How to Leverage and Automate Referral Marketing to Grow Your List
Creative By: Kyle Musser
So when it comes to growing a business in the digital age, many of you are wondering what the major key is that’s going to accelerate your brand’s Unlimited Profit Pathway.
But before we answer that, there’s one reality that we all have to deal with and that’s constant noise.
The fact of is that all of you (myself included) are competing in a time where there’s never been more information, data, and content available to your customers, your prospects, and your tribe.
Which leaves most of you to the question that I hear quite when in a strategy session with prospective clients…
“How can we position our business and our brand in a way so that we stand out from our competition in the digital age?”
The simple answer is that you start by choosing to stand out. But not only do you have to choose to rise up and be the best in terms of content, community, value, etc.
You also have to decide that you’re going lead your business in a way so that you serve your people through the business and not the other way around.
Profound concept I know… 🤔
But the fact is that many of us can use a constant reminder that we are not the center of our businesses. Instead it’s your customers who really are the ones in the driver seat.
Just think about it because without them, there would be no exchange of value and thus no (Insert Your Business) Inc.
While I was out walking Degas this morning I heard about a great concept from Sally Hogshead. Those of you who don’t know who she is, her work has seen incredible success the last few years about “How to Fascinate”.
She says when it comes to communication, there are 2 ways through which we communicate…
#1 — By Adding Value “How the world sees you”
#2 — By Taking up Space “How you see the world”
If you take a few seconds to just stop and think about that concept, you’ll see there’s a clear division between these two types of communication.
So while I’m not here to dive deeper into that message today. What I am here to do is focus on is how your business can avoid #2 — “Taking up Space”.
And instead position yourself, your business, and your brand in #1 — “Adding value”.
Specifically speaking, I wanted to share an example that relates back to your referral marketing engine that is the automated growth of email list!
On top of that, the best part is that you guys can rip it off! Just promise not to (literally) copy the copy! 😂
All seriousness, whether or not you believe it EMAIL is still one of the best ways to grow your business and convert more customers (conversations) into buyers (conversions).
But before we go there just a quick reminder that when implementing anything new into your business, you first have to understand your why for that which you want to achieve.
Then once you have your why in mind that aligns with the goal or the mission, then comes the strategy and how you’re going to experiment your way to results.
I say experiment because one of our core values here at Digital Conversion Labs is…
“A Committment to Continuous Experimentation.” — Kyle Musser, Founder and Chief Experiment Officer Digital Conversion Labs 💭
That said, let’s dive into How to Leverage and Automate Referral Marketing to Grow Your List…
So quick scenario…
Let’s say that you’re business is in the health and fitness niche. And to serve that niche and your customers, you’ve created some sort of wellness challenge.
Now if you’ve ever tried to do anything radical like make a change when it comes to your health and well-being, can you guess what one of the biggest factors to success is?
Having both been the founder of a fitness lifestyle brand and now having advised a few clients in this specific niche, I can rightfully say that…
Community is the key to success. 🔑👥
If you think about that, that makes a lot of sense as one of the most amazing things about the digital age is this connection we’re able to create with larges groups or “tribes” of people. And it’s not just the digital age where this is happening.
For hundreds of years we’ve coming together within our communities to embrace, join arms, and share experiences together.
Doesn’t matter what niche you’re business is in because the reality is that people still want to feel like they are doing business with people even if it’s through a virtual medium.
I know this to be true based on my own experiments and through lots of observation of what works and what doesn’t when looking at other people’s brands.
There’s a saying in the digital products and online coaching space…
“People come for the content and stay for the community.” — Said by every online entrepreneur that’s had success in the digital profit pathway 💭
So whether or not you realize it, the people that buy from your business are not just buying a product. What they are buying more than anything else an experience.
And if you’re focused on the previous vs. the latter, watch out because there’s a good chance the sharks are swimming ready to pounce onto your niche and drive cost down with cheaper crap that’s just another commodity product.
We’ve all seen this play out for the latter part of the 20th century with countries like China taking over commoditized manufacturing of stuff like trinkets and novelty items.
Not picking on China or any other nation for that matter, it’s just the reality I’ve seen first hand especially during my “Consulting Days” helping large companies play the labor arbitrage game.
Let’s just say that people were the last thing that was thought about in this process. Part of the reason it didn’t align with who I was as a person and the values that I believed in.
But that’s a story for another time. What’s important to takeaway is that there is a change of seasons in business.
See it’s not just enough to have another commodity product if you want to sustain and grow an actual brand that’s more than just a quick cash machine.
People want to connect with people and in an age where we have limitless connection and options for buying, brand loyalty is a very valuable currency.
And it’s those entrepreneurs and brands who understand this that are going to stand because they understand the power of community.
Specifically this is why many businesses across the board are implementing referral networks, influencer marketing campaigns, etc. All of which come back to one idea of…
Creating Community.
