How to Increase Word of Mouth Referrals in 2014

Looking for ways on how to increase word of mouth referrals in 2014? Probably a good idea since most of your business comes through referrals. Think about it. How much money are you spending each year on marketing efforts that are targeting people who don’t know you or your business? Rather than wasting money on trying to reach a new audience (which is vastly more expensive and less effective), focus your 2014 marketing efforts on increasing referral business!

While there are some tried and true practices that you all are familiar with, both online and offline, its time to get a little bit more creative. Word of mouth (WOM) marketing takes place in two forms. The first is one you’re familiar with already. This is when someone directly refers a friend to you for business. The other is the long term WOM approach. This is where you stay in touch with your client base through email and social, not asking them for business, but giving them the chance to promote you indirectly. For example, forwarding emails and sharing things you’ve posted to social networks. More on this in a bit.

Here are my tips for increasing your referral business in 2014 through word of mouth marketing practices.

Thank Them For Their Business

Might sound a bit obvious and undoubtedly, you’re already doing this is person too. But what about after the fact? There is always room for a little surprise and delight with your customers. For example, if you’re a loan officer, you might have a standard closing gift that you already use. Great. Change it up a bit. Maybe send them an email with a digital Amazon Gift Card attached to it. Leave enough time in between the business deal and the gift, maybe a month or so.

Referral Campaigns

Don’t be afraid to ask for referrals. Of course, I give you this advice and hope that you use tact with this approach too. But to the main point, don’t beat around the bush with this. Here’s what I would do. Once, maybe twice a year, I’d go out and buy an iPad, which would set me back $500. I would then ask my clients and past customers for referrals through email or social media. For each referral submitted, that counts as one entry into the iPad drawing. See where this is going? Now you’ve got some warm leads to contact and for a fresh slew of new prospects, you only spent $500. Not a bad return on investment.

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Get Reviewed on Yelp, Facebook, and Google Business

In addition to a referral campaign, don’t hesitate to ask your clients for their feedback. Whether positive or negative, you need this for your business, especially for potential clients that research you before doing business. For the industries that we support (Mortgage, Real Estate, Insurance, Promotional, CPA, Auto), these are businesses that have longer sales cycles. What I would recommend is that starting immediately after you close a deal with someone, typically the first few days afterwards, call your client to follow-up and ask them if they would be able to leave a review for you. Depending on your network of choice, I would then follow-up with an email, linking to your business page on either of those social networks, and even send them a $10 Starbucks gift card too. The key here is to get the review for your business right after the deal while everything is fresh in their minds.

Ask For Testimonials

This might feel like a repeat of the point above, but it’s not. Reviews online are great for people who are looking you or your company up and then coming to you. Testimonials, on the other hand, are verbal feedback directly from your customers. Whether you use this internally to help adjust different aspects of your business, or if you want to use it as a convincing point for future customers, a testimonial can go a long way. The best way to get these is to find customers of yours that aren’t completely green, but ones that have been with you a while. Verbal testimonials are good but video is even better. Get them to answer questions about your professionalism, knowledge, their experience, and how satisfied they are months after the fact.

Promote Your Feedback

The last thing you want to do is get reviews and testimonials and let them sit there. That’s a lot of work for not much gain. Get a good review on Yelp or Facebook? Include a quote from it and link to it in an email campaign. Did two of your customers do video testimonials? Then those should be on your website for others to view. Even customer quotes go a long way too. Don’t forget about these actual customer snippets of gold once you acquire them.

Be Human. Be Specific. Be Honest.

At the end of the day, your clients are people just like you. When you reach out to your customers and clients, be informal and conversational. Whether it’s through direct mail, email, social media, in person, or over the phone, have a genuine tone to effectively convey your message. Don’t over complicate things either. Don’t be afraid to directly ask them for a Yelp review. All you need to explain is that it helps your business grow and you’d greatly appreciate it. Plain and simple.

The long and short of increasing your WOM marketing in 2014 is to continue to build a strong relationship with your clients after you’ve already done business with them. By building up this personal relationship, you stop becoming the business/brand that you represent and you become a trusted resource and knowledgeable industry professional that gets talked about.

How about your business? What practices have you introduced to help increase the WOM marketing referrals that you get? Let me know in the comments!

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