ChristianFortunately, we have the digital capabilities of a lifetime laid out before us or getting referrals fast might be an entirely redundant term. When referrals relied on word-of-mouth alone, they may be a bit longer in coming, but always equally worth the effort and the wait. Another superbly positive element of the internet, the wait for many things has virtually disappeared. Although it is likely that carefully nurtured referral gathering may provide you with the best quality of consumers, there is still a few ways to get them faster if your business has an urgent need for building their referral base.
Consider a Joint Venture with a Relevant Business
While no business owner should ever join hands with a competitive business without a smooth plan in place, there are untold benefits from teaming up with a complimentary business. If you run a car washing business, complimentary businesses would include those who sell car wax, washes, buffing clothes, leather balm and other items that those coming through your car wash would find relevant. Giving away free gifts of a complimentary nature will bring help you get referrals fast. A car wash giving away coin purses or irrelevant materials may not fare as well. Joint ventures can also help to build a brand name that highlights your business in a complimentary way.
Go Big
Choose a top selling product and offer a year’s supply to those who bring in the most referrals. Depending on how it will affect your bottom line, you may want to require the newly referred to make a purchase at a required limit to offset some of the cost of supplying the years worth of products or services down the road. Don’t let the term year’s supply throw you unless it requires such a significant investment that could endanger your business. It will be worth the referrals if you can find a method to offset the costs in some cases, even if you have to throw a private fund raiser or bake sale to do so. This method will get referrals fast; keeping referrals that come from big contests like this is another story.
Use Your Email and Address Lists
Combine traditional marketing with the digital world. Once you have an email or address list that you can work from, you can decide whether you want to try passive marketing by shooting out a mass email offering subscribers a 100% free gift, or you can go aggressive marketing and send out a very commonly used household tool, such as a bottle opener, plastic bag collector, or even a fine quality kitchen or grill utensil with your business’s name, website and phone number on. The closer the free gift is in relevance to your business, the higher the chance that actual conversions will occur.
Remember that one of the most critical elements to enable you and your team to get referrals fast is the word-of-mouth reputation that you will generate when a customer has a positive experience with your company. So while reaching out for fast referrals may bring them in, it is ultimately up to the quality of the products and services combined with the interactivity, helpfulness and understanding of your customer service techniques that will turn them into regular consumers worth the investment you made in time, money or service.
Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture and Referral Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture and Referral relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.
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