Online Referral Marketing involves techniques and tools that you can integrate into your everyday business to generate a steady flow of leads that have been referred by existing customers.
It may include:
A Social Platform (like Social Mention) that can identify customer advocates.
A loyalty, rewards, or gamification program (like Referral Candy) that can incent referrals.
Measurement tools (like Extole) that can measure and optimize referral campaigns.
A Platform that helps turn your customers into ambassadors (like Ambassador)
Referral Marketing is one of the most effective ways to to grow your customer base, and one of the most overlooked.
Here’s 10 Tips to Online Referral Marketing Success:
1. ABTC
Always Be Thinking of your Customers (ABTC). It’s the old 80/20 rule; 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers, so don’t take them for granted.
2. Get Scientific
Like a lot of businesses, you probably track web traffic, Google rankings, Twitter followers, and maybe even email open rates. But what about referrals? You need to start by getting scientific. Create a program that tracks leads, tests offers, and ultimately measures ROI.
3. Keep Customers Engaged
Communicate with emails, blogs, newsletters, whitepapers, new products, promotions and contests. Better yet, pick up the phone or pay your best customers a visit and ask them if they’re happy, and if there’s anything more you can do for them.
4. Ask at the “Wow” Moment
The best time to ask for a referral is when you’ve “wowed” your customer. Whether you’ve just given them great service, a great price, or a great product, you need to use that window as an opportunity to ask your customer for a referral.
5. Make the Referral Easy
Whether it’s completing a form, sending an email, or simply sharing a Facebook post – make the referral process as simple as possible for people promoting your business.
6. Reward for Referrals
If you threw a party for all your customers, employees, and fans and followers, how big would it be? And how much bigger would it be if you invited everyone in each of their networks? A lot! So encourage referrals with savings on future products or services or loyalty program points.
7. Connect with Influencers
When Universal Studios went to launch the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park, they did it by only telling 7 influential bloggers. In 24 hours, 350 million people had heard of the park. Think about influencers in your industry and how you can work with them to help promote your business.
8. Testimonials are Referrals
Ask your customers for a testimonial and reward them. And instead of having a dedicated “testimonial” page on your site, scatter customer testimonials, quotes, and Facebook posts throughout your site – especially on your homepage.
9. Reviews are Referrals Too
People trust what other customers say about your company more than what you say. Encourage people to offer reviews and incent them with points, discounts, or as part of a loyalty program. Not only will reviews help with your SEO, you’ll get great feedback on how to better your business.
10. Be a Referrer
If you want people to refer your business, you have to refer people to other businesses. Work on the karma principle, and you’ll be surprised how people will look positively on your business and be more prone to return the favour.
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The post 10 Essential Tips for Online Referral Marketing Success appeared first on Op Ed Marketing.