And from a business // data standpoint, some of you might know this idea of referral marketing as your “Viral Coefficient”.
If you’ve never heard of this, don’t worry because you’re not alone.
Many business owners get this dazed and confused look on their faces when I mention this idea.
To keep it 6th grade or for those of you that might be a little impaired… 😏
For ever person that refers someone to your community and into your lead pipeline, how many of those people actually turn into paying customers? 👥💭💸
Readwrite gives a pretty technical article about this. If you like to keep it much simpler, David Skok lays out the concept of Virality out nicely on his blog…
Now I know that for most small business owners and digital brands that have yet to experience the effects of virality, this might be a little over your head right now.
But stay with me because believe it or not, you can and should know how to implement, measure, and optimize this metric in your business.
And great news is that it’s simpler than you think.
So instead of worrying about all the details right now, just think about something that I’m sure you’ve asked before and that’s this…
“How can I engineer the growth (viral coefficient) of my brand and my business so that I can expand my brand and help serve more customers?”
The quick answer is you don’t, the market does. And what’s the market made of… PEOPLE!
Let’s say you’re in the night club business for a minute. Which I’m sure is what you’ve always dreams of… am I right? 😂
Probably not, but just stay with me on this.
Your vision for club (name it whatever) is to be known for hosting the best party in town night after night all year round.
Now let’s say that before you open up for business, you send out special invitations to influencers, close friends, etc.
With the caveat that each person gets to bring 1 friend with them to this opening celebration. Which essentially is the start of most referral marketing efforts for many small businesses.
Now let’s say that these customers come in, the club is poppin’, and they dance the night away.
It’s a night to remember and the next day, that same group of customers all say to their friends respectively…
“Last night was amazing! You have to check out this place!!!”
Now their friends respond,
“OMG I cannot wait! How do I get an invite?!?!”
That’s quick potentially real life example of viral coefficients in action for a traditional brick-n-mortar business.
And the fact is that this is a huge opportunity for any business to grow and many times grow quite quickly.
So while you can’t ask every guest that comes into your club “Who referred you?”
The digital world provides a completely different user experience where you can and should measure this growth metric.
Specifically speaking to those digital brand teams and business owners that are reading this who are on the pathway to unlimited profits through the growth of any online brand.
With the tools, resources, and targeting that you have from a digital stand point here in 2016, there’s no reason why most anyone can’t engineer at least some vitality or simply put… referral marketing into their business.
Which by now might be leaving you asking,
“That sounds great! But how to do I or my team actually implement this?”
Alright, let’s break it down… 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼
Step #1 — Know Your Why and Your What
I always say this but when it comes to anything, I believe that the…
“Why must come before the what so that you can then implement the how.” — Kyle Musser 💭
In this case let’s say is to increase your referral rate to your product or service. You then allow yourself the room to come up with new and creative ways of achieving that goal.
In this case to keep it relatable and easy for most of you, I’m going to use an example of how you can leverage a lead magnet together with automation and referral marketing to grow your list.
On top of that, I’m going to share how you can then use that lead generation tool to (potentially) exponentially increase your list growth and thus your lead generation efforts.
So this little mini-case study comes from our friends over at Storybrand.com.
Donald Miller and his team are special because they understand not only the power of clarity, messaging, copywriting, and story. But they also understand what we’re talking about today and that’s the power of qualified referrals into your lead pipeline.
And not only that, their team has helped me understand the idea that Sally was talking about earlier in that…
“You are not the hero, your customer is. So focus on giving them value first and serving their needs if you want to avoid just taking up space.” — Sally Hogshead, Best-Selling Author, Speaker, and Entrepreneur 💭
So let’s say your why is to grow your email list so that you can increase leads, have more conversations, and turn more of those conversions into conversions.
Sound reasonable?
The beautiful part about email, marketing automation, and all the tools you have at your fingertips today is that they are tools which you can leverage to add massive amounts of value to your community.
Many times for little or relatively little cost compared to the ROI on the back end.
And when you focus on value, people not only feel obliged to return the favor (Law of Reciprocity)… but they also are excited to share that with those they care about because you’ve built up trust with them.
Now the question is,
“How am I going actually going to implement this growth idea into your business?
💭🤔
Step #2 — Reverse Engineer What Your Success Looks Like
Ok, now let’s get to the fun part.
Whatever niche you are, first off I want to encourage you to understand who you competition is.
If you go use a tool like Similarweb.com…
You can type in your domain and see who you’re competitors are, where their traffic is coming from, etc.
My goal in first sharing this is to highlight the fact that you are able to see who your cooperating with (counterintuitive I know) online and reverse engineer the strategies that other brands in your niche are using to grow and scale their businesses.
Russell Brunson from clickfunnels.com calls this…
“Funnel Hacking”
Whether you call it growth hacking, funnel hacking, or just plain old lead generation and sales. The point is that all of this comes down solving the pain points of you your people… your prospects… and your customers!
