As with any business, lists can be a vital part of the business production, organization and growth. Your business referrals list is just as important as your inventory list. Keeping this list organized for many separate marketing elements can be critical.
As with any business, lists can be a vital part of the business production, organization and growth. Your business referrals list is just as important as your inventory list. Keeping this list organized for many separate marketing elements can be critical.
Emails and Newsletter Lists
It is vital to keep your business referrals updated and organized in preparation for your monthly newsletters or email updates you send out. Always make sure you offer unsubscribe links for those who want to be removed from any digital or snail mail lists. Not only does this keep your business eco-friendly, but it also keeps your brand name reputable by not being a source of spam for any prospective or current customers.
Birthdays and Anniversaries Lists
A great business referral marketing plan will include acknowledging personal aspects of customer’s lives such as their birthdays and anniversaries. Keeping an organized and chronological database with information categorized in this manner is also critical to the personalized or elite experience that referrers should be privy to.
Friends of Referrals Lists
Many businesses will gather information about other consumers during their purchasing or closing processes. eCommerce businesses see this type of referral option or chance when a consumer purchases from them, but has it sent to a gift receiver. This type of list is vital to increasing your referral base and this list should be treated with the utmost care. These are consumers who may already have a preference for your product but have not been approached by your company directly.
Organizing Business Referrals
Keeping an organized system for your referrals is critical. Many businesses choose to use basic Excel or Access types of file formats for their referrals, while some of the larger businesses stick by customized databases for their referral leads.
File Formats
There is nothing wrong with using a file format for small business. There may simply not be the huge need for an additional cost when it comes to your referrals. Most commonly it is apt to consider keeping any referral base under one-hundred on a basic file system that can be found in word document styles like Microsoft's Excel or Access or 100% free options such as Open Access Calc and Base. However, once a business begins to reach referral numbers in the multi-hundreds, it can become quite necessary to have a database more customized to your business.
These types of databases will allow for quicker, more customized searches such as allowing multi-user log-ins for multiple work stations, organizing by referral age or by the referrals birth date for creating quick lists like those listed above that can be so critical to providing the personalized approach suggested for dealing with referrals.
Business Referral Software
Once a business is booming in the referral department, it may be time to begin browsing and researching some of the available software. Without some system of management for a large number of referrals, keeping up with those vital dates that help create the brand name experience you want to supply your customers with can be difficult.
What Type of Marketing Referral Program is Best for Your Business
To understand what type of marketing referral program is best for your business, it may be vital to first understand where referrals can come from in the first place.
When Your Referral Rewards Program Goes Wrong
The horror stories are enough to scare any small business owner into inactivity. That one business that was doing great with an excess of capital decided to enact a new referral program and the next news you heard was how they overextended their offer and were swept up and down the creek into bankruptcy. It can and does happen. When your referral rewards program goes wrong there can be a few good reasons why.
4 Tips for Preparing Your Business for Referrals Programs
If you have established your business, set up some marketing efforts and branded your company's name, it may be time to prepare your business for referrals programs.
