Gain valuable referrals

Question:

Are you getting diminishing returns from your marketing and advertising spend?

Answer:

At The Alpha Group we make certain that you create and execute an effective referral strategy for your companies and achieve an increase in new customers from referrals.

So, how does this happen?

Easy, its a six step-process using the power of the peer-to-peer advisory board.

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Firstly the peer-to-peer advisory board help you identify what is your strategic problem.

In our increasingly overcrowded markets, most of our conventional marketing plans (e.g. direct mail) are far less effective than they used to be. As a result, for many of us, the cost of gaining new customers is becoming very expensive.

We know that increasing our profitable customers through valuable referrals could be highly beneficial to us. Unfortunately, many of us do not have an effective referral plan. As a result, less than 30% of our new, profitable customers come from valuable referrals.

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Secondly the peer-to-peer advisory board help you review your marketing plans.

They find it useful to assess your current marketing plans using the following template:

Including referrals, which of the five marketing plans below are key for you to focus on over the next 12 months (e.g. email marketing)? Please asterisk these, then score each item as low, medium or high for effort, as low, medium or high for cost and as low, medium or high for impact. How do referrals compare in effort, cost and impact with your other four plans?

1 Marketing Materials

a) Brochures

b) Newsletters

c) Information guides

d) Sample packs

e) Testimonials & case studies

f)

2 Media

a) Advertising

b) PR stories

c) Feature articles

d) Competitions

e) Radio

f) TV

g)

3 Direct Marketing

a) Direct mail

b) Telemarketing

c) Directory listings

d) Joint promotions

e)

4 Relationships

a) Referrals

b) Networking

c) Public speaking

d) Sponsorships

e) Trade associations

f) Chambers of Commerce

g) Exhibitions

h) Hospitality events

i) Seminars

k)

5 Online Marketing

a) Websites

b) Email marketing

c) Pay per click

d) Search engine optimisation

e) LinkedIn

f) Twitter & Facebook

g) Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

h) Content marketing

j)

Thirdly the peer-to-peer advisory board help you assess your capability to gain valuable referrals.

They score themselves out of ten on the following questions:

1 Our customers understand who our ideal potential customers are

2 Our customers “get” our compelling proposition

3 As we give referrals to our customers, we gain valuable referrals from you (givers gain)

4 Our loyal customers enthusiastically give us testimonials and case studies

5 As the Business Leader, I personally believe that we can gain valuable referrals

6 Our staff are engaged in gaining our valuable referrals

7 We recognise our customers, associates and staff achievements in gaining referrals

8 Our other marketing plans are aligned with our gaining referrals

9 We use social media to gain our valuable referrals

10 We have an effective system for follow through on our referrals

From looking at your answers, this gives you four top priority strategies to strengthen or improve.

Start each strategy with a doing verb followed by 3 to 4 words.

Strategy 1:

•

Strategy 2:

•

Strategy 3:

•

Strategy 4:

•

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Fourthly the peer-to-peer advisory board help you create your referral plans.

They take your priority strategies, and rank you in order of importance, and determine the two key actions for each strategy.

Strategy 1:

•

a)

b)

Strategy 2:

•

a)

b)

Strategy 3:

•

a)

b)

Strategy 4:

•

a)

b)

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Lastly the peer-to-peer advisory board help you take massive action.

The profound impact on you and your company of gaining valuable referrals is that you gain more valuable customers for your company, leading to substantially increased profits. Some companies achieve an increase of more than 20% of new customers from referrals.