Do you want to SERIOUSLY grow your business, income and referrals in 2011? Then study this referral marketing photo. I mention it a lot.

Today, people are busier than ever, with more points of communication in our lifetime. Look at what the average business person might come in contact with during their day:

• Google, Yahoo, Bing, Facebook, Android, iPhone, Outlook, Word, Excel, Project, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Frontpage, Blackberry, Sirius, FM radio, AM radio, DirecTV, Comcast, TimeWarner, etc. etc.

You kiddin’ me?

How in the world do you think YOUR marketing is ever going to influence them to want to SEEK you out, and do business with you? How do you break through?

There are three things I recommend.

Now, I’m not going to harp on old-school conventional marketing and advertising. It serves a need. But for most people like you, the question you’re really asking as you start another year, is:

• How do I cut what I’ve spent on my marketing, and re-use it so more people can be referred to me? After all, referrals are always the best clients for me since they’re already sold and ready to do business.

As we enter a new year, I’d like to suggest the following:

1. Shift your marketing spend dramatically from last year. By dramatically, I mean radically. Don’t flame me. I realize you might have to do it slowly so you don’t take a sales hit. But you need to have a RADICAL epiphany.

Go look at this referral marketing photo again.

For example, let’s say your marketing spend typically looks something like this:

• 80% – traditional marketing (Mailers, Yellow Pages, PPC, etc.)
• 20% – referral based marketing

I suggest you turn that upside down (like the photo shows you) and MOVE to this spend-based equation:

• 80% – referral based marketing
• 20% – traditional marketing

Ask: What would my income and client roster look like, if I was spending 80% of my marketing dollars on referral-generating activities.

2. If you’re not spending ANY money on referral marketing, you’re wasting a ton of your time and money.

And from the above, watch how powerful the 80% break down would become, if you followed, say this model:

• 40% – spend on current customers and clients
• 40% – spend on referral sources (COI – centers of influence, SA – Strategic Alliances)

Could you imagine spending 1/3 of all marketing dollars you have, on your current clients?

Imagine what impact that would have on their word-of-mouth about you. Imagine what impact that would have on your INCOME!

3. There are tons of ideas that will help you accomplish #2, very easily. I don’t have time to go into a slew of them here, but how about using referral letter drip campaigns, client/customer appreciation events (Birthday parties, Chef’s Tables, Golf Outings, Museum Lunch-n-Learn), or private seminars, just to name a few?

Start thinking new… as you start a new year. Otherwise your income and earnings will be exactly the same as last year.

Fact: Referrals and referral marketing are the fastest, easiest way for you to get to the next level with your business and income, and build an army of loyal clients and customers.

Nothing else comes close.

Period.

What does G.L.U.E. have to do with getting more referrals from clients and introductions.

Click below to hear this short audio lesson today, as I explain my referral acronym…

G.L.U.E.®

This advice will help you understand the process of generating more qualified, affluent referrals and introductions.

This includes getting referrals from strategic alliances (ex: CPAs, Attorneys, Investment Advisors, Realtors, Insurance Agents, Mtg. Brokers, etc.)

If your plan this year includes increasing your referral flow, don’t overlook the advice today.

[This article is a guest article, contributed by guest contributor Darek Daniel]

“The Words a Picture Cannot Say to Your Customers”

We’ve all heard of the saying that a picture is worth a 1,000 words, but business owners beware. Don’t take this saying literally when it comes to your advertising. Too many times business owners make the mistake of trying to be too clever or creative with their marketing pieces that their message becomes muddled or unclear to their target market.

Although you probably don’t want to use 1,000 words in your advertising, words are an important piece to your marketing and should complement your graphics and help get the message across. There’s nothing worse than spending the time and money on an advertising piece only to find in the end that no one gets it. Sure it may look great, but is it effective? Remember, there are several important messages your clients should get when they read your advertising piece.

1.  
   1. Who are you? You spent all that time on your advertising, but can your client immediately identify what your company name is? If your logo and company name aren’t immediately apparent in the design, than you have no branding value to your marketing piece and it’s time to rethink your creative.
   2. What do you do? I can’t tell you how many times this happens. Business owners get so involved in the aesthetics and the cool factor of the design that they forget the entire purpose of the piece. If you can’t tell from looking at your design exactly what your company does, why bother spending the money?!
   3. What do you want your clients to do? Ok, so you’ve sent them this great advertising piece. It has your company name on it, and it clearly states what your company does. Great. Now what? What should your clients do about it? Should they call you? Should they visit your website? Set the expectations for what you want to happen by including what’s called a call to action. This is marketing speak for tell your clients exactly what you want them to do. Literally use the words, “Call 555-5555 now for an appointment,” or “Visit our website today at www.prova.fm.” Remember to keep it simple!
   4. Why should your clients follow through? Now that you’ve told your clients what you want them to do, give them a reason to do it. Offer them an incentive to pick up the phone and call your business. Whether it’s 10 percent off or buy one get one free, it doesn’t matter as long as it’s an attractive enough offer to entice people to use your products or services.

Offering incentives also gives you another great benefit besides bringing in new customers. Incentives allow you to track your marketing efforts. Not following me? If you offer a 20 percent discount only to people who have received a certain advertising piece, then when they call asking about it, you will know where they found your number and ultimately you can track the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. Try to make sure each marketing effort you employ gets a different incentive. This will make it possible to track your efforts.

Creating great advertising pieces that draw your clients’ attention with attractive graphic design is just the beginning of a successful marketing campaign. By keeping these rules in mind when you create your pieces, you will ensure that your advertising efforts will not be in vain.

Darek Daniel is a marketing writer and branding professional for Firefly Writing, & offers weekly advertising help for small businesses at Prova.fm. For more information on how your small business can benefit from the design services mentioned in this article, you can visit http://www.prova.fm. For more resources on this topic, visit our blog at http://advertisinghelp.wordpress.com/.

Follow-up with people? Stay in touch with others more regularly?

Send referrals to others so (you hope) they will (eventually) reciprocate with you?

Nope. None of these are the answers I am driving at with this lesson today.

The reality is that today–in 2008–people are overworked, busy, stressed and have a cram-packed agenda full of problems… whether its in their work or personal life. The key is they rarely ever tell you about it.

So the question concerning building relationships with them, and generating referrals together, really centers around doing what?

The answer?

When you… provide added value to a person’s life.

What do I mean? And how can you do this?

By sharing information, and doing so in a consistent, non-threatening manner (ie: Don’t be a pest).

I’m sure you can think of many ways of doing this in your own business, but allow me to suggest just a few quickly:

1. Provide helpful articles of interest to them about their competitors.
2. Suggest an area of marked improvement for them with their web site (or e-mails they send).
3. Fax a weekly roundup of advice or trends (mortgage companies do this with loan rates, etc.)
4. Invite a person to participate with you (as an observer) when you attend a sales call, appointment or out of office meeting.

Remember: Referrals come faster when you provide added value to others lives.