Referrals are the key to exponential and cost-efficient business growth.

Supply a topnotch product… let your customers know how advantageous your brand is… and provide exceptional service.
Do that and you’ll encourage customers to willingly send their families, friends, acquaintances, and business associates your way.

There’s no easier sale than the sale made to a “pre-sold” prospect. This kind of favorable condition can only arise as a result of the shared enthusiasm from another delighted buyer. Word-of-mouth advertising generates top quality referrals. As a marketing tool, it simply can’t be beat. Word of mouth promotion cannot be purchased for any amount of money… it can only be earned.

Referrals happen when one friend willingly shares information with another. What makes referrals so effective is that no true friend would recommend a business, service, or product that they didn’t completely approve of themselves.

The foundation for building your business with referrals is a solid product or service — one that not only meets, but exceeds your advertising claims. One way to achieve customer satisfaction is to “under promise” and “over deliver”.

It doesn’t mean you should weaken your advertising materials. Simply focus on providing more for you customers – more than you promise. That’s another formula for success. People are always thrilled to get a little something extra with a purchase they’re already happy about.

Write powerful sales copy that clearly positions your product as the overwhelming favorite. Make a huge promise… and deliver even more.

Treat your customers as the most important component of your business. Customers are vital to your success – even to your very existence. People want to be treated fairly, with respect, and courtesy. The golden rule still applies – treat people the same way you like to be treated. Remember, nobody likes to wait beyond a reasonable amount of time for an order to be filled.

When you get in the habit of delighting customers, you’ll find that people are only too happy to tell others. As word spreads about your product or service, you’re business is propelled to new heights.

Your success in business is predicated on your ability to satisfy customers, and to continuously grow your customer base. In all your communications with customers, you need to encourage them tell others about all the benefits your product or service offers.

Let loyal buyers know that you’re always seeking new customers. Remind readers that you’ve built your business by thoroughly satisfying customers and having those customers tell others in turn.

Ask buyers if they know anyone who would like and could benefit from your catalog. As soon as a name is provided, fire off an information package… and send a thank you note to the customer who fed you the lead. Referrals make it easy to grow your business.

Provide discount cards for new customers. Offer a 10% to 15% discount on their first purchase and then make these available to your existing customers for distribution to others. Give them an extra reason for handing these discount coupons out.

Offer points towards free gifts, free premiums, for each discount coupon redeemed, or simply acknowledge them as a “builder” of your organization, complete with their picture and certificate, proudly displayed for all to see.
The best way to get customers to refer others is “in the moment” — when they’re still enamored with your product or your high level of personal service.

While customers are enjoying these positive emotions about your company, that’s the time to ask for a little favor. Ask… “Is there someone else you know, who might want to… grow their business by 37%this year? … get that older car looking showroom-clean? … transform any weed-filled lot into a lush green lawn and garden?

Simply fill in the end of the sentence with the big benefit you’ve just delivered on. Plant the seed of referrals and referrals will come your way.

I am over 10 years now FULL TIME working from home on the internet making money online and I have put together the following website to share all of my secrets with you at http://www.DecideYourIncome.eu

Regards Always

Mark McCulloch

http://www.CoachOfSuccess.com – mark@markmcculloch.com

Internet Marketer and Entrepreneur, Committed to creating success

(UK) 07875 647 867 (Call Me Anytime), Skype – mark.mcculloch1

Introduction:

This is a series of articles about marketing and advertising. There are different ways you can reach an audience of millions of individuals all around the world. I show you on this series how to implement profitable strategies in your marketing career.

It has been said that what matters is not what you sell but how you promote it. So, the secret to success lays within your marketing techniques. That’s why it is very important for business owners to develop skills which allow them to increase the sales of their products.

One of the most important skills you must have is the ability to reach a lot of people quickly. To do this you need to realize how powerful media is an how it can drastically increase your revenues.

– Classified ads –

Free classified ads are another way you can advertise online at no cost to you. They represent on the Internet what a newspaper ad represents on the streets. You can post ads to thousands of web sites and reach millions of internet users.

The drawback of this strategy is that it is time consuming, but once you get used to it you will realize which are the easier ad sections to post to and the most effective ones. It may take some time though before you discover those that fit you well.
You can post your ads to the following websites:

http://classifieds.excite.com/

http://finditclassifieds.com

http://washingtonpost.com

Among others.

– E-zine promotion –

You can post an add to a vast amount of individuals by submitting it to many different e-zines at once. This is simple and free. Just go to http://www.subscribeme.net/ read the information they provide for you there and complete their form.

