Referral Marketing

If you’re an entrepreneur or small business owner in Austin, don’t miss this year’s RISE conference the week of March 7. Created originally in 2007 by Roy and Bertrand Sosa as a week-long, free “un-conference” for- and by- entrepreneurs in Austin, Texas, RISE has now grown into an ongoing annual program that leverages its proprietary web interface to provide one-of-a-kind resources and experiences to entrepreneurs worldwide for free.

There are dozens of sessions to choose from in locations all over town ranging from bootstrapping your business to sales training to the kick-off event with Robert L. Johnson founder of the RLJ Companies and Founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET).

Of course, I hope you’ll join me for one of three sessions I’m hosting on Monday March 7 at the Better Business Bureau Conference Room on La Posada Drive:

8-9:30 am:  Seven Steps to Marketing Success

10-11:30 am: The Social Media Pyramid: Unraveling the Mystery of Social Media Marketing

12-1:30 pm:  Winning the Local Search game PLUS Teaching Your Business to Market Itself with Referrals

See you there!

I like to think of things in threes. It seems that my brain more readily learns and retains three things at a time. Three is a mystical number that shows up in the Bible and fairy tales too, so there must be something to it! The following three-step referral process will help you grow a simply amazing business and help other businesses do the same. Note that each step has just three words. I’ll bet you’ll be able to remember them too!

1. Discover your Difference
2. Give to Get
3. Refer and Reward

Discover your Difference

Take some time to discover what truly sets your business apart and identify three things that make your business amazing. Here’s a hint: those things are not your product, service or price. Truly amazing businesses don’t compete on price or their product or service. Customers buy from truly amazing companies because they offer something else. For example, an outrageous guarantee, a unique experience (think Southwest Airlines), an outstanding process, or incredibly friendly people – you get the idea. Are you stumped at how to find that difference? Here are three steps you can take:

1. Ask three employees (it can be more, but start with three) what they think sets you apart or what they see in your industry that could help set you apart. Start with your sales team.
2. Ask three of your ideal customers what they think about doing business with you. Invite them to participate in short survey. Ask them why they hired or bought from you in the first place. Ask them why they refer business to you. Ask them what you could do better.
3. Evaluate three competitors and look for gaps that you can fill. They’re probably competing on price or product in their marketing messages. Look for ways to beat them at their own game. You’ll see some themes emerge from this process. Write them down, and build them into your business or marketing plan. Can’t find three differences? Did you find some gaps or problems? Well, that’s good. You now have some work to do to become an amazing business.

Give to Get

Now that you have three amazing differences in mind, find three other businesses that could be or are amazing. They can be businesses that have the same customer base as you. The idea is to get connected to business that you can refer and they in turn will refer you. Find amazing businesses that your customers or prospects would like, and your customers will in turn think more highly of you for the information. The key here is not to ask them to refer you, but to invite them to educate you on how can to send them referrals . Give to get. Three more steps:

1. Contact three business owners and tell them you’d like to know three amazing things about their business. Explain that you believe you have similar customers or clients that could benefit from knowing about their business.
2. Give them your three amazing differences as an example and explain how you came up with those differences.
3. Invite them to send their three amazing differences back to you so you can begin referring business to them, and encourage them to do the same for you.

Refer and Reward

Follow-up is essential in this process. Now that you know three amazing differences about other businesses, actively refer them. Your final three steps:

1. Think of three current customers or prospects that might be a good match for your three referral partners and actively refer them. Important: this isn’t something you should do passively. Don’t simply write a company’s name down on a scrap of paper and tell your customer or prospect to call them. Introduce them – via email, at lunch, or at an event where everyone is in attendance. Make it personal and communicate your referral partner’s amazing differences.
2. Set up some kind of reward system when your referral partners send business your way. You can offer a cash incentive, a gift certificate, or maybe free services or products from your business. However a reward doesn’t have to be money or free services. An acknowledgement via a hand-written note can go a long way to help your referring partner feel appreciated when they send you a prospect who becomes a customer.
3. Repeat the process. This isn’t something you do once and forget. Always be on the lookout for more referral partners. Ask your new customers what businesses they think are amazing and approach those businesses to be your referral partners. Create a plan. You don’t have to refer everyone all the time (after all, you have to grow and run your business, right?). Do it over three months, and find three ways to introduce them. Feature a “referral partner” once a month on your website, put information about them in a newsletter, or keep their business card handy to share with others you meet in a networking session, and tell them you’ll follow up with a personal introduction.

So put the power of three to work to make your business amazing. I’d love to hear your comments and suggestions – I’ll take at least three!

[Blogger's note: This post first appeared as my submission to the HP SugarTone contest: “Making your business amazing”, sponsored by Hewlett Packard]

VOTE for this post HERE and also Leave a Comment to win great prizes!

I finally gave in to the craving for latest Bright Shiny Object, the iPad. It's being shipped right now, so I've been googling just about everything I can to learn what to buy for my new baby's arrival: a keyboard, a case, how to use it for business, and more.  In my cyber-meanderings, I came across this YouTube video about a guy who built an iPad into a kitchen cabinet.  Quite clever.

