How to Craft a Referral Marketing Strategy That Boosts Growth in 2022

Crafting a referral marketing strategy is sometimes thought of in terms of automation and software tools. In doing so we run the risk of losing the human aspect of this form of marketing.

Referral programs are one of the most powerful and effective ways to grow your business. But, if you don’t do it right, you can actually hurt your business by annoying and alienating people who know you.

In the post and podcast, we give you an ultimate guide to show you how to build relationships that allow them to ask for referrals in a way that doesn’t feel like they’re asking at all.

The problem with most referral marketing strategies is that they are built on top of platforms like email or social media where the goal isn’t really relationship building but rather broadcasting as much noise as possible in hopes of gaining traction with some new customers.

This approach doesn’t work because it’s not authentic and genuine which means there’s no real reason for anyone else to pay attention or care about what we have to say enough so that they’d want us to refer our friends and family members over to talk with us more often.

Steve Sims, the founder of Bluefish.com a luxury concierge company and author of the book – “Bluefishing – The Art of Making Things Happen”, shares how we can reverse the trend and still develop a powerful referral program that continues to pay dividends to your business growth.

Consider this –

• Would you remove all web forms and contact numbers from your website?
• Would you only do business if it came through via a referral?

Intrigued?

Then read on to discover how you can successfully craft a referral marketing strategy using a few essential yet proven tactics which don’t require automation or code.

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What is a referral marketing strategy?

Referral marketing is the act of driving traffic from one site to another or creating a link based on social media. This can be used as a way for companies to increase their visibility, engage with new customers and generate sales.

Referral marketing occurs when a business’s customers spread the word about the business’s product or service as opposed to traditional advertising. Word-of-mouth marketing, which occurs when people tell others about a business, also is considered a form of this type of marketing.

Referral marketing definition

Referral marketing is a strategy that relies on recommendations and word-of-mouth to expand a company’s customer base by tapping into the networks of existing clients.

Referral marketing can take many shapes and forms, but at its core, it is a method of recruiting brand champions to assist in spreading the word about your company. In other words, the referral program converts your present consumers into brand ambassadors for your company.

If you offer good products and services they are likely to lead to pleased consumers who would be open to suggesting others to your business. Why not encourage them to spread the word and refer more people?

An official referral marketing campaign will help keep you top of mind with your best clients and create long-term partnerships.

What is a referral marketing program?

A referral marketing program is a business strategy that allows businesses to market their products or services by incentivizing customers with financial rewards for referring friends. The goal of the referral marketing strategy is to increase the number of customers in a business’s database.

Referral marketing benefits

Consider these statistics:

According to Nielsen, 92% of consumers believe suggestions from friends and family more than advertising.

According to research by BrightLocal, 88% of people trust online reviews written by other consumers as much as they trust recommendations from personal contacts.

Research by Ogilvy shows that 74% of consumers identify word of mouth as a key influencer in their purchasing decisions.

McKinsey’s research shows that marketing-induced consumer-to-consumer word of mouth generates more than twice the sales as paid advertising in categories as diverse as skincare and mobile phones.

Simply put the benefits of referral marketing are enormous. Building connections and trust with your customers takes time, but it is well worth the wait. Among our favorite benefits are:

It empowers word-of-mouth

Referral marketing allows for word of mouth to be conducted in a scalable manner. This strategy puts you in front of a wide group of people you could not otherwise reach.

With an automatic referral and incentive system, you can leverage this form of marketing to increase brand exposure.

Fuels audience growth

The aim for marketers is to have the business brought up in conversation because a person shares their experience in using the business’s product or service. If done in a favorable way it puts the business in front of potential high-quality leads.

Why because these potential new customers hear about your business from a source they trust. Therefore they are likely to trust your brand enough to give it a try.

Increases your company’s reach

A program that facilitates referrals is owned media, making it a genuine way to communicate with customers. Once your referral program is set up, it works as a pay-per-performance (PPC) channel.

After the initial setup fees, you only pay incentives when a new client comes in. It also helps you to expand fast because every new customer can lead to several sales.

Increases customer loyalty

Referrals who become new clients are frequently your most devoted champions. You’re already in a positive light when they first hear about you (from a buddy). Encouraging new customers to become repeat customers is easy when you give dual-sided benefits.

Adds another way for customers to engage with your brand

You may already be communicating with your customers via emails, social network platforms, customer success inquiries, etc. However going beyond the base level interaction and thanking your clients, giving them a shout-out in public, etc costs little but yet gives reasons for your clients to refer you.

