Referral Marketing: Make It Easier for Happy Customers to Send Business Your Way

Sometimes the missing piece isn’t customer satisfaction.

It’s making the referral easy.

Could Your Customers Explain What You Do?

Imagine one of your customers talking to a friend who needs your services.

What would they say?

If explaining your business requires a five-minute conversation, several caveats and a visit to your website, you’re making the referral harder than it needs to be.

The easier your business is to describe, the easier it is to recommend.

Your customers should be able to communicate three basic things:

• What you do
• Who you help
• Why someone should contact you

That starts with clear positioning and messaging.

Give People Something Useful to Share

Think beyond simply asking someone to “tell your friends.”

Give them something they can actually send.

That could be:

• A specific service page
• A short PDF
• A promotional landing page
• A case study
• A portfolio example
• A helpful article
• Your LinkedIn profile
• A digital business card

The goal is to eliminate the moment where someone thinks:

“I know somebody who could help with this…let me see if I can find their information.”

Make that information easy to find and easy to pass along.

Ask at the Right Moment

You don’t have to turn every customer interaction into a referral request.

Timing matters.

Natural opportunities often happen when someone:

• Compliments your work
• Thanks you for solving a problem
• Leaves a positive review
• Completes a successful project
• Mentions someone else experiencing the same problem

A simple, genuine request is often enough.

Something like:

“If you know another business dealing with the same issue, I’d always appreciate an introduction.”

No elaborate referral program required.

Make Sure the Referral Experience Matches the Recommendation

There is another side to referral marketing that often gets overlooked.

Once someone recommends you, what does the referred prospect find?

They may visit your website.

Look at LinkedIn.

Search your business name.

Review your work.

Browse social media.

The person making the referral has already lent you some of their credibility.

Your marketing needs to reinforce it.

Outdated information, inconsistent branding, confusing messaging or an unclear way to contact you can weaken an otherwise strong recommendation.

Don’t Forget Your Existing Network

Referral marketing isn’t limited to customers.

Former coworkers, vendors, professional contacts, community connections and people you’ve worked with years ago may all know someone who needs what you offer.

But they need to remember:

• That you’re available.
• What you do now.
• What kind of business is a good fit for you.

Sometimes the best referral strategy is simply staying visible enough that people think of you at the right moment.

Make Your Business Easy to Recommend

You can’t control when someone in your network encounters a potential customer for you.

But you can make sure that when it happens, your business is easy to remember, easy to explain and easy to share.

That’s marketing too.