This kitchenPad actually is pretty cool, and while I'm very tempted to build something like it in my kitchen, I'm not quite geeky enough to do it (and my wife would think I've gone over the techno-edge).

However, the video did inspire me to come up with the notion of "iPad Marketing 101:  Four Lessons for Small Business Marketers."

1. Be an innovator. Apple is not the best-selling brand of computers, but they keep launching products that create entirely new categories. From the Macintosh to the iPod and now, the iPad. They are always innovators — never imitators. What new category or customer service process can you innovate in your business?
2. Build partnerships, then set them free (mostly). The myriad apps available for iPhones and now iPads is mind-boggling. Apple opened the App store, coining a new term and spawning a new industry of developers who piggy-back market to a rabid group of consumers. Yes, there are critics who say Apple controls too much software development, but the underground apps industry for "jailbroken" iPhones has no one to thank but Apple for its success. How can you leverage partnerships with your suppliers, vendors and customers to help generate demand your brand, product or service – in their voice?
3. Don't be boring. This video (and if you search for iPad on YouTube, you'll see hundreds more like it) have created an incredible buzz of free product promotion. What can you do to make your customers buzz about your business?
4. Harness Vox Populi – The Voice of the People. I was going to write "harness social media," but anymore, social media marketing is as essential to your business' survival as having a telephone number or a mailing address. The marketing funnel is broken. Through YouTube, Yelp, Blogs, Twitter and other social media tools, your customers have the power to define your brand reputation faster than a high-powered Madison Avenue ad campaign. They are vox populi – a Latin phrase that literally means "voice of the people." The term has historically been associated with broadcast journalism's "man on the street" interview. But now more than ever, the vox populi are out there in cyberspace, without anyone controlling what they say about your business, or how they say it. Start listening now to vox populi about your business by creating a Google Alerts Search today. Then get out there and spread your own social media voice by commenting, liking, rating and more.

Hmm. I watched that video again. Anyone have a jigsaw I can borrow?

I'm reading John Jantsch's new book, The Referral Engine, and once again, as he did with his first book Duct Tape Marketing,  John makes something as complex as marketing very simple to understand.

In the first chapter of the book, which hits bookstore shelves on May 13, John talks about how a tiny part of our brain, the hypothalamus, triggers a need for us to make referrals.  John writes,

The hypothalamus likes validation — it registers pleasure in doing good and being recognized for it, and it's the home to the need to belong to something greater than ourselves.

John says there are five realities of referral marketing:

1. People make referrals because they need to
2. All business involves risk
3. Nobody talks about boring businesses
4. Consistency builds trust
5. Marketing is a system

Want to learn more about these five realities? Download a sneak preview of Chapter One of The Referral Engine.  Your hypothalamus will be glad you did.

Want to stimulate your brain with more great referral marketing ideas?  John will be at St. Edward's Professional Education Center in Austin on May 5 to talk about his new book.  Visit smallbizmarketingpro.com to learn more and register.  We're giving away John's new book free to the first 100 people to register online.

Enter the discount code "getmoxie" to save $5 on your ticket.

I like Social Media Blogger Chris Brogan's post "What Sponsors Want." When considering whether to recruit sponsors for your marketing activity or content (an event, seminar, training session, conference, your blog, etc.) those sponsors will want access to your mailing list, attendees or members in exchange, and vice versa. Conversely, when you have an opportunity to become a sponsoring partner, think it through because it's your brand and good name. Make sure that both parties offer desirable content.

Chris writes:

Your Audience Wants Good Content

Whether you’re a blogger, a conference, a TV show, or some other kind of media, the people you’ve gathered around you most often come to you for entertainment and education. If you’re Hanley Wood, you’re educating people in the building and construction world (for instance). You’re attracting contractors, builders, architects, and other related professionals to an event with information and opportunities that they won’t find elsewhere. If you’re Mark Horvath’s Invisible People, you’re attracting people who want to know what the world of homeless people is like, and want to hear stories that compel them to give.

Your audience wants the best of what you can put out, and they want to know that you’ll protect them from scummy people. For instance, if I go to a conference, and my inbox suddenly fills up with spammy emails from exhibitors I’ve yet to meet or signal that I want more information, I probably won’t go to that show again, and I’ll probably raise holy hell until my name is off every list, etc. Your audience never wants to feel sold out. They want your best, and they want your protection.

So solicit or choose your sponsor-partners wisely. Those relationships can bear fruit for both parties if your audiences share similar wants, needs and interests. For example, when I did some pro bono work for a non profit event in exchange for a sponsoring partner mention, I got permission to contact other vendors to provide a free marketing workshop. At the event I introduced myself to each vendor. Then, I asked the partner to review my workshop offer letter and they sent it for me as a free gift to their partners. Much more powerful as a referral than anything "spammy" from me.