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Small Business Referral Program: Best Ideas for Food, Hospitality, and Other Industries

Anthony Taylor August 13, 2020
Small Business Referral Programs lead to success

As digital marketing continues to take hold in the business world, now is the perfect time to implement a small business referral program for your restaurant, food, or hospitality company. Referral programs encourage your loyal customers to support your business with the effectiveness of word-of-mouth advertising. Food referral programs for your company—whether a restaurant, meal delivery program, subscription box service, or other food/hospitality-related business—can help you achieve success as you inspire repeat customers and welcome new ones. 

Creating a great referral program requires targeting your audience and incentivizing them effectively. There is no one-size-fits-all program. Your food or hospitality business is unique, so your referral program will need to be just as unique to get customers excited and sharing your business. 

Here are some tips on developing your own referral program for your business:

Tips and Ideas to Create Your Food or Hospitality Referral Program

Positive customer referrals grow your small business

Your first step is understanding your customers and what they love. For example, if you have an online business, your referral program could look quite different from one that would work for a brick and mortar establishment. Influencers and a unique app may perform well in both instances; whereas, a neighborhood restaurant might find success using a punch card while an online business may discover social media giveaways are most effective. 

As you develop your referral program for your food or hospitality business, these steps can help:

  1. Get Your Customers’ Attention – A simple, catchy headline can quickly grab customer attention. Capturing this attention and explaining the benefits of joining your referral program in a single sentence will get customers excited about participating, learning more about the program, and sharing it with others. Headlines such as the following can generate good attention, especially when dollar amounts are clear:
    1. Give $20, Get $20
    2. Refer and Receive
    3. Let’s Help Each Other – Share and Get $25
  2. Promote Your Program – Create distinctive campaigns throughout the year with new promotions that match special events and holidays. With a constant program that offers dynamic themes and promotions, you can keep your customers referring all year long. Lots of holidays throughout the year, business milestone celebrations, and non-traditional events such as National Pizza Day can help keep your food and hospitality business promotions fresh and exciting!
  3. Design a Professional Landing Page for Your Referral Program – You’ll want an exclusive  landing page for your referral program. It should be professional and easy to read. Keeping it simple means explaining the basics of your program briefly with lots of images of your offerings and their rewards. For the details, add a FAQ link which offers answers to questions about the promotion, such as how to earn rewards and when they are delivered. 
  4. Generate Excitement – Use genuine, attention-grabbing images of your products and services in tandem with the rewards your program offers to generate excitement among your customers. Great pictures entice your customers and invite them to share them with friends. As the famous saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words!” Great food and beverage images of your offerings – restaurant exclusives, drink specials, meal prep kits – create excitement!
  5. Refer a Friend – One of the easiest ways to begin a referral program is with a refer-a-friend program. Offering rewards for sharing with friends on social media or when those referred friends make purchases is a great way to thank your customers and show your appreciation in a tangible way. With great rewards available, loyal customers will happily share and engage in the process. If you add a reward for the friend who was referred as well, you’ll continue growing your list of loyal customers too!
  6. A Discoverable Referral Program – Your customers need to be able to find your referral program with ease. It should appear as a link on your website and blog, along with your email marketing program and social media marketing, and any other method of communication you use. If your food or hospitality organization is a brick and mortar establishment, make sure to put the effort in to communicate your program to visiting customers and those utilizing delivery. Your referral program should be easily discoverable everywhere – emails, thank-yous, confirmations, invoices, fliers, signs, menus, etc. 

Getting Started with Your Food Business or Hospitality Industry Referral Program Today!

Word-of-mouth marketing is great for small business

With these tips and ideas, you can start your referral program for your food or hospitality business today. And remember if you need assistance Perxi can help! Reach out today and let’s get your business growing!

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