Mastering the Art
of Marketing
Revealing the lost secrets of the
forgotten art of marketing’
How to Create Very Success
In Your Marketing
Referrals, Retention and Following Up System
How to become a Black Belt in Marketing?
With any art it takes years of dedication, learning and practicing to become a master of your art. Likewise, with marketing, you will need to be totally dedicated, focused and willing to listen and learn, BUT, it doesn’t have to take years for you to become a master.
I will show you how to 'Master the Art of Marketing'.
Referrals & Retention
This is the dream of a successful business; having many happy paying customers who come back time and time again and to gladly refer you to others.
Nothing is more costly to a business than acquiring new customers. However, seems so normal for most businesses to spend ridiculous amounts of money pursuing new customers and forgetting their existing ones.
Most small business owners foolishly follow large corporations by focusing totally on acquiring new customers but shiver to the thought of investing any amounts of money in their existing customers to stop them from going to their competitors. The biggest fools of this, are the big dumb large corporations that seem to have too much money than sense, they just do not put any value towards their existing customers.
While many customers don’t come back due to a dispute or an unresolved complaint, most ‘lost’ customers just gradually lose interest and have no reason to give their loyalty to them.
Businesses fail to do anything to stop this from happening. Incredibly most business owners just accept their losses-as normal practice and beyond their control, blaming their customers for lack of loyalty and appreciation. They also view referrals as random acts and unmanageable.
No business is fundamentally different from any other, every business has to acquire customers and sell something either a product or a service. Wealth is a product a System. So, doesn’t it make sense to have a ‘Customer Multiplier System’ be the goal for every business?
Many people assume all they have to do to keep their customers is to provide a good product and service and they will receive referrals automatically.
A customer is not a loyal customer, a loyal customer is not an ambassador for your business, but only an ambassador refers to others. Just because someone buys from you, doesn’t mean that they will continue to buy from you, and if they do, that doesn’t mean they will refer you to others.
You need to move your first-time customers through the process to become a loyal customer and then an ambassador of your product and business.
You need to build a long term and trusting relationship with your customers, they need to believe in you, have trust in you and have respect for you. It is your responsibility to build the relationship you need with your customers, not the other way around.
The best way to build a solid trusting relationship and to gain loyal customers is not only to treat them with respect but to offer them something up-front without expecting anything in return from them, not even a sale.
The Harvard Business School Review, reports that if you prevent just 5% of customers from leaving you, you could increase your profits anything from 25% to a whopping 90%! The average business loses about 15-20% of its customers every year.
Would you believe it but about 82% of your customers leave you because of poor and inadequate service and communication, or they just feel that they are not appreciated as a customer anymore.
The business didn’t give them any good enough reasons to stay loyal to them. Here in the UK, customers just don’t complain. They leave and don’t come back as they feel they are not wanted or cared for. A business survey shows that over 75% of businesses do not have any training for customer service or any type of system in place to cater for this.
Nearly every business tends to treat their customers as a statistic, or a transaction, and only communicate with their customers when they want that customer to do something for them.
They may act friendly but they either want them to buy from them or to give them a referral, an email address, to fill out a survey of some kind or to give them a testimonial. But never the other way around - and your customers know it. That’s why the rapid decline of open-rate emails. Businesses are feeling it, but unaware of how to change it.
Zig Ziglar, a prominent world-class business trainer, tells us that just by learning something doesn’t lead to behavior changes. It is only in the repetition of doing something over and over again that we introduce a permanent behavior change in our subconscious mind to make it a habit.
The good news is that this can all change, just by taking control of the situation and putting in place a system for referrals and retention.
Businesses only thrive when their customer base thrives.
We must first put ourselves in our customer's shoes and realise that we do not do business with just customers and we don’t sell to statistic, we sell to other humans.
We need to be the first to reach out and start to build trust with our customers. Forget how we used to see them and treat them.
Now we must focus on how we treat and see them from now on.
Golden Nugget: (Remember This)
Forget how we used to see them and treat them. Now we must focus on how we treat and see them from now on.
You need to move your first-time customers through the process to become a loyal customer and then an ambassador of your product and business.
Q&A Exercise: (Write It Down!)
Why do you need to build a trusting relationship with your customers?
Who do you do business with?
What is the best way to build solid trusting relationships?
What is fundamentally the same as every business?
What do they all need to do?
The Secret to Trust is Personal
This is one of the most important ‘Golden Rule’ of Marketing, is to be yourself, be human and be personal. As humans we believe in trust, we need trust, we need to feel safe and secure and trust creates relationships and security.
We need our customers to get to Know, Like, Love and Trust us.
We need to assure them that we care for them and we are in it for the long hull and not looking for a flash in the pan relationship.
Dale Carnegie wrote in his book ‘How To Win Friends And Influence People’, we should visualise that our customers have the words;
“PLEASE MAKE ME FEEL IMPORTANT”
written across their foreheads. We also need to let them know that we too are only human We must show that we have a personal side.
Business owners find this to be extremely difficult as they believe they should always stand tall and look very professional like and never show their human side.
This is a big mistake, we should be much more personal and allow our customers to feel that they can trust us.
Your objective is to reduce the sense of risk and uncertainty and to provide confidence and security, you can only do this when you have trust in a relationship.
Having a solid and close relationship with your customers would make it so much easier to close your sales and generate regular sales. By sharing personal information about yourself, allows your customers to feel closer to you and straightens your relationship with them. They will also find it so much harder to leave you for someone else.
You need to change the way you think about your customers, it's not about the quick quid anymore. It must always be all about them and not you, it's about investing in your customer relationships for long term retention.
What most businesses do wrong is that when someone seems interested in what they have to offer, they jump straight in for the kill, it’s like someone proposing to marry you on your very first date, that just puts most people off.
They won’t want to come back again as they feel too pressured in buying things from you every time they see you. We have to keep a very close eye on this, as it’s so easy to put people off from coming back again.
Most businesses aim for the sale straight of the bat, the smart and successful businesses aim to create a long-term relationship that will drive regular sales and referrals.
For many people who are not ready to buy yet, you need to entice people slowly with the right bait like fishing or even dating.
If someone opted in and give you their email, you need to look at starting to build a long-term relationship with them first before proposing to them. This works best if you offer them something of great value to them for free.
By offering them something of great value up-front and without any expectations whether they buy from you or not, will reduce that sense of risk and uncertainty and provide that confidence and security that you want them to feel.
How much is too much?
There aren’t any statistics that show how personal you should be, but by sharing some of our personal life with them, helps them to build a picture of who we are, show them that you too are only human, and you can be trusted.