Creates an efficient low-cost marketing plan with big ROI

Traditional marketing takes time and money. This form of marketing, on the other hand, is a low-cost approach to swiftly spread the word. You are maximizing current connections by engaging existing consumers to assist the market.

What businesses should use referral marketing

This form of marketing is not just for all small businesses or any other type of business. Let’s look at some easy ways to tell whether your business is a good fit for this strategy. Here’s what to look out for:

• You have established social proof
• You offer a great product or service
• You’re active on social platforms
• You have a base of loyal customers
• You have a good reason for customers to refer you

Why is a business to business referral program important?

The higher the price, the greater the risk, and the more difficult it will be to make a decision, particularly in business-to-business marketing. This is especially true when it comes to anything as disruptive as new integration software or a new payment method.

A suggestion from a high-ranking individual will carry a lot of weight when making this type of choice for the organization. It’s something you’re probably going to believe. Not only that, but prospects will approach the organization with greater confidence than if it were just a name they found on Google.

A business-to-business referral eliminates the need to discover and assess new suppliers by providing them with an honest report of how a product and its delivery went.

But the most essential advantage is that it decreases the danger of the unknown, which is vital since everyone wants to make the correct decision.

B2B referral marketing strategy

A B2B referral program is generally more regimented. In addition to lengthier sales cycles, company motives differ from those of individual clients.

Offering a discount or shop credit won’t entice someone who isn’t paying the bill. (B2B referral programs are often known as an affiliate, partner, or reseller programs.) Here are some recommended practices for B2B referral marketing:

Make it simple to send referrals

This is critical for any referral marketing, but notably B2B. Businesses have jobs to perform besides sending you referrals. Keep your recommendation procedure easy. They won’t suggest you if they have to supply too much information or execute too many tasks.

Set the right expectations

It’s crucial to be clear on all details in business agreements. You don’t want an unorganized B2B referral scheme. Assure that all partner agreements are mutually beneficial.

Make the most of automation

Your B2B referral program is probably one of several campaigns your company does. So the simpler your regimen, the more likely you are to stick to it. Using reputable referral software or other marketing tools will also make tracking the program’s success easier.

Optimize your website

Most individuals will conduct some research before contacting your company. You’ll miss out on many prospective leads and partners if you don’t have a beautiful website. The same applies to unprofessional or untrustworthy company websites.

Referral marketing is the ROI of relationships

Why? Watch the video below!

How does this strategy work?

A referral program helps you build a steady stream of new consumers. Your referral marketing approach will succeed if your customers are pleased, your rewards are appealing, and your program is widely publicized.

Let’s take a look at how referral marketing works.

1. Builds social proof

People typically choose behaviors based on other people’s opinions. People seek others for advice on what items to use, where to shop, what to eat, and even what TV series to watch. (This is why great customer evaluations and comments are so crucial, especially when purchasing online.)

People will automatically presume a brand is suitable for them if everyone else is leaning towards it.

Referrals are a form of social proof. They help trust-based purchases by pre-qualifying potential clients.

2. Leverages your influence

People will always share anything if it makes them appear nice or hip. This is where social currency comes in as it refers to your brand’s influence on social networks, online and offline communities, and the degree to which your business is shared by others.

If this form of sharing occurs it is done in a positive light (people won’t share about a brand that makes them appear terrible).

A referral program works because it builds both your brand and reputation because it comes from a reputable source (someone future customers know).

3. Targets your market segment

No one will refer you to every single friend or acquaintance. They only refer you to those who seem to be a good fit for your goods if they are able to determine a need or desire for them. Even if someone posts their referral link on social platforms, only their peers will click. This provides a referral program a natural filter — only those most likely to become customers are suggested.

4. Leverages social media

In our digitally socially connected age, people spend:

• A daily average of 145 minutes on social platforms.
• A Sprout Social survey found that nearly 9 in 10 consumers will buy products from a brand they follow on social platforms.

Why not take advantage of it? If you post on social network platforms regularly you are in effect reaching many people at once. by tapping into the desire of people who are exploring and sharing content, you increase the chances of your content being seen by potential clients.

People may also share a referral post with their own friends, potentially starting a viral sharing loop.

5. Fits in well with asynchronous messaging

Smart marketers realize that quite often the best marketing occurs via asynchronous messaging whether it be via email, in person, or social platforms.