Your ad will be displayed in hundreds of e-zines all over the Internet. There is a combined amount of more than 1,000,000 subscribers at those web sites, so you will gain a lot of exposure from them.

I think it is better if you use an alternate e-mail address for this purpose. You can get a free email address from Yahoo. When I joined the list I received many messages every day.

This technique could bring you additional traffic. The only problem I see is that most other individuals also join the list to advertise to other people as you do. So, the goal of most subscribers is to sell products, not to buy them.

I think though it is a good way to diversify your trading strategies. You could give it a try and see if it works for you. Remember to use an alternate email address and read their terms and conditions first.

– Safe lists –

Safe lists are lists of e-mail addresses from people who have requested to receive messages and information about a specific topic. As you probably already know to deliver comments or advertisement via e-mail to others without their consent or authorization is called spamming and is illegal.

Also if you spam others do not expect to receive a reasonable response rate from them. What do I mean? I mean that you can send a message to millions of individuals, but if they are not interested in what you are selling and they didn’t requested that information from you, then you will probably make very few sales, plus you will receive a lot of complaints from hundreds of them.

Then what is the smart way to advertise using e-mail addresses? The answer is safe lists. Think about it. This people are looking for information related to the products or services you are selling. Many of them are even getting paid to read your messages. This technique is also called advertising to targeted opt-in mailing lists. You can create your own list of subscribers.

You can join Yahoo groups http://groups.yahoo.com/ or Google groups http://groups.google.com/ and start your own newsletter. The way you get subscribers is by posting valuable information there that your visitors would like to read. You can also join any of the companies bellow:

Bravenet

http://www.bravenet.com/

Topica

http://www.topica.com/

Zinester

http://www.zinester.com/

Your mailing list provider

http://www.yourmailinglistprovider.com/

Coollist

http://www.coollist.com/

Now, keep in mind that building your own list of subscribers takes time. Some people prefer to pay others for the privilege of advertising on their lists. For example, www.e-mailpaysu.com offer you the opportunity to advertise to their subscribers for a fee. This is just an example. There are many other companies like these on the Internet today and their prices vary.

As you can see, this techniques can increase your exposure and help you get more clients. You can read about other effective marketing techniques from my other articles on this series.

I am over 10 years now FULL TIME working from home on the internet making money online and I have put together the following website to share all of my secrets with you at http://www.DecideYourIncome.eu

Regards Always

Mark McCulloch

http://www.CoachOfSuccess.com – mark@markmcculloch.com

Internet Marketer and Entrepreneur, Committed to creating success

(UK) 07875 647 867 (Call Me Anytime), Skype – mark.mcculloch1

For the netrepreneur seeking targeted free and low-cost advertising, ezines are an excellent resource. Using the following strategies you can get hundreds of dollars worth of ezine advertising on an ongoing basis, absolutely for free. You can also use these resources to structure an advertising campaign to fit your budget.

Before you get started, make sure you set up a special email address just for your ezine subscriptions – this will be very important to help you stay organized. Be careful about using a web-based email account, if you go out of town or miss a few days, there’s a chance it might fill up too quickly. If your emails start bouncing, your ads will not run. If you do not have access to a separate email alias from your current ISP and need to set up a free web-based account, it’s best to use one with a large amount of storage space, such as:

http://gawab.com

To get started with your free ezine advertising campaign, first visit:

http://subscribeme.net

This is a free service you can use once every three months to get your classified out to over one million subscribers.

Submitting your classified to the service above is just the beginning of your new free advertising strategy. When you use this service, you will be automatically subscribed to many excellent ezines. A number of them offer free weekly classifieds to subscribers, so your next step is to read through the ezines, looking for the directions provided as to how and where to submit your next free classified.

If you’re the organized type, here’s where you might start making note of which ezines offer ongoing free ads, and tracking your ad submissions. After your ad is published, you can record it’s publication date also.

Each ezine will have different specifications for the size of your classified. You will need to format your ad to a certain amount of characters per line, and a certain amount of lines. It will help if you set up a text file with multiple versions of your ad formatted to the varying guidelines. There are several great resources you can use you can use to make sure each line is a certain amount of characters. You can use this online text editor, simply enter your ad copy and specify the number of characters per line:

http://formatit.com

Or you can download this free software (NoteTab Light) and format the characters per line on your computer:

http://notetab.com

Next, you can find more ezines which offer free ads, some only for new subscribers, others on a regular basis.

