customer referral page

• By doing this, you saved yourself from a lot of effort. You don’t need to gather a lot of data on the clients that you want to reach. All of the existing customers interested in your product can easily access this through your website, and they can easily refer someone to you.

Give your customers a small reward for bringing in new customers.

• This is also a type of referral program where you can offer discounts to all customers who would give a referral to your company. You can do this to the landing page that you build for them.
  In this case, you can bring in new customers with less effort while keeping your current customer or member happy and satisfied with what you’re offering.
  
  One of the best examples of this is the Blume .
  
  They build a referral program reward structure as:
  Give friends $10 off their first order, and they’ll get $10 when their referral makes a purchase.
  
  Is it rewarding? You keep your existing customer happy by just doing this and getting new prospects at the same.

Make it easy for your customers to refer to people.

• By adding a landing page to your website, adding pop-up ads, or another tab on the upper corner of your website, your existing customers will immediately see the referral program that you were offering.
  
  You may also simply have them include your contact information on the invitations they send out through emails.

Create a product for your customers to hand out to introduce them to their family, friends, etc.

• You may create a flyer, booklet, or customized ball pens/mugs, to give to your existing client. It may be crazy as it sounds, but it is also one of the best ways to promote or widen your exposure organically without making such a splendid amount of effort.

There’s a lot of Marketing Strategy that you can execute into your business to help you to increase sales through social marketing. A referral is just one of them. I hope this can help you to get started with using referrals in your marketing.