As you will have many different customers, and they will all identify and relate to different aspects of our life, by opening ourselves up and offering a wide and varied part of our personal life with our customers will have a much better chance to touch the majority of our customers.
Ie: If we have pets; what type?
If we play a musical instrument; what type? If we have a family; how many kids? What are your hobbies?
You don’t have to go too personal all at once, a little at a time will let your customers feel that you are on the same level as they are, will only make your relationship stronger and in turn, a better relationship means better doesreliable customers.
Golden Nugget: (Remember This)
A ‘Golden Rule’ Is to be yourself, be human and be personal.
Q&A Exercise: (Write It Down!)
What do we need our customers to do?
What is your objective?
How can you do this?
What do business do wrong when they have someone interested?
Why wouldn’t they want to come back?
Referral Program
If you are not already running a successfully referral program, then you are not alone, as the majority of business owners find that referrals are a mystery and are confused about putting in any type of system to manage it.
That’s OK as it can be daunting at first, it’s like learning magic, at first it seams to be something beyond our capabilities but once as we start to understand that it’s all just slight of hand, illusions and manipulation, we can learn it, it all starts to become much more clear as to how and what we need to do.
Any business that get’s referrals tends to be an accident and there is a lack of clarity as to where they come from or how many they get, as they do not have any type of system keeping check.
If you ask the majority of business owners “what are they intentionally doing to attract referral?” They will most certainly have no idea!
The average referral strategy for most businesses is: Pray - Hope - and then Moan!
But it’s not all bad news, well not for you, as if most businesses are doing the same; i.e. Nothing!
Now you will have a big advantage over your competitors.
By putting in a simple system to track your referrals, will be of great value to your business, but by adding a referral system into your marketing system will not only track your referrals but will also attract and produce regular referrals which will be the best investment of your business.
But like any business activity yo,u need the correct tools in place first to make it work successfully.
Referrals always makes the best customers, as they are already pre-qualified and eager to buy, they spend more and more often and much less worried about price, they have a better life value and preconditioned to refer others
as they where a referral themselves.
Don’t force it. It’s your job to give them a compelling reason to refer you naturally, by doing your part by offering a great product, a great service, value for money, being extra friendly and everything else you need to do to build that relationship and facilitating referrals.
It doesn’t do anyone or your business any good by forcing referrals by bribing them with money or free gifts, if they are not naturally happy to give you one in the first place.
Offering a free gift or money has its place, when doing it correctly and for all the right reasons. It’s better to have a few true good ones than a dozen forced ones.
Golden Nugget: (Remember This)
Referrals make the best customers as they are pre-qualified and eager to buy from you.
Q&A Exercise: (Write It Down!)
What is lacking when it comes to most referrals?
What would happen if you added a simple referral system within your marketing system?
Having the Right Tools. Engineering a Steady Stream of Referrals
Having the right tools will make all the difference between a successful and non-successful referral system.
Having the tools will help your customers have a clear vision of your goals and what you expect them to do for you. You can’t expect them to go out on their way and come up with ideas and tools for you, can you?
You need to make it very simple and easy for them to recommend and refer you to their friends and family. By giving them the right tools will make it easy for them, it also looks professional and that you care.
Having some type of handout, postcard work best. Have it looking smart but keep it real simple for them to follow your instructions, either to ‘fill out’ and ‘postback’, (always have a printed stamp, don’t expect them to pay for the postage.) Or,
have your email or telephone write clearly and TELL them to ‘call’ or ‘email’ you, don’t assume they should guess what to do.
You may want them to ‘visit your website/Landing-page’ or ‘pop into your office’ or ‘shop’. Make your instructions very clear.
If you are giving a free gift then make it very clear as to how they can get it, what they need to do and where they need to go.
If you want them to go to your website, it makes better sense to have they visit a landing page first. This way you have more control, you can show them what you want them to know about you and what you can offer them without all the distractions of a normal website.
It also gives you the chance to get their name & email off them before they disappear.
When people visit your website, you have no control, you don’t know who is visiting or interested in you. So have a landing or squeeze page to collect their details.
This will only work if you offer them something in return, something of great value to them that will not cost them anything apart from a few details like name and email, etc.
Once you collected a few details, you can then start a long term relationship with them, but be sure not to go too fast and put them off.
It depends on what your product or service is, but some will want to buy straight away and others will need a little more time. Either way, you must approach them with only one thing in mind, to build a long-term relationship with them and not a One-Time - Wham-Bam Thank-you Ma’am! The deal, like most businesses, do.
Having some kind of regular communication with your prospects and customers will always produce a far better relationship with them and helps
to build long-term loyalty.
Produce a regular printed version newsletter to keep customers up-to-date and offer them valuable information and interesting articles about your business and industry.
Do not try to oversell in your newsletters, they are for communication between you and your leads and prospects, so don’t abuse it. It is a tool to help you to communicate with your readers and builds respect and trust.
By keeping your leads and prospects in regular communication enables you to start to convert your leads into customers, then by nurturing them through your systemized communication program educating them to become ambassadors of your product and service.
If communicated correctly, you could even convert them as ambassador’s way before they even become a customer of yours.
People inherently want to help others and they love sharing with others, especial if they have had a great experience with a business or product and they love telling others about it.
So why leave things to chance?
Why not put in place a system to help those who love sharing and helping. If you don’t ask for their help they won't know you want it. So, just ask! Give, show and tell them what you want and how they can help you.
After someone purchases your product or uses your service, send them a ‘thank you’ card, let them know that you appreciate them as a customer. Let them know how important they are to you and make them feel good about their decision to use you.
Make it personal - After all your business is your income, so it is very personal, to you.
Enclosed with your thank-you card, you could include a few referral cards for them to hand out to their friend and family, if they have had a great experience with you, they will be very happy to.
But making things easy for them isn’t always enough, you must have a BIG WIIFM (What’s In It For Me!) No not you, THEM! Your customers. You need to give them what they want, let them know what they will get and how they will feel after using your service or buying your product.
Golden Nugget: (Remember This)
People love to share their experiences with others, use this to your advantage.
Having the tools will help your customers have a clear vision of your goals and what you expect them to do for you.
Q&A Exercise: (Write It Down!)
By giving your customers the right tools, how will it help they refer others to you?
When offering a FREE gift how should your instructions be? And why?
Why use a Landing page?
What happens when you have regular communication with your customers?
What does WIIFM mean? And why is it so important?
Why is Newsletter so effective?
What could you send once a year to show you appreciate your customers?
