Referral Marketing

Referral marketing is a term used by Think Web Marketing to describe the process of identifying and managing websites other than search engines, to drive additional traffic to your site. Referring sites can be identified by industry, location or demographics (lifestyle). The primary objective of referral marketing is to drive high quality traffic from sources other than search engines. However, as mentioned in the Search Engine Optimisation section, referral marketing is also the basis of strategic link building and over time can help increase your site's search engine rank.

In selecting possible referrers, Think Web Marketing looks specifically at the referring site's target market, traffic levels, search engine visibility and usability as key drivers. We also assess the expected ROI, based on referrer site costs. We manage all liaison and technical set-up and once the referring site begins driving traffic, we monitor the volume and quality of the traffic to your site. In this way your referral marketing program is continually optimised.

Referrers By Industry

An excellent way to develop referring traffic is to target your industry online. Real Estate is a good example of a highly evolved online-industry with ample opportunity for referral traffic. Carlton International targets international clients buying luxury real estate on the French Riviera. As part of their referral marketing program we have identified high quality, non-competing property directories and portals that deliver quality traffic at a reasonable cost-per-visitor. Shopping portals is another example of a targeted traffic source for e-commerce sites. For example, we have harnessed traffic from the major French shopping portals to drive traffic and sales for Power Plate France. In highly competitive online markets such as real estate or shopping, this second-tier approach to capturing traffic is proving extremely successful.

Referrers By Location

Referral traffic can also be targeted by location; by country, region, or city. For example, Azur-Online rents holiday apartments in Cannes. However, by searching for "holiday apartments" on English (.com), French (.fr) and Russian (.ru) search engines, Think Web Marketing identified relevant country-specific sites to drive "holiday apartment" traffic to www.azur-online.com. These country-specific search engines were chosen because these countries currently send the best converting traffic. Local directories and websites are another source of location traffic. These sites are identified by searching on city, or region-specific terms. Other obvious sources of locally-generated traffic include partner, client or supplier websites that are frequently overlooked in a referral program.

Referrers By Lifestyle

Referral traffic from lifestyle sites is typically for clients with large budgets driving brand awareness. Placement is usually in the form of traditional online advertising, although highly visual, making use of rich media and following online trends in video streaming.

If you would like us to devise and implement a referral marketing program for your site, please contact us.