Dear Rachel,

My customers give me a few referrals a year (at best). How can I generate more without asking them a million times?

-Silently Suffering

Dear Silently Suffering,

There’s a fine line between persistent and pesky. If you don’t want to reach out to your advocates individually for referrals don’t worry—you have some options:

1. Find easy ways to remind people to refer

Put links in email footers, login pages, or your online community. Wherever you consistently engage customers, be there with a gentle referral reminder.

2. Have a contest to create a spike

Give whoever submits the most referrals within a certain time-frame a special prize. This should excite your customers enough to get them referring. The bonus? They only have to wrack their brains and comb through their social networks for potential prospects once.

3. Integrate your referral program with your advocate marketing program

This program is an exclusive hub where your top customers gain access to valuable resources, opportunities and rewards in exchange for connecting with your brand and advocating on behalf of your product.

If you house your referral program in here (or link to it somewhere prominent), advocates will be consistently reminded to submit referrals whenever they log in. You can reward them through the program directly. (Just make sure you keep your program up-to-date and valuable!)

Not sure how to start an advocate marketing program or referral program? Oh boy, you really do need my help. Visit my resource page to learn more or watch more of my videos.

ask rachel: the referral relationship coachRachel-Headshot-icon

 

 

 

 

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