3 Innovative Ways to Generate Word-of-Mouth Referrals

Referrals are some of the most promising business prospects you can get, but attracting them takes more ingenuity than ordinary advertising does. With a little creative referral marketing, you can build a steady stream of construction leads.

Make sending postcards easy: Keep the clients waiting in your lobby busy by giving them the opportunity to write a postcard that you’ll send for them. Have a pack of postcards printed up with your firm’s logo and contact information, and either a marketing message or an appealing image the recipient will want to hang on to. Place them in a display on your front desk with a sign explaining your offer. You could offer this as a “refer a friend” option or let your clients write whatever they want.

Showcase your top clients: When you create a presentation, workshop or post for your blog, find a way to highlight your best clients. Helping your clients gain visibility can bring them more business and encourage them to return the favor. In addition, the fact that they’re already working with you acts as an endorsement. It gives anyone considering hiring your firm a place to turn for a third-party opinion on your services.

Join a networking group: Meeting up with a group of other professionals for breakfast every Tuesday might not seem like an efficient referral marketing tactic, but consider that each one of those business people has a network of their own. Building real relationships with them gives you a chance to tap into those broader networks.

Interacting with a group of like-minded individuals also helps you develop your knowledge, pick up new marketing ideas, and gain connections and opportunities for collaboration.

As you get to know people in the group, aim to inform them of how you handle referrals. Let them know you treat prospects with respect and won’t hound them for work. This helps remove the perceived risk to someone who might want to send a friend or their own client your way.

For more tips on effective referral marketing, contact Construction Monitor today.