Given the use of technology in asynchronous communication a simple referral message may also be easily added to existing emails. You may include a referral link in a customer’s thank-you email or a tiny banner in your next newsletter.

The 3 essential ingredients of a referral marketing system

• There is unexpected utility in the experiences that you’re providing.
• It’s a meaningful story that sticks in people’s heads.

Steve thinks of the essential ingredient as a trigger. He says:

How to do referral marketing that fits with your customer marketing program?

At its heart, referral marketing is a marketing strategy that uses referrals and word of mouth to expand a company’s client base via the networks of its current consumers. Referral marketing may take various forms, but at its core, it is simply a method of getting your most ardent supporters to help spread the word about your business.

Below are the 11 critical steps to building and implementing referral programs that provide the best chances of success. Each step can help build on the others.

1. Be picky and build the right relationships

Why should you be picky with the targeted audience and relationships you invest in?

Because if you can eliminate 99% of your problems by concentrating on who walks through your front door, you’ll be a much happier person.

The fact is that people make referral decisions the same way they go about making purchasing decisions. According to research and neuroscience, we know that people make decisions based on emotion and then back them up with logic.

So, in order to have you or your business considered as being worthy of a referral, you need to tap the logic and emotion formula—maybe in equal parts. In other words, to build your reputation, people have to believe you can help—that you will show up as promised (logic).

But, they must also feel good about helping you, trust that their friend will be treated well, and like the experience of doing business with you (emotion.) It’s not enough to have a good solution. Businesses that get a lot of referrals have a good solution mixed and make it a fun or unique experience.

This is also why monetary rewards for referrals are poor motivators. It would be better to make your business more likable, more referable, more energetic before you go out and offer any kind of incentive for referrals.

If you believe that your business is in a boring industry with nothing fun about it, get creative. Find ways in which your business can make genuine emotional connections with your clients. Once you have that covered, you can ensure that you make it easy for others to refer you—create tools, provide education, use follow-up systems, etc.

2. Don’t just use incentives but create great experiences for subscribers, prospects, and your customer base.

We know that customer experience plays a crucial role in any business. It makes people take notice. So, when they take notice, they talk about their experiences which in turn causes referrals.

So, creating great experiences for your subscribers, prospects, and customers is crucial for separating yourself from the crowd in the market.

Creating great experiences doesn’t have to break the bank either. Here is how Steve approaches it:

Tip: You can’t create great experiences if your customer interactions aren’t sincere.

For example, Uber, the ride-sharing service, attempts to provide great experiences by providing customers with an incentive. They also top it off by reiterating why their service is great and getting better.

3. Ask people to make referrals—and treat rejection as part of the game.

So many people will not do something for fear of failure, for fear of being laughed at. I don’t care. Yeah, laugh at me every single day. It won’t stir my old-fashioned at five o’clock tonight.

When you make a request and get a “no,” one of two things has happened.

You’ve asked the wrong question or you’ve asked the wrong person.

So you can turn the question around and say, “Well, okay, I know you said ‘no,’ but what if I could do this for you, or your family, or your kids, or your project, would that change the answer?” Nine times out of 10, it would. So, ask the right question in a way that the person cannot answer with a yes or a no.

To do that you need to do research. And by that, we don’t mean conducting research on the internet. Instead, you need to ask why something is important to the person. That is the core reason why people will be invested in doing business with you.

4. Phrase your offer as a request for help.

Steve says that people often think that a referral marketing strategy is passive … that because a business has loads of clients, the clients will refer them.

It doesn’t work that way. You have to incentivize them.

Here’s what you can do: Contact your clients and ask them, “What did I do wrong?” 

And then just shut up.

The question causes a person to think differently as opposed to a question like, “Did you like the product or service?”

People will start saying things like, “Well, you didn’t do anything wrong. You were there on time. You answered my questions. You were alert and responsive. You gave great content to my people. You asked about the people we were going to talk about, so it established your credibility. No, you did everything great.”

And that’s when you turn around and say, “Look, I’m trying to be the best at what I do. So, I needed that information because I want to be good. Thank you very much for that feedback. Now, there is one last thing I wanted to ask you: ‘Which of your 10 friends needs to know that?’”

5. Personalize your interactions and get connected with people you don’t know.

Your referral marketing strategy needs to have a way to build connections with people who do not know of you as yet. To do that you need to establish credibility with them.

Steve says he has never, ever made the first phone call.

