More Referrals?

 

 

The Ultimate Referral System Webinar

“If You Only Had $500 In Your Budget and You Needed To Double Your Customers, What Would You Spend It On?”

I’ve been asked that exact same question hundreds of times from business owners who are frustrated with their marketing results.

My simple answer is, “Referral Marketing!”

In a study done by our company with 2,134 small business owners, we found that over 55% said that they received the highest return on their investment from referral marketing. Referrals are the lifeblood of your small business. You know it and I know it. Without referrals, our businesses would dry up and blow away.

That’s why I’ve developed the “Referral Marketing Best Practices Webinar.” This is a one hour webinar in which I share with you what the best referral marketers are doing to generate more referrals. I want to invite YOU to attend one of my webinars.

If you’ve been frustrated with your ability to get more referrals or to motivate your clients and customers to talk about you, then you must attend this webinar.

It’s not too late to register for tomorrow’s event - Wednesday January 30, 2008 at 1 pm Pacific (3 pm Central, 4 pm Eastern)

We will be using GoToMeeting for the Webinar. Go here to register for this fr.ee event: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/893400884

There will be a special bonus announced at the end of the event. You don’t want to miss this.

The Ultimate Referral System Series

Today on www.GetMoreBusinessPodcast.com  we covered part one of a series of shows on The Ultimate Referral Marketing System.

We covered several “best practices” of what makes a good “intentional” referral marketing plan that you can predict a steady flow of referrals from when you’re offering a quality product or service.

Even if you’re a superior technician in you business there is no guarantee of referral business if you don’t have a system in place to generate referrals.

In this series I give you all the secrets - well, today was just part one of all the secrets used by the all the “business by referral” gurus.

Join me in a live webinar where I cover all the best practices and strategies for this gold mine marketing technique by sending me your information below so I can send you the date and time of the event.

When you attend the Live Webinar “The Ulitmate Referral System” I will send you a 2008 Referral Marketing Plan that you can use as a guide to help you prepare your own personalized system for getting all the referrals you can handle.

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Other related reading

• Referrals out-pacing advertisng 10-1?!

The Power of Business “Thank You” Notes

Dale Carnagie said “You can make more friends in two months by becoming more interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you”

Let me say that another way…The same is true of business as with friendship. You will earn more business by being interested in other peoples lives than you can by trying to get people interested in your product or service.

Sending Thank you cards is a very powerful marketing tool. I quickly Googled how many books had references to the sending of Thank you Cards to build business. Here’s a summary of what I found:

Here’s a quote from Make Million$ Selling Real Estate: Earning Secrets of Top Agents By Jim Remley

…when I do receive these cards or letters in the mail, they are something that I stop and read. Even when I am busy, tired or stressed out, I put what I’m doing aside and stop to read what someone took the time to write me in longhand. A Thank You card is special.

For this reason, by far the most powerful of any mailing program is a personalized handwritten note, and the most powerful handwritten note is a thank you card. Unfortunately the handwritten note is quickly becoming a lost art. Now that email has surpassed all other forms of communication for overall use, very few people take the time to actually write a note to someone the old fashioned way with paper and ink.

How long did you hang on to you last thank you card? I bet you still have it. Your clients are just like you. I don’t care how jaded we have become; when we receive a card in the mail we all carefully open and read it. Why? It’s human nature. We love to be treated as special, we love to be the center of attention, and we all love special recognition.

The author Jim Remley provides readers with the following list

Twelve Reasons to send a handwritten note to members of your Sphere of Influence

1. Follow up after a transaction
2. Thank them for their business
3. Thank them for a recent referral
4. Congragulate them on career achievements
5. Welcome them to new clubs or organizations
6. Invite them to an annual sphere of influence event
7. Follow up after a recent phone conversation
8. Send a note with a clipping containing interesting information
9. Wish them a happy holiday
10. Wish them a happy one year home anniversary
11. Follow up on a business achievement
12. Congratulate them on family events, such as new children

I use thank you cards in my business and I’ve discovered a wonderful way to make the “job” of writing and sending the note - less like a “job.” I shop, write and send from a website called Send Cards Get Business.

The selection at Send Cards Get Business is amazing! there are over 12,000 cards to choose from in hundreds of catagories…AND you can also create a completely customize your card by uploading your own photo or artwork.

It takes about 30 seconds to send a card - including a customized message. Send Cards Get Business will print, stamp and mail your card for you in ONE BUSINESS DAY!

But what about handwritten notes - oh that’s easy - you send the alphabet written in your own handwriting and they create a font from it. So everytime you go online to send a real printed greeting card the personal message is produced in the font of YOUR HANDWRITING!

I’m telling you this system allows you to touch so many more people - This year alone I have sent over 300 cards to business contacts, friends and loved ones.

My favorite way to use the card is to send a gift card to someone who has sent me a referral. Wnen I get a referral that does business with me I add a $5 Starbucks card. Whoa! I get some wonderful feedback and MORE referrals! I love it. Make me feel wonderful to know that just a small gesture showing my gratitude has such a profound impact on my customers. Yeah, can you believe that not only does this company print the cards with my handwriting, stamp and mail them - they will also insert a gift card or even a CHECK up to $50.

David Frey, of The Small Business Marketing Bible, created a wonderful video about using Send Cards Get Business to create a stream of Instant Referrals. Click on this link to watch.

Word of Mouth “Buzz” Marketing

Let’s face it, small business owners pretty much live and die by word of mouth marketing. If our customers and employees don’t become evangelists for our business some of us just don’t set aside the budget for advertising - and well, if we can get all the business we can handle with word of mouth business then why spend the money? What many small business owners don’t think about is actually formulating a plan for word of mouth marketing. Word of mouth just sort of starts on it’s own right? Well not according to Ron McDaniel of Buzzoodle.

Technically I’m falling right into Ron’s Plan for creating a buzz for his website. His first lesson of his 20 buzz marketing exercises basically starts with creating a goal for your word of mouth buzz. I’m not going to give his messages away because you should go to his website and sign up for his free course.

Better yet buy his book. I’ve invited Ron McDaniel to be on my Get More Business Podcast. Let’s see if his response is the affirmative.

Get More Business Podcast- Marketing Best Practices - David Frey

David Frey, of Marketing Best Practices and the Small Business Market Bible will be our guest next Friday at 9 am Pacific.

David tells me he has 106 different strategies for generating referrals. Well of course there are some Key Elements.

On the call he promises to share the 3 Main Elements for Getting all the Referrals You can Handle. And he will explain why a small business owner needs a system to manage the relationships that are used to build a business by the referral - a GOOD referral system will produce consistant, repeatable and PREDICTABLE results!

Why is Word of Mouth system of referrals not a reliable system for generating more business to rely on? Is there a way to automate the system for generating referrals - really good referrals?

Listen to David Frey on Get More Business Podcast.

Check out the tool that David Frey uses to automate his entire referral system.