People influence people

In almost every business, referrals are the gold standard of customer acquisition. Research shows repeatedly that referred leads close faster, buy more, and stay longer — all with significantly less effort and at a much lower cost than non-referred prospects. A University of Pennsylvania study of YEAR found that referred customers are more loyal and profitable — by a 16% margin — than their non-referred counterparts.

In a 2016 Nielsen Harris Poll, 67% of Americans said they’re more likely to purchase a product after a friend or family member shared it via social media, email, or text message. Furthermore, across a variety of industries, 92% of 18-to-34 year-olds say they seek recommendations from friends and family when considering a product purchase.

For marketers — for any business owners — those are pretty compelling numbers.

That said, for referrals to consistently deliver bottom-line results, they must be woven into who you are and how you operate as an organisation. Without structure and commitment, you’re largely hoping that good things happen and that your customers somehow inherently know how to refer their friends and colleagues to your business.

That might happen. But ‘might’ might as well read as ‘definitely won’t’.

83% of customers are willing to write a referral, but only 1 in 3 actually do; banking on customers to refer without any clear incentive to do so is a risky plan. The far better option is to approach referral marketing just as you would any other high-value customer acquisition channel — investing in process and technology, and incorporating it into every aspect of your marketing strategy.

What does that knowledge mean for us at Eventerprise, and how do we translate it? We do this better and faster than others do! Our referral and review system is baked right into the centre of the business, and the technology, and at all stages we pursue these recommendations like our lives depend on it. Because, as we’ve just argued, it probably does.

“People influence people. A trusted referral influences people more than the best broadcast message. A trusted referral is the Holy Grail of advertising.”- Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO, Facebook

Research sited from Ambassador — get referrals.