.Referrals are just grand for every business. This is because, it not only amplify your customer base but can greatly increase customer satisfaction, thereby reducing or trimming down your sales expenses. Content customers turn out to be the best salespeople and a referral program is an ideal way to make the most of that.

Here are 4 key referral types essential for every business to take into consideration while structuring a referral program:

Direct Referrals

A direct referral is the one where any of your existing clients refers to someone they are familiar with. You can set an incentive for your current client and offer him or her your company’s free product or service if in case their referral turns into business.

Implied Referrals

An implied referral is the one when you wish to make it very apparent that you are working for someone without straightforwardly asking for any referral. For instance, a builder, who is carrying out work on a building or house, can send printouts to the other nearby houses about his offerings in case of any problems. This indicates the considerate and helpfulness of the builder in the eye of the people in the street.

Tangible Referrals

With a tangible referral, you give something that has real value to your customer which they can offer to a referral source. You can think about offering the vouchers to your store to your creamy clients. Why? So that you may request them to share these with someone amongst his family and friends. Another fine move can be cheering the customers to get a friend for free or offer a product to the friend once they are referred. This approach can easily be combined with direct referrals.

Community Referrals

There are numerous community organizations out there that call for your support. You can think about carrying out a promotion that can be beneficial for both parties. We can take an example of a café that offers 10% of the complete profit made in a month to a charity. The company is a helpful organization and at the same time the charity gains from this promotion. The charity then promotes the business and spreads the word.

Since you are equipped with the knowledge of the different types of referrals, you can move further by distinguishing the customers you are in search of and educating your referral sources to create warm and hot referrals for your business. An understanding of your business and market can greatly help you build a targeted marketing and communications strategy.  It can thus become an extensive plan to grow your business.