Everyone knows that referrals are simply the best way to expose your business to even more customers. Referrals that come from loyal customers are highly recommended, as it is usually easier to make customers trust products when a friend recommends it to them.

It is stated that up to 40% of business owners believe that referrals have helped them to reap the most profits compared to other conventional marketing techniques such as direct mail and advertising. However, you will need to adopt a specific technique in order to get as much referrals as possible. One method that you can use is by using referral cards. Understanding how using referral cards work in your business can effectively increase profits.

The type of referral technique you should use depends largely on your customers. For any business, the best resource is the customer who has already done business with them. This customer will be the one who provides return business, and refers new businesses.

Using a referral card is just one of these solutions. A referral card is simply a card that entails various discounts and promotions when the customer adds a new customer's name to it.

As such, along with the referral cards, you can conduct a referral contest if you want to.

What you can do is to distribute a supply of cards to your loyal customers. These cards can also be given out to their family and friends. You can choose to use your business card with a rubber stamp that is designed to stamp this statement at the back of the card:

"Send in a friend and you will get a 40% discount voucher for each new customer who brings this card in."

You can also include a grand prize for those customers who send in the most referrals. You can also use the lucky draw method whereby a card is drawn at the end of the promotion. The prize would then go to both the new customer and the referral.

If you worry that your "contest" would not receive any kind of support, then you can choose to publicize this contest, although it is not necessary on most occasions. You can put a big sign or banner outside your store or somewhere along the road where people will get a good view of it.

You can also use another technique, via thank you cards, anniversary cards and birthday cards as referral cards. These kinds of cards are very useful as it is just like killing two birds with a stone. You can keep you customers happy by sending them a birthday card on their birthdays, and also get referrals at the same time!

For example, you can send out referral birthday cards online wishing them a happy birthday and stating the promotion that they received as a birthday gift from you. But the main purpose of the card is to get referrals so what you can do at the back of the card is to include something like, "Bring along 2 or more friends and enjoy a further discount of 20%!"

Referral cards are just one of the few techniques that is used in referral marketing. It is however a very sleek technique that businesses all over the world use to get as much customers as possible without the need to spend a bomb on costly advertisements.

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