Get higher quality leads for less: this is how

Every business owner faces one unenviable truth.

A hell of a lot of blood, sweat, and tears goes into generating new business leads.

Competition is fierce!

To make things even tougher, generating leads online is getting increasingly more expensive. This is because the price of ad impressions on digital has been rising steadily for the last few years, with no signs of slowing down.

Why is the price of ad impressions on digital rising you ask?

The answer is simple. As consumers spend more time online, more brands want to advertise there (demand rises). And as brands shift their budget away from traditional channels towards digital channels, the amount of ad impressions available to buy on digital decreases (supply falls).

This rise in demand and fall in supply is what’s causing the price of digital ad impressions to go up — meaning you’ll pay more for those ad impressions on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc — and as a result your cost per lead will be more expensive too.

Beyond the rising costs and competition, consumers have wised up too. Bombarded by fake reviews and thousands of ads online, consumers have become unsure of which brands they can even trust.

Back in the 70s, it was reported that the average person saw between 500 to 1600 ads per day. Without digital marketing being a thing back then, most ads could be found on billboards, in newspapers, and on TV promoting the latest products.

By 2007 that number had shot up to around 5000 ads per day.

Fast forward to 2021, and although there are no official figures, it’s estimated that the average person could be exposed to up to 10,000 ads a day 😱😱😱

It’s no wonder consumers don’t know where to look or which brands to trust anymore!

So, the question remains. How do businesses find high quality leads without spending more on advertising?

We can learn a lot from one of the fastest growing startup of 2020. Clubhouse has acquired millions of users without spending a dime on ad impressions, all they did was ask their current users to invite their friends.

Some call it word of mouth marketing, others call it referral marketing, but the concept is simple: if you can find a way to reward your current customers or fans to invite new ones, you’ll be able to generate high quality leads for a fraction of the cost.

Not all leads are equal: referred leads are the highest quality

When it comes to lead generation, brands that are serious about building sustainable growth need to focus on acquiring high quality leads — not just leads.

It’s no secret that the very best kind of lead a business can get is a referral. According to research from Nielsen, people are four times more likely to buy when referred by a friend, while 92% of consumers say they trust word-of-mouth recommendations from people they know.

The good news doesn’t end there, though.

Research also proves that referred customers are more likely to stick around. According to Deloitte, customers referred by other customers have a 37% higher retention rate.

Get high quality leads for less: all you need to do is ask for referrals

According to research from Texas Tech University, despite 83% of customers being willing to provide a referral for a business that they’ve had a positive experience with, only 29% actually do.

The reason these customers don’t refer is simple — they were never asked to.

Simply by asking your customers to refer their friends, and giving them an incentive to do so, you’ll be able to generate high quality leads for less.

That’s right, all you have to do is ask!

The automated way to ask for referrals is by building a referral program for your business, and by offering a reward to people who bring you new customers.

This leads to a natural question — why doesn’t every business have a referral program?

Over the last decade we’ve seen referrals be a key growth driver for the technology startups that have dominated their industries — PayPal, Dropbox, Revolut, Uber, AirBNB to name a few.

These companies had easy access to developers and growth hackers to build their referral programs, and automate the work behind the scenes to run them. For most businesses, this just was not possible until the introduction of referral marketing software.

With more and more no-code referral marketing tools popping up online, there really is no reason for your business not to have a referral program anymore.

You no longer need a developer or a growth hacker to start asking your customers to refer their friends, so, what are you waiting for?

Add to medium post — once approved:Ready to launch your own referral program? Get 20% off your Referral Factory Subscription using the code VIP20. Register for a free trial here — and don’t forget to use the code 😉