Paid ads might bring you a lot of sales and revenue but if you aren’t exploring referrals and word of mouth marketing.
Even after the digital transformation of most companies, referrals, and word-of-mouth marketing brings a significant chunk of revenue to them.
A referred client will Buy Faster, Buy More Frequent, and Pay More
But how can you get more referrals? Here are a few tips on how to get more referrals
1. Give Hints
Don’t just say “Refer me”. You need to give hints for them to shortlist and recall a person to refer to.
Example: If you are a physiotherapist and need a referral from a client, say
“I recently helped one of my clients with lower back pain with a new technique I learned. So if you have any family member or colleague that is suffering from lower back pain for a long time give them my number, I would love to help and relieve their pain.”
So you have given them a few hints
i) Suffering lower back pain
ii) is a family member or a colleague
iii) suffering back pain for a long time.
2. Give Referral Incentives
Everyone wants to help and be a bigger person by doing a favor, but they would refer more when they see some monetary or emotional benefit too.
Example:
If you are a physiotherapist and someone refers you after a couple of sessions with the referred person you can either give a free session or a cash incentive.
Cash incentive works great as it triggers a psychological effect too to make them refer more.
3. Collaborate With Other Businesses
When you collaborate with other businesses, you get exposed to a wider target audience too. So you are more likely to get business with the help of other businesses too.
4. Attractive Deals
Have you seen brands like Uber, Cred, PhonePe, etc offering good cashback deals for referrals? That’s what I am talking about.
Sometimes you have to lure people in for them to refer others, and deals can be valid for both the parties, that is the referee as well as the referred person.
5. Expand your Network
Your network is your net worth. So keep getting to know more and more people, and build good relationships and bonds. As more people know you, more referrals will come your way.
Keep meeting new people and interacting with them, and don’t just do the small talk. Do deep meaningful conversations too that’s how you build meaningful relationships.
6. Exceed Expectations
If you perform and give more than you are expected to do, you are more likely to be referred. The key here is not to expect a referral but keep exceeding the expectations.
I love Gary Vee’s advice where he says referral is like Give, give, give, give…… ask.
“Ask”, not “Take”.
7. Keep your current client(s) engaged
Keep interacting with your current and past clients, as they will refer you when someone asks them about services that you took from them.
Being engaged with your client would help them recall you and your services
There are a lot of other ways you can do to improve your chances of getting a referral. Keep trying new things and experimenting with strategies like Loyalty Points, employee points, crazy incentives, etc.