Making Referrals Work
Referral marketing- simply put it is a way to provide incentives to customers while advocating for one’s product. Offering the right reward with direct relevance to the product being marketed acts as the perfect motive to earn more referrals and actively increases inside sales.
Many popular and well established companies such as PayPal, Airbnb, dropbox, uber, etc. have used this effecting marketing technique to increase sales and establish successful and sustained lead generation.
Effectively establishing a sustained source of lead generation and an actively increasing inside sales unit can be achieved with the help of referral marketing.
It is a proven method of increasing the sales and business of a company.
Zero to Hundred
The following companies boomed thanks to their effective referral tactics.
PayPal is a huge beneficiary of this marketing technique. Upon reaching their required target they stopped spending as much money on the referral program and dropped the bonus being offered to customers. This method allowed for them to expand their number of customers to over a 100 million members.
Another business that boomed using the techniques of lead generation and basic referral marketing is Airbnb. Its popular basic campaign of “Refer a friend” offers the customer revenue which can be directly used on the product. The unique experience offered by the company also helped their referral program by the simple marketing technique of word of mouth, which indirectly boosted their “Refer a friend” campaign.
Initial set up of the referral marketing system to directly increase inside sales involves targeting a specific market and setting a practical and achievable goal. On reaching this target it is advisable to revise goals and the target audience to further expand the business.
Referral Marketing Strategies
There are multiple ways of implementing referral marketing:
Omnichannel referrals- It involves using both offline and online channels via the “refer a friend” program.
Personalized Experiences- Providing exclusive incentives to each customer drives this marketing technique.
Social Media Marketing- With studies showing increasing number of hours spent on social media, it is one of the most resourceful and efficient ways of marketing your product.
Multi-level Referral Program- Providing a single reward for a referral is effective but offering multiple rewards as part of a uniquely designed multi-level referral program acts as a better lead generator by allowing for greater reach of the product.
With all of these options available it is imperative to choose one that is uniquely designed to meet the requirements of your company. Identifying which technique to use acts as a make or break step for your company and the product being marketed.
Another important step is identify need of the market and out competing the present competitors already active in the same market, which specifically target the same audience.
To conclude, it should be said that for a successful start-up experimentation is key.
