4 tips to create a powerful referral marketing strategy!

Business owners know all too well that finding the best qualified leads takes time… a lot of time! So what if there was a way to avoid the time it takes to develop ‘cold leads’? Now, she closes her eyes and imagines building a referral network. What’s more, it won’t cost you a dime! It sounds too good to be true? It can be done by adapting the reference networks. A referral network is a group of people who already know and trust you, understand your business concept, and are willing to refer you to people interested in buying your product or service. This is an extremely effective way to create a constant stream of very warm leads. Here are 4 tips for creating a powerful referral marketing strategy.

Referral Marketing Tip 1:

Build a strategic sales team.

Do you know any company with whom you share mutual clients? You should be running, not walking to find out who they are and how they can team up and benefit from each other. The key to this is to learn as much as you can about each company so that you can promote their products or services as you would your own. This new strategic sales team will allow your business to grow faster by working on your behalf. It makes a lot of sense to work smarter and not harder!

Referral marketing is simply bringing together complementary businesses that serve the same target customers but are not considered direct competitors. For example, if you are a…

• Business consultant, you can partner with an accountant, lawyer, graphic designer and banker
• Business Writer, you can partner with a web designer, a public relations company and an advertising agency
• Realtor, you can partner with a mortgage lender, appraiser, title service, and home builders
• Maid service, can be associated with landscaping service, carpet cleaning service and handyman service.
• Catering, you can partner with florists, wedding planners and event facility managers

Referral Marketing Tip 2:

Develop a marketing campaign As you and your new ‘strategic sales team’ strategize, consider cheap and easy ways you can all benefit from each other. Here are 3 easy-to-implement marketing ideas:

1. Letter of Endorsement: Send cover letters to each of your contacts. Imagine if each of you had 500 contacts? In a 3 way partnership, you have been exposed to 1000 potential customers!
2. E-Newsletter: The use of e-newsletters has quickly become an indispensable component of the advertising campaigns of many companies, large and small! If each of you published a monthly ezine (that’s 12 times a year) that featured a partner page, imagine a click on a link, the potential traffic to your website? This is an easy, cheap and profitable way to meet warm leads! Consider increasing your chances by creating a landing page that includes a ‘free offer’ or ‘discount’ on specific services.
3. Media: Are you using social media to market your business? Hopefully, the answer is yes! If so, create a marketing strategy using Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to mutually benefit each partner. This is a great way to share information on a weekly or monthly basis. For example, I have over 3,100 followers on Twitter, 1,000 fans on Facebook, and 400 members in my LinkedIn group. There are 4,500 potential clients that each of my strategic partners can benefit from.

Referral Marketing Tip 3:

Going to the “question” with existing customers Providing quality customer service is vital and should be an important part of your business model. Right? If you’ve spent time building relationships, establishing communication, building trust, and resolving potential issues or conflicts, then your customers will see little risk in referring your company to their peers.

Just as people do business with people they know and trust, they also feel more comfortable when a product or service is recommended by someone they know and trust. A prospect who was referred to you has already been told about the quality and professionalism you provide to your clients.

For customers who constantly refer prospects, consider creating a referral program; by offering them a $50 referral fee, a 20% commission on each lead’s initial sales, or a special gift.

Referral Marketing Tip 4:

Build a blog network As you regularly post relevant content, you build a loyal group of followers. Be patient because it takes time. As your followers get to know you, they will feel comfortable passing leads to you and referring them to potential customers. Also:

• Invite guest bloggers to contribute new content and reciprocate.
• Interview experts in the field. For example, I publish a monthly series of written interviews; ‘Successful Women Talks’ with established authors and business owners. My subscribers receive informative and empowering content and interviewees link my blog article to theirs, which drives new traffic to my blog.

I recently listened to Tom Joyner’s morning show, where blogger Necole Bitchy was being interviewed. A few years ago, she was unemployed and started a blog out of necessity. Today, NecoleBitchie.com is considered one of the fastest growing celebrity urban blog sites on the Internet, with over 3 million visits per month. Therefore, be persistent and consistent with your efforts.

In conclusion, there is enormous power in creating a strong referral network. It’s not about getting sales, but about developing strong relationships with people.