Key Takeaways
Web hosting can be pretty lucrative, but it’s already a crowded market. A single interaction or experience can make or break why a customer decides to go with you. But those who do end up staying are the ones who are more likely to recommend their experience to someone else.
In fact, word of mouth and referrals are among the most popular ways people choose a business. Nielsen says that 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family over any other form of advertising. So if you already have a customer base and want to grow it, the key is getting your existing customers to refer.
OK, great. And how do you do that? Ask web hosting giant hosting.com, and they’ll tell you they believe that your customers are your biggest asset to gaining more.
“When a new customer is introduced to us by someone they already trust, the conversation starts from a very different place,” Olly Feldman, hosting.com’s Global Head of Sales, told HostingAdvice. “It’s less about convincing and more about understanding how we can help them succeed.”
That last point is an important one. When a customer arrives from a referral, they are automatically a different kind of customer. The buyer’s journey usually starts out with learning about a brand’s existence, but there are many steps between that and the final decision-making dealbreaker. Referrals take almost everything out of the middle because there’s a level of trust already there.
And statistics suggest that may turn into long-term benefits, too. Referred customers also have a 37% higher retention rate and can deliver up to 16% higher lifetime value. Now, it’s not to say that word-of-mouth is everything; organic search still drives more than half of all traffic, but conversion rates are low whereas referral leads often convert three-to-five times more than baseline groups.
The problem is actually motivating your existing customers to recommend you to others. Although 83% of people are willing to refer after a positive experience, only 29% actually do.
It’s also why hosting.com has its own referral program.
Take notes, fellow providers — this is a type of lead hunting, but is instead putting the work in their customer’s hands. And most of the time, the customers are more than happy to oblige. And it’s smart what they’re doing: its Refer a Friend program offers $130 for every successful referral. The referral gets $20, too, so there’s something in it for everyone.
Feldman told us that he and hosting.com’s Head of Content, Daphne Monro, will cover more of these strategies during a livestream next month, “The Real Impact of Word of Mouth on Modern Businesses,” on April 14 at 2 p.m. EST / 11 a.m. PST — from the top of the sales funnel all the way through long-term customer relationships.
If you’re curious about how to get more out of your existing customers, you can sign up for hosting.com’s webinar for free.
