All of us trust the recommendations of friends, family, and even strangers more than advertisements. We’re influenced by recommendations, social chatter, testimonials, reviews, and, most of all, referrals. Brands and businesses with a referral program close deals faster than those that do not have one. So, businesses can stay ahead of the competition with referral marketing.
Your happy customers are often ready to advocate on your behalf. But only 29% of them make that referral. This blog tells you how to ask for and gain more referrals without appearing desperate or annoying. So, read on.
What is Referral Marketing?
A marketing technique where a business makes use of its current customers’ word of mouth and recommendations to grow its customer base is known as referral marketing. It can take different shapes, but at its core, it banks on your loyal customers to help spread the word about your brand. Put another way, referral marketing converts your existing customers into brand advocates.
How to Create an Effective Referral Marketing Strategy?
Here is a list of things that you should include in your referral marketing program.
1. Work on the Basics
The foremost step in creating a referral program is providing high-quality and remarkable products and services. You need to create the impact that they’ll recall and recommend to others. For this, you need to give first priority to your customers. Great communication is the key.
So, take enough time to converse with your customers. Listen to what they say and respond earnestly. This will also help you understand your market and provide a positive experience that your customers will be happy to share.
Apart from this, you should also set up a goal and focus on it. Arrive at answers to questions like-Why you are creating a referral program? Do you have any goals other than making more sales?
Other goals can include: building brand awareness, acquiring customers, increasing customer loyalty, and creating viral marketing campaigns. Identifying your goals can help you measure the performance of your referral program.
2. Create a Referral Program
Design a referral program that converts. You need to make the first impression through the look and feel of your campaign and its messaging. You can do this by-
Using catchy headlines: Headlines play a vital role in convincing your customers to join your referral program. A fine headline should convey the essence of the program in a single sentence. So, write a headline that reveals what the referral program is about and what benefits it offers the referrer (the existing customer who is your brand advocate). Some good examples are “Refer a friend and get $25”, “Spread the word and avail our free service”, etc.
Making it easy for people to refer: Simplify the process for customers to share your brand with others. If a customer has to go through several steps just to send a referral, he most probably will give up. So make it easy and also provide them with a few ways to share (like text message, email, social media, etc.).
Creating your referral messaging: The referral messaging helps the referral understand your business. Let it be personal, easily understandable, and have a clear CTA (call to action). Make the ready-to-send, pre-filled message editable.
3. Incentivize your Referrers and Referral
Based on incentivizing, your referral marketing program can be of the following three types.
One-sided incentives: This involves incentivizing either the referrer or the referee – but not both. If you incentivize your referrer, he’ll be motivated to share, but the referral program would appear self-serving. If you incentivize the referee, the chance of making a sale is high. However, there won’t be many referrals.
No incentive: By offering no incentives, it would be tough for you to get anyone to participate in your referral program. This holds even if your brand is well-appreciated. For, people take an effort only if they get something in return.
Double-sided incentives: This involves incentivizing both the referrer and the referee. This usually has the highest engagement and is best for most referral programs.
Now decide upon the reward you will offer to your referrer, referee (the referred prospect), or both. It should be something that they value and would spend their time and effort to refer others. For instance, a clothing brand could offer a discount for every successful referral.
Your rewards can also be in the form of money, coupons, credit points, free products, service upgrades, donations to charity, or external gift cards (i.e., Apple, Amazon, Visa, etc.).
4. Complement your Referral Program with Customer Reviews
Customer reviews can boost your referral marketing. For, most people in this modern era search the internet before making a purchasing decision. Studies say that an average consumer reads 10 reviews before they start trusting a business. And a vast majority of consumers (91% of them) are likely to purchase from a brand with positive reviews.
Here are a few smart ways to get your customers to write reviews about your brand–
Ask for it: Ask your customers for reviews in emails, over social media, etc. Whenever a customer makes a positive comment about your business, request him to post it on social media or write a testimonial to be posted on your website. Always target the highly satisfied customers alone.
Have a process for asking for reviews: Have a process in place to ask happy clients for reviews when your project for each of them nears completion. You may even automate the asking.
Explain why reviews matter: Informing and educating your customers on the significance of positive reviews for your business can increase positive reviews. For, those customers who favor you will reveal their support in the form of positive reviews.
Engage with your existing reviews: Even people who are reluctant to leave reviews will be motivated to do so when they see replies from your business to its existing reviews. So, respond to feedback and reply with respect.
Offer an incentive: Incentivising review writing will increase the number of reviews. Make it clear in the very subject line of your email that you are asking for their review in exchange for a reward. This will increase the number of respondents.
Wrapping Up…
Referrals should be an essential part of your marketing program. Referral marketing can push forward your business. This write-up has outlined everything that should go into your referral marketing strategy. Our tips would help you come up with a more referable business that delights existing customers and keeps acquiring new ones.