Instead, he asks those who are most able to help him – Who is good? 

When you know who is good, ask, “Would you mind making an introduction?”

Because it’s stronger for you to come in under the referee’s wings than it is for you to establish a fresh relationship.

There is always a danger with how you are introduced. Steve minimizes the risk by saying:

“Here’s a link, to this video. Would you mind forwarding it to your friend and introducing me?” And then on the video, he says, “Hey, I’m glad Jeff’s making this introduction, I’m not going to tell you what I’ve done with Jeff, but Jeff will probably tell you a little bit about me. I don’t know if he’s going to leave out the fact that I’ve sent people up into space and I’ve sent people down to the Titanic and pretty much everything in between. But, hey, you can check me out at the link below. Please come back to me and let me know when we can have a talk.”

Steve says you’ve enhanced the introduction by doing it on a video. And I quite often ask for the introduction to be done by text.

Why?

Because people answer texts.

People will ignore emails for three or four days. They never ignore a text, and there’s no such thing as a text junk folder. So always use text.

The link you send them could be to your website or to some page about a project you’ve done. You need to connect it to a relatable experience and say, “Hey I’m looking at doing something with you similar to what I did with XYZ company” and the link shows the work that you did with them.

In showing the work that you did with them you’re basically showcasing the experiences that you create for people and you’re also establishing your credibility. It’s not just talking—you’re already doing it.

6. Increase the chances your content will go viral.

The only time people will share something, is when they believe you’re solving a situation.

Steve suggests the best way to do it is to remove the problem completely. “Removing the problem instead of finding a solution” is Elon Musk’s tactic. He never looks at solving a problem, he looks at why the problem’s there in the first place. If you can start doing that, then all of a sudden, you become an instigator, you become an influencer, and you are a solution.

Here’s an example of removing the problem in a post that Steve shared on LinkedIn.

7. Podcast to build out your referral marketing strategy.

The advantage of having a successful B2B podcast is that it’s a way for people to connect and talk.

Steve asked me, “Had you not had a podcast, under what situation would we have ever met?”

For the listener, it gives them a point of view.

If the listener likes you and resonates with the way that you communicate, they are likely to refer you to someone else. It’s like their best friend nudging you in the ribs when they refer you, going, “Hey, you need to listen to this guy.”

If you’ve got someone that likes you, and you’re sending out an email going, “Hey, you want to listen to Steve Sims, he’s really cool. And remarkably good looking for podcasts.” If you go and say that to someone, they’re gonna say, “Oh, I want to listen to Steve Sims.” Then they may start following me, and the community grows. So, I think podcasting is a great way to get your tonality, your energy, and your vision out—and it’s free.

8. Use speaking opportunities to gain referrals and grow your audience.

Steve uses public speaking opportunities to gain referrals and grow his community while also building out his referral marketing strategy.

His first question when securing a speaking opportunity is – “Who are the people that we’re speaking to? Because we want to benefit them and talk to them in their language.”

He says he doesn’t do anything unless there’s a game plan in place.

He has two goals:

1. To provide actionable items that make you smarter and make you more impactful. This is because he doesn’t see value in being a motivational speaker as opposed to being an activational speaker.
2. To do a great job so that those that he resonates with in the audience will then come to him. A by-product of doing a good job with speaking opportunities is that some in the audience will start following him on Facebook or Instagram. They’ll join his consulting classes, come to his private speakeasy events, they’ll buy his course, etc. In other words, the community will grow, and he is able to get his word out further by people implementing what it is he does.

9. Show appreciation to those that refer you.

People want to be appreciated. So, when those successful referrals do come through show appreciation to those who sent them your way. Consider this: If someone refers you, they aren’t just giving you a compliment. They are going out of their way to help you.

Therefore it only makes sense to thank those that refer people to you. It needn’t entail some grand gesture, but acknowledging their help and informing them of outcomes will serve to reinforce the positive outcomes from their referral.

It’s building these types of deep relationships that will keep you connected with your target market while building out an effective referral marketing program.

10. Focus on both the mission and the numbers.

Dr. Jeff Spencer, in talking about building a champion’s mindset, says is crucial to have a focus on the mission as well as the numbers in business. To ensure your referral marketing strategy boosts your business growth you will need both. In fact, it’s a common reason why salespeople don’t get referral business.

So, create a goal for the number of introductions or referrals that you’d like every week, then create a plan and system to hold yourself accountable. Keeping your goals realistic and using an online calendar and CRM to track your introductions will help. In turn, this will lead to a dramatic increase in sales and business growth.

