We've seen some changes in the marketing industry in the last decade. We no longer tell consumers what to buy with our marketing efforts, we advise them. Potential customers are more inclined to listen and ask the advice of their peers when it comes to determining their choice of not only what to buy, but where to buy.
In recent years with the advancement of social media marketing, word-of-mouth has become even more important, because your customers don't just tell a few people about a positive or bad experience, they often tell thousands if not millions.
This year is coming to a close and it's a good time to review your own reward marketing program. Are you rewarding customers for telling others about you?
Referrals are the most powerful form of marketing that you can use and it's also the least expensive. Your referrals have more of an impact than any other marketing strategy or advertisement.
What does a referral mean to your business? It's a warm lead to a sell of your product or service. Don't dismiss the value of those referrals and be sure to reward those that send them your way - you'll be glad you did.
Your Turn: How do you reward people for sending those referrals in your direction? I'd love to hear about your referral programs and how you reward customers for sending business your direction.
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Hi Laura,
I agree that word of mouth advertising and referral programs are essential to anyone’s business success. I’ve been using referral programs for a few years now and it makes a huge difference in customer retention, loyalty and of course, attaining new business. The way I see it is if it’s business I wouldn’t have acquired but for that referral, then I can certainly afford to compensate the person who referred me.
Since my business is multi-faceted, I offer different kinds of referral programs depending upon the service/sale provided. For business to business referrals, I sometimes offer a percentage of the net profit on new business to the business that referred me. For other types of referrals, I give a gift card that varies in amounts depending upon the size of the referral.
And always, we send an “old fashioned” thank you note to the referrer and include a couple of our business cards in case they come across someone else who can use our services.
In our invoicing, we often include our referral program details to our existing clients as a reminder. And, in conversations with clients, I always try to mention that we appreciate their referrals by offering special incentives and gifts.
- Carol
I completely agree with Carol and his comments. I just want to add one thing that if you really want referals to work out, then your over all strategy should be straight and very cohesive. This will deffinately will give you an edge over to your competitor.
So what do you do Carol? and where are you working? luv to know u
My interests are in Hospital Promotion. I totally agree with Carol. Referrals and rewards for referrals are absolutely fine.
In hospital business, we have mainly two types of referrals – one from doctors around the local area and the other is from patients who have undergone the positive brand experience of the hospital.
But looking at this it looks like the marketing department has no role to play here.
I don’t think the marketing department contributes to the promotion of the hospital and I believe that the orchestrated efforts of physicians, nurses and other support staff are mainly responsible for the success of any hospital business.
- Om
Hi all
Does anyone have experience with a customer referral system for Recruitment Agency? Would like to hear from expert in recruitment industry.
Thanks
Andy Wong
In response to Om, I would respectfully disagree and say that marketing plays a critical role in driving referrals especially in a medical setting. In addition to physicians and other medical professionals who may refer patients to one another, a marketing department drives consumer interest and consumers are the ones who will provide referrals in the form of word of mouth (the best kind of referral source). Given the opportunity and budget, medical marketing departments can structure a referral incentive program that would benefit the bottom line of any medical practice or facility.
Carol, I stand with you. I believe that the marketing department has a huge role to play in the medical industry – even more so today than ever before.
In my business we offer existing customers $20 cash for sending in new customers to use our service and those people they send also get a $20 discount. I also recruit people to market on a commission basis only to refer people with the same cash incentive.