Referral for A Worthy Cause. Your referrals could help others in real need!
What is better than getting something for free? Helping a good cause.
The few businesses that run a referral program and offer a free gift when one of their loyal customers refer another to them, even fewer think outside of the box and think how they can make a big difference in other peoples lives.
Referral programs are extremely successful compared to not having one, but the question is;
How to make a successful program even more successful?
By showing that you care and do something worthy about it.
In the states, the most successful referral programs, are the ones that help a good cause.
Rather than offer a free gift, money or credit which all works well, why not offer a portion of your sale from your referrals to a worthy cause. You can find many good causes begging for your support.
This works well as it offers a double whammy effect, as it lets the public know that you support a worthy cause, and they can help by using you and your service or product, making them feel good about themselves for helping, also it makes great FREE PR for your business.
Who would think twice about helping young local children needing help or cutie cuddle animals suffering?
Or something even closer to home, maybe a local community fund for your local community hall or something.
Why not do both support a great cause and offer a free gift!
How much extra business do you think you would bring in when people see that you really care and human too?
Golden Nugget: (Remember This)
The most successful referral programs are the ones that help a good cause.
Q&A Exercise: (Write It Down!)
Why does supporting a good cause make referrals so successful?
What double whammy effect helps a good cause have?
Newsletter for Retention, A Game Huge Changer
You can no longer take customers retention or referrals for granted anymore. Customers have a wider choice to choose, local businesses aren’t competing with just other locals’ businesses anymore, they are so many more options available to the customer now.
Keeping in constant communication with your prospects and customers is the most successful way to building a strong and loyal customer base - and the best way to have regular communication with your prospects and customers is by using a monthly newsletter.
But not any type of newsletter, a printed and mailed newsletter.
There are now so many great reasons why you should use a printed and mailed newsletter and why they have become so successful over the last few years.
Proving to be one of the best marketing tools a business can have.
First of all most businesses believe they are old fashion and out of date, but the reality is that the businesses that use them are very few between and there’s not a lot of competition.
When you look to see that most businesses use the internet due to the cost, about 90%% of their emails and e-letters are not even being open, due to the crowded population of the internet.
A printed and mailed newsletter stands out from the norm, it also gives someone something to hold, keep and share. It also becomes a brochure/sales letter as it is a physical item that can be passed around to others giving useful and helpful tips and articles that people will appreciate.
By adding a section within your newsletter for your star referrals, you give those who refer others to your recognition. Everyone loves and wants to be recognised and acknowledged, and this is a great way to get your customers to fight over each other to refer others to you for public recognition.
By recognising your top referrals, shows that you care and appreciate their referrals, giving them top honors by showing them off in your newsletter.
An educated customer buys sooner, buys more and stays longer than uneducated customers, so by providing a free regular newsletter that educates your customer dramatically increase business all-round!
Having educated prospects and customers means that you do not have to work hard directly converting them into sales, they have already become qualified prospects, so you can now sale with confident to interested parties.
The purpose of referrals is to refer to others, whether they are an existing customer or not. A newsletter gives you that advantage, the reader of your newsletter may not have purchased from you yet but could refer you to others just for having a great newsletter.
People appreciate good advice and articles, they may not need you yet but others they know may, so why wouldn’t they refer you to others if you have displayed good trusting advice. How many other readers could read just one newsletter when handed around to the right readers?
Another super benefit of having a well-written newsletter is that you automatically become the local authority within your file.
People we see you as the go-to expert within your community whether local or niche.
By offering good informative advice and knowledge through great ‘articles’, ‘hot tips’, ‘how-to’s and ‘industry secrets’ and ‘Q&A’s’,
people will look up to you as the expert within your file, they will seek you out rather than your competitors each, and every time they need something.
However, just having a newsletter won’t work all the magic unless you know all the secret of putting a great newsletter together, running a successful newsletter has its own secret list of ingredients to work perfectly and to produce perfect results, which I will share with you in a little while.
Golden Nugget: (Remember This)
Keeping in constant communication is the most successful way of building a strong and loyal customer
An educated customer buys sooner, more and stays longer than an uneducated customers
Q&A Exercise: (Write It Down!)
What cant do you take for granted anymore? And why?
What is the best way to keep in regular communication with your customers?
What advantages does a printed newsletter have over an email formatted newsletter?
What should you add in your newsletter? And why?
What other super benefit will you achieve from having a good newsletter offing strong content and advice?
Even if someone is not ready to buy from you yet, what could happen if they like what they read and know others that could benefit from your advice?
Exclusive
This is where you separate your best-referring customers from all the others. Reward those who are the most likely to refer others to you by giving them something exclusive.
Everyone loves feeling special and by offering something exclusive to a few selective people is a great way to make people feel unique, special and appreciated.
You can offer them a unique product or service exclusively to them, or give them recognition as an exclusive VIP member.
Give them an exclusive membership card or invite them to an exclusive event or even special opening times for VIP members only, but make sure they have to bring a friend with them.
Golden Nugget: (Remember This)
Everyone loves to be made to feel special and by offering them something exclusive makes them feel unique
Q&A Exercise: (Write It Down!)
Reward who? And why?
Why having an exclusive VIP service so effective?
Double Your Business. Just by Bringing a Friend.
Every business has the ability to double, triple or even quadruple their business almost overnight. Or at least over the next few months without spending hardly a penny more, just by increasing their referrals.
Just think for a moment if you had a hundred customers that all referred just one other customer, that would double your customer base.
Now, what if they all referred two or three more referrals each, that’s tripled or even quadrupled your business, so you see, the power of referrals is unbelievable.
You can also get a lot of referrals from just one customer if they agree to send a letter or email to everyone they know, or to all their customers as a way of introducing you to them. This is called an Endorsement letter.
Golden Nugget: (Remember This)
Every business has the ability to double their customer base if every customer referred just one other referral.
Q&A Exercise: (Write It Down!)
Why are referrals so powerful?
What impact would it make to your business if you could get all your customers to refer just three or four others to you?
Endorsements and Testimonials
An endorsement is the approval and support of something or someone, where a testimonial is the written or a spoken statement endorsing, promoting and even advertising something or someone. A recommendation on behalf of that business, person or product.
This is also a type of referral, but a more general and public referral, not specifically directed towards a specific person like a friend or family member.
It is a public statement that they like, love and trust something or someone and would recommend and refer that something or someone to everyone.
Local groups, celebrities, politicians, influential or well-known people within their community, people who hold authority, who are all looked up to, from others within their community has the ability to sway and influence others are the best way to use endorsements and testimonials.
