One of the best ways to increase business is through referrals – and you may be surprised at how easy it can be to encourage them through your website. For your customers, there’s something special about turning to someone they know and trust to talk about the products or services they need, and that’s one reason referrals are such an effective way to grow your business.
How Referrals Can Help Your Business
To be successful in any business, it’s important to have a strong presence online, as that’s where most of your leads will be coming from nowadays. One important part of having an effective online presence is encouraging website visitors to share your website with their friends and colleagues; after all, when you get one referral, you get free advertising and potential new customers! Here are three things your website can do to encourage referrals from the people who visit it.
Offer An Incentive
One proven way to encourage referrals is to offer an incentive. This can be a tangible reward—for example, you might offer a $25 gift card for every referral who buys $100 worth of products or services. Or it could be an intangible reward like your gratitude or appreciation, which will strengthen customer loyalty. Whatever you choose, make sure that your clients understand how and why they’ll benefit from sending referrals your way.
Track Their Efforts
If someone fills out a form on your website to receive more information or a quote, you must track their contact info and follow up with them to see how they found you. This is a great way for you to figure out if they are a referral from an existing customer.
Your website plays an integral role in encouraging referrals, and you don’t even have to pay for them if you do it right. Referrals are crucial to growing your business because they offer credibility and legitimacy, along with a good reputation that comes from someone you know and trust personally vouching for you and your products or services.