The links below contain ezines which offer free advertising:

http://www.ezines-r-us.com/freeadvertising.htm

http://ebizwhiz-publishing.com/ezines2.htm

http://www.motherearthpublishing.com/journal/freeezineadvertising.shtml

You can also search through various ezine directories to find more ezines to subscribe to, such as:

http://www.ezinelisting.com/index.html

http://www.internetmarketing-success.com/email-marketing/ezine-directories.htm

Now that you’re subscribed to a wide variety of ezines and have your ongoing free classified ads, you have another great opportunity to get even more high quality free advertising, such as free banner ads, top and bottom sponsor ads, solos, and more. As you take the time each day to go through your subscription inbox, you will find tons of contests you can enter to win advertising.

If you take the time to diligently enter every contest, you may find yourself winning high quality free advertising once or twice a week!

Another great benefit of being subscribed to multiple ezines and actively reading them is that you will sometimes find the publishers sending specials and discounted advertising rates straight to your inbox that you would not have access to if you had just ordered an ad without subscribing.

You can track the results of all of your ads to test different ad copy and see what is pulling the most, and which of your ezines are performing the best. This will give you a real headstart when you want to order some paid advertising.

Subscribing to many ezines is an excellent business strategy for gaining ongoing free advertising, winning additional free advertising, testing your ad copy, discovering which ezine subscribers are most receptive to your offer, and accessing valuable discounted advertising rates. So subscribe, and invest a few minutes to go through your inbox daily. Your attention will pay off. The time you spend will be a worthy investment.

I am almost 10 years now FULL TIME working from home on the internet making money online and I have put together the following website to share all of my secrets with you at http://www.DecideYourIncome.eu

Regards Always

Mark McCulloch

http://www.CoachOfSuccess.com – mark@markmcculloch.com

Internet Marketer and Entrepreneur, Committed to creating success

(UK) 07875 647 867 (Call Me Anytime), Skype – mark.mcculloch1

Perhaps “blogging” isn’t such a graceful word. For me, personally, it sounds like a worded drudgery the way cereals can be soggy, skies can be foggy, and the way minds can be groggy. But for now, it’s too late to rename this shortened word for web-logging. Widespread blogging is nevertheless one of the most engaging Internet developments of the past few years. As a medium it gives rise to many new and worthy voices and plays a new and vital force in shaping opinions, political realities, trends, and even our language.

I believe that a blog is simply a tool to use for someone who’s got something to say. Let me be clear in saying that a blog is a poor choice for someone who needs a megaphone to scream out to cyberspace in order to elicit a meaningful response from Internet users. If you want attention and want it now and expect blogging to bring it to you, then this will surely be a disappointment. However, if you like to write and engage others on subjects of which you have some command or experience, then it’s a wonderful application with which you can interact with people who share similar interests as you. The hype is well founded.

Anyway, here’s a list of blogging tips…

1.) Be topical.
Cohesiveness in message is not optional. Readers may or may not be interested in your topic, but if your message is haphazard that few will bother remembering to return to your blog because it essentially would offer nothing to remember. This doesn’t mean blogs can’t jump from subject to subject. For instance, a blog with a humorous focus has all the leeway in the world for subject matter, but it would be foolish for such a blog to turn the humor on and off. In such an example, the aspect of humor would be content’s glue, the strength of the blog. The beauty of staying on point and on topic is that eventually, due to the nature of the Internet, you will find those interested solely in your topic. (as opposed to online diaries. There are millions of them on the internet, few have any readers. Email me with examples if I’m wrong and I’ll be able to show you why you’re showing me a blog and not a diary.)

2.) Refresh your content
Create a schedule and stick to it. Realizing that blogging requires time and effort, don’t create unrealistic expectations and be unable to deliver. An occasional lapse or holiday is generally understood but readers returning to find stale, out-dated content are going to find another blog with similar content. New blogs and RSS feeds are popping up on a daily basis. If you have worked hard to develop an audience and a community you don’t want to lose them due to lack of communication.

And remember, what’s old is not new and, for blogs, thusly not interesting. 2006 isn’t the time to rail against Enron or Vanilla Ice. Insight doesn’t matter much to yesterday’s news.

3.) Clear Language Counts.
Blessed is the blog with a clear line of logic. Write without inside jokes, clique-y catchphrases or ambiguous logic. First time readers need to be close to your message. They are more likely to return to blogs that strike them positively. If the first read is confusing there will not be a second read.

