June 14, 2021 / By InspirationAgency
Have you heard of referral marketing? It is, as you might expect, the promotion of your business to new customers via word-of-mouth referral. So, you do a great job for your client and they recommend you to someone else they know – friend, family or business associate.
It’s a great way to grow your business because you don’t have to ‘sell’ as much. The person who has been referred to you already had a trusted contact say that you are good at what you do, so they are much more likely to become another happy client and in turn recommend you to their contacts. Brilliant!
Referral marketing works particularly well for ‘consultancy’ type businesses, where you are providing a service which involves clients revealing personal or private information; such as bookkeepers, business or personal development coaches and human resources professionals.
The problem is that this can be quite a slow way to grow your business if you are just waiting around for this to happen organically. So what can you do to boost this brilliant marketing strategy…
Have a great website
One of the first things a referral is likely to do is look up your website. As long as they know your company name, they should find you in Google even if you have not invested in SEO. Your website needs to look professional and give them all the information they need to make the decision to get in touch with you. It should have:
Have a consistent social media presence
As well as looking at your website, referrals may also check out your social media presence, this could be on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter – depending on the audience. Your social media needs to:
Have reviews, testimonials and case studies
It is essential that your referral sees that it is not just you and their friend who thinks that you are great…they need to see that you are regularly working for clients and that those clients are happy. If you have a specific target audience and the referral can recognise themselves, their business and problems in the case studies you share, then even better. So make sure you:
Have a blog
A great way to demonstrate your expertise to prospects is with a blog. If you are going to start one you need to commit to writing regularly – at least once a month as a blog with no articles for a year does not look good to prospect clients. Remember to:
Start an email marketing list
Sometimes a referral isn’t quite ready to become a client (in spite of your best efforts) in this case it is a good idea to ‘keep them warm’ by adding them to an email marketing list. You should:
Join networking groups
A great way to encourage referrals is to meet more people, and you can do this by joining a networking group (or more than one if you have time). It is important to:
So now you know you can get out there and do it! And if you need help with any of the above you know who to come to!
Tags: referral marketing, word of mouth
Categories: Marketing
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