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Duct Tape Marketing

Five Core Referral Offers

Your referral marketing effort may benefit from specific offers and
promotions that take advantage of some creative ways to generate
referrals. Following are several classic referral offers. Think of ways
to integrate one or all of these into your referral marketing. (Many
times it is wise to have your “expectation strategy” in place for new
customers, but installing one of the following will get the interest and
participation of your past clients or strategic partners too. You can
also rotate your referral offers and promote one or more to find the
ones that work the most effectively.)

1. Offer special pricing. If you are looking for referrals from your
existing clients, you can develop a special price for those clients
who refer a set amount of new business. Then, when a new
client asks what the price of a product or service is, you can re-
spond, “Do you want the full price or the special referral price?”
This encourages repeat business and can provide a strong in-
centive to refer on the spot.

2. “Will work for referrals.” If you can target a referral source
who has influence with your target market, you can offer him
or her a trial service or product in exchange for an endorse-
ment of your products or services, a testimonial, or a place in
the next association speaker panel.
Seek out the leaders in trade groups and organizations that
you would like to target and offer to perform a service or let
them try your product free of charge. Get them to agree that
if they like your product or service as much as you know they
will, they will send a letter to the membership of the organiza-
tion promoting your offer. Then write the letter for them.

3. Help a worthy cause. Donate a percentage of business acquired
by way of referral to a nonprofit agency. By offering to help a

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