KSC had the fortunate opportunity to get a free, advanced copy of the soon-to-be-released book, The Referral Engine by John Jantsch. All I can say is, the Duct Tape Marketing master is sure to have another hit with his straight-forward approach to the often-overlooked but best marketing medium - referrals. (Subscribe to the right by April 30, 2010 for a chance to win your own copy!)

People have a wonderful, seemingly innate desire to help others. If I asked you today to recommend a couple of restaurants near your office, what would you say? First, you'd think about the restaurants you've been to and the quality of each based on their menu, price, service, quality of food, etc. Then, you'd tell me your top 2 or 3 great restaurant options, right? Now think of how frequently we get recommendations we didn't ask for - someone tells us about a great sale, book, play, movie, gadget, electronic, etc. We are constantly (and usually subconsciously) announcing our favorite things to others. As a matter of fact, it's been common-place for so long that Julie Andrews devoted a whole song to telling us about "a few of her favorite things" in 1965 (scroll down to listen!).

On the flip side, if I asked for your help in choosing a local restaurant that means I trust your opinion on the subject and feel confident you will steer me in the right direction. People trust, and are more likely to follow, the guidance and recommendations of a friend, colleague, mentor, or even a stranger (ever been swayed by a product review?) over the boastings of an unfamiliar company.

In The Referral Engine, marketing expert John Jantsch addresses the power of referral marketing and how you can tap into your customers' innate desire to help others by recommending your product/service. Mr. Jantsch (whom I don't know well enough to call 'John' - and by well enough, I mean at all), once again, proves his marketing expertise by offering practical tips and techniques we can easily use to create loyal customers that will happily refer quality leads to our company.

As he states in The Referral Engine, "The secret to generating referrals lies in understanding the 'Customer Referral Cycle' - the way customers refer others to your company who, in turn, generate even more referrals. Businesses can ensure a healthy referral cycle by moving customers and prospects along the path of Know, Like, Trust, Try, Buy, Repeat, Refer."

The Referral Engine is scheduled to go on sale May 13th.
Pre-order it through Amazon.com today!


P.S. Just so you know... at KSC, we appreciate referrals and have made it a goal to let our clients know it. If you have found value in working with us and/or enjoy our blogs, please let someone else know. Thank you!

You can join us on Facebook, Twitterand LinkedIn too! 


You have to admire Julie Andrews' passion...

If you've tuned into my recent webinars, you've heard my analogy of drip marketing being the best employee a company could have. Yes, it is a tongue-in-cheek statement. However, when I explain the analogy to new drip marketing clients, they begin to view the initial drip marketing efforts involved in a whole new light. Let me explain... A drip marketing campaign is a highly-effective tool for automating your marketing messages - and for freeing up your time to pursue other business activities (attending baseball season-openers, for example). To create a successful drip campaign, there is some initial pre-planning and email template creation involved, and it does take considerable time to set-up. So people often ask me, "Well then, how does this actually save me time and money?"

And here is where my analogy comes into play. I simply ask you to consider Drip Marketing (DM) a new employee for just a moment and let's look at how it can successfully contribute to your business.

As you know, with any new hire, you need to invest some initial time training and over-seeing that person. He/she needs to become familiar with the basics, such as how to clock-in, where the office supplies are located, how to use the phone/computer/other systems; then, you move into the meatier elements that help them perform their core job responsibilities. When you think about it, a lot of initial effort goes into training that person to work independently. Then what happens? They quit a year later - and the process starts again. (Insert very large sigh.) With DM, you never have to worry about that! Hence, why I call it the best employee you'll ever have. Look at the other benefits:

• It's cost-effective: With a subscription rate as little as $30/month or at most $150/month, it will likely be the cheapest "salary" you pay. DM has no benefit requirements, it won't call in sick or take vacations - in fact, it works 24/7 and 365 days/year. It won't lie or steal your trademarked secrets or coveted office supplies. DM saves you money, while it makes you money! 
• It's efficient: You spend some initial time developing a thorough, well thought-out campaign, and once it's launched, it will automatically send what you want, to who you want and when you want it sent. You can rest easy while on that much-needed tropical vacation knowing your customers are still receiving your important messages. In fact, unless you tell them, they'll never know you were gone. Can someone say, "Pass me my 9 iron, and another fruity umbrella drink, please?!" 
• It will save you time long-term: It eliminates the time spent scrambling to send out another thrown-together marketing piece; the time spent before each email questioning who to send it to and when; the time on the tropical golf course talking your assistant through how to send that email blast you forgot needed to go out. Also, Swiftpage allows you to easily duplicate your campaigns and simply tweak the templates with new or updated info, eliminating future upfront time. 
• You can easily view and analyze your campaign results: The Swiftpage reporting tools track the results of your email blasts and allow you to export the results into excel or, for ACT! users, you can upload that data directly into each contact's record. Then, upon your tanned and well-rested return from said tropical get-away, you can follow-up with them without missing a beat.
• It helps you to build better business relationships: By continually and consistently reaching out to your leads and clients, you are nurturing that relationship and building their trust and loyalty. People buy from people they know, like and trust. You want that to be you!

An automated marketing system, like DM, can not only help you save time and money, but best of all, it can lead to increased sales and referrals. And an "employee" doesn't get much better than that.

By the way, anyone seen my sand wedge??