Top of Mind Referrals
Have you ever forgotten the name of a company that you did business with once or twice, but not recently?
Top of mind referral marketing works to keep your customers engaged with your business. When their friends or family ask for recommendations, this consistent contact can easily pay off because your business name is top of mind.
Referral Incentives
How do you turn a satisfied customer into more business for your company?
By providing them with an incentive to act and pass your name along to their friends and family. Timing and consistency are the keys for making this work. Incentivizing referrals works best for service businesses that install or do maintenance projects for homeowners and businesses.
Top of Mind Referral Plans and Pricing
The Top of Mind Referral Plan is essentially a consistent email newsletter program combined with a blog post and social media posts. It works to keep your business name in front of your clients and encourage them to share your posts and refer your business.
The easiest way to do this is with a consistent email newsletter program. Here's how it works:
- Email Newsletter System Setup - We'll set up your email newsletter system using MailChimp or another provider of your choice. The setup includes working with you to produce an email newsletter design that works for your brand. We'll also come up with content guidelines that provide guidance to the type of articles that will work best for your newsletter recipients, and drive referrals to your business.
- Email Newsletter Writing and Management - We'll write your email newsletter and send it to your list of subscribers on a monthly or quarterly basis.
- Blog Post - We'll take the content of the email newsletter and place it on your blog if you have one. With a blog in place we suggest teasing the article with an excerpt in your email newsletter, and linking to the full article on your website blog. The goal is to get traffic to your website from your current subscribers and any sharing that occurs.
- Social Media Posts - We'll post to your social media profiles each time you publish an article, furthering the reach and number of people you stay in touch with.
Our Top of Mind Referral
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DIY with Setup*
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One Time Setup Fee $960
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Quarterly
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80
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One Time Setup Fee $960
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Monthly
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240
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One Time Setup Fee $960
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Email Newsletter System Setup
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Email Newsletter Writing and Management
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Blog Post
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Social Media Posts
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DIY with Setup
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Quarterly
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Monthly
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*The DIY option is great for businesses that have someone that enjoys writing. Another DIY option is for the business to use pre-written articles that are available for many industries. We can help identify article sources during your email newsletter system setup.
An incredible 92% of people say that they trust recommendations from family and friends more than traditional advertising.
— The Neilson Group —
Referral Incentive Plans and Pricing
The Referral Incentive Plan gives your customers and their friends a service discount or cash for their referrals. When your customer refers a friend they both receive a benefit for the referral.
The easiest way to do this is to consistently use cards, social media, and email to promote your incentive program. Here's how it works:
- Incentive Program Development - We'll work with you to create an incentive program that works well for your business.
- Incentive Cards - We'll create and print a card for your service people to hand out at the end of their service call that explains the referral program and invites participation.
- Website Sign Up Page - We'll create a page on your website that explains the incentive program and invites participation.
- Promote Your Incentive Program - We'll compose an email and import your current contact list for informing your customers about the incentive program. We'll compose a social media post about the incentive program. We suggest reposting the offer at least quarterly.
- Incentive Program Tracking - If using digital tracking is desired we can set the system up. Digital tracking systems start at around $50 per month. Another option is to simply use your customers name as the method to track referrals. The digital tracking system fee is not included with our setup fee.
Our Referral Incentive
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Cards
One Time Setup Fee $760
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Cards & Web
One Time Setup Fee $1,060
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with Tracking
One Time Setup Fee $1,260
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Incentive Program Development
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Incentive Cards
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Website Sign Up Page
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Promote Your Incentive Program
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Incentive Program Tracking
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Cards
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Cards & Web
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with Tracking
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Referrals are 4 times more likely to convert to clients as compared to other lead sources.
— The Neilson Group —
Frequently Asked Questions About Our Referral Marketing Programs
What separates your referral marketing programs from other providers?
Rather than simply try to make a sale, we’ll provide an honest approach to your referral marketing program. We won’t try to lead you to believe that any single form of marketing will be the goose that laid the golden egg. We see these sort of implied promises from many marketing specialists and it’s typically only after you’ve tried an approach that you find that it wasn’t worth the price you paid. Our prices for the service we offer are low enough for you to try without breaking the bank. Digital marketing companies that price their services for large sums are generally appealing to your hope for an outcome that most often won’t happen. They know it, but until you do, you’ll pay a big price for the hope they’ve sold you.
Are Top of Mind Referral Programs right for every type of business?
Yes, we think they are. A Top of Mind Program works to keep your business in front of your customers and prospects using a systematic and consistent approach.
Using email newsletters, social media posts, and a blog makes the approach work well. Each piece of content that’s created is shared across all of the channels.
What’s the difference between referral marketing and word-of-mouth?
The main difference is that referral marketing is a deliberate approach that requires your action. When your business engages in referral marketing you deliberately encourage your customers to tell their friends about your company. Word of mouth marketing is more spontaneous, often being started by happy customers, rather than from any deliberate attempt to make the process happen.
How do Top of Mind Referral Programs encourage referrals?
They work by keeping your business name in front of your clients using email newsletters, blog posts, and social media posts. Along with each email and post you encourage your readers to share your articles and spread the news about your business.
Are Incentive Referral Programs right for every type of business?
No they’re not. For instance, we don’t think some business types, such as architects and CPAs should use an incentive program (attorneys and financial advisors can’t). In fact, we considered using an incentive referral program for our business but decided it wasn’t a good fit. We use a Top of Mind program instead.
Service businesses that work directly for consumers are often a perfect match for an incentive program, but they often need some help to get it started and that’s where we come in.
How do Incentive Referral Programs encourage referrals?
In two ways.
First they work by the simple act of your business actively asking for and having a program to promote referrals. Even without an incentive in place the simple act of asking will get results.
They also work by offering a discount or cash back to the person making the referral, and to the person who becomes your new client. We usually suggest referral programs that pay both the parties involved rather than one way incentives, but both types work to improve your referral outcomes.
How long will it take before I see results from a referral program?
It really depends. It’s important to be consistent with a referral program and not expect overwhelming results. The results over time should be well worth the time and money spent, and occasionally you might get a single large or profitable customer from your efforts. You should expect more direct results from a Referral Incentive Program, but using both programs (if you can) will produce the best results. Referral Marketing can be compared to losing weight, it’s what you do consistently over time that works — there are no magic pills, and you should probably be careful of companies that try to sell them to you.
Are testimonials a form of referral marketing?
Yes they are, and we encourage you to add them to your website if you’re in a business that allows their use. Although the website visitor probably does not know the person providing the testimonial, they are still being presented with a powerful recommendation to use and trust your business. We can assist with setting up a testimonial section for your website.
Are Google, Yelp, and other review websites a form of referral marketing?
Yes they are, and we encourage you to use them if you’re in a business that allows their use. Encouraging customers to leave feedback immediately after a service call or appointment is important. It can be done with a follow-up email and will provide the benefit of ensuring that you get your customer into your email system for future follow-ups and offers. In addition we often suggest that you invite reviews directly from your email signature line, with a link to your review provider of choice. Making it quick and easy is key!