Your Go-To Guide for Referral Marketing in 2023

即使今天的技术进步和复杂的营销策略的涌入，推荐营销仍然被证明是客户获取和保留的最有效方法之一。

这是一个强大的工具，可使企业主能够最大化其客户群并补充其营销工作。它还使客户能够分享知识并帮助其他人从可靠来源访问解决方案或信息。

But, why are referrals effective? What makes them work? And, how can you create an effective referral marketing program that meets your vision and your goals?

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Your Go-To Guide for Referral Marketing in 2023:

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What is Referral Marketing?

推荐是客户向其他人推荐产品或服务时。通常，这是一个有机过程，不一定需要营销人员的努力。推荐营销正在纳入可以促进和促进客户推荐的策略。将其视为有意要求您的客户传播有关您业务的一种方式。

Referrals are powerful, with84% of B2B buyers开始购买过程。不幸的是，他们做得不够频繁，如果没有推荐营销策略，您会错过很多机会。

在理想的世界中，您将左右推荐，以获得出色的产品或服务。但是，情况并非总是如此。在大多数情况下，尽管您的业务经验丰富，但您的客户会忘记告诉他们有关您的熟人。VoltasTrategies进行的调查突出了这种差异，他们称之为“推荐差距”. 54% of satisfied consumers are willing to refer a business but only 29% actually do so.

与推荐客户更有可能spend 25% more并将您的业务推荐给其他人，没有足够的推荐可以转化为失去潜在收入。

制定经过深思熟虑的营销策略可以增加您的业务获得推荐的几率，这反过来又有助于推动业务增长。

Leads vs. Referrals

但是，线索呢？

While both leads and referrals have the potential to generate sales for your business, they differ in many aspects. One of their biggest differences is that the former isn’t endorsed and doesn’t have that guarantee of approval by friends or family. They’re also more challenging to pursue and don’t guarantee an opportunity for a sale. Referrals, meanwhile, are recommendations from a trusted source.

我们已经确定，推荐更有可能花费更多，并有可能增加收入。转介有一个高30％than the leads generated from other marketing channels.

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Referral Marketing Objectives

Referral marketing has several objectives. We’ll take a look at some of the more common ones:

Acquiring new customers

One of the objectives of referral marketing is using your existing customer base to bring in new customers.

但是，尽管从理论上讲这似乎很容易，但是在您构建推荐营销策略：信任之前，需要牢固地建立一个关键要素。在口碑营销方面，信任是无价的。

客户必须能够信任您和您的服务，以便他们有足够的动力向同行推荐您的业务。91％的消费者are more likely to trust the recommendation of their peers over traditional advertising when it comes to making purchasing decisions, and this actually makes sense.

如果您真的考虑一下，您要求谁需要您需要的东西？当您需要了解本地服务时，您更有可能向朋友和家人寻求建议。如果一个人最终推荐某些东西，那么他们很有可能会体验到特定的产品或服务，并愿意审查它。

提高客户忠诚度

Continuing to provide customers with top-notch services increases the likelihood of your customers recommending you to their peers. But, do you know who your existing customers are?

By taking measures to identify and engage with your customers, you may be able to find more ways to organically grow your brand. There are several ways to do this. You can go the social media route and track those who’ve mentioned your brand. You can also run an online or in-store survey and ask customers how likely they are to recommend your business to their peers.

从那里，您可以开始制定适当的推荐程序，该程序激励客户的推荐在线和离线。

Retaining current customer base

保留is engaging with your current customers in such a way that encourages them to continue patronizing what you’re offering. It’s about making relationships that last.