11. Host exclusive, invitation-only events.

Steve hosts exclusive events on a regular basis like this recent one in light of the Covid-19 situation.

This strategy can be a great way to attract new clients. Sales strategist and best-selling author Marc Wayshak shares more in this video

To make it work for you:

• Ensure that your event feels very exclusive.
• Invite high-level prospects and clients so that your best clients can help sell for you by sharing their experiences.
• Ask everyone in your network for introductions to those who would get value out of your exclusive event.

How to marry your social media marketing strategy and referral reward programs

Yes, referral programs encourage customers to promote your company. Even while social media and referral programs work well together, you can’t just add a social sharing tool to your program and expect maximum distribution.

Follow these top ten social media referral good practices for successful referral campaigns.

1. Enable sharing on platforms your customers frequent most
2. Promote your program regularly on social to mobilize advocates
3. Promote your program in your social media bios
4. Offer double-sided referral rewards
5. Personalize sharing messages with the advocate’s name, message, and profile photo
6. Tailor the referral message to the conventions of each platform
7. Use imagery to your advantage
8. Optimize your program for mobile
9. Spotlight top advocates on social
10. Use referral software for seamless social media integration

Referral marketing software to encourage sharing and managing referral rewards

With software, businesses can become more efficient in implementing their programs by automating the processes of registering, tracking, rewarding, and managing their referring consumers, influencers, and affiliates. By exploiting the power of word-of-mouth marketing, referral software assists marketers in acquiring more of their best clients faster.

Browse through some of the best software listed below to consider what would work best for you:

• Advocately
• Friendbuy
• Hello Referrals
• InviteReferrals
• InviteBox
• Genius Referrals
• Amplifinity
• Ambassador
• Referral SaaSquatch
• Revetize
• Referral Factory
• Referral Candy
• VYPER
• Referral Rock
• Extole
• Mention Me
• ReferralMagic

Referral marketing ideas

To help you create your own referral system, we put together this list of ideas. Use them as inspiration to build a unique and exciting referral system.

1. Leverage Social Gifting – Social gifting is a unique referral concept because it doesn’t reward the referrer. Instead, the entire reward goes to the referred friend.
2. Reward with a Mystery Gift
3. Reward with a Charity Donation
4. Create a Referral Contest
5. Reward with Store/Subscription Credit
6. Reward with an Upgraded Product or Service
7. Optimize the headline of your referral offer
8. Make Your Program prominent and easy to find
9. Retarget Your Customers
10. Use software to reduce the friction of customers referring your business

Types of referral marketing

Think that direct referrals or word of mouth are the only way to get referrals. Well, the good news is that there are 4 other ways to get referrals. Let’s look at these along with actual referral marketing examples

1. Email referrals

Many businesses now utilize email marketing to update clients about news, specials, and other items.

Email marketing is not only popular but also effective. According to one study, 73% of customers prefer email to connect with brands.

Example: Dropbox

The early version of the company’s homepage is a great example of using email marketing to generate email referrals. As you can see above a simple email marketing template may be quite powerful.

• The big headline makes it obvious what Dropbox referrers get.
• The text field also allows individuals to quickly enter their referrals’ names or email addresses.
• The bold blue send button makes for a terrific call-to-action.

2. Incentive-based referrals

Brands should regularly reward customers and business partners for recommendations. Incentive-based referral systems reward consumers for referring friends.

Traditionally, corporations provided discounts or gift cards for referrals. Due to the popularity of digital incentives, most firms now provide them.

If you want to go the extra mile, create a scheme that benefits both parties. For example, a current client can get a 15% discount for suggesting a friend to the firm, and the same discount can be extended to the friend’s recommendation.

Example: Tesla

Tesla Motors is a household name in technology and energy like Nikola Tesla the inventor the company was named after, is futuristic, innovative, and polarising.

Despite that, Tesla has the highest customer satisfaction rating of any automotive manufacturer in the world at 89 out of 100. How?

By rewarding referrals with anything other than just product discounts, Musk capitalized on his consumers’ loyalty in 2016. To capitalize on the program’s success, Tesla ended Phase 9 in March 2019 and launched Phase 10 in April 2019.

A tour of Tesla’s plant and an invitation to the grand opening celebration (5 QRs), followed by the right to acquire a Founder Series Model X, which wasn’t accessible to the public, were all available to Tesla owners who made early referrals (10 QRs). The first ten customers in North America, Europe, and Asia got a complimentary Model X SVU from Tesla.

