Your healthcare marketing referral program is responsible for generating leads, so why not make it simple and easy for people to find it?
In the overwhelming world of digital marketing, it can be difficult to find the right way to increase the visibility of your referral program. When you’re trying to generate leads from a referral program the best way to do that is to implement a variety of different visibility tactics and track your successes.
In order to increase the visibility of your treatment center’s referral program online, try out a combination of these 12 tips and you’ll increase the likelihood of your program being seen by your target audience.
Let’s walk through the 12 strategies.
Creating a landing page to your referral program (i.e. yoursite.com/referral) can be an extremely lucrative way for you to increase the visibility of your referral program.
Guys at Sober living home Chapter House Recovery showcase its awesome referral program for both ‘Friends & Families’ and ‘Professionals’. Making it super easy to find everything you need to learn about their referral guidelines and terms.
You aren’t just going out and finding ways to convert people via forums or blogs, you’re giving them a place to go.
Your landing page should implement a few key characteristics of a successful referral page in order to push the most conversions possible including things like a call to action, a strong header, or a clearly communicated offer.
Make that referral page extremely welcoming and transparent so that when your target clients click, they are convinced to convert.
Online marketers spend a lot of time sending out emails, so why not have your email signature carry its weight a little bit?
Adding a link to your email signature will increase the visibility of your referral program in a much more nuanced and subtle way.
Here is another great option:
(Image Credit: www.yesware.com )
Every time you send an email or someone forwards your email to someone else, your link is now in their inbox. While this may not be the best tactic if it’s all you’re doing to increase the visibility of your referral program, it’s great as a paired tactic with other measures.
But wait!
You don’t have to start from scratch.
There’s apps for that as well!
Here are three free email signature generators you can use to supercharge your email signatures.
a. htmlsig
htmlsig can save you time if you need to create signatures for your entire business or team. You can easily send them a link where they fill out only what you need and use in the signature for their emails.
b. Wise Stamp
WiseStamp is for anyone who wants to create an email signature that will drive recipients to websites and recent work.
These drag-and-drop signatures are easy to customize and can be used on Gmail, Google Apps for Work, Office365, Yahoo, Hotmail, and AOL.
c. New Old Stamp
If you’re looking for more unique design options, try out New Old Stamp. They have more than 10x professionally crafted signature templates to choose from.
3. Newsletter
Including your referral program in your newsletter is a great way to get that information in the hands of people that you’ve already created a connection with in terms of your newsletter email list. The entire idea of the newsletter is to relay information, so why not include information about your referral program? Stretch your online design muscles by making sure you include a blurb or a graphic that will encourage clickability, but adding the information to your newsletter will definitely increase the visibility of your referral program online – and the more visible the more likely you’ll get conversions.
(Image Credit: Smartblogger.com )
Leaving positive comments on a potential referrers blog is a great way to make a connection and increase visibility in a conversational way. Drop by a greet the author and give them a genuine compliment for their hard work.
Just make sure you’re not just commenting for the sake of promoting your own agenda. Take it to the next level by adding value to their original topic. Because if your comment doesn’t add value, it’s wasting everyone’s time.
Kevin Duncan from Be A Better Blogger, wrote a great guide on ‘How to Write Comments That Open Doors with Popular Bloggers‘. Highly recommend you read this before starting the blog commenting strategy.
5. Promote Your Referral Program on Social Media
Share. Share. Share.
If you have some social media presence and/or your treatment center been actively engaging and connecting with your audience, why not take advantage and share your referral page link!
Remember, don’t be afraid to ask for referral!
Is all about utilizing your leverage on social media presence to post a link and encourage people to refer.
Post a link to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and any other form of social media you use. Post the stand-alone referral program page link with your weekly blurb or special offer.
Don’t embed the referral page link on important message or social interaction updates. Only promote your referral program every month or every two weeks. You don’t want to overdo it.
Social presence and encouraging social shares is what your social media platform is for, so be sure to use it as a tool to promote visibility for your referral program.
6. Hijack Thread
Offering a pragmatic solution to someone’s problem is a great way to promote yourself and increase your chance of conversion.
Hijacking a thread involves finding unhappy customers in your niche and reaching out to them. You can find them on competitor social media accounts, blog comments, review websites, or complaint threads.
These people are looking for a service, found one, and were unsatisfied with it. Offer them an apology for their troubles and a suggestion to remedy the service they were seeking.
7. Encourage Reviews for your Referral’s Service
Whenever you find yourself speaking to a customer, encourage them to leave a review of your service. Especially if you’re speaking to them and they are thanking you for your service, thank them for their kind words and ask if they’d mind sharing their experience on your social media page.
Utilize emails to customers and include a section asking if they would mind leaving a review and link to the place you’d like that to happen. On a receipt, in person, in an email, in a direct message, or with a phone call, contact that customer and encourage a review. It tells the customer that you value their opinion, good or bad.
Other customers love reading reviews, and the more positive reviews you get the more trusting you will seem to them.
Give a shout out to your supporters!
Your referrers are your bread and butter, so be sure you are thanking them.
Whether they are mentioning you on Facebook or not, tag them and thank them for their referral and tell them you’re happy that they had such a positive experience with your brand.
Doing this shows others that you care about communicating with your customers and that you’re involved in the people that support you. Not only will this increase your visibility, it will increase the likelihood for others to refer your service as well. Thanking them encourages them to mention you to others.
Despite how long we’ve had Craigslist as an online service and how many alternatives there are, many people still utilize Craigslist to find local jobs, items, and services.
Promote the visibility of your referral program online by posting your service or your referral page on Craigslist.There are so many different niches and categories on this platform, you may even find a few different areas of Craigslist to post. And the more posts the more visible you’ll be.
Guest posting is a great way to promote the visibility of your referral program online because it shares many of the perks associated with blogging. You’re offering great content from a source that knows the topic.
It’s promotion that isn’t advertorial and, instead, offers readers information that is well-written and reputable.
The great aspect about guest posting is that you’re borrowing that blog’s readership and increasing your visibility in that way. By writing about a topic relating to your services and linking to your website in your author bio you’re showing your credentials along with increasing your SEO value across the web.
A press release starts with something newsworthy about your business and knowing how to promote yourself in a newsy way. There’s no guarantee that a press release will be published, so be sure to write something that agencies will want to publish – something that readers will be interested in.
Some newsworthy topics include opening a new location, providing a new type of therapy, celebrating an anniversary, receiving awards, announcing a partnership, expansion, announcing results of research, rising above adversity, or announcing a public appearance on television or the radio.
By including a referral link within the press package, you’re promoting your business to a bigger audience and increasing your referral program’s visibility.
12. Host a Webinar
Hosting a webinar is a great way to generate leads and reach viewers in an entirely new way. It’s not the traditional blog, newsletter, or press release – it’s a tech-forward approach to reaching people that more and more companies are adopting worldwide.
It offers free learning and more connections in a field of interest for those watching, and a list of people interested in your service for you.
Find a topic popular in your niche and speak on it in a webinar for about an hour and encourage collaboration from those watching. Encourage debate, conversation, and sharing experiences among those watching and create a dialogue on your topic.
Not only are you finding leads, you’re also creating higher visibility among interested parties.
