Category listing: Referrals
So….I’m on vacation and traveling several hundred miles by car. I admit that I had twisted my back before the trip, but I guarantee you that the long hours sitting in the car, plus all the walking around sightseeing, almost brought me to my knees.
While I asked my brother-in-law (who had been to a chiropractor close to his work almost 45 minutes away), I decided to go to my next best source.
Wait – did you think I was going to say “Google”?
Well, technically, you are wrong. I’m not really asking Google to tell me about the best chiropractor in the area. Google is the search tool I use, but Google has never been to a chiropractor. Who I am asking? … Continue Reading →
Small businesses thrive on referrals and word-of-mouth. Just about every business I speak to will say, “I live and die by referrals.”
ODD OBSERVATION – I made this status update yesterday on Facebook:
So I’ve included a few quick resources for you about word of mouth, referrals and how that you can generate your own leads through innovative efforts. Enjoy!
- 8 Ways To Use Word of Mouth Marketing For Personal Branding (Mike D. Merrill, Director of Marketing for ReachLocal)
- Some recent articles from The Marketing Twins about word-of-mouth and referrals
- Speaking Events as a Lead Generation Tool (Kelly Weppler, Duct Tape Marketing Consultant)
- Why Word of Mouth Doesn’t Happen (John Jantsch, creator of Duct Tape Marketing)
Most small businesses or organizations motivated to “fill seats” (like private schools) often assume that the random referral is the only kind of referral. We celebrate the times a customer recommends a friend or a client shares their experience with our future customers. But the reality is that those random referrals are so rare that no business counts on them. How can you? They are just random, right?
In Duct Tape Marketing, we look at referrals in a more intentional light – referrals that are solicited, generated and achieved because you earned them! John Jantsch, author of The Referral Engine and Duct Tape Marketing, recently wrote on article about referrals for allbusiness.com.
6 principles that Jantsch talks about:
- Know thyself - have a very clear understanding of what and who actually makes an ideal referral
- Educate – teach your best referral sources how to talk about your business in ways that spark interest and spell out the value of doing business with you
- Motivate creatively - find out what motivates referrals
- Reward champions – these are your super ambassadors, so treat them with high esteem and you’ll get a great ROI
- Attract partners – the greatest overlooked referral opportunity lies in the development of a strategic referral network
- Ignite your network – create opportunities for engagement
Read John’s full article entitled, “Does Your Business Rely on the Accidental Referral?”
BONUS:
