HOW TO ATTRACT REFERRALS?
Every business or sales professional yearns for referrals. And yet…most business people do not implement a referral marketing system that will help them grow their referrals and revenue.
Growing a referral-only business is a possibility, but takes consistency and a bit of creativity. The only way a customer, friend, family member or acquaintance will refer your product or service is if they like you and trust you. This is where the disconnect happens.
You see…most small businesses and even sales professionals focus on the immediate transaction. When the transaction takes place, it’s over in the mind of the salesperson. This is the death of any business! When you focus on the transaction, your customer will see that you are only in it for the money, and that you don’t care for them as a person.
Now I want you to view the customer/client interaction as a new relationship you’re going to develop, even BEFORE the transaction occurs. You’re going to find out what your customer WANTS and you’re going to give it to them. And along the way, you’re going to ask specific questions to show them you really do care, and that you’re there to help them get what they WANT.
Notice the title of this article has the word “attract” in it? Now you can ask for a referral after you’ve given your customer what they want, and they enjoyed the process, but you can also go the extra mile AFTER the transaction to build a relationship (and in some cases a friendship), that will last for a long time (in most cases years) that will bring you referrals ongoingly.
Tips For “After The Transaction” To Get More Referrals
- Immediately send a personalized “thank you” card in the mail.
- Follow up a week later with a phone call to see if there is anything you can do or help with.
- Exactly one month, send an “appreciation card” with a Starbucks gift card.
- Another month later send a “how you doing” – “thinking of you” post card.
- After this, send on schedule a birthday card, holiday card, and maybe an anniversary (if you know it) card.
I hope you’re seeing how you can have many “touch points” with your customer AFTER the transaction to build a very strong relationship (and even friendship).
Can you see how powerful this will be and how each and every customer you have from now on will feel like you really do care, and they will refer all their friends, family and peers to your product or service, creating a referral-only business in less than one year?
And as always, I’d love to hear from you! Give me your feedback! Thanks so much!
WHY GOOGLE ANALYTICS?
If you are a blogger then you would know how hard it is to get traffic to your website when nobody knows about you. You write posts day in and day out and keep checking your Alexa rankings to know how well you are doing. But if you are not using analytics then it is very unlikely that things will change quickly for you.
You may be tracking your website performance through AWstats in your Cpanel but somehow it does not show the actual and detailed picture of your website performance. Google Analytics is probably the best free tool available today and it has so much to offer you. It tells you exactly what your visitors are looking for on your website and where you need to improve. It also shows the most popular pages of your website and the keywords people type to get to your website. All these things make it easier for you to optimize your content.
You can register for a free account at Google Analytics website if you already have a gmail address. There you can add your website and get a code for it. Put this code in the <body> section of your page’s HTML. Ideally the code should be at the bottom of the HTML before the closing <body> tag.
Google Analytics WordPress Plugin
WordPress is the most used CMS today and there is a Google Analytics plugin for WordPress that you can use to monitor your website. There is a lot of data available and you need to know how to interpret it and make it meaningful for your blog.
ARTICLE MARKETING
Many newbie internet marketers do not think that you can actually make a profit from something as simple and straightforward as writing articles.However, the truth of the matter is that it is perfectly feasible to earn a very reasonable amount of money every month from writing articles.
That being said, it is a fact that article writing is one of the quickest and easiest ways of starting to earn money on the internet. On the other hand,unless you are extremely fortunate, it is not necessarily a moneymaking method that will turn you into a millionaire overnight so please bear that in mind when you are first choosing which niche you would like to start your online business with.
“What do you think is involved in article marketing?” If I were to pose that question to a group of beginners who are just starting out, 9 out of 10 will probably say that it just involves submitting articles to article directories. While that isn’t wrong, it is only part true, submitting an article to an article directory would get it on the internet. That part is correct, but that does not mean the article will actually get viewed, and it also does not mean that people will click the backlink, you could end up with 1,000 articles that each get 1 view a day since no one can find the article, and getting a total of maybe only 10 click-throughs.
