Referral marketing is very popular these days. This is simply because it uses the very sleek and easy 'word of mouth' technique to promote services and products. As such, you will no longer need to spend cash unnecessarily on advertisements. Grow referrals and grow your business at the same time. This is true, provided that you have the right techniques in building and expanding your referral network.

Firstly, you will need to get an idea of how to build a referral network. The referral network would refer to the mass people that are already your customers, or clients. They understand who you are, what you do and what you company or product is like. These are the people that you rely on, to refer other people who might be interested with your product and services. If you are able to create a very powerful referral network, then you will have no problem with a good flow of referrals in time to come. This is the ticket way out to creating a database of customers, fast!

The magic of client building lies in your ability to keep the new and old customers updated with your company or product. Send them flyers or emails to update them now and then. If you do this regularly, your customers will recognize you and know who to look for when they are looking for that particular product of yours. This should all be part of your business strategy.

Using a referral card is yet another solution. 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 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 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.

The key idea here is to keep in touch with your customers at all times. You do not have to meet them face to face in order to feel the connection. Just keep them updated with your new products and who knows, they might not buy your product today, but maybe they will buy it tomorrow, or even the day after. If you make your presence felt, your customers will recognize you and they will immediately know who to contact when they are looking for that product of yours.

Getting referrals can really give your business a boost. If your customers are happy, so will your referrals be. This is the desired domino effect. Do this right, and customers will be loyal to you for the rest of your life.