These days, we hear a lot about social media and email marketing. While these channels are essential parts of a good marketing strategy, they are not the only ways to achieve your marketing goals.
There is another marketing strategy that is affordable, sustainable, and highly effective- a referral partnership strategy.
Referral partnerships offer high-quality leads, build long-term strategic relationships, and support steady business growth – without the hard sell.
If you’re tired of the digital marketing hustle and looking for more ways to connect with quality prospects, it’s time to consider building referral partnerships.
Let’s talk about what a referral partnership looks like and how it can benefit your business.
Why Referral Partnerships Is An Essential Marketing Strategy
What Is A Referral Partner?
A referral partner is a person or business who will recommend your products or services to people they have built connections with.
This system works best when your referral partner serves the same customers as you but does not offer the same product or service as you. They work in the same circles, but their marketing reaches a slightly different audience.
Let’s say, for example, that you’re a nutritionist looking to gain new customers and decide to try out a referral partnerships strategy.
You need to choose a partner that has the same demographic as you without being in direct competition. It’s also helpful to choose someone that you can refer your clients to, creating a mutually beneficial relationship.
How Do You Set Up A Referral Partnership?
Let’s go back to our nutritionist example. As a nutritionist, you could set up a referral partnership with a local gym, a yoga studio, a local organic café, or another health professional such as an acupuncturist or functional doctor.
This business then refers their clients to you when the time is right, providing you with new customers, and you do the same for them.
Referral partnerships can involve a monetary reward for referrals, too. When your partner refers a lead to you and they become a customer, you pay them a pre-determined referral fee.
The Benefits Of Referral Partnerships
Personal recommendations are golden for business marketing. Your own marketing efforts may be brilliant, but it takes time and consistency before your target customers recognise your brand, let alone trust you to deliver on what you promise.
Things move a lot faster when someone personally recommends your business through their own positive experiences; consumers are more likely to trust someone they know and trust.
When you’re working with referral partnerships, they already have an established relationship with their customers. So, when they refer someone to you, the trust they have built with that client makes it much more likely that the client will trust you.
Compared to other forms of marketing, referral partnerships provide high-quality warm leads who are more likely to engage with your business than the average joe off the street who sees an ad on Facebook.
Identifying Potential Referral Partnerships
Love the idea of referral partnerships? Chances are, you already know some local businesses that would be a great fit with yours.
It’s time to examine your existing network and audit who you already know. Make a list of potential connections and reach out to them to chat a bit further. Discuss how you can both create a referral strategy that will tick the boxes on both of your marketing goals.
But, don’t just stop with the people that you know currently. There will be so many more businesses out there that you can create great referral partnerships with. One of the best ways to find them is by networking.
Get out and attend local networking events in your area. You can also tap into larger networks such as BX Connect [insert your referral link]. Multinational with both online and physical meet ups in NZ, Australia and USA, this network could be a goldmine of referral partnerships for your business!
So, now is the time to make a list, start networking, and add partnership referrals to your marketing strategy today!
If you want to discuss how networking can form part of your powerful marketing strategy, book in a time to chat now.