Get referrals!
referral-business-card
Referrals can be the most valuable marketing tool to a small business, but most of us leave them to chance. Oh, we do good work, and we’re trustworthy and honorable, so we get some referrals. But what if you could create a system that would ensure that you got many many more?
John Jantsch posted an article called Design and Operate a Referral System on his blog, Duct Tape Marketing. He’s actually writing a book about it. He’s got a lot of good points, but the two most important in my opinion are:
Educate your referrers. To do this, you need to be able to define very precisely who your ideal customer is, what they might say that will trigger your referrer into awareness, and what/how the referrer should tell them about you.
Follow up with all. Send out a handwritten thank-you card to your referrer. And track referrals on your marketing measurement dashboard.
Which brings me to my question for commenters: Do you have a marketing measurement dashboard? Don’t you wish you did?