Master Your Market

Do you have a system to help you generate referrals and build relationships? Most of us generate referrals by word of mouth. The problem with this strategy is that it is not consistent, predictable, or repeatable. Word of mouth referrals are mainly based on chance.

Here are 3 types of Referral Systems you can implement today:

Transactional – This system is based on rewards that happen during the transaction of business. For instance you could create a flyer that says “Would you like to receive 10% off of your bill today?” or for every referral that you give us you will get a 2% discount up to 10% and include a paper with 5 slots for names.

Referral Marketing

Studies have shown that 8 out of 10 people will fill in at least 2 or more of those referral slots. The downside to this system is that it’s short term and does not provide ongoing referrals.

Joint Venture – This type of referral system is used with complementary businesses. For instance a chiropractor could partner with a sports apparel company and then with a vitamin company. All of these businesses service the same type of client. Once you have you team of put together you can create a testimonial booklet and write 1 page endorsing each one of your referral partners and at the bottom of the page that referral partner can put a coupon or some type of offering.

Once this booklet is together each partner sends this to all of their customers. This allows all the partners to leverage off the relationship that each business owner has with their clients. The main drawback with this system is that it is very hard to set up because you need the commitment of each business owner.

Relationship Based -  This system is based on positive feelings between you and your customers, friends, and prospects. Benefits of this type are:

1. Last Longer -The best thing about this system is that they last a lot longer and are not transactional.

2. Higher Quality Referral – This results in a much higher quality referral because the Person giving the referral has an emotion and is excited about referring you to their friends and family.

3. Spreads Virally – Once you tell one person and they have a good experience with that vendor, they’re going to tell someone else, and so on.

This system is based on trust and requires that you provide great products and exceptional service. This system requires that you communicate with customers constantly and stay in touch. People need to be reminded constantly and feel that you care about them.

The best systems to accomplish this are an e-mail newsletter or a greeting card referral system. The main problem with e-mail newsletter is that everyone is sending them and they can easily get caught in a spam folders. It’s also very easy to hit the delete key. On the other hand hardly anybody is sending out warm and heartfelt greeting cards to the people that they want to establish a relationship with.

The best greeting card system that I have found for this type of marketing is Send Out Cards This system allows you to send out physical greeting cards through the mail in your own handwriting with your own signature.

When you push a button, it prints and sends out a physical card that gets opened 100% of the time. It allows you to customize your cards by uploading photos and designing each card. You can set up automated campaigns to drip market your clients without ever having to leave your desk.

Check out my recommends page at the top to try this system for free.

In Friendship,

Kelly Marsh