保留扮演重要角色在你的成长中。至关重要的是，客户保留率增加了5％，可以预见利润从25％增加到95％。另外，获取新客户比保留客户要昂贵，而客户收购成本five times more而不是保留现有客户。

而且，忠实的客户是five times as likelyto repurchase from a business and four times as likely to refer their peers. They’re also more likely to spend more than your new customers. And if you’re thinking of launching new products, your loyal customers are 50% more likely to try it, shares尼尔·帕特尔。

如果您想衡量客户的保留率，则可以使用以下方面的公式：

Subtract the number of customers that you’ve acquired during the calculation period from the total customer base at the end of the period. Then, divide that number by the number of customers you had at the start of the period and multiply by 100.

Being able to acquire and retain your customers paves the way to building your unique database. If you’re working one-mail marketingefforts, this can complement your referral marketing campaigns.

很难鼓励大多数客户sign up for e-mail blasts。In fact, the平均选择率为1.97至4％。但是，如果您推荐客户，那么他们更有可能注册receive your e-mails。

The bottom line is, retaining your current customer base is a great way for you to lessen costs and to attract new customers through word-of-mouth. It’s also a way for you, as a business owner, to foster lasting relationships with your customers.

Re-engaging contacts

Losing customers is a bitter pill to swallow for any business, but there are ways to re-engage them.

To re-engage your lapsed customers, you need to identify which ones are the most likely to transact with your business again. You should also work on crafting a unique message that showcase your USP. Communicate what sets you apart from the competition.

Having a referral incentive, be it a discount or access to exclusive perks, is a tool you can use to entice lapsed customers to return.

Getting higher lifetime value

Referred customers are the ones who are more engaged and are more likely to stay with your brand. They could also prove to be your most valuable clients.

与向新的潜在客户销售相比，向现有客户出售的可能性更高。前者也更有可能spend more。

但是，客户寿命价值是什么（CLV），为什么重要？

客户寿命价值是一个衡量标准，它在您的公司中确定客户在公司的上下文中的价值。简而言之，这是客户可以在您的关系过程中向您的品牌赋予多少利润。

The CLV is an important metric that enables you to develop new marketing strategies to acquire new customers and retain your existing ones. It also provides you with an idea of what a reasonable cost per acquisition would be. This helps you identify which customer segments are the most valuable to your business.

When optimized, the CLV can pave the way for improved customer loyalty and retention. By continuously providing your customer with excellent products or services and pairing those with a solid incentive program, you’d be able to drive customer loyalty and retention. This, in turn, translates to an increase in referrals, better reviews, and revenue.

想找出您的客户寿命价值是什么？这是确定CLV的简单方法HubSpot：

要计算您的CLV，请将客户价值（CV）乘以您的平均客户寿命。您的客户价值可以通过将您的平均购买价值乘以平均购买次数来确定。

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为什么它是一个强大的工具？

Word-of-mouth plays a big role in purchasing decisions. In fact,92％的人trust recommendations from friends and family over any other type of advertising, while 88% trust online reviews from other consumers.

Simply put, referrals can give you the best leads. Why? It’s no secret that人是社会存在,它是自然为我们分享我们的经验, whether good or bad, with our family and friends. There’s a need to rely on each other to survive daily challenges. Friends and family are also less likely to give us misleading or bad recommendations.

For referrals to work, you also have to factor in trust. Aside from the trust that customers have in recommendations from peers, you also have to put in work to build trust among your customers. This is crucial if you are to build a strong referral network.

Having a solid referral network gives you the opportunity to improve customer loyalty and create a community that stands behind your brand. A strong referral network is also an important component if you’re looking to grow your business.

We’ve already established that consumers are more likely to trust the recommendation of their peers over other advertising channels.

Take for instance, the case of referral pages. According to a SaaSquatch study,14％的客户访问推荐着陆页的人更有可能采取行动。这是因为推荐是高度针对性的，因为客户倾向于推荐他们通过购买产品或使用已推荐的服务来采取行动的同龄人。同一项研究表明，有69％的推荐用户转换，而只有4％的转换访问者。

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The Benefits of Referral Marketing

Referral marketing isn’t a novel thing and a referral marketing campaign isn’t just something that’s nice to have as a part of your marketing strategy. It offers a whole host of benefits, including:

Generating more revenue

Referrals can generate more revenue for your business. Referrals are more likely to spend more and there’s more opportunity for you to generate new sales through referrals. You can also drive sales when you encourage your existing customers to buy again through incentives. With a solid referral marketing strategy, you can even urge lapsed customers to reinvigorate their buyer’s journey with you.