Now when I head on over to Storybrand.com, what I want you to focus on is the list building strategy that they have in place.
This is a critical spot in the customer journey as today’s consumers are making decisions in seconds as to whether they know what it is that you do, if they trust you, and if you solve their pain.
Since I’m a new visitor to the site, I receive an offer (pop-up box) after a few seconds that has an invitation to receive this special video course offer…
After I take a minute to check it out as a consumer, quickly scanning the copy and noticing trigger words like free (risk reversal) and browsers into buyers (solution to a pain). I then make a decision saying “YES, I Want Access!” to their offer.
In exchange for this, I have to give up my First Name and Email… which the Law of Reciprocity inclines me to because I know there’s a promise waiting to be delivered.
After I do that, I’ll be dumped into their marketing automation software like ConvertKit or Infusionsoft where I’m put into their email list.
This is marketing automation and lead generation 101 everybody!
Not that hard to do, but it does take some time to implement, optimize, and improve your lead generation efforts and marketing automation experience.
Toady that’s not necessarily the focus in actually implementing this whole system for your business.
What I want to point out today is a couple things…
First — They have clear calls to act (CTA’s) and are offering something of value that speaks to me as a potential customer before asking for me to buy. 💭
When it comes to this process, they are a great example because they are practicing what they preach with their mission to help business owners clarify their message so that they can grow their businesses.
So not only does this offer speak to me in that I’m an online business owner and that I’d love to turn browsers into buyers. But it also is simple, easy to understand, and it’s frictionless.
This concept of friction in UX and UI is that you want to make your experience as seamless as possible for a prospective buyer to move and navigate throughout their user journey.
And in today’s world where you literally have seconds to capture this opportunity, experience is everything.
UXPin does a great job at explaining these types of things over on their blog… ^^^
Second — Up next, I’ll show you where the real magic is when it comes to leveraging the ‘Law of Reciprocity’.
As I went through and put my info into the lead capture, what you’ll notice is that not only do they deliver on the promise with all the content I requested on the thank you page (frictionless experience).
I didn’t have to wait until I checked my email or anything like that. They made it quick, easy, and seamless. Plus, they built more trust with me in the fact that they delivered on their promise with my videos series.
But if you scroll down, you’ll notice one very important key that is the whole basis for this article.
They ask for a referral!
Also notice that they don’t ask for it right on the top of the landing page. They ask for it only after they focus my attention on the promise to solve my pain point with the video series.
Which takes us back to the idea that you should always be asking…
“How does our customer experience value first before the sale?”
💭🤔
Because you delivered the goods so to speak, why wouldn’t you want to help out and share the love with a friend???
See in this light, I see and view that they are truly trying to help me by providing me a great amount of value. And since that’s the case, I now subconsciously owe Don and his team a favor to share this with someone that I think it could add value to.
So while not everyone is going to even see it in the same light or even notice the referral form there on the landing page. What’s important to takeaway is that they are taking advantage of one of the highest converting pages of digital real-estate to ask me for a small favor in exchange for the value they just offered me.
And what’s interesting about these types of referral funnels is that you’re consistently adding to your relationship equity account on top of gaining access to more and more qualified leads on a consistent basis.
I believe that people want to inherently help other people around them. Especially in the cases where the Law of Reciprocity is utilized.
And I never advocate that you do this in a spammy, sleazy way, or unethical way.
The point is to increase the value exchange between you and your prospects because the truth is we all would rather take our friends words for it than that of a stranger.
So whether you believe it or not, to many including first times prospects that visit your brand are not happy that you’re trying to sleep with them on the first date.
It takes time to build relationships and increase your relationship capital. Especially in today’s noisy world where we are inundated with endless sales messages day after day.
Which is why taking advantage of something like this for your business could be massively successful when it comes to increasing your brand awareness and in term of growing your community.
But reader beware that this strategy is powerful as Virality is a dangerous tool that can make or break your business. Remember that every-time someone refers someone to your brand to do business with you, they are putting their reputation on the line as well.
So like always, make sure you’re doing business an ethical and respectable manner. Or better yet,
“Serve you audience and deliver on your brand promise with each interaction someone has with your brand.”
As we wrap up, I wanted to share a special (FREE) Content Upgrade that I recorded as part of this little case study.
I even thew in a (BONUS) Segment where I map out what this funnel looks like on RealtimeBoard so that you can implement something like this into your business hopefully starting soon if not today!
Check it out and let me know what you think by giving it a 👍🏼👎🏼…
QUESTION: What is your biggest ‘actionable’ takeaway from this post or these videos?
Be sure to leave your comments below and share this with a friend… 👥💭
And if you’ve found this valuable, I’d be much appreciated if you could leave a HEART below… 💚👍🏼
I’m Kyle Musser,
Founder and CEO (Chief Experiment Officer) of digitalconversionlabs.com. Come check out what we’re up to and be sure to check out our FREE RESOURCES by clicking on the link below the image…
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