If someone puts their fame or name behind something, they’re endorsing and recommending it by giving their approval.
Golden Nugget: (Remember This)
A public or written statement showing that they like, love and trust you is a powerful testimonial
Q&A Exercise: (Write It Down!)
What is an Endorsement Letter?
And what are the best way to use them?
What type of referral is an Endorsement?
PLEASE NOTE:
This advice is given by the
Advertising Standards Authority.
‘Marketers must hold documentary evidence that a testimonial or endorsement used in marketing communication is genuine and hold contact details for the person who, or organization that, gives it (rule 3.45). Showing that a testimonial is genuine has two elements; showing that the quote is from a real person and that it reflects what they said. Claims within a testimonial must not mislead or be likely to mislead the consumer.’
Investing for a Better Business
I have been in the advertising and marketing games now for around 25 years, and when I used to ask business owners if they want to advertise or want more customers, many of them would tell me that they don’t need to advertise.
They would tell me that they have more than enough customers already, so when I ask them what are you doing to get all those customers, they wouldn’t able to tell me. That’s because they didn’t see marketing as an investment.
Many of them are no longer around due to lack of customers and a lack of investment. They didn’t see the point in learning and investing in their customers.
No-one is unable to refer, most people if pushed could refer anything of up to 100 referrals, but this can only happen over an extended period of time.
Increasing your customer retention and keeping your customers longer, increase the number of referrals you get. The only way of doing this is to learn about your customers and invest in them.
Everyone wants referrals, but hardly anyone can be bothered to have a system to get them.
By giving referrals, deepens the commitment of the customer, which extends the life of that customer and increase the spending activity.
This adds to the benefits of increased lifetime value, but it also adds the benefit of additional referrals. So it makes sense to invest wisely in your customers and business.
When it comes to attracting customers people believe it usually; He who spends more wins. But that’s not the case. The real winners are those ‘who make their customers feel more valuable than your competitors’.
By now you should be able to start to see that having a referral system in place will not only reduce your time and money wasted on hunting for new cold customers only but will now spend more time with your warm market.
You now have the biggest advantage over your competitors, as most business owners including your competitors do not know that these strategies exist and if they did they don’t know how to really utilize them.
Just remember, no one, is unable to refer.
Golden Nugget: (Remember This)
Everyone wants referrals, but hardly anyone can be bothered to have a system to get them.
No-one is unable to refer.
Q&A Exercise: (Write It Down!)
What could happen if you don’t invest in your customers?
What activity deepens your customer's commitment to you?
What value does investing in your customers bring?
By having a referral program, what does this prevent being wasted?
What advantages would you have for having a referral program in place?
THE MOST POWERFUL REFERRAL STRATEGIES -
THAT WILL BRING IN A CONTINUOUS STREAM OF BUSINESS
Use these simply strategies and you’ll immediately see dramatic changes in your business.
These are simple bite-size strategies that you can put into action immediately to help you on your way to improve your marketing and increase YOUR PROFITS!
Marketing is THE MOST IMPORTANT PART of your business, and referrals are a simply but a VITAL component of your marketing system. It is one of the best and the most affordable ways of doing business. For most businesses, referrals happen accidentally without even knowing it. But what if those valuable referrals could happen intentionally each and every day
COLLECT, COLLECT AND COLLECT!
One of the first GOLDEN RULES is: Never Stop Collecting Your Customers Details. This is the life-line of your business. If you do only one thing, make this your thing. It will prove to be the most profitable task of your business.
Planning and Set-Up a Turn-Key Referral System
But first, keep these things in-mind before attempting to attract any referrals.
Become More Referable - We shouldn’t ask for referrals until we are ready for them - Analyse every aspect of interaction with your customers and prospects before moving on.
Have Multiple Access Points - Not all referrals are equal, so you must have multiple referral opportunities going on at-all-times.
Target Your Sources - Focus a large part of your attention on customer that’s already refer business to you - Strategic partners should also be a major focus of attention.
Educate Your Sources - You need to tell and show your customers how to refer to you.
Motivate Your Sources - Shine a spot light on those who refers others to you. Offer high value items that your customer wants from you, they make great motivational tools.
Follow-up / Feedback - Keep track by keeping records. All of your follow-ups should also include your referral sources. Build in feedback loops so that your customers understand how important they are to you and your business.
Measure, Adjust Then Re-Adjust - Again, keep track by keeping records and set goals and measure the success of your referral initiatives. You could be receiving referrals, but not closing them, so by measuring your results and making changes, you will improve your results dramatically.
Closing Strategy - Set up a fool-proof-system to close EVERY referral and to train them to refer others to you.
Here are some great strategies that you can start using NOW!
If you don’t ask you won’t get,
SO JUST ASK!
The most simplest easiest and cheapest way, is to JUST ASK your already existing customers for referrals, you will find that most of your happy customers would be very happy to refer their friends, family, colleagues and other businesses to you.
Most please love to be helpful, it is a human natural tendency, they also like to share, and if they have had a great experience with a business or a product, human love sharing their experiences with other people. Just check out Facebook, Twitter or even YouTube! We are all sharing creatures.
But even though people love helping and sharing you must understand that humans first natural tendency is to themselves.
They don’t always think of others, or at least at first, so for them to share and help others, first you must prompt them in doing so, and by asking is the best way in prompting them and by helping yourself in the process, a win, win.
What to Do: Just ASK!
Using the correct words are also important too.
Don’t use; “If you know anybody…?”
Ask them; “Whom do you know who would...?”
The first is open to a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ reply, a lot of people will just say ‘NO’ as it is easier to say.
But the second is a little thought provoking and the answer is assumed within the question. It’s a question asking them, ‘You know someone, so please tell me who it is’.
Don’t just accept, EXPECT!
This is a reverse of the first one strategy. You shouldn’t be just accepting referrals accidently, you should make it a policy to have referrals.
It must be a solid part of your marketing strategy as it is the fuel of your business. You need to set a firm foundation and rules with your customers, that you except referrals from them.
This might seem a little harsh and uncomfortable at first but if done correctly works incredibly well.
Some people build their entire business around this strategy.
It will take a little use to it at first but if you keep to a strategy that works you will see big gains in your business.
What To Do:
First you must keep to your script, it will feel less un-threatening to your customer and to yourself.
During your presentation, you will need to say something along these lines...
“I do a lot of my business through recommendations from happy customers, so as long as I do a great job for you and keep all my promises and exceed your expectations, I hope it would be fair to ask that you would recommend my business/service to your friends and family, so they can enjoy the same experience, etc...”