成长有针对性的受众

一旦您获得了客户的信任，您就可以激励他们支持您的品牌并将其推广到同龄人相对容易。通过推荐，您有机会利用目标，更有可能采取主动行动。

Referred customers are also more likely to become your most loyal customers. They’re also更有可能保持忠诚to your company, thus giving you a better CLV. Moreover, if you offer incentives that benefit both the existing customer and the new one, you’d be increasing the odds of them becoming satisfied customers.

Giving you a cost-effective means to reach out to customers

传统的营销往往是一项耗时且昂贵的努力。推荐营销会降低成本，因为您将根据已经与已建立的客户群合作以进行进一步促销的原则运行。

留住顾客也更具成本效益的公司mpared to acquiring new ones. With word-of-mouth marketing, you’d have better customer retention. By focusing on your existing customer base and encouraging them to make repeat purchases, you can effectively lower your customer acquisition costs.

Furthermore, you can use automated referral programs that make referral marketing more convenient for you. They’re able toautomate tasksand are easy to set up and manage. By using this kind of program, you’d be able to save time and money, allowing you to focus on all the other aspects of your business.

Enabling you to offer an alternative form of engagement

Customer engagement can take on various forms. For instance, you may already be working on yoursocial mediaore-mail marketing campaigns。通过将推荐营销纳入您的整体营销策略，您将能够多样化客户参与度。

推荐营销还促使您通过各种渠道进一步与客户互动并与客户沟通。您可以通过在您的网站上表现出对他们的赞赏或公开介绍您的当前客户或social media platforms。This can motivate them to continue referring your business to their peers.

By increasing your customer engagement, you’d have the opportunity to come up with a database of brand ambassadors, which allows you to gain insight on their behaviors. This, in turn, creates an opportunity for you to come up with and market specific offers, promotions, or rewards.

Increasing brand awareness

Referral marketing opens a lot of doors. With word-of-mouth, there’d be conversations about your brand across a larger audience. Your brand can get attention from target customers who you might not easily have access to. This, in turn, leads to increased brand awareness. With49％的消费者citing their friends or family as their top source of brand familiarity, referrals are one of the most effective ways to expand your reach.

Creating a personalized buying experience

With referral marketing, you can gather valuable data that lets you create and deliver a more personalized buying experience for your customers. Moreover, this gives you the opportunity to craft new campaigns and stay updated with the latest trends.

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建立更好的推荐营销策略的提示

Creating a referral marketing strategy from scratch may seem difficult, but it doesn’t have to be. Here are some tips to help you build your own referral marketing strategy:

要求推荐

获得推荐的最简单解决方案之一是向现有客户索取它们。如果您想知道什么时候to do this, the best time to ask for a referral isafter you make a sale。

One of the reasons why a referral campaign fails is because salespeople ask their customers for a referral a little too late. The problem with this is the customer isn’t excited about the product or service anymore, even if they happen to use it frequently, simply because it’s not new to them anymore.

Asking right after the sale is the optimal time because it’s at this moment when the customer is still very excited about your product or service. Of course, there’s no guarantee that they’d refer you to their peers, but it’s worth a try. In case they don’t give you anything of value the first time, try asking them for a second time. Chances are that if you ask them again, they’d be more likely to give you a referral this time around.

Aside from knowing什么时候to ask, you should also consider如何you’d ask for referrals. Get to know your customers’ behaviors and familiarize yourself with their motivations and preferences.