Referee Rewards: Tesla owners may provide up to ten US$1,000 discounts to friends via referrals.

Results: Tesla’s second referral program generated almost 42x return on every dollar invested, with referrals accounting for 25% of sales in Q4 2015.

As of 2019, successful referrers can get 1,000 miles (1,500 km) of free Supercharging when a new Tesla is purchased with their referral code. The company is also rewarding effective referrers with a monthly Model Y or quarterly Roadster supercar.

What they did right: Tesla has created a fervent evangelical attitude. To reward Tesla owners who already love the brand and their vehicles, the program offered benefits that were actually beneficial to their customers. For each successful recommendation, they provide free supercharging, and they employ tiered benefits to encourage repeat referrals.

3. Referrals from reviews

Reviews (preferably positive ones, of course) are a great method to promote your company, establish social proof, and get referrals at the same time.

You’ll need to create and claim pages on relevant review websites first (Google, Yelp, etc). You don’t have to wait for reviews to come in. Instead, start asking customers for reviews. You might also use NPS software to gauge client satisfaction.

During this period, your loyal customers are likely to finish these reviews. Others may require more persuasion. Consider rewarding consumers who submit reviews with discounts, free products/services, or even loyalty points.

Note – Avoid “gaming the system” by buying phony reviews or requesting just good ratings. Review sites are quite adept at detecting questionable conduct and penalizing or removing accounts accordingly.

Example: Zendesk

Zendesk provides customer service software. It also knows how to use reviews as recommendations. A customer story is what Zendesk considers reviews rather than a conventional review template. It is also a corporation that understands how to use client feedback as referrals.

Each story includes a detailed description of the client’s difficulties and how Zendesk helped them overcome them. Zendesk publishes these stories in a lovely style that displays the Zendesk service each firm employs and how these products helped them. In other words, these are stories that help potential clients understand what to anticipate after employing Zendesk.

4. Referrals via social network platforms

With most people spending an increasing amount of time on social media platforms it only makes sense to use it to your advantage.

To reach their whole network, a person suggesting your business to others (via one on one conversations) will likely take time. With social media, all it takes is one share to instantaneously reach your whole audience. Just imagine how many direct referrals happen when a devoted client clicks the share button.

Example: Google workspace

Google, Workspace offers a set of productivity and collaboration tools.

How Google encourages referrals

Refer a friend and receive a one-time incentive for each sign-up. Up to 200 new Google Workspace users each year.

Why it works

To begin, the referral program section was able to describe the program in three straightforward stages. The symbols keep things interesting while providing visual cues for understanding the instructions.

This is the website you receive when you click a Google Workspace referral link:

What’s in it for him? Google Workspace outlines in a few terms how their technologies may improve their life. Undeniably, the proposition is enticing. The brief flash film on the right also shows how the tools may enhance your professional life.

Start your referral program

We know that referral marketing is a powerful way to build an audience and grow your business. But no one can encourage your future customers to buy from you more than their peers and friends.

Having said that your referral program needs to be systematic and smart to have the right impact.

The problem is that most people have misconceptions about referral marketing … or they simply don’t know how to go about setting up referral campaigns to get the referrals they need.

As we have seen, experiences—not cash— are key to gaining referrals. Research backs this up. Non-cash incentives were found to be 24% more effective than cash incentives.

The points we’ve outlined in this blog post should get you started on the path of using it as a strategy for success. If there are any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We have experts who can help you craft a plan that leverages these principles so you can see your referral numbers soar.

Have any tips or tricks from personal experience? Share them with other readers by leaving a comment below!

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Listen to the Podcast Episode with Steve Sims

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Some topics we discussed include:

• How Steve defines a referral marketing strategy
• How to gain referrals the right way
• Why referral marketing is the ROI of relationships
• How to embed utility in a referral strategy based on relationships
• The secret to creating viral content
• Why social platforms are not social
• Why you should invest in podcasting as part of your referral marketing strategy
• How to use public speaking opportunities to build your audience and connections
• and much much more

Links and resources mentioned

• Check out the Bluefish
• Check out Steve Sims site and Steve’s inner circle membership – Sims Distillery
• Get a copy of Bluefishing – The Art of Making Things Happen

Connect with Steve

• LinkedIn

Subscribe to & Review the Predictable B2B Success Podcast

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