referral marketing
- Contrarily to what most people believe, it is possible to grow a
business with minimal advertising. How can this be done? Well, simply by
having a powerful referral system. It is a very good system especially
when a business is young and new. Here are some tips...
Create a system that gives complimentary services in exchange of referral.
That
means everyone who refers a client needs to be paid either by way of
discounted or upgrades. The key to decide what incentive to give depends
on the life time value of a new customer to be acquired. If someone
refers another to a hotel that charges $3000 per night, he can't get the
same reward has one who refers another to a hotel that charges $300. In
addition some referrals will give repeat business. Take motors repairs.
Several times a year a car needs servicing, oil change wheel balancing
and other minor repairs. Clearly as long as this person has this car,
this is repeat business for years to come. So look at the business that
you will get and give an incentive commensurate to this business.
Always thank referral sources.
A
simple phone call or a thank you note to the person who referred
business to you can lead to even more business from the same person.
That means it is important to find out the sources of every business
that comes your way. You need to measure every aspect of your business.
It is perhaps the only way you can know how much business is coming from
referrals. And who among your current clients is referring the most.
Educate your current clients.
It
is very crucial that you current clients know all the services you
offer. Too often providers assume that their clients know all they do.
However, you need to make effort to share all the knowledge while at the
same time asking for referrals.
Refer people to other business.
Get
to know what your clients do and whenever you get an opportunity, refer
other clients to them. It will certainly be appreciated and will cement
the relationship.
Provide value continuously and consistently.
This
is quite obvious however; it is difficult to get referrals if you
provide mediocre services. That means you should never cut corners,
compromise on quality. It is better to make a loss on one transaction
instead of making a profit at the expense of quality. It is a difficult
position to enforce but is probably the only thing that make you stand
out.
Have clearly defined services; under promise over deliver.
You
need to have clear standards that your customers are aware of. Let them
know the time frames, quality expected, service levels for answering
correspondence. For instance, if you promise to answers emails within 24
hours, go ahead do it within 12 hours or less. This is going beyond
your state standards. In addition, perhaps you promised a report within 7
days and you went ahead and delivered within 5 days- that is going
beyond keeping your word. Similarly you can over deliver by giving 10%
30% extra services at the same cost, and make sure you bring this to the
attention of your customers. They need to know that though they
requested and paid for text messages consultancy, you have given them an
extra report of using short codes that would normally be charged at
$500 as an incentive for them to do business with you.
Join associations and strategies alliances.
Getting
into some formal affiliations with people who provide complementary
services can get you off the ground far quicker than you would expect.
You get to be introduced to a client base that already has trust on the
services provider. And chances are you will get the same trust. Web
designers may already have a client base and as an SMS expert you can
bet those clients your need help.
referral marketing
Similarly
being a member of an association instantly gives you credibility and
will likely get you business faster that you can imagine. The
association you join will be decided upon on chances of getting your
most likely businesses clients there.
