5 Best Ways To Increase Word of Mouth Referrals in 2024

Word-of-mouth referrals can come from different sources. But if you want to maximize the number of referrals that your business can get, you need to be familiar with the processes that attract your business referrals. In this article, you’ll learn five amazing ways on how you can do that.

Why Word-of-Mouth Marketing?

Word-of-mouth marketing is powerful because it leverages the circle of trust. Most people who talk about a product or service do it with those closest to them. Since they have an inherent relationship, their recommendations are given more importance than a product owner tooting his own horn.

Here are some ways on how you can attract more referrals to your business.

Create a Referral Program

You cannot expect your business to attract referrals if you don’t have a system for it. A referral program helps you attract referrers to your business to start promoting your business for you. Websites like Drum Set Lab and Hunting Bow Lab were able to do this with success. By simply launching a referral program with software, they can increase word-of-mouth referrals in their business.

Referral programs are great because they provide structure and motivation. With it, you’ll have a system where referrers can input the contact details of their referrals. Also, you will have a plan so that you can reward them for their efforts. Referral programs often have incentives for referrers, which provide the necessary motivation to encourage referrers to take action.

Create an Affiliate Program

Another way to increase word-of-mouth referrals is to have an affiliate program. But it is important to differentiate it from a referral program. An affiliate program is a system where the product owners give a percentage of their profits to successful marketers who sell their products or services. Unlike referral programs where visitors or signups are paid, affiliate programs only pay when a sale is made. Even if the model is quite different, it is still an amazing way to get more word-of-mouth referrals to your business.

Now that you know the value of an affiliate program, it is time to create one for your business. You don’t even need the best affiliate marketing course to learn this. There is plenty of affiliate program software that can help you to do this. The best part is that you only need to set the commission, and you can already invite affiliates to your program. All of your affiliates will get a dedicated affiliate ID, which they can then use to promote your products and services. And you can track their performance in your dashboard. From here, all you have to do is pay them for their efforts. You can set this to auto if you want to pay commissions once your affiliates reach their payout threshold instantly.

Ask for Referrals in Your Network

But you should not limit yourself to the fancy software and programs. The best word-of-mouth referrals are still done the traditional way. It is done through word-of-mouth in your network.

Let’s say you are a B2B service business where you are looking for a small business referral from your network. So you will send a message to your network asking them if they are interested in your services. But it should not stop there. You can also ask them if they know someone who might need your assistance. It is a simple gesture, but it often results in more clients for your business if you do it right.

Ultimately, you want to attract word-of-mouth referrals to get more sales. You should not only focus on brand awareness and website traffic. These metrics don’t mean anything unless they translate marketing into sales. So try to incorporate manual referral marketing from time to time. It can lead you to the most relevant referrals with a higher chance of converting into a customer. And that’s what you want.

Integrate the System in Your Ecommerce Website 

One of the industries that have worked so well with referral marketing is eCommerce. With more people shopping online, eCommerce website owners now have a wider reach for their products and services. And with paid advertising giving brands access to a custom audience, the reach and eCommerce valuation can only grow with each promotion.

Besides learning how to promote a Shopify store, you should also learn how to integrate a referral system in your eCommerce site. And it is more than just downloading an app that you can incorporate into your eCommerce platform. It is also about knowing how to put links to your referral page in your online store’s strategic places.

One of the places I like to put referral form links is on the checkout pages. Checkout pages are great because the customer is already ready to buy. At this moment, you’d like to remind them that you have some extra rewards for them as long as they promote your product to other people. It’s a pretty simple action that would probably not take as much time for them to do. So it doesn’t hurt to ask them to do it.

Include Influencer Marketing

If you want a wider reach for your word-of-mouth marketing, you may want to consider influencer marketing. Influencer marketing is a form of marketing where you leverage the reach of influencers in your industry. By asking (or paying) them to promote your products and services, you can reach more people and have more people talking about you. The wider your reach, the more referrers you’ll have. The more referrers you have, the more word-of-mouth referrals you’ll also have. It all connects.

As you can see, it is not enough to merely have a referral program. It would help if you also promoted it. Creating a referral program that waits for people to sign up will not help you become successful. You need to be proactive in getting more referrers and referrals if you want your system to succeed.

Fortunately, this article has shown you five methods that you can use to get more word-of-mouth referrals to your business. Hopefully, these have given you some ideas on promoting your business to attract more leads and sales.