Referral Marketing (Word of Mouth)
Referral Marketing is a form of marketing where a business uses its existing customers to help spread the gospel of the company’s product and invite new customers into the chain. It is an alternative to the traditional mode of advertising which is becoming less efficient. The concept is similar to making a trend go viral, except that referral marketing – which, also, includes word-of-mouth marketing – is initiated by the business.
Referrals are a fundamental growth driver for any business. While most companies tend to hide the referral feature in their website’s sub-menu, if you want to, not only grow but grow fast, you have to take a different approach to referral marketing. Here is a brief guide by Bitgale on how you can restructure your website and get more from referral marketing.
Create a section on invoices to refer a friend
Now that you have a clear goal of establishing a referral marketing program that will provide a win for you and your business, the next step is setting up the necessary tools that will facilitate the same. As highlighted at the beginning, most businesses that have a referral program tend to hide the feature such that most of the visitors to the site can easily miss it. It is quite understandable since referral programs usually come with incentive and that means that the profits for the business are reduced. However, it is essential to look at it from a different angle. The most significant and most successful ventures have managed to get to the levels they are at because they only get a little money but from a considerable number of clients. In this case, it is vital to look into the primary objective and the prospects to be yielded.
Endeavour to have your referral marketing feature more visible and more accessible to the visitors of the website. Have a section on the invoices that give the client an option to refer a friend. If you believe in your product and if the customer is, also, in love with the same, then they should not hesitate to invite a friend or two. When the network grows, you will realize even more profits.
Create incentive programs for each referral
Incentive programs are a great way to prompt your customers to refer their friends and family. Incentives work by inspiring your current customers to get their friends to buy your product so that they can benefit from the price. An example of an incentive program that you can implement is where for every new referral a customer generates, and the person who has been referred gets to subscribes and purchase your product, the referrer, and the person who has been referred can get some cash credited to their account this is just one form. There are many other ways and programs you can implement. You can, also, have extra bonuses or benefits for your best referrer who gets you the most leads.
With regards to the incentives, purpose of making the benefits unique. Other than the monetary benefits, you can offer additional benefits categories such as entering into the VIP categories or giving out personal gifts. The more unique and appealing the incentive is the more a customer will be prompted to refer a friend or two.
Publish case studies and results
Publishing case studies and their results is another easy and effective way to get more referrals. It often works in two ways. Firstly, the post’s subjects will always want to share the feature with their close family and friends and thus generating you more clients. The other way is by convincing previous visitors who did not convert before. Sometimes a potential customer can gain access to your website and like the product but since it is a new brand to them, they may lack the confidence to purchase your product. Such a situation is where the case studies and results come into play. When they see these published reports, they gain more confidence to try out the product. As such, in as much as not all visitors will purchase your product the first time, they are still a valuable asset to your business. Publishing case studies and reports may just be what they need to be confident in your brand.
Feature a client in the marketing process
The other valuable way of generating more referrals is by highlighting a success story of a client. The featured clients will share the feature with their family and friends hence introducing your brand and product to them. Out of this, you will get a good number of referrals since the confidence the future client has in your brand will automatically spill to them to some extent. Also, such stories help in promoting the name and image of your brand by showing that you are legitimate and trustworthy. People never want complicated things. They just want products that are real and that work for them. By featuring the success story of a client, it shows that whatever you offer indeed solved the problems that the potential clients are facing. From this you can, also, draw a good number of reputational-based referrals.