“I hope it would be fair to ask” This phrase is so very important as it makes it very hard to say “NO” to. They will feel committed and obligated to honour their commitment to you.
Not everyone will do but the majority will, and if they are very happy with your service they will probably give you so much more that you expect.
After you have finished, you can give them some cards/flyers etc, with your details to prompt them in to honouring their commitment to you. It works even better if there was some kind of incentive or a reward for your client just so they to take action immediately.
Incentives and Rewards
A great way to stimulate referrals is to reward people for helping build your business.
There are so many ways you may reward someone, it doesn’t have to be money, in fact in some contraries and industries it is illegal to do so.
What To Do:
FREE gifts are usually the best incentive, something they don’t have or something they need works the best. Find out what they want and need and work it in with your referral strategy. You could see a huge increase in business just by doing so.
Insurance companies are great examples, especially life insurance ones. They offer a free pen as an incentive for enquiries, which they get to keep even if they don’t sign up with the policy. How much dose a pen cost? But people still register just for the free pen. But its only a pen!
Attending Referral Organisations
BNI, Chambers of Commerce, and other networking events are all great ways to mingle with like-minded business owners, all willing to work together. Most cases these groups are well worth joining, however treat them like any other marketing strategy, as they can be quite expensive to join, try them out first and test the response, make sure it is worth it. Like every marketing tool, it must be accountable.
WARNING - Many business owners stay for the company even though they don’t get many referrals from it. If you find you are not getting the response you need to make it financially worth doing (ROI), then STOP! And move on, don’t stay just for the company, this is not a social gathering. It is business and your profits are at risk.
The Power of Recognition
Recognition is one of the best rewards much more of than an incentive that money, believe it or not. It produces so more of an emotional buzz when we get recognised for doing something.
It is such a powerful incentive, and so simple and effective and best of all in most cases, it doesn’t cost anything.
What To Do:
You can make it even more powerful and effective just by PUBLICLY recognising someone, you could set up a referral board of some kind.
Many Business Clubs success is all down to publicly recognising their top referrals. It is a very POWERFUL marketing tool.
Some companies have a referral board on their website or even on their wall, publicly recognising top referrals of their customers, it will say things like;
“JOHN JONES from BSB referred SAM ANDERSON from Grow-Your-Own,
and JANE JACKSON from JANE’S CAFE last week.
And they may even have a copy of letters of satisfaction from them as referred customers which is a great referral statement in it-self.
Purchasing Your Referrals
This is more towards buying leads than to referrals but in some circumstances, with some industries - within their statutory regulatory bodies you might find it difficult or even illegal. So it may be that you may find your way around all this by offering to buy leads from your competitors.
This is a good way to rapidly increase your referral bank If you find asking for them uncomfortable, why not just ask to buy them of them instead. It is not exactly a referral but it’s very close.
What To Do:
A smart entrepreneur would see the benefits of buying referrals/leads especially if their business is within the same theme, i.e.: a gardener asks to purchase a list of properties with gardens from your estate agent customer, and with their blessing contact all those customers who has brought recently, by introducing themselves via their estate agent, like this,
“Hi, I was asked by Simon from ‘Find-a-property’ to give you a quick call, as I understand that you have not long moved in the area and I know how hard it is to find the right businesses within the area, so that’s why I said I’ would call, as we have a very good relationship with them. We offer all our new clients a free.......”
This could work well with most businesses, garages, hairdressers, gym/fitness clubs, dentists, nurseries, carpets, builders, you name it, the list is endless.
Assumptive Letter
This you can do with either a genuine referral or even a purchased lead. But you must make sure that the prospect you are writing to is looking for someone for the service you are offering.
What To Do:
In this letter you can be a bit more harder in you approach, by asking to do specific job or service that they are looking to be carried out, something like this,
“My name is Mrs Obama, Mrs Blare from the hair salon, mention that you are looking for a good decorator, so I thought I would write and introduce myself to you.
As you can see from all my testimonials enclosed, we have an outstanding reputation with local customers within your area.
Not only have we been serving the community for the last 20 years but we also do a lot of work for property companies and the council, who all have a strict quality control requirements which we always exceed.....”
See how powerful this could work as a good introduction to people about your business and service. It is so simple and cheap to send a letter, but the return is huge.
Just make sure you let them know about how great your work is and how happy your customers are.
Endorsement Letter
The next stage of the previous two strategies is called an ‘Endorsement’.
An endorsement is when a business sends a mailing to a customer or a prospect along with their own mailing. So there are two companies using the same mailing.
What To Do:
An example;
An electrician puts together a letter to their customers. Within that mailing, he mentions he has a good relationship with a chiropractor that he highly recommends.
The chiropractor also writes a letter introducing himself and his service with some great offers.
Then the electrician posts his letter along with his chiropractor's letter to his customer recommending the chiropractor to them.
The letter should go something like...
“Dear Mr. Lamb, It’s Mr Sparks your electrician, I know it seems strange your electrician writing to you about a chiropractor, but if it was not for Mr Pain, I would not be able to work as I do, as Mr Pain has helped me through some very painful times....”
Mr. Sparks can tell him all about how Mr. Pain has helped him stay pain-free, allowing him to continue to work and by doing so giving the chiropractor a glowing testimonial.
In exchange the chiropractor can endorse his electrician, letting his customers know about a great electrician he knows within the area who they can all rely on and trust.
Again this can work with almost every kind of business, and it is so powerful.
Cross-Pollinate
This simple strategy not only works well with insects and plants but it also works extremely well with businesses too.
This is a very simple and cheap way for inter-link with other NON- COMPETITIVE BUSINESSES. But even though this is very popular and often done, it is usually done incorrectly with no response. The trick is knowing how to do it correctly.
What To Do:
All you need to do is take some flyers to a non-competitive business along with a plastic holder and ask if you could leave them on their counter, it works best if you tell them they can do the same with you.
Most companies will always say yes. It works even better if you pick businesses which are synergistic with your own. For instance, if you are a florist, then churches, funeral directors, function rooms, cake decorators, old people homes, party organisers.
Now the important part, which makes or breaks this strategy,
the flyer itself.
Your flyer should have a good compelling heading and a brilliant offer that your customers can’t refuse. An informative flyer or a basic business card just don’t work, so don’t use them.
An Invite for two or more!
Opening evening, special exclusive events. People love to feel special and that they belong to an exclusive club. You could launch an exclusive membership club, giving selective customers (your best ones) a free membership, or a small charge for the privileged few. You can open your doors on exclusive evenings where they can receive exclusive discounts. You can offer to invite-only nights. But with a condition, they must bring a friend!
