4 Key Referral Channels: Are You Using Them to Get More Clients?
Audrey Kwan
Founder, Agency Together | Referral network helping niche agencies gain purposeful, high-value connections to drive business growth, provide consistent referrals, and create lasting relationships
Can a referral strategy be the key to sustainable lead generation??
Yes, most definitely.?
In my last blog post, I highlighted the story of my client, an agency owner I’ve worked with for over three years and is niched to service the tech start-up sector.
As part of his growth strategy, we focused on and implemented a referral marketing strategy this year.?
We shifted his focus from costly media buys to nurturing strategic partnerships.
He dramatically cut costs, improved the quality of his leads, and tripled his monthly recurring revenue in six months.?
Is it possible for your business??
Yes. And here’s why.?
The 2024 Hubspot Sales Trend Report emphasized that referrals are essential during economic times when buyers are more cautious about spending money.?
Referrals are the top way to receive high-quality leads and shorten the sales cycle because a peer is worth more in trust than a sales rep.
So, that takes us to this question: how well are you leveraging referrals to grow your business?
To answer this question, let’s look at the different referral sources you can use to grow your business.?
Clarifying the different referral sources will help you build a better system for consistent referrals. This is how we start the process of helping clients create a consistent referral system that works and to know where best to invest their time.?
If you want to know why referrals are a top agency priority right now, read part one of my Get More Referrals series.?
Depending on your strengths, these four referral sources will rank differently in your business. The list is ranked from highest to lowest impact from my experience with agency owners:?
1. Existing Clients
The most apparent and most tapped-into source of referrals is existing clients. The challenge is often tapping out your existing client network.?
Existing clients provide two sources of referrals.?
Most people think of their clients as referring to new clients. In other words, you often ask your client to introduce you to someone who can use your services.?
Another powerful but underused strategy is asking your clients to refer you to someone in the industry who can increase your credibility and visibility.?
Your clients' network extends beyond introducing new clients; gaining introductions to thought leaders is a powerful one-to-many strategy.?
2. Partnership with Other Agencies
Establishing partnerships with non-competing agencies is a mutually beneficial strategy when you have a niche in an industry, service, or even region.?
Partnering with other non-competing agencies generates new clients and income through referral fees.?
When you’re a small agency, niching gives you an advantage. It increases the depth of your knowledge because each time you serve a client in the same niche, you grow and refine your intellectual property for that niche.?
For example, a dentist is more likely to work with an agency a track record of successfully marketing dental practices than an unfocused agency.?
If you were a dentist, who would you hire, the agency with 25+ success stories working with dentists or the agency with a bunch of unrelated success stories??
I would choose the agency with a track record of success in my niche because it is more relevant to my needs. Your niche as a small agency helps your business stand out.?
This is also true. I’ve worked with niche agencies that try to take on work outside their niche, only to find that it wasn’t worth it.?
My agency owner client, who had the dentist niche, once tried to take on e-commerce, and guess what??
It threw a wrench in their efficiency because they had to create things from scratch, and it uprooted their systems and processes, making the team less productive and profitable.?
In a partnership scenario with other niche agencies, you would benefit from gaining a referral fee, as well as not putting your team in a place where the quality of work for core clients suffers for the one client for whom you are reinventing the wheels.?
3. Strategic Partnerships with Complementary Services
The more clarity you have about your ideal client, the easier it is to find strategic partners.?
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Let's return to my client, who tripled his monthly recurring revenue in six months. His niche agency had a clear ideal client, which helped us maximize our strategy.?
You’ve likely engaged in the ideal client avatar exercise and before you roll your eyes. Ideal client exercises are tried and true because they keep your marketing focused.?
In strategic partnerships, you want to find other service providers who have complementary services for an audience and clientele with the same core problems and challenges you solve.?
The more concise you are about your ideal client, the easier it is to find and develop consistent referral partnerships.?
4. Professional Associations and Online Communities?
Again, clarity about your ideal client will help you maximize your time in professional associations and online communities.?
Where does your ideal client go for education, community and support? How can you show up in these places to provide value??
When you provide value to other people’s associations or communities, they send people your way.?
Value isn’t about joining a community and spraying and praying; it’s about added value at the right time.?
The right time requires you to do your homework to know what pain point needs to be solved now and how you can help the leaders of the associations and communities solve it.?
You give to get. When you provide value, you build your reputation as a reliable partner.
When the association or community leader consistently shares your name, it’s much more scaleable for consistent referrals than direct messaging people get on their radar.?
Remember the 2024 Hubspot Sales Trend Report I just mentioned? It highlights the importance of referrals, especially when buyers are more cautious about spending money during economic times.?
The trust factor from someone you interact with vouching for your business can’t be duplicated in other forms of marketing.
Whether it’s an economic time or not, the benefits of a strategy to generate more consistent, higher-quality referrals and shorten the sales cycle shouldn’t just be reserved for times when people are more cautious about spending – overall, it's a lasting and enduring strategy in marketing and sales.?
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If you want a focused community collaborating to get more clients with consistent referrals, lean in:?
I’m opening the waitlist to our community – Agency Together.?
Agency Together is not just another networking community. You gain a curated referral network for agency owners who value growing their bottom line with strategic collaboration.?
Join Agency Together to grow with strategic collaborations and consistent referrals.
We are founded on four core pillars essential to getting consistent referrals.
These pillars are what make agency together unique:?
Curated connections: Handpicked matches connect you with other agency owners who share your business goals.
Strategic ecosystem: Access to referral pod members that are carefully selected based on industry, services, and business goals to ensure a strategic fit.
Time well spent: Whether you join our broader community or one of our specialized referral pods, we facilitate interaction to ensure it is purposeful and productive.
Broadened opportunities: With members from diverse niches and geographical locations, your reach extends far beyond your existing network.
If you’re aligned with our four pillars, now is the time to get on the waitlist to secure your spot. Agency Together will change your referral game; join the members who know that together, they can tap into more of the 84% of decision-makers who start their buying process with a referral and win more clients.