When you are looking for a plumber for your home or a hotel for a weekend away, you are likely to do some research and read some reviews. Another step of the vetting process is likely to be asking your friends or family. The reason you do this? You trust in them, and therefore trust in their recommendations, even if you have never interacted with that plumber or visited that hotel. That transfer of trust is super powerful and can work exactly the same for patients in your clinic!
Referrals are a cost-effective strategy to open the gateway to high quality and more valuable patients. At DCPG, we sometimes refer to a Welcome Sequence as a know, like, and trust campaign. You send the emails about the clinic, the practitioners, your reviews etc to further win over a brand new client. Because a referral has arrived at the clinic, having been recommended, a lot of trust is already built up from your referrer – and they do a lot of the “selling” for you! Someone who turns up as a referral is looking at how to become a client and only needs guiding with their decision-making process. Once converted, those people are then more likely to refer others – creating an exponential network of referrals and a self-feeding stream for the business.
There may be many ways to market towards your existing database to spur on some referrals, but we have a blueprint at DCPG that tends to work well, especially based around seasonal campaigns. Here are those elements to that blueprint:
- Decide on your offer! It is important for the person being referred to, to know what they set out to receive but also for the person doing your referring. Make this super straightforward so it’s easy to remember.
- Pick an end date for your campaign! Similar to a lead generation ad or reactivation campaign, you want to create a sense of urgency around this offer. This is why referrals work so well around a seasonal time of the year.
- Choose a GRAND PRIZE to display in your clinic! Turn your referral campaign into a competition by demonstrating a grand prize in your clinic. This is important for many reasons. Firstly, you are making it worthwhile for people to refer (one referral equals one entry, the more referrals they make, the more chance they have of winning). Secondly, it’s an easy talking point for your staff to bring up in conversation (as they will be working towards a goal too).
- Choose a goal and incentivise the front desk staff! Set a target for your staff to reach (how you set that is up to you) and again, give them a big incentive to spur them on. This makes them look forward to every seasonal campaign, instead of hiding away from it.
- Hand out vouchers at the desk! Following on from motivating your team, make sure they are handing out themed vouchers with little goodies, to increase uptake, and to let the law of reciprocity work in your favour.
- Market to your current clients! 3 emails at the beginning, middle and end of the campaign letting them know the existence, continuation and closing of the competition. You can also send a 4th email once the winner has been picked to show its legitimacy. Match this with Facebook posts and clinic posters to really get your message across.
- Thank your referrers! Don’t let people’s effort go unnoticed. Sending a thank you card to everyone who refers to somebody new, will go a long way into motivating them to refer again!
There is no better time than now to think about a referral campaign and how you can be gaining the most from your current clients.
Love and Light
Ry