What To Do:
Use your imagination, think of some exclusive ways you can offer special events to your customers and their friends. This is a great way to cash in on them referrals, which they do even know they are doing. You can give your customers a certificate for them and a friend exclusive discounts.
BECOME AN AUTHORITY
You want, yourself and your business to be regarded as an authority in the market place. There is in every industry/arena a leader. Coke-a-cola and Pepsi are portrayed as the leaders in the fizzy drink market, McDonald's and Burger King are portrayed as the leaders in the fast-food industry,
Amazon is now the leader in the home shopping and Internet retailer.
What To Do:
You must claim the leadership position in your field within your community, otherwise one of your competitors will.
This will have a direct impact on attracting customers, as you will be looked upon as an expert within your field and industry.
Here are a few ides to make you an authority figure and leader in your community:
Local Consultant (Authority)
A business owner will know a lot more about their own business, so why should it seem daunting to think that you could become an expert, consultant, a figurehead within your community.
But actually you already are. An example is; If Alan sells paint, where would you go for advice about paint? Or if Danny is a baker where would you go for advice about baking?
Each profession or business has its own special qualities and expertise, so becoming an expert in your field isn’t that hard as you most probably already are.
What To Do:
You need to let everyone else know, so whenever they need advice or help they think of you.
Speak to Groups (Authority)
This is not for everyone, but for those you like the buzz of speaking to an audience, this is right up your street.
In fact, it’s not as daunting as it may seem. There are many local groups out there that are looking for free local speakers and this is a great way to promote your business and service at the same time establishing yourself as a leader in your field.
WI, British Legion, Round Table, local garden clubs, book clubs, church parishes, the list goes on and on.
Any business can put together a small simple presentation about their business, just don’t make it too boring, make it funny add stories and humor.
A local tradesman could do a small presentation on;
“How to Spot a Cowboy Builder” by putting a list of the top ten things that cowboy builders in your industry do.
What To Do:
By giving a short informative and of course a compelling presentation and any offers you would like to give to the group of locals, you then get a chance to get in front of an audience that you otherwise would not have had the opportunity to, and even better it is free, or they might even pay you.
Write a Free Report (Authority)
This follows nicely from the last few previous strategies.
This is a great way to get your name out there, letting people see that you mean business and know what you are talking about.
It will help to establish your part of being that expert, consultant, figurehead within your community.
I promote indirect referrals and It can also help with closing that all-important sale.
What To Do:
Writing a free report is a very simple but an extremely effective marketing strategy that will help to pull in a lot of referrals.
First of all, it’s free - you don’t need to try and sell it, (but you could if you choose) Its should be very simple to understand and very short, or at least presented in short bite-size paragraphs and chapters, so it doesn’t overwhelm and put people off from reading it.
But most of all it has to be very informative, lots of real meat and potatoes, it’s not a sales letter, you are not trying to sell anything, you are just giving them some very useful tips and knowledge that people want to know.
(If you want to sell it then the opposite, you need to have lots of information in large chunks, packed with knowledge, as they will be wanting their money's worth.) Just don’t be boring.
Either way, it can work with any type of business, remember that tradesman’s presentation in the previous strategy; “How to Spot a Cowboy Builder”
or something very similar would be a smash hit, successful with anyone who is looking to use a tradesman. Or may be a garden center, they can put together a free report about; “How to Grow the Perfect Tomatoes” or something.
A local cafe could offer a free report about;
“How to Make the Perfect Sponge”
Or a mechanic offers a free report to his customers;
“The Ten Top Ways to Save You Money”.
You can work it around them group presentations too, by making it a theme, and it works with EVERY KIND OF BUSINESS!
Just jot down the top things that people always ask you about and write some juicy details about it, making it a really useful, get some of your friends and best customers to review it and check to see that it's up to par then its good to go, a smash hit.
Make them an offer - This gives people a better reason to buy from you when offered in your sales presentation when you are trying to sell something to somebody.
A few examples
- ‘BUY NOW AND RECEIVE THIS FREE BOOKLET
- ‘FIRST 10 PEOPLE WILL RECEIVE THIS FREE BOOKLET
- ‘RECEIVE THIS FREE BOOKLET WHEN BOOKING AN APPOINTMENT
Let your imagination go but just remember it must be short, informative and of course a compelling!
Don’t worry about giving all your trade secrets away, it doesn’t work like that, they will appreciate you even more, and look to you as the main expert in your filed and you will be the first one on their minds when they need you.
Getting Referrals from Your Local Radio Station (Authority)
This is very similar to group speaking, by personally getting your face and message out there, people will see you as an expert and will also feel that they know and trust you.
There are a number of ways to get in front of your community and become a leader in your filed and Local Radio is one of the best.
Its usually free, local stations are always looking for good local content to fill up their shows with, and what better than a local business owner offering their expertise on a particular subject.
What To Do:
It's as easy as putting together a group presentation or writing a free report.
If you are an accountant you could give their;
‘Top Tips on Reducing Tax’.
A financial advisor with their;
‘Top Tips on Retiring Early’.
A chemist with their;
‘Top Tips on Overcoming Stress, Anxiety, and Depression’.
Or even a nutritional consultant;
‘Top Tips on Losing Weight’.
This is great as you are seen as an expert and establish your self as a leader in your industry. Don’t be seen selling, just give good advice.
What better way to be recommended as the local radio station is indirectly recommending you by having you on their show.
Don’t wait for them to invite you, that might not ever happen.
The trick is you need to approach them and let them know you are available, hand them a free report or two so they can get an idea of who and what you are about.
It also works just as well with your Local Press and Magazines.
Free Trials
This is part of risk management, the same as guarantees, offering a free trial will not only gain you respect but will always increase your sales by eliminating the risk.
You don’t have to give them the whole thing for ever, just give them part of it, a tester or for a limited time so they can experience it and try it out. You need them to get emotionally attached to it to buy it from you.
Think of how you can give your customers the experience of your business, or what your service or product offers with out them paying for it.
For an example, if you opened a restaurant or food outlet, don’t think for a moment when you open the doors people will flock in droves, it’s not the movies.
What To Do:
You need to work hard marketing your outlet and getting people to try you out and the best way is to offer them a free meal or samples. Nothing works best than something free and it will save you a small fortune in your marketing budget too.