要求推荐是认识其价值和权力的一种方式。它还向客户传达您知道产品或服务的价值。

确定您的目标推荐人是谁

It’s a reality that many business owners have to deal with: not all of your satisfied customers are willing to refer your business to their peers.

幸运的是，有一个解决方案，它能够识别您的目标推荐人。您可以通过查看客户的购买历史记录，与品牌的互动以及反馈来做到这一点。

Find customerswho patronize your products or service and those who interact with your brand on your social media channels. To get their direct feedback, you can start a survey. You can use the data you get from the survey to determine who is more likely to give referrals.

From there, you can come up with a list of your most loyal customers who you can prioritize for your referral campaigns. On this note, it’s also helpful to continue to incentivize the rest of your customer base.

Determine what your incentives will be

Which incentives are the right ones for your respective campaigns? Offering a reward for referrals further encourages customers to give a referral.

It pays to give more thought to the type of incentive that you’d be giving. Here are some things to consider:

• 您是否应该提供双面激励措施 - 一种奖励推荐人和推荐人？
• Would a tiered incentive system be a better fit for your marketing strategy?
• 您应该考虑提供基于产品的奖励吗？

无论激励类型如何，提供奖励都会增加客户给您推荐的几率。令人惊讶的是奖励的大小或价值不一定是重要的因素。

Consider creating a rewards or a referral program

One of the strategies you can implement, and one of the most common, is creating a solid referral program. By having one in place, you can create a standardized way of inviting and incentivizing your customers for their referrals.

在创建推荐程序时，请记住，您需要设计鼓励转换的一个。仔细考虑一下您的广告系列的外观，声音和感觉，以确保其与您的品牌和目标保持一致。为此，您必须在制作您的副本并利用引人注目的头条新闻。

You can also look atoffering a rewards program鼓励重复访问和客户保留。奖励计划激励他们的购买，并增加客户在您的业务方面拥有积极经验的可能性。反过来，这可能会促使他们将您的业务推荐给同行。

For both the rewards and the referral programs, you need to take into account how accessible and easy to share they are. The hallmark of a good program is how easy it is for customers to send a referral to their friends and family.

利用分析和跟踪

制定可靠的推荐营销策略需要试用和研究。为了优化策略，您需要合并分析和跟踪系统，这使您可以评估广告系列的性能和有效性。

You can easily access this system if you’re using a referral program software. This comes with built-in analytics, which would allow you to monitor referrals and their effects, among other metrics.

Don’t forget to thank your referrers

It’s also important to thank your referrers. You can do so by sending them a “thank you” message or by giving them a reward. You should also thank their referred friend for doing their business with you.

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Examples of Impressive Referral Marketing Programs

Now that we’ve covered the basics of referral marketing, it’s time to look at two top-notch referral marketing programs:

Dropbox

Dropbox以有史以来最成功的推荐程序之一而闻名。为了扩大客户群，他们为现有用户提供了额外的存储空间。这个程序的伟大是，客户可以每次推荐获得存储提升。根据Dropbox帐户，您最多可以获得16 GB（Dropbox Basic）或32 GB的存储（Dropbox Plus）。

With this campaign, they were able to grow their customer base from 100,000 to 4,000,000 within a span of 15 months! Moreover, this is an ingenuous campaign because of three reasons:

• It encourages users to utilize Dropbox’s core offering
• 给出的存储空间足够宽敞，您想使用它
• It facilitates a cycle: the more friends you refer, the more storage space you get

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Rothy’s

Rothy’s is known for manufacturing products made from 100% recycled plastic water bottles and other recycled materials. Over the years, the startup has amassed a dedicated following, which resulted in a growing market and community.仅在2018年, the company has sold more than a million pairs of shoes, enabling them to generate revenue totaling more than $140 million.

他们正在运行“给20美元，获得20美元”推荐计划that gives referred customers $20 off their first order. The referrers, in return, get $20 off their next purchase.