Which is why the basic theory of article marketing is:
1. Research which articles to write
2. Do keyword research
3. Position your articles where they can be found
4. Write headlines that gain attention
5. Evoke interest in the article body
6. Call to action in the resource box
7. Get more visitors to visit your article
FORUM MARKETING
Forum marketing is a great method that many online business owners use to market their own products and services online. In fact it is fast becoming one of the most widely used free marketing methods on the internet. It has many benefits and it costs virtually nothing for you to implement. It just takes a little know how and determination from you on a regular basis to begin seeing positive results.
People often use online forums as a way of coming together to discuss a particular topic or
problem. As a forum marketer you should use forums to get information, ask questions, make connections, as well as for promoting yourself and your business.
I would recommend that you never jump right in and immediately start promoting your business, this is considered bad manners and will actually drive your potential customers in the opposite direction.
The first thing you need to do is find a forum, I like the Warrior Forum it’s the best in my opinion, once you have registered you should take some time to create a profile page about yourself. This should include a good description about yourself and your business.
You will want to pay special attention when creating your signature file, because it will be at the bottom of every post that you make and it is vital to the success of your campaign.
After you have registered and set up your profile and your signature line you should take a few days to look around the forum before you begin to post, read posts and get a feel for the other members thoughts, ideas and questions. It is also very important that you take time to acquaint yourself with the rules of the forum.
With your first post you can introduce yourself, ask any questions that you need an answer for, help other members with their problems and build up your reputation for being an expert in your niche, if you don’t know an answer to a question do a Google search to find a solution, and once you become more confidant and have more knowledge you will be able to answer without needing to do this.
The more respect you earn in the forum the more visits you will get to your website and the more sales you will make, just don’t forget the rules are that you cannot promote your products or services in the post itself only in your signature line.
A great benefit of joining a forum is that you will find plenty of valuable and very useful information that you can use to build your business. As you read posts by other members you will be amazed at how much free information that you’ll receive. This information can be an invaluable resource to improve your forum marketing strategy.
As you begin to post on the forum many people will be able to see your signature line and click on it, which will lead them straight to your website. This form of free advertising can add up to a nice amount of free traffic as well as potential sales from forum members.
Another benefit is that search engines such as Google like forums and whenever you create a hyperlink to your website from the you will get a nice backlinks. These backlinks will increase your position in the search engine results and the higher you are ranked on the search engine the more traffic you will generate outside of the forum. This will lead to even more sales for your business.
So as you can see forum marketing is a fantastic method with a lot of extra added benefits that you can use to promote your business, so why not head over to a forum today and sign up so you can get started. Do a little research and find other forums than just the Warrior Forum, there are lots out there and many are geared towards certain niches so you be sure to find one for you!
INTERNET MARKETING
One of the most important things you must do to achieve success online is to build a solid relationship with your subscriber. Building a relationship is important because it can make the difference between making a sale and losing it to your competitor.
One of the best ways to build relationships with your subscriber is to strengthen the rapport between you and your customer.
Here are a few ways to achieve that:
Keep in touch with your mailing list often, don’t mail them only when you need to promote a product.
Ask about their needs and concerns, use questionnaires and get them involved. Ask them what they want you to provide for them to help them with their Internet marketing business.
Send them gifts sometimes, it could be in the form of free reports, blog templates, graphics or even free membership access!
Be personal, let them see your human side or your personal life. It sure beats dry, stale E-mails that talk about product launches all day.
Be educational, when you impart something of value to your subscribers, they will see you as a teacher and listen to what you say. This will come in handy when you want them to listen to you and buy whatever you are selling.
If you want to succeed at Internet marketing, you must be able to instill stronger credibility to your subscribers by establishing yourself as an authority on your niche market.
For example: when you are talking about making money through product launches, you must let your subscribers know about your credibility either before or after they opt-in to your mailing list.
Here are a few tips on establishing your credibility:
Talk about your experiences online and offline. If you have run an offline business before, use it to establish your credibility as a business builder. If you have been in sales and marketing before use it to establish your credibility as a copywriter.
