Tips To Get More Leads From Referral Marketing

Ian McGrath

December 10, 2013

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Referral marketing is one of the oldest and cheapest ways to get new clients for your business. As the name suggests, referral marketing is basically finding new customers for your business through word of mouth - either from existing customers, or through the other networks that you have built; including friends and family. Referral marketing today includes a number of new techniques like blogs, information products, videos, social networks, etc. These are collectively called inbound marketing tactics. However, if you are in a business that is not too tech savvy (like my crane rental business in Toronto), then you may be interested in following these age old referral marketing tactics.

Actively Ask Your Existing Clients

Happy clients are often likely to refer you to other businesses they know. But sometimes, this referral needs to be solicited actively. One sure fire way to get new clients is to ask your exisitng client for referrals when you are just about to complete their project. But be sure that your client is happy with your work. Otherwise, there is little chance of them referring you to new business opportunities.

Incentivize Your Network

Incentivizing your network for successfully referring you to new clients is one of the tried and tested techniques. It is also called affiliate marketing - here, you let your network actively promote your product independently and make money off every referral who you are able to successfully convert. This is an extremely attractive tactic that you can offer to the businesses that your potential client is likely to use. For instance, if you are a construction equipment rental company who primarily has builders as clients, then you could offer this incentivization scheme to construction suppliers and real estate agents who actively deal with builders.

Connect With Old Clients Who You No Longer Work With

Depending on the kind of business you are in, it is extremely likely to get an older client who you no longer work with to be able to give you business again. This is mostly suitable for service-based non-urgent businesses (example: carpet cleaning). In these cases, prepare a list of clients who were happy with your business the previous time and reach out to them for potential new opportunities. Alternately, you can also reach out to these businesses on festive days like Christmas or Thanksgiving and ask for referrals during the couse of socializing.

Offer Leads To Your Customers

One of the best ways to gain goodwill among your customers is to help them enhance their own business. You can do this by providing opportunities for them to improve their own business. Is your customer in the business of printing business cards? How about introducing a couple of your other customers who may need business cards to them? This way, you prove yourself as someone much beyond a will-work-for-money kind of a contractor. Such acts naturally bring your customers closer to you and it is likely that they offer not only to their future business to you but will also make an effort to refer you to other people in their network.