Referral marketing. Ever heard of it? I’m positive you have heard of it or have participated in some sort of referral program. You know, the ones that say ‘Refer a friend and get 50% off your next product’. The people that utilize this form of marketing understand the power of word of mouth. Referrals continue to be a driving force behind increasing sales, and learning to harness this idea is something that any businessperson can do. Word-of-mouth marketing has always been one of the most powerful forms of advertising out there, good and bad. Now with the digital age in full force, word of mouth has turned into its own little beast, a beast one has to tame. Consumer loyalty is a touch-and-go type of relationship. They will use you until they have a bad experience and will expect answers at the snap of a finger. Consumers have zero trust when it comes to brands and companies. They will check you out online before they decide to do anything with you. Hence the power of reviews, tweets and posts. The worst thing, I repeat, the worst thing you can do in a situation of bad press online is ignore it. The digital age has allowed us to interact with our clients on a one-on-one basis and opened the conversation of better service. So what does the above text have to do with referrals? Everything. If you have a good client base, they should be willing to advocate for others to use your product/service. So why not give them more incentive to do so other than your supreme customer service? This is where the referral situation comes in. Take my hairdresser for example. For every person I refer to her, I get 20 percent off my next service and so does the person I referred. Or my DirecTV, for every person I refer I get $10.00 off my bill each month. This incentive alone makes me suck up those days when my DVR isn’t working and I can’t watch the season finale of ‘Game of Thrones’. Sprint is another great example using the referral method with their Framily Plan. This isn’t the casual refer-a-friend-get-a-free-ice-cream, kind of marketing. Now the big dogs are playing and the consumers are reaping the benefits. So, what is the take away from this? Get on the referral train ASAP. Not sure where to start? Let’s start the conversation today. Give us a call.