Show them screen shots of how much money you’ve made online (or checks you’ve earned). If you don’t have any of these, use photos of well-known marketers you’ve taken pictures with (e.g. look, here is my picture taken with Mike Filsaime)
Let others tell the story, it would be better to let others sing your praises – especially in the form of testimonials.
People may not be impressed at the first glance. Sometimes it takes a few E-mails for people to recognize your capabilities.
One of the ways you can build your credibility over time is to write an E-course or a newsletter that will be sent to your subscriber’s E-mail over a period of days or weeks. It must be something educational – something that will establish you as an expert on the subject.
You can set up your autoresponder to send an E-course once everyday, every two days or a weekly newsletter. So long as the subscriber reads your educational material over a period of time, you can slowly work your way into the heart of your subscriber and stamp a firm impression in their minds.
If you want to build a solid relationship through E-mails, you must be very careful NOT to commit these E-mail marketing sins:
Spamming! Never, ever spam your mailing list, even though they have given you permission to E-mail them, that doesn’t mean that you can send them E-mails and sales pitches on a daily basis. Learn to send E-mails at strategic intervals.
Mailing them only when you are selling something, no one wants to be on your list if all you ever do is sell, sell, sell! The reason people join your mailing list is because they want something of value for being on your list, if they fail to see your value, they will unsubscribe even faster than you can say opt-out!
Rushing your Emails, when you are doing a promotion one of the biggest mistakes you can make is that you rush your E-mails to the point that the mistakes are spotted by most of your subscribers. Having too many mistakes in your E-mail will make you look unprofessional, it is quite embarrassing when you spell a persons name wrongly (the word {first_name} appears instead of the subscriber’s real name) or worse… screwing up your affiliate links!
Not mailing your list for a long time, the opposite of spamming. If you don’t keep in touch with your subscribers for a long time, they will tend to forget who you are. And that will severely damage the relationship between you and your subscriber.
Not relating to your subscribers, when every new product launches there is a tendency to mail your subscribers all the time while forgetting that the product doesn’t relate to the subscribers at all. You don’t want to sell cat food to people who don’t own a pet!
Remember building relationships through E-mail marketing is all about trust, the more a person trusts you, the easier it is go get them to do what you want them to do.
It may take a long time to build trust but remember that trust can be shattered overnight.
Always put yourself in the shoes of your subscriber and give them as much value as possible and you can be sure E-mail your way to victory!
AFFILIATE MARKETING
Affiliate marketing is one of the easiest ways to make money on the internet, newbies through to gurus are making a lot of cash with affiliate marketing everyday. The hardest part about affiliate marketing is promotion to get traffic to see your offers!
So where do I find affiliate products to promote? Well, the first place to start is the Clickbank Marketplace. The Clickbank Marketplace offers a wide range of online products for you to promote and displays the statistics of each of the products so you can see which are the more profitable and popular ones that people are promoting.
You needn’t worry too much about marketing affiliate products. Most of the marketing tools for affiliate products will be provided by the product creator. After all, they WANT their affiliate to succeed. Just focus on building your list size and also rapport, trust and credibility and the affiliate sales will pop in.
The best part about affiliate marketing is that you don’t need to spend time and money creating a product, worry about shipping or customer services! All of it will be settled by the vendor, making you just a salesperson who reaps in massive commissions. Combine your affiliate marketing efforts with online
advertising campaigns and watch your income explode!
Here’s How To Avoid The 3 Most Common Affiliate Mistakes
Choosing the wrong affiliate.
Many people want to earn from affiliate marketing as fast as possible. In their rush to be part of one, they tend to choose a bandwagon product. This is the kind of products that the program thinks is “hot”. They choose the product that is in demand without actually considering if the product appeals to them. This is not a very wise move obviously.
Instead of jumping on the bandwagon, try to choose a product in which you are truly interested in. For any endeavor to succeed, you should take some time to plan and figure out your actions.
Pick a product that appeals to you. Then do some research about that product to see if they are in demand. Promoting a product you are more passionate about is easier than promoting one for the sake of the earnings only.
Joining too many affiliate programs.