Let's say you spend £1000 on your marketing and you still don’t get many people in the doors, (which is most often normal nowadays). That’s £1000 wasted. But, let say if you gave away 100 free meals worth £20, (let’s say for easy cost of the meal is 50% with everything included.)
That’s just cost you £1000. You would also have probable gain a lot of your money back in extras such as deserts and drinks etc, from that 100 free trials.
Lets say that 50% of them loved your food so much, that’s an instant 50 customers plus all their recommendations to their friends and family, which could double or triple.
But when that 50 all come back they are prepared to pay full price or even more expensive dishes. Let’s say they spend an average of £35 per meal without any extras and drinks, and most likely they would bring a few friends with them too. But just with those 50 returned customers, that’s £1750, and if you add all their referrals, friend and family!??! BINGO!
See how a few free meals could work far better than spending £1000’s on advertising?
If you don’t want to give away free meals you could even try a 70% off or buy one get one free trial instead, then that will at lest cover most of your costs.
It could even be a free lesson, or offer a free one hour consulting, free training session, a free samples, a 20 minuet taster session, or even a free booklet on; ‘traders top secrets’, giving them really useful information.
Teleshopping companies use free trails, but you pay a small fee to cover the postage and admin cost and after a month or two take out the rest, either in one payment of over a couple of months. let’s say they sell a cleaner for £100, you pay £15 deposit then pay either £85 or 3 payments of £28.33ish.
Just use your imagination.
Your Community Relationship Building System
As you can see that there are so many ways to market yourself through effective referrals strategies. It’s the one-to-one personal relationships that always works the best, so try to build more of them.
In our ‘Proven Advertising Strategies’ - Guide, we look at many other ways and examples to build close relationships up with your community.
When you sit down and think of who you can build a relationship with within your community and neighborhood, people you know, people they know, an influencer and other leaders within the community.
There are eight main categories that you need to look very closely at and start to build a network of relationships within them.
Your Neighbours
Local Schools and Educational Services
Local Businesses and Service Providers
Local Churches and Religious Organisations
Local Community Groups and Other Organisations
Your Friends and Relatives
Local Charities / Fund Raisers
Local Council and Community Leaders
What To Do:
It is in your and your business’s interest to build good personal and strong relationships within your community as a local business.
KILLER IDEAS THAT WILL DOUBLE YOUR PROFITS.
Here are some proven and tested ways to get a lot more referrals that you can easily put together to help create a real successful referral program.
Supercharge your lead generations and generate significantly more referrals
than ever before.
With every new customer, take their photo and make a postcard for them to send to referrals. A photo makes the card much more personal and effective.
Create something worthwhile and of great value for your customer, and offer it as an incentive when they refer others to your business.
Give your customer a few £5 off referral vouchers or a gift certificate to encourage them to give to their friend, family, etc. Each time a voucher is used, the referral source also gets a £5 off vouchers or a gift certificate. i.e.; a dentist could offer a “Free Teeth Cleaning” or even a mechanic offers a ‘Free Oil Change”.
Hold ‘SECRET’ after hour openings and give customers who refer business to you an invite and offer ‘SECRET’ after-hours specials, just for them.
Partner with a few local restaurants and do deals with them to bring more customers in on quieter days if you can get an exclusive rate discount. Offer this as your referral gift. This works great for both you and the restaurants, as it works out a lot cheaper for the restaurants to offer a discount than to spend out on advertising that might not work.
Make it a habit to just ASK for referrals each, and every time you have contact with your customers.
Create a BIG rubber stamp to say “WE LOVE REFERRALS” and stamp it on everything you hand out. By putting your message requesting referrals constantly in front of your prospects, you will begin to receive referrals from many different places.
Produce a referral card that clearly states the types of customers you are looking for, so when you talk to people you can hand it out.
Make it a habit to acquire testimonials from every single customer you have and create a booklet of testimonials.
Contact local businesses and other interested parties and put on a free event or seminar for your local community or customers.
For BtB Businesses; Contact a bank, an accountant, financial advisers, and other interested parties and put on a free business seminar for all your and their customers and clients so you can have access to their customers and clients. This is a great endorsement.
Where competition is tough and the price is an issue, offer a trial offer where your prospects will receive 3 months free with a 12-month contract. Or 3 months free with a 3-month contract. Then offer a much higher and better quality service than your competitors to seal the deal for the next 18 months at the full price. They will be prepared to pay the full price after using your service.
As testimonials are great for referrals, put on a Referral Event, where you have a camera crew set up to interview all your customers for testimonials. After you can let your customers do a 5 min video for their own business as a thank you.
Sponsor local clubs, even try your school clubs to introduce your company to the parents. This is a great way to show that you care for your community.
Offer other related firms within your industry (but not your direct competition) a “finder’s fees”, for giving you referrals. (i.e.; a Plumber could offer a plaster, an electrician or even their local builders merchant a finder’s fees for giving them a referral.)
Install an oven in your workplace and bakes chocolate chip cookies or something similar, every day and give them out to your customers. A couple of things make this work so well, the place smells wonderful, attracting more people to enter and to buy something to get a free cookie and it’s different that people naturally will talk about it to their friends and family.
Simply join forces with other non-related companies and exchange referrals with each other.
Create vouchers or gift certificates to your referral sources.
Create documents that help to teach them how they can spot your ideal customer, with trigger phrases your customers use when they need you, and your referral process.
Create jointly branded marketing materials for all of your strategic partners.
Educate your referral sources will aid greatly if you put tangible referral tools in their hands.
Create a network blog that your strategic partners can all contribute to. Again, make it easy and it will happen.
Run a promotion with a non-profit agency and get them to mail your offer out to all their supporters and in return donate a percentage of your sales to the organization.
When manning a stall at an event, have a bowl or a box to collect business cards to enter a prize draw, or just collect peoples contact details for a raffle of some kind. Make sure the prize is well worth them giving you their details.
Buy or swap leads with other related businesses within your industry with companies that you have a good working relationship with. A weight loss coach exchanging referrals with a nutritionist or a yoga instructor.
Referral Contests. Make a game of it, see who can get the most valuable referrals, make it fun, make it count.
Upgrades, most of your customers would love an upgrade if you offer them, so offer it as an incentive to your existing customers who refer more than 10 or so.
Reward your best customers with VIP status gift cards.
Offer a full 50 or 100% refund once they referred 10 or more customers.
Buy one the and referrer get one free - If a referral purchases a product give the referral source a free one too as a reward.
Put on Free non-sales-oriented workshops, by offering to present a free workshop to your strategic partner’s customers. Just Mind-Boggling!
AN ASTONISHING BUT TRAGIC REALITY!
