How To Automate Referral Marketing for your Agency

What is Referral Marketing?

“Referral marketing is the method of promoting products or services to new customers through referrals, the usual word of mouth. Such referrals often happen spontaneously but businesses can influence this through appropriate strategies.”

No Better Marketing Strategy:

There is no better marketing strategy than referral marketing when one of your existing customers tells someone else about your company. Not only does it feel great, but it is the most cost-effective lead generation method you can get.

Why? Because the cost for the lead is whatever you offer your customer for a referral. Examples include a free period of service, free product, discounts off a future bill, etc. The cost of these can be lower than the amount of effort and money you put into Google Ads, Facebook Ads, White Label SEO Services, Cold Calling, etc. to generate new customers.

On top of this, the closing rate is a lot higher, as trust is automatically built since a friend told them about you.

Referral marketing is one of the most effective marketing strategies, but you cannot leave your business generation up to chance. Now, we would not recommend basing your entire marketing efforts on referral marketing alone, however, it should be integrated as part of your processes. Below are a few ways you can automate referral marketing for your agency.

How to Build Referral Generation into Your Processes:

1. Signature blocks – You and every single one of your employees or contractors can passively ask each time they send an email to a client.
2. When invoicing – You can passively ask with every invoice – “Just a reminder…if you refer a friend you can get a free month of service. You can learn about our referral program here.”
3. Build it as a habit to ask after you achieve a goal for a client – Insert within an email proclaiming success – “We really hope you’re happy with our services, and just wanted to remind you that if you refer a friend, you can get a free month of service, not to mention we’d appreciate it! Learn more about our referral program here.“
4. Anytime you go above and beyond – Insert within an email proclaiming how we went above and beyond – “We really hope you are happy with our services and just want to remind you that if you refer a friend you can get a free month of service, not to mention we’d appreciate it! Learn more about our referral program here.”
5. Quarterly email to all clients that are “happy”— Sent by their account managers – “As we conclude (insert quarter, e.g. Q4), I want to take a moment to say it has been a pleasure working with you. We have achieved “x” this quarter, and I hope you are happy with our services. I am looking forward to continuing to produce more success in your next quarter. I like to be intentional, and ask my clients if they would consider doing the following:”

Include an “Ask”

• Would you be willing to leave a review on our Google Page? If you do not mind specifically naming me and the work I am doing for you, it would be greatly appreciated! (Reputation Bonus for getting a review!)
• Would you mind introducing us to someone that you believe we can help? Just want to remind you, if you refer a friend you can get a free month of service, not to mention I would personally really appreciate it! – You can learn more about our referral program here.
• If you are ready. Let’s talk about expansion. There is so much we do here at (insert your company name). We would love for you to meet other team members who do magnificent work here. To top it off, if you sign up for a new service for the first time, we will give you 1 free month of work!

Earlier, I referenced linking to a potential referral marketing program page on your site. What could that page look like? I have typed up an example. You are welcome to copy and paste it and replace our brand name with yours as well as change any offer language as you see fit.

I hope you found value in this blog, and hey, if you have any referrals, you know we will always be happy to receive them.

Example Referral Marketing Program Page:

Video thanking them for being a customer/explaining program as detailed in the text below.

Text:

Thank you so much for looking at our referral program. It is our pleasure to work with you and we appreciate you taking the time to introduce one of your friends or connections to us. The way our referral program works is quite simple. Whatever your friend pays to us on their first month of work with us will be deducted off your bill. So, you will probably get about a month of free of service. In some cases, you might end up getting multiple months of service for free if they sign up for even more service.

We find that many referrals that have an active need will end up hiring us for our services just like you have. With as little as 1 referral a month you could potentially have That Company working for you all year long for free. There are no limits. You can build up a huge credit with us. If you refer 2-3 people a month and all of them take service with us, you could end up with multiple years of service with us for free.

People You Know Who May Need Our Services:

If you look around, there are probably hundreds of acquaintances, friends or family members who may benefit from our services, or know someone else who could.

• Friends
• Family Members
• Your Customers
• Your Vendors
• People you network with

Services We Provide:

1. Local/National SEO
2. PPC Management (Google, Facebook/Instagram, Linkedin, Yahoo/Bing, and Amazon)
3. Social Media Management
4. Review Management
5. Search Engine Reputation Management
6. Email Marketing – Newsletters/Drip Emails

We find that customers who leverage this referral marketing program can end up with a net-zero marketing expense as a result!

On top of that, we promise that those you introduce will receive value from the very first interaction with us. Anyone you introduce will receive a complimentary competitor analysis on their top 2-3 competitors.

Here’s What’s Included with the Competitor Analysis:

High-Level Internet Marketing Health Report:

• The estimated organic traffic / paid traffic to your top 3 competitors.
• The total number of keywords they organically rank for on the first ten pages
• If they are running a Google Ads Search Campaign

SEO Competitive Research:

The keywords your top 3 competitors are currently ranking for on the first ten pages (limited to first 30,000 keywords). You will know:

• The position they hold for the keyword.
• The search volume associated with the keyword.
• The specific URL of their site that is ranking for the keyword.
• The value of the keyword (The average CPC-Cost Per Click)

PPC Competitive Research:

The keywords on which your top 3 competitors are currently advertising (limited to first 30,000 keywords)

• The position they are bidding for, on average
• The search volume for the keywords
• The cost per click for the keywords
• The ad copy associated with each keyword (Title & Description)

Complimentary Audit:

Provide us the site you are actively marketing, and we will provide you with a side by side comparison.

Here is an Email Introduction Template You Can Copy/Paste to Make Your Life Easy:

“Hi Name,

I just wanted to write you a quick email and make an introduction, and to connect good people with good people.

I have been working with That Company to handle my Digital Marketing and I have enjoyed working with them. In my experience, That Company’s team is knowledgeable and talented, and I am glad to have their assistance.

They informed me that if I knew of anyone they could help, they would provide that contact with a free competitor analysis on their top 2-3 competitors. I have copied Jasmin Youngman on this email – jyoungman@thatcompany.com, and she can help by running that analysis and scheduling a day and time for you to meet with their team. You can also just go ahead and pick a day and time here – ThatCompany.com – Free Competitor Analysis.

I hope you are well, and that you find this introduction as well as the competitor analysis beneficial!”

Thank you again, for considering our referral marketing program. Here’s to our continued growth together!

Michael Knorr