Since affiliate programs are very easy to join, you might be tempted to join multiples of affiliate programs to try and maximize the earnings you will be getting. Besides you may think that there is nothing wrong and nothing to lose by being part of many affiliate programs.
True, that is a great way to have multiple sources of income. However, joining multiple programs and attempting to promote them all at the same time will prevent you from concentrating on each one of them.
The result? The maximum potential of your affiliate program is not realized and the income generated will not exactly be as huge as you were thinking initially it would. The best way to get excellent result is by joining just one program that pays a 40% commission at least. Then give it your best effort by promoting your products enthusiastically. As soon as you see that it is already making a reasonable profit, then maybe you can now join another affiliate program.
The technique is to do it slowly but surely. There is really no need to rush into things, especially with affiliate marketing. With the way things are going, the future is looking real bright and it seems affiliate marketing will be staying for a long time too.
Not buying the product or using the service.
As an affiliate, you main purpose is to effectively and convincingly promote a product or service and to find customers. For you to achieve this purpose, you must be able to relay to the customers that certain product and service. It is therefore difficult for you to do this when you yourself have not tried these things out. Thus, you will fail to promote and recommend them convincingly. You will also fail to create a desire in your customers to avail any of what you are offering.
Try the product or service personally first before you sign up as an affiliate to see if it is really delivering what it promises. If you have done so, then you are one of the credible and living testaments aware of its advantages and disadvantages. Your customers will then feel the sincerity and truthfulness in you and this will trigger them to try them out for themselves.
Many affiliate marketers make these mistakes and are paying dearly for their actions. To not fall into the same situation they have been in, try to do everything to avoid making the same mistakes.
Time is the key. Take the time to analyze your marketing strategy and check if you are in the right track. If done properly, you will be able to maximize your affiliate marketing program and earn higher profits.
BLOGGING
If you want to make money through blogging, creating a popular blogis the key to success. If your blog receives very little traffic, you will not have much success making money online from it! There are many ways to make your blog more popular. The first thing you should consider is who your audience is and who you are writing for. You should always write about something that interests you, and that will interest others. You may think that your new kitten is the greatestthing since sliced bread, but there are probably not very many other people who want to read a blog about it. One of the great things about blogging is that you do not have to be a professional writer to have a popular blog. You do have to obey common grammatical rules and at least be able to put together coherent sentences, but you do not have to be a highly skilled writer. Of course you need to have traffic to your blog, a couple of great ways to do this are Blog Hopping you visit other blogs within the same nice and comment on the blog with a link back to your blog, another is to visit Forums and get involved and again leave a link back to your blog. When you first start out with your blog try to write a post every day for the first week and then on a regular basis ie: every 2 or 3 days until you have a good number of posts and you are getting some traffic to your blog then you can maybe write a new post every 5 days or once a week. You may not think you will be able to find enough content to write all these posts but once you begin it will come to you, I thought the same and when I had my first couple of posts written the rest came a lot easier. You will have to do a lot of research in your chosen niche and do not just copy word for word from articles or PLR’s if you do use these then make sure you re-write them to your own style. To make money from your blog you will need to monetize it in some way, this can be from: Affiliate Links You can sign up with a site like CLICK BANK and choose a product from the marketplace you would like to promote, and either place a banner or a review with your hoplink in it on your blog. Google Adsense You can sign up for an Adsense account with Google and have their ads placed on your blog and when anyone clicks on the ad then you will earn money. I will be honest with you I tried this for a while and made a few $’s but I did not think it was worth it and I felt it made my blog cluttered with the ads so I decided to remove them and have a clear look, you may decide you want to do this, it is an individual decision. Selling Your Own Products You may think that you cannot create your own product but let me tell you it’s easier than you think! I’m not saying you don’t have to put any effort or work into this, it does take both of these at the beginning but once you have done it for the first time you will become more confident and it will become easier for you. If you are writing posts for your blog or reports then you CAN create your own product so you can make money online with your business. Product Creation will be my next post so look out for that! To your success Thanks for reading
ON-LINE INCOME 