Solicit testimonials and reviews
Obvious, but if you aren’t already doing so, be proactive, intentional, and confident in asking for them. If customers like you, they’ll be happy to reciprocate.
The best time to ask for one is after a positive “milestone”. You’ll need to identify what this looks like for your solution(s). These solicitations can be set up to trigger automatically.
Examples include: after a customer has used your solution to launch their first campaign, or after you’ve sent a monthly report showing how much time they’ve saved or the additional revenue you’ve helped them generate.
Feature them, not you. Stories > Case Studies
Interview your customers, not with the sole purpose of creating case studies or testimonials, but rather to create a platform or space that will elevate or feature them. Most people will be happy to receive more exposure (SOCIAL CURRENCY: Status) and gladly participate.
Of course, during your interviews, it’s beneficial to ask them to elaborate on how your solution has aided in their journey.
They’ll also often willingly share their interview with their network, so make it as easy as possible for them by providing pre-written blurbs or images they can use.
Be a collaborative partner
Are there other organizations that serve your customers?
For example, if you are a wedding planner, partnering with makeup artists, photo/videographers, and popular wedding rental venues can be highly beneficial. Be generous with referrals to them if you have no intention of providing those services.
If you want to take it a step further, you can also track and follow up (TRIGGERS) on the referrals you’ve made to improve the quality of your referrals. This also helps keep you top-of-mind with them, signals your genuine interest in supporting them, and communicates your value as a partner to them (if they can see you’ve made lots of good referrals that have converted). They’ll gladly reciprocate by sending people who are a fit for your services over to you. Similarly, provide them with feedback on the people they send your way. It demonstrates your responsiveness, that you treat referrals with care, and it also helps them improve the quality of their referrals.
The same can be applied to products. If you sell a kayak, consider partnering with a paddle manufacturer for co-referrals.
If possible, explore how you can build referring directly into the experience of your offerings
The previously mentioned buy 1, give 1 campaign (SOCIAL CURRENCY + PRACTICAL VALUE) is one such example for product companies.
An example for a group coaching business would be to have an open session where the group can invite an outsider to participate and receive feedback.
In their early days, Gmail employed this strategy by allowing people to create an account only if they received an invitation from an existing Gmail user (SOCIAL CURRENCY: Exclusivity). Once they joined, they were given a limit of 5 referral codes that they could use to invite others (PRACTICAL VALUE).
Caution! Providing incentives like cash or credits, which are a form of external motivation, decreases referrals. They offset the intrinsic desire (or internal motivation) for someone to make a referral because they genuinely believe it’s valuable to the receiver. People want to share on their own accord. For a more detailed explanation and supporting evidence, consider reading Jonah Berger’s book.
Should the receiver be aware of the sharer’s reward, it also decreases their perception of value for what’s being referred, as the act of referral is seen as inauthentic. My personal experience aligns with this. In the early days of Spring Activator, we explored implementing referral credits for our programs, only to see referrals drop to 0.
ASSIGNMENT
What specific ideas, initiatives, partnerships, or campaigns do you want to explore to improve WoM?