Generating Referrals

Everyone wants to do business with people they know, like, and trust. By facilitating referrals from your established client base, you leverage your clients' experience with you and gain an ambassador for your business—someone who will generate referrals and build your network of potential clients.

Referral Best Practices

• Deserve the Referral. Make sure that your services actually solve your clients' problems. Approach every engagement as though each satisfied client will provide you with a handful of referrals.
• Ask for Referrals. Many of your clients would happily give you referrals if only they knew you wanted their assistance. Ask at the right time and in the right way—upon completion of a successful job, in the side bar of your newsletter or in a client specific area on your website.
• Follow Up with the Referrer and Refereed. Always thank the source of your referral. Similarly, have an introductory email or letter ready to go to your new lead so you capture the momentum of the referral as quickly as possible.
• Make Referrals. Become a go-to person for suggestions and guidance, and referrals and leads will find you. By acting as a high value networker among connected business people, you can become a hub of connectedness. Making referrals has a multiplier effect that can eventually develop into a network of partners ready and willing to help you get more clients.
• Make It Easy to Be Referred. You never want to lose a lead simply because a client finds it too laborious to connect you with another potential client. Make it easy to send you a referral with a simple, unobtrusive online form that can be filled out in 60 seconds or less.
• Offer Incentives (if appropriate). For some businesses, offering a reward for referrals is common practice and considered appropriate. A fixed dollar amount or discount on future services for each referral works for some industries, while in others a holiday gift basket might be the more appropriate means of showing appreciation.

How We Support Referrals For Your Business

Dedicated Website Referral Area. We create an area on your site dedicated to appropriately asking for referrals. This area can include information about:

• Your referral policy
• Downloadable information about your company
• If appropriate, information about incentives such as a discount, sweepstakes or commission.

A Form for Clients Referrals. We develop a 'tell-a-friend' email form that referrers can fill out to send you potential clients.

Coupons and Other Tools. Depending upon your needs, we can give you a tool to manage your referral incentives. For instance, we can enable you to offer coupons or other simple measures to promote referrals.

Suggesting Referrals in the Right Context. We also make sure your site appropriately introduces the idea of referrals, and work with you to develop a referral strategy throughout your site to direct clients to the referral area on your site.

Pricing & Turnaround

If purchased alone, the Generate Referrals package is $1,200. When purchased with other packages, we offer savings on the overall bundle of services. Typical engagements have a 4-week turnaround.

Get Started: Generate Referrals >