Let the people to whom you are selling to, sell for you.
Learn new ways to use referral marketing as an important marketing tool for 2018.
Why Referral Marketing Programs Should Be Part of Every Marketing Plan in 2018
Cultivating your B2B marketing strategy is an ongoing task as the world of marketing continues to evolve and stretch into new dimensions. The importance of referral marketing cannot be stressed enough, and this can be done in several ways that cost your business very little money. Referral marketing is all about using your best resources – your customers, clients, friends, family, and employees – to help you spread the word about your products and services. This can be done through online referral marketing, offering client referral programs, employee referral programs, and, of course, through social media marketing and many other tactics.
The Importance of Customers and Referral Marketing
The best referral programs start with your customers. Think about it: Your customers already use your products or services. If they didn’t like them, they would most likely go somewhere else. It’s that simple. Offer them incentives to spread the word about what it is they like about your business.
For example, if you hold an annual open house (or any type of big in-house event), offer your customers a discount for each new person they bring in on that day. There are tons of ways to handle this. Give each customer five cards, and tell them to distribute them to friends or family members as a way of refer-a-friend marketing. For each card turned in on that day, the person who handed out the cards could get their name entered into a drawing for a grand prize or be given a free product or service. This is just one example of refer-a-friend marketing. There are tons of ways to entice your loyal customers to help you utilize the wonderful world of referral marketing. Nothing works quite as well as a good customer referral program.
Social Media Referral Marketing
Social media is also a great way to easily spread the word about the products and services you offer because so many people share their thoughts about products and services and even share the products and services they love throughout social media. It is also handy when it comes to referral marketing and even refer-a-friend marketing. One way to use this type of referral marketing is to post something to your business social media page and then suggest people share it.
Now, any old boring post won’t do as it is likely to go unshared? Instead, post something engaging, something that will grab peoples’ attention, and perhaps even something with a prize attached. For example, post a photo of a gift basket or gift certificate from your business and suggest that every like/comment/share puts them in the running for the prize shown. Without even knowing it, people who may have never even stepped foot in your building are referring you to their network of people on social media. Hundreds, or potentially thousands, of new eyes are now noticing your social media presence.
Best Social Media Management Tools
A concern often encountered when it comes to social media is who is going to have the time to manage it. Social networking doesn’t work if you set up a page and then forget about it. Like anything in the business world, it must be nurtured to grow. This involves regular posts, photos, and customer engagement. You can’t use all that social media offers in your referral plan if you’re not taking proper advantage of it. There is a solution for how you can minimize the amount of time you spend posting to various social media outlets. There are tons of great social media management tools out there, including:
These tools allow you to schedule posts in advance for different social media outlets, using just one online tool. Scheduling through a single platform saves time while still keeping your social media presence known.
The importance of referral marketing in 2018 can’t be emphasized enough. Offering incentives creates referral programs that work, and allows customers, clients, and employees to help with your marketing without even realizing it. Using referral marketing strategies in 2018 will boost sales in ways you never thought possible.