A recent survey was conducted on several thousands of small businesses. It showed that a staggering 70% of business owners knew that up to half of their business was from referrals, but less than 18% of them were actively using a referral system and taking advantage of this
But why would any business not take advantage of such a powerful lead generating system?
Following Up Could Save and Earn You £1000’s!
Too many businesses fail to do one simple but very important step in their marketing.
When someone sees your ad, your letter or your even an email and enquires about your product or service, and you don’t make an effort to follow upon them, you could be throwing away £1000’s or even £10,000’s.
A lead is an investment or a cost that you have paid for but has not yet converted into income. A lead is an unpaid customer, meaning they yet to pay you for your product or service that you have already invested in them.
You have already paid for that lead via an advert, mailing or any other form of marketing you have done to generate that lead.
If you don’t capture their name and contact details, you are unable to follow up and will not be able to convert them into a sale, you are just wasting your time and money.
Rather than someone telling you that they have referred you to their friend and hoping ,they will contact you, as most business owners do. Ask them for their friends contact details as you would like to send their friend a free (gift/book/trial/info-pack).
Then send their friend the (gift/book/trial/info-pack) with a friendly non-forceful selling note, mentioning that their friend has asked you to contact them, and just wanted to send them a free (gift/book/trial/info-pack) to them to look at, along with an offer to entice them with a limited time offer so they contact you asap, or for more information so they can start to Like, Trust and Buy from you.
Or, if they feel that they shouldn’t hand over someone’s details without asking first, you could hand them a few referral cards to give to their friends.
New customers need to become regular buyers and build a habit of using you, they need to be converted into members, premium customers and ambassadors for your company.
You need to quickly and effortlessly move them through your buying cycle, from the first order to their second, and third-order and so on.
You need to follow up, to thank them for using you or buying your product, they need to feel that you appreciate them and will look after them as your customer.
How many times have you ever been sent a thank you card, a birthdate card or gift or even just a postcard from your last visit to a restaurant, garage, service provider or any business in fact? Probably never.
But if you did, it would make you feel much more special and want to go back to them, so why don’t you do just that. Get their contact details and follow up just to say thank you, and by the way, you could always add another offer in with it. But don’t oversell. The best answer to lost customers is; by not having any.
Years and years of surveys have shown that the number one reason for customers not returning or just drifting away is that they didn’t feel very welcomed, they felt a little disappointed with the way they were treated. (Not for incompetence or wrongdoing). But just not receiving the proper attention that they expect or deserve.
That leaves them open to seduction by your competitors where they may feel more accepted and looked after.
Why is it so important to follow up?
Well, would you throw a £10 note down the toilet? Probably not.
Nor would think of throwing £100, or even £1000, no, of course, you wouldn’t, that’s stupid right?
But you are!
Every time you fail to follow up a lead, you are literally throwing money away, possibly £10,000’s or more per year.
After putting in long hours and lots of money spent putting together a marketing campaign, you would expect to get a good return on your investment (ROI) and your efforts.
If you generate 1000 leads from your marketing campaign, and you get a 5% conversion rate which is pretty good compared to normal. That’s 50 new customers, let say you sell £40 worth of products, that’s £2,000.
But if you don’t follow up, you are leaving 950 potential customers a whopping (£38,000!) left on the table.
You might as well take out your wallet and burn all your cash inside, or just send it all to me, I would be more than happy to give you my bank details.
That’s effectively what most businesses are doing by not following up. When you consider that it can take anything from 5 to 8 follow up attempts with someone before they buy.
You have spent time and money with your campaigns trying to get these customers so why throw them away? This is a typical large corporation dumb marketing tactic.
The whole point, being in business is to earn an income, if you are throwing away customers you will never earn anything. 950 potential customers, what most businesses would do for that.
But so many businesses are doing it right now and wasting a fortune right here! The ironic this is that they sit there and wonder why they don’t have any customers or money!
These leads are already interested in what you offer, that’s why they are leads, you just must learn to convert them into sales, that is what selling is.
By understanding the way things work and having a good system in place, you could quite easily and with no extra cost, convert most of these potential customers into buying customers.
Statistics have clearly shown that as long, as you make a really good impression, you could see anything between 1-2% result from your first contact with someone.
That’s just 2 customers out every 100 leads you to speak to.
Up to 3% result from your second contact and 5% result from your third contact. So you would need to make at least 3 follow up attempts just to get a 10% result, that’s 10 customers from 100 leads. Statistics show that your chances increase dramatically if you continue following up.
You could achieve anything of up to 10% from your 5th follow up the attempt, this is because people are now starting to becoming familiar with you and starting to trust that you are still around and not a fly by night, a ‘here today is gone tomorrow’ kind of company.
By your 6th to 8th follow up the attempt, you could expect anything as much as 80% return rate, or even higher. That’s a whopping 80%+ instead of just 2%.
That could be a difference between an £800 or over £32,000 on your return. But most business favor the £800 return because either they don’t know how and what to do or that they just can’t be bothered!
Just by putting in a simple follow up system, you will be able to easy and quickly follow up and convert most of your enquires into sales, saving and earning yourself £1000’s if not £10,000’s.
Golden Nugget: (Remember This)
Follow up-to thank them for using or buying from you. Make them feel that you appreciate them and will look after them as your customer
Statistics show that your chances increase dramatically if you continue following up.
Q&A Exercise: (Write It Down!)
What is the lead?
What information do you need from your customers?
Why is it so important?
If one of your customers tells you that they have referred someone to you, what should you do?
And why?
What should you do or send people once they have contacted you?
What is the purpose of following up after a customer has brought from you?
With the example, if you had 1000 leads, how many customers would you be losing if you failed to follow up effectively?
Finally - Having an Effective Tracking System
Having a good tracking system helps with your following up more effectively. It will show you everything you need to know about all your campaigns, it will allow you to see what is going on and were to spend more time and effort on.
It will show you what is working and what is not, what is accountable and what is costing and wasting your time and money.
What To Do:
A very simple way to track is to make every campaign and sub-section of any campaigns with their its own unique reference number or even color coded materials can work too when printed marketing materials is needed.
An example, placing an ad in different papers or local community mag, etc, they can all have a different unique reference number to quote, so when an inquiry comes in you will instantly know where they came from.
Or, if you did a local maildrop, you could do different areas with different color-coded flyers, so when someone hand it in, you will instantly see what area they are from.
Having things quickly and easily trackable will be a big advantage when it comes to your marketing results and budgets.
MJ © Copyright 2016 Marketing Madness
