Referral Marketing

If you have been a good networker and have gained business because of it, you’ll know why. One of our recommendations is to connect you to a referral marketing company like BNI (www.bni-europe.com) which we consider as the Roll Royce of referral networking systems. There are some copycat organisations, but their systems, in our opinion, lack some discipline which is at the heart of a good referral marketing system. These groups use business categories and you can only have one category per group; one printer, one web designer, one solicitor etc.  The idea is to pass referrals and recommend the services of your fellow chapter members to your extended network of business associates. 

If you’ve already been successful at networking your business or services, then joining up with a referral network system is like networking on steroids!  That said, it depends on your type of business, as this type of marketing does not suit every business. In our opinion it is not suitable for marketing companies as our work crosses various other categories both off and on-line, and this may cause conflict with other group members in these categories.  Go to our Networking section to see other options or network communities that may be better for you than BNI.

Referral marketing involves finding at least one (but preferably 5 or more) easy-to-use referral systems that will each generate a 5%, 10%, 20% (or more) increase in customers, sales, and profits for your business.

Referral marketing is one of the most effective techniques for creating steady streams of new business. Here are three reasons why businesses should actively use referral marketing systems:

• Referral-generated customers are the most cost-efficient, profitable, and the most loyal source of new business you could ever dream of acquiring.

• Referral-generated customers buy quicker, negotiate less, buy larger quantities, and refer more business to you.

• You can easily set up referral systems that are fool-proof strategies for increasing your profits.

Referral marketing is almost always the first place to start for any business or professional practice if you wish too:

• Quickly and inexpensively leverage your business into increased profits and sales.

• Reduce the amount of money spent on time intensive tasks such as cold calling, telemarketing, direct mail, and other marketing techniques.

Your investment in a referral marketing campaign depends on the type of product you have, the size of campaign you want, the amount of publicity you seek, and the different services your publicity campaign needs.

There are also on-line marketing referral systems that we recommend, but again this depends on the nature of your business.

Check out our networking area.  We would be delighted to share our networking experience with you.

We hope you found this information useful. We would like to remind you that this subject is best served, and more effective as part of a complete marketing plan or strategy, rather than in isolation. For further expert advice please contact us to discuss your requirements or post a question in our blog.

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