Get New Customers With a Referral Program

One great way to get some good leads, many of which will turn into clients is to have an annual referral program or contest. I’ve done this regularly at Watt Media almost every year, and have had great results.

Here’s the basic idea: I send out e-mails and faxes to all of our clients, old and new, letting them know how much we appreciate their business over the years, and that if they send us 3 referrals, they will get something for it.

There are two ways to do this, and both have worked well for us:
1. Make the prize something big and expensive, like an iPod or GPS system, but they only win it if one of the referrals becomes a client. The idea is that the big prize will motivate them to send their referrals to you.

2. Make the prize small, like a $20 gift card to Starbucks or Barnes and Noble, but everyone who sends you 3 leads gets this prize, whether those leads turn into clients or not.

Several years ago I tried it with the big prize, and it worked pretty well. This year, I decided to give it a try with the smaller prize version, a $20 Starbucks gift card. I was amazed at the results! I am sure many people returned the leads just to get that gift card. How good those leads are remains to be seen, but I am sure that we will get several clients out of it – which will pay for what I spent on the gift cards many times over.

I would recommend that you send an e-mail blast, followed by a fax blast, and then another e-mail blast a week later. I received leads every time I sent the e-mails and faxes. Some people may not have seen the first e-mail, others respond better to a fax, and others may have meant to send it in and were reminded with the 2nd e-mail. On the form you send, the client should fill out their name, and then the names, company names, and phone numbers of 3 referrals, as well as how they know them. This information will be very valuable to you.

Also, when you get the leads, call the sender to thank them, and go over the leads on the phone, so you can get as much information as possible about each one. This is also a great way to catch up with your client, and strengthen the client-vendor relationship between the two of you. Finish by thanking them again and letting them know that their prize is on its way. Make sure you send it out promptly so they are not left wondering where it is.

You can do this once a year. It’s a creative, inexpensive, and effective way to get some new customers.