Referrals help your insurance agency grow. If your customers are happy with your agency, you may be wondering why they aren't referring more people.

When seeking referrals, many agents get it wrong by directly asking for a referral, including a “refer me" button or hyperlink in their email signature block, or offering an incentive for a referral, such as a $20 gift card.

In most instances, most people don't know which of their friends are currently shopping for insurance, so asking directly for a referral is unlikely to lead to new business. Additionally, people rarely look at email signatures unless they're scanning for a phone number, so you can't rely on your email signature to generate referrals. While gift cards are effective at showing appreciation after clients refer others to you, they should never be used as the incentive for someone to send a client your way.

Instead, here are four much more effective ways to help your agency get more referrals:

1) Find your promoters. Many of your clients are willing to recommend you, but you need to identify which ones. Send a simple survey, such as the Net Promoter Score® (NPS) survey, to see which clients are most likely to recommend your insurance agency to a friend or colleague. Once you know which clients are your biggest promoters, you can ask them to leave a review and continue to remind them you're there for their friends and family.

2) Thank your referral sources. Sending a thank you card to customers who bring you new clients significantly increases the chances they will keep referring people to you because they feel seen and appreciated. If you don't thank your referral sources, it makes it seem like you didn't notice or care, and they won't be as likely to recommend you again.

Additionally, when a prospect requests a quote, be sure to ask who referred them and let them know you want to send that person a thank you card. This immediately shows you appreciate referrals and take care of your promoters.

3) Send handwritten cards throughout the year. How would you feel if a business sent you a handwritten, personalized card? We bet it would make you smile and you'd visit that business again. You'd probably also show that card to a friend or two.

Clients who receive a welcome card are much more likely to refer you to family, friends and colleagues. Sending welcome cards to new clients makes them nine times more likely to leave a Google review, according to internal ClientCircle data.

A birthday card is another great reminder you're thinking about your clients on their special day and is something they might just mention to family and friends. But don't forget special occasions other than birthdays where a handwritten card has the same effect, such as anniversaries, graduations and other important milestones.

Holidays are also one of the biggest opportunities to impress your clients and create a memorable experience they'll want to tell others about. As their email inbox is flooded with promotional holiday emails, their physical mailbox is your opportunity to stand out.

4) Make it easy for prospects to get in touch. Everyone has their own communication style, but not having an easy way to get in contact with you can create an unnecessary barrier to writing new business.

Make yourself available on a variety of platforms, including email, phone, text, web chat, Google messages and Facebook Messenger. The more convenient the onboarding process is for someone, the more likely they are to purchase a policy and refer others to you.

Brooke Eaton is marketing communications specialist at ClientCircle. This article was originally published on the Trusted Choice^® blog.