Referral Flood Blog

Turn Blah Advertising Into Referral Advertising

If you provide a service for homeowners or call on businesses located in office buildings this tip will give you a way to turn an advertising message into a referral message.

When your service technician visits a home to do some repair work, incentivize them to hang some door hangers on surrounding homes. Now, of course, everyone does that right? Well, the key to making this work is to also leave a space on the door hanger for the technician to write a note. "We just completed some work for Ted and Betty at 1933 and they thought you would like this 10% off coupon." - all of a sudden you've got a referral.

You can also fire this approach up through the mail. Get a criss-cross directory that lists homeowners by street and every time you schedule some work, send a letter to surrounding neighbors with this same coupon type message. Better still, give Ted and Betty a 10% discount and quote them singing your praises in the letter.

You can take this same approach in office building. "Hi, I was just upgrading Acme Accounting's network and they thought you could use this 10% off coupon."

Put your printer to use creating all kinds of these leave behinds but make sure that you make space to turn them into referrals.

Laserfit, an Austrualian men's customer tailor and Referral Flood owner, had this to say recently about generating referrals.

"As yet I have not got my system together but I have started by setting the expectation that our customers refer us to their friends and colleagues if they are happy. If they agree, we offer them a bonus on their first purchase. I have been really surprised at how enthusiastic these customers become when they have 'skin in the game.' "

Laserfit is doing some pretty creative marketing, including using a blog that allows clients and prospects to see what they are up to in the world of marketing. What I really want to emphasize though, is the comment about enthusiastic customers. One of the great motivators of all human beings is winning, or at least attempting to win. If you can create a referral system, or really any marketing offer, that allows people to see themselves playing and winning a game, they may become motivated beyond your wildest expectations.

What Would Motivate You To Refer Me?

I have studied the idea of referral marketing for years and, when designing a referral marketing system, it almost always comes down to answering this simple question.

What would motivate someone to refer you? The good news is - the answer is always the same. The bad news - designing a system that gets at this answer can be tricky.

So, the answer. People refer businesses, services, products, people, movies, barbers - you name it - if it makes them look and feel good. That's the answer 90% of the time. (Some do it to be nice, but you can't really build a business counting on that)

People want to pass on a smart buy, a new find, a great experience - in part because it makes them look and feel smart, loyal, counted on, savvy, cutting edge, crafty - whatever the thing they need to look good. I'm not pointing this out as some cynical conclusion about the world - I'm pointing this out to say that any successful referral marketing effort you engage in better give your referral source this motivation. I guess another way of saying it is that no one wants to refer something or someone that makes them look bad.

Keys to looking good. There are many, many variables in figuring out what people will perceive makes them look good, but you can bet your business needs some amount of:

• Buzz - People want refer things that are new enough to be a bit of a find but solid enough that thought leaders are in the know
• Met Expectation - People want to be sure that you will meet their expectation - they want the same experience over and over again
• Value - People want to be able to say, "here's what is so great" in very simple terms

Build your referral systems in ways that let people feel good about referring you and you will tap into the master human motivation.

How To Move Up The Referral Food Chain

This post will smack some as a tad elitist or politically incorrect but, I'm about to explain a referral marketing fact of life.

People can only refer down the food chain (or maybe in the same food group)

What I mean by that is that is, if you are counting a person to refer the VP of sales for a Fortune 500 company, and that person is seen by the VP of Sales as vendor and not as an equal, good luck. Now, understand that in many cases this is simply a function of title, socioeconomic class or even age - but it's also a function of value.

Plenty of high level executives in your network may not be able to refer you to their peers because even their peers don't see them as valued partners. The food chain rewards value.

And the flip side of that! Plenty of seemingly lower level folks provide so much value in the networking relationships they create, doors open for them in mysterious ways.

With all this said, here's what I'm getting at:

1. If you want to make contact with a higher level (title, income, celebrity status, thought leader, mover-shaker) of prospect you must move out of your current level of network and start breaking in to higher level networks. Quick, how many people in your current network group can and do refer you to executives that are seemingly out of your reach?
2. If you want to break into a network seen higher than the ones you currently play in provide value. Give before your even ask in return. Prove your worth. Be a coach, consultant or information source that outshines all others and the doors to this higher network will open. And when they do, the referrals you receive will be a little higher on the food chain too.

Raise prices and get more referrals

Eventually you’ve got to raise your prices. You’ve held on for five years now because the last time you asked your clients to allow a $5 increase they screamed and moaned for weeks.

Here’s a solution that will allow you to boldly hike the price and increase referrals at the same time.

   1. Raise your prices – today – and go out and land some new clients

   2. Go to your existing clients with a good news bad news message – First the bad news. Costs have gone up so much that you are forced to increase your prices, but the good news is that you have a way for them to continue to buy at 1999 prices.

   3. All they need to do to get the lower price is refer you to two other prospects just like themselves.

When you take this approach you move the discussion away from the price increase and towards a way for them to save money. Of course the newly referred folks that come by way of this promotion all come in at the higher price.

Referral Marketing Interview with Marketing Sherpa

Anne Holland and her staff at Marketing Sherpa are some of the hardest working media folks you will ever encounter. The shear volume of quality content they crank out in their various newsletters  and such is breathtaking.

Recently, they contacted me to talk about referral marketing. For a limited time you can view my interview with them.

When you’re there, I suggest you get on several of their email newsletter lists. And did I mention that the reader's of Marketing Sherpa recently voted my Duct Tape Marketing blog Best Small Business Marketing Weblog. . . I'm sure I mentioned that before though!