With the advent of social media, it’s easy for donors to share, like and promote their favourite charity. But how do you make your charity stand above any of the other worthy causes? Certain elements are necessary in acquiring new long-lasting donors. Those elements are incentives, trust and perception.

By using VouchFor, you can easily increase your donor list by using past donors to vouch for your charity. The system is perfect for recommendation and referrals, so instead of catering to a business why wouldn’t the same apply to charity?

Incentives

Let’s face it- in a world of instant gratification people are always looking for the next incentive, or a material reason for ‘why’ they should do something.  If you feel that charities shouldn’t need incentives, there are many different kind of incentives- you just have to find the right one that works for your client base.

From a charity standpoint, incentives can be something materialistic (charity paraphernalia), something intellectual (newsletter, magazine subscription) or even philanthropic (such as donations being matched by a company).

For a charity, you can use a variety of these incentives in different campaigns; it doesn’t always have to be the same method. It’s versatile enough that you can offer to match a regular donor’s donation if they bring in a referral, and you can offer them a t-shirt (or something else tangible). This allows the recipient to feel good about donating to your charity, and will be able to promote proudly their material they received by donating.

Trust

By not cold-calling and using donors who are already passionate about the cause, they are building trust for your company by vouching for it to their friends. Their friends do not have to feel obligated, put on the spot or pressured, as they would feel when being cold-called.

The system is easy- an email from their friend allows them to make a decision that may be beneficial to them, or their philanthropic needs. No one knows can accurately predict why people do or do not donate, but you are merely establishing trust, so why not your charity?

For example, you didn’t pay millions of dollars for a tv commercial, you used a close friend of mine passionate about the cause. Who would be a better advocate than my friend?

Perception

For this category much relies on the way your company handles itself online. Is it professional? Is it easy to refer and share with friends and family? Is it incessantly pushing for donations?

With VouchFor, you can take care of the last part. Referring people doesn’t have to feel pressured, thus improving the quality of the referral. Only people interested in referring will go through with it- no pressure. A simple retractable side-bar shows viewers the options of referring, then tucks itself away until scrolled over. Don’t want to refer? You just navigate the site as you already would.

These are just some of the ways you can increase your donations for your charity, but remember- a good cause will always trump a good marketing plan- but why not use both?

In order to navigate better, the articles have been divided by class, with the name of the article and brief description. There are tons of books and articles on word of mouth and referral marketing, so these are just a taste of the knowledge out there. Enjoy and hopefully these articles help you to increase your word of mouth!

Word of Mouth

Infographic: The Word and the World of Customers

This is easily the best illustrated and most current infographic on word of mouth statistics and customer perception. It really puts the value of word of mouth in perspective for business.

Word of Mouth Marketing

This article is simply illustrated to show you how word of marketing works as a business. It takes you through the procedure of establishing trust as a brand in order for word of mouth to function.

Referral Marketing Ideas

Referral Marketing Ideas

This is a great article taking you through some ideas to increase your referrals. Additionally, the website has other articles on referral marketing if you want to research more on how increase referrals as a marketing strategy.

Referral Marketing Ideas

Although this article carries the same title, this one takes you through a step-by-step process of how to increase your referrals with further articles on topics such as ‘Facebook Marketing’ in order to better help you.

Put the Power of Referrals to Work for Your Business

This in depth article explains the process of how referrals function, and gives pointers on getting referrals to work for your business.

Building Up Your Referrals

7 Sure-Fire Ways to Build Your Referral Business

This illustrates 7 ways to increase your referrals, with related articles listed helpfully for perusal.

5 Keys to Building Referral Business

This is a great article because it points out the most important factors of the referral business. Without these keys, you won’t be able to unlock the keys of referrals!

10 Tips on How to Build Your Referral Network

This is a more personal article giving 10 easy tips on how to get your referral network started.

Social Media and Referrals

Social Media Referrals

This is a wonderful chart that shows you the percentage of social media referrals. If you are deciding to use social media to increase your referrals, definitely have a look at this chart!

Want to generate social media referrals or connections? Make them first.

This articles talks about social media and how having positive reviews can increase traffic to your website. It also talks about how engaging customers is key to getting people talking.

Learn From Others

It is important to learn from the success of other businesses and also avoid making their mistakes. These articles will really get the ball rolling and help you generate ideas for your business.

Once you have discovered your word of mouth marketing strategy, take a look at our tools and let them help you transform your ideas into a reality.

Having a personal referral system is great because you have complete control over the discounts you want to reward your new and current customers, without falling victim to the discount. Since it’s personalized, you aren’t paying for what you aren’t using, and you are not at the mercy of what other businesses want to offer. You are your own boss!

Referrals are a part of every business model, and by focusing on increasing your referrals, you are investing in new customers, as well your current customers. Just knowing that referrals are part of every business puts you ahead, because you can now target, expand and harness your referrals! All of this can be done online, in harmony with your pre-existing website. This way, referrals are easy to track and you can view for yourself how sales are increasing, and from whom!

How It Works

When a current customer visits your page, they will get the opportunity to vouch for your company, if they choose to. The choice to refer isn’t being forced on the customer like other marketing methods. By allow the customer to choose to refer, the referral will be much more honest.

When the current customer vouches for your company it will allow them to access the reward (that you determine) if their referral goes through. The new customer will also have an incentive (that you determine) that creates likelihood of the transaction going through.

“…that’s the part I like the best being able to see who referred who, I can now see my best advocate clients within Vouchfor’s reporting interface.”

-Silvina Pica, Mercedes-Benz Canada

It’s easy to incorporate into your marketing strategy, and the trackability makes it simple to follow-up or focus more on generate more referrals.

For Future Use

This system is great because it’s so versatile- you have the opportunity to change the reward and incentive and make them part of your promotions. In future marketing campaigns, you can increase the reward temporarily in order to remind current customers about the program, incite your new customers to refer, or just to show your appreciation for their referrals.

Basically, new customers get a deal, current customers get rewarded, and your business gets a sale! How can this not be the ultimate win-win?

Try it out for yourself today!

Related articles:

• Your Referral Marketing Solution
• How to Effectively Use Discounts in Online Marketing
• 5 Ways to Increase Your Word of Mouth By Engaging Customers