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Small Business Marketing

Almost everyone has heard the saying, "The best kind of advertising is word-of-mouth."

Unfortunately, it’s also the slowest.

If you sit back and "wait" for it to happen, you may find yourself thinking, "People must not need my product."

Or you may hear yourself blaming the economy for the poor results you're seeing in your business.

But, if you actually plan a word-of-mouth campaign (we refer to this strategy as “Referral Advertising”), then you'll be able to leverage one of the most powerful, no-cost marketing tools you could possibly have in your business toolbox.

"Word-of-mouth advertising" can be defined as a random event that may or may not occur. It only occurs when your client feels compelled to tell a friend or two about your product or service.

And that's great – if you don't know any better. My coaching clients expect more from me, and that's why I coach them on developing a more advanced version of this strategy – what we call, "Referral Advertising."

"Referral Advertising" is a system you can build into your marketing plan and use consistently to bring in a steady flow of new business, not only from your existing clients, but from people who may never even use your product or service.

Which do you think is better and more effective? A random event that may or may not occur, or a system that you've strategically planned out, that encourages and motivates everyone you come into contact with to spread the word about your product or service.

I just finished offering a teleclass exclusively to people who subscribe to my newsletter, and we talked about implementing this type of system into their businesses. Everyone agreed that Referral Advertising was the smart way to go.

Briefly, here are the five key secrets to getting tons of referrals on a consistent basis; the same secrets that I just shared with the conference-call group. Jot down your own ideas as to how you can use these strategies in your business right now.

(By the way, this teleclass was in accordance to strategy #3. It was a way of honoring my existing clients and subscribers by giving them access to something no one else had, and allowed them to invite a friend, which immediately doubled my exposure to the world of business owners.)

1. Ask before you make a sale. (This was revolutionary for everyone.)
2. Ask after you make the sale. (While some business owners did this, many of their sales reps did not. That's because there was no system in place to ensure this happened every single time.)
3. Schedule regular referral events. (This was fun for most. They each came up with 12 events, one for each month of the year, to celebrate with their clients or subscribers and offer special promotions that only go to their list.)
4. Cross-promote with other businesses. (Ahhh ... practically the magic bullet. Talk about doubling your exposure to a new group of clients, without any extra cost involved!)
5. Become the in-house expert for other businesses, groups and organizations. (Participants who love to speak or write were extremely attracted to this strategy.)

Once I shared the first two secrets, many came to the realization that even though it seemed simple to do, and made perfect sense, they needed to move from "knowing" what to do, to "just doing it!"

I urge you to do the same right now.

Yes, this may be easier said than done, especially if you've been raised like me, where it's "impolite to ask." (Sound familiar?)

The quicker I got over this fear in business, and simply started asking for what I wanted, it was amazing how many things just started falling into place.

I was most impressed with those who decided to immediately apply what they learned, and contacted me after the call to simply ask me for the Action Report on this subject. I sell this report for $28 on my Web site. But they asked if they could have it for free, based on what I just shared with them.

Can you guess what I said? If you know me well, you know that the answer to this question was, “Yes!”

Now it's time for you to begin asking for what you want, asking for the sale, and asking for referrals in the most strategic way possible. Deal?