We recently asked Joshua for his insight on how dental practices can use referral marketing. Here’s what he shared: What is referral marketing? How does it work?
The basic concept is to encourage your existing customers to share your business with their friends. It’s a way to grow your business by leveraging a business’s network of customers and partners. It’s important to note that this can work with or without incentives. Referral marketing is like many other marketing channels, where it pays to pay attention to the user experience.
It works by the basics of word of mouth. The main idea is to provide happy customers a simple way for them to share the business with their friends. The customer tells their friends about the business, and the business gains new customers. Our software helps with automating many of these steps, like setting up default email messages with the business’s brand, one-click social media sharing, and even reward fulfillment.
Why is referral marketing so effective in today’s marketplace?
It’s most effective today because of social media and mobile devices. Consumers are constantly on social media. So, if you’re using social media with referral marketing, it’s an easy way to get the word out in a non-invasive manner because that’s where their friends are already hanging out. It’s also easy because it’s a one-click thing – which is a lot easier than the alternative of calling a friend or remembering to see if you can nd that business card to share. Email is also highly effective and we try to make it easy where a business can make email templates. There is always the impromptu word-of-mouth types of things. Like friends discussing where they got their haircut, but if you give people the opportunity to share in an easier way, they more than likely will. Double-sided rewards where they may be giving a coupon and even earning something for themselves is a lot easier digitally then it ever was before. Of course, mobile devices also make sharing that much easier. Everyone is “one-click” or “one-tap” away from sharing an offer or business.
What are the dos and dont’s for referral marketing? What are the most common mistakes you see businesses making with referral marketing?
The most common mistake is for a marketer to not realize there is more than one user persona in referral marketing. For example, the marketer may pay attention to the referrer/advocate and have a great incentive that really resonates but fail to offer something to the friend. Or after the share, a new friend clicks on a link and is dumped on the main marketing page of the business … they don’t know why
this is a good business. Tell them why Joe is referring Jane. Looking at everything in the referral program from the eyes of the two key personas is necessary to craft a successful program.
It’s very easy to craft half of the experience and feel like you’re done. So you may get all these people signing up to refer but no one converting into customers. Or conversions are great but you don’t have many people to sign up to refer. For example when the reward isn’t a highly likely thing, like winning a trip. People will quickly calculate their odds and whether or not this is something worth their time.
The other best practices are to not overcomplicate the program. There are elements of gamification and little tricks that will work, but if you try to use all these goofy mechanisms you just overcomplicate the message. People will only give you so much time for them to understand your program, if they don’t get it, they’ll just move on.
The last common mistake we see is a lack of promotion. Often times we see people just put a few links up and think that their referral program will grow overnight. Yes, it is meant to spur growth, but if you don’t nurture it and remind people it’s there, it can easily fall at. One email blast is not going to do it.
What are the benefits of referral marketing to a current customer or patient?
By nature, people want to help other people. Happy customers like to help businesses and good friends like to help each other. I know when I meet a small business that I really like, I want to help them whether there is an incentive or not. Having incentives and a proper program to track it creates a trusted relationship. It’s not just an “ll in your friend’s name” on a piece of paper. There are multiple reasons why that doesn’t work. First, they don’t know what a business is going to do with it. They don’t want to be the friend that caused their friends to get ve calls from a salesperson. With proper referral marketing software, it’s a much less invasive process, plus they can track the results and see how they are actually helping the business.
How can healthcare providers entice patients to refer patients? How should they approach deciding on a particular reward?
Patients and customers are going to refer businesses that they are really happy with. This is why customer service really matters. No matter how good the reward is, people won’t refer someone who they did not have a good experience with. The last thing a patient wants to do is give a bad referral because it reflects badly on them. They don’t want their friends to come back and ask why they referred a dentist who made mistakes or who overbilled them, etc. It’s important to understand that the patient is putting their reputation on the line, so you have to make sure that everyone is going to get a good experience. Whether that means getting back to people promptly for scheduling appointments, providing excellent care, or making sure the checkout process is easy and accurate.
Rewards are a key element to get the person’s attention. When deciding on a reward it’s really important to provide incentives that make someone want to refer. So the provider needs to think of what will make all customers happy. It’s important to consider the frequency of use, for example, if the reward is earning credits towards future dental work a patient may not be enticed to refer. Most patients don’t really want to go to the dentist too often. So be careful not to restrict the majority of your patients, as not everyone will be enticed by earning points for future dental work. Another great reward tip that is simple to do if you can’t offer very much, is to double the first reward. Now you’ve got their attention. $25 may not have been enough to grab their attention, but $50 may. Once they get sharing, they will still share with all the friends it makes sense to, because at that point they’ve already done the work registering and all. They’ll start to figure out that the more they share the higher chance of the $50 they will get. Then a funny thing happens they get that first reward and see how easy and trusted the process was, and then they go back and share again. In the end, the business is only on the hook for one extra reward, but you got someone o the fence and appealed to someone in that split second that you may not have otherwise.
What considerations should healthcare practices make when writing a script for a referral campaign?
One thing that can be looked into is legal compliance and privacy. Another is to be very clear what you are offering and when a reward is earned. I know we talked about simplicity in a program, but you have to be sure to explain that the customer only gets the reward if a friend becomes a patient, not for each friend they refer.
What are the must-have tools for referral marketing? How can healthcare practices determine the best ways to promote a particular referral?
Some must-have tools are making sure you provide a patient with easy social sharing and email sharing options. I’d also say, templated messages are a must, as they make it easy for patients to share as well. Fraud detection is also a great tool to have so that you can track suspicious activity. Another good tool is having a good reward design and automatic payouts in place, as it makes the business/provider’s life a lot easier.
I think the best way for healthcare practices to promote their referral program would be to consider the patient experience. Use patient touch points as a guide to where promotion should take place. For example, hang a poster at check-in or check-out. Drop a referral card with the link to sign up in the bag of goodies the patient gets when they are done with their appointment. You could even mention and provide the domain for the referral program on the appointment reminder card a patient is given at checkout. Use receipts and emails or any place where a patient sees or interacts with is a good place to promote a referral program. Keep it discoverable, so even if they don’t join now they know a program exists the next time someone talks about needing dental work.
It’s always good to mention what the patient could earn for referring a friend, as it could provoke interest. So whether you’re giving a patient a referral card or mentioning how the patient could earn a gift card on your answering machine, presenting the information in the ow of which a patient will see it can be very beneficial.
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