Affiliate Marketing

affiliate networks

Create an ongoing referral program starting with your existing customers. Your customers are your greatest tool.

Start with communicating with your customers to let them know you're open to receiving referrals. Ask at any 'point of contact' with your customers including in person, on the telephone, the back of business cards, or through your newsletter.

It is a good idea to offer an incentive to your current customers to provide referrals such as a discount or rebate. When their friends or family members make a purchase or sign up for services they will receive a token of your appreciation.

When the customer finishes a purchase with you, the installation is finished, or your service is completed, ask the customer if anyone else they know needs the same product/service. A home improvement contractor, for example, could send a follow-up letter at the end of each project asking for feedback and include a section requesting referrals.

Customer service plays a heavy role in your referral business. If the customer has an issue but you resolve it quickly, and to the benefit of that customer, they will tell others about your assistance and refer you. When you have a good, solid working relationship and a happy client, they will tell others about you and your business. Your customers become your sales force and you get more business.

Add this statement to any request for referral marketing piece.

Do You Know How Many People You Know?

Your family, In-laws, Friends, Neighbors, Business Associates, local coffee shop acquaintances, Church members, Sports team and those on the other team (only if you're a good sport!), Card Game players, and now online acquaintances. If any of your people need our products send them our way.

Affiliate and Reciprocal Referrals

Know what types of businesses are in your 'business circle'. These affiliates have direct contact with your prospects and can send them your way. As an example: A home inspector is a major influencer on home improvement companies since people need to fix what the inspector has found defective. On the flip side a real estate agent is a major influencer for the home inspector since many homeowners ask the agent who they recommend to have the home inspected before they make an offer on it. Marketing to your influencers is necessary and is as important as the campaigns used to attract your own prospects. Identify your affiliates and call them to get acquainted. Build a relationship with them through sales and marketing tactics and see what you can do for them.

Identify businesses that can refer back and forth with your business. An example for reciprocal referrals is a heating company and replacement window business. A customer's windows have condensation on them and ruins the frame. The window replacement company fixes the windows and recommends that the customer get an air-to-air exchanger and recommends the heating company. On the flip side the heating company installs an air-to-air exchanger in a house where the windows have had condensation on them and ruined the frames. They recommend the window replacement company. Build a circle of affiliate and reciprocal businesses and referrals will consistently come in.

For all business referrals create marketing materials that the influencer can give to the customers. The window replacement company could supply the heating company with a brochure on how replacement windows save energy. The heating company supplies the window company with information on why condensation forms on windows and how to alleviate it.

Keep your referral program on track by scheduling ongoing activity just as you would with your prospects and customers. Once you build a relationship with your business circle you don't want any of them to fall by the way-side. The way you handle the referrals you receive from the influencer will help solidify the relationship with them. Send out a thank-you note or make calls to them with updates on how you appreciate the referrals sent your way.

Referrals are what can launch you owning a business to the professional in your field of business. This is why it is important to cultivate all the right referrals so that you can produce the best business possible. It does not matter as much what type of referrals you get, but that they are your best leads because they come from satisfied customers and your cultivated 'business circle'.

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