How to turn customers into distribution
The cheapest channel in most businesses is the one already paying them.
2 minute read
Referral is treated as something that happens or does not, which is why most businesses have no idea what theirs actually is. It can be built, and building it is usually cheaper than a month of media.
Three things have to be true. The customer has to be at a moment where they feel good about you, which is a specific point in the relationship and rarely the point where you ask. They have to know precisely who to tell, because a vague request produces nothing. And passing it on has to cost them almost no effort or social risk.
Most referral programs fail on the second and third. They ask at the wrong time, they ask for anyone, and they require the customer to compose the message themselves.
Fix those and referral stops being luck. Ask at the moment the product has just worked. Name the exact person to think of. Hand them the words.
Then measure it, because a channel nobody measures is a channel nobody improves.
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