4.) Feed the Spiders.
Search engines take notice of active blogs and blog search engines are especially sensitive to activity. If nothing else, search engines are smarter today than they were yesterday and are only getting smarter. In constantly improving they are seeking to aggregate quality; quality blogs are updated several times a week, if not daily, as opposed to once or twice a month. I don’t mean to scare you but a big spider is watching, so dance for them.

5.) RSS.
Think of RSS like a magic to blogging world, because that’s the effect it’s had. RSS feeds are a way to exponentially sound your voice to the interested. These feeds are a great means to increase the distribution and readership of your original content.

6.) Spell check.
Hey man, use the spell-check. I do – if I didn’t you probably wouldn’t have made it to #6. It only takes a minute and can save you from looking like a hack.

Your weblog audiences will be small at first. And, frankly, that’s the way it should be. Who are you to think that half the internet will flock to you after three or four posts of your blog, anyway?

If you tough it out while maintaining quality, readership will materialize. You will link to good, relevant blogs and, in turn, they will to you. While your voice may be unique, your niche likely isn’t and if your content is emitted smartly to the Internet those relevant readers will respond through readership and interaction. That I guarantee.

I am almost 10 years now FULL TIME working from home on the internet making money online and I have put together the following website to share all of my secrets with you at http://www.DecideYourIncome.eu

Regards Always

Mark McCulloch

http://www.CoachOfSuccess.com – mark@markmcculloch.com

Internet Marketer and Entrepreneur, Committed to creating success

(UK) 07875 647 867 (Call Me Anytime), Skype – mark.mcculloch1

It’s a horrible word isn’t it….marketing? No, only joking, I mean “viral” of course. Mention viral and one tends to think infection, illness and disease – or for the geeks among us, computers messed up. But viral marketing is nothing so negative or unpleasant, viral marketing is good!

What is Viral Marketing?

As the name suggests, it’s a way of spreading your marketing message from person to person, rather like the flu virus is passed on. You give the germ to, say 5 friends/colleagues/family members, who in turn each pass on the bug to 5 more (5×5=25), who then spread it to another 5 (25×5=125) and so on until after just 8 levels, you reach the staggering figure of 1,953,125.

The classic example of viral marketing is Hotmail.com, one of the first free Web-based e-mail services. The strategy is simple:

1. Give away free e-mail addresses and services, 2. Attach a simple tag at the bottom of every users email message sent: “Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com” and, 3. Then stand back while people e-mail to their own network of friends and associates, 4. Who see the message, 5. Sign up for their own free e-mail service, and then 6. Propel the message still wider to their own ever-increasing circles of friends and associates

What makes marketing ‘Viral’?

A viral marketing plan usually has some or all of the following basic elements:

1. Provides a product or service free
2. Makes for easy transfer of the message to others
3. Allows easy growth from small to very large
4. Exploits common motivations and behaviours
5. Uses existing communication networks
6. Utilizes the resources of others

Let’s look at each of these in turn.

1.Provides a product or service free

“Free” is the most persuasive word in marketing. Most viral marketing campaigns give away a product or service to get peoples interest. Free email service, free software, free information etc. Then, when you have their attention, when you have their trust, sell them something. Hit them with a sales pitch first, chances are they won’t be interested.

2. Makes for easy transfer of the message to others

Viral marketing works so well on the internet because quick communication has become so easy and cheap. Your marketing message must be simple so that it can be passed on without loosing its effectiveness. The simpler and shorter the better, remember the hotmail example: “Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com.”

3. Allows easy growth from small to very large

To grow rapidly, the necessary infrastructure must be available. The best viral marketing makes use of the resources of others. This was the only weakness in the hotmail example, the service required its own mailservers. Not a problem with the resources of Microsoft behind you, but for mere mortals like you and I, best to plan on spreading the message using others recourses, see number 6.

4. Exploits common motivations and behaviours

What motivates people to use certain products or services on the web, and to recommend these to their friends? The practicality of a product, sure, but more than that – the desire to be popular, thought of as cool etc. Greed also motivates, hence the power of the word ‘free’!

5. Uses existing communication networks

Most people have around 5 to 12 people in their close network of friends, family and work colleagues. On the internet, nearly everyone has email addresses in their contacts list, and favourite websites stored in their web browser. Utilise this fact in your marketing campaign. For example, when you give away a free product, ask the recipient to provide the email addresses of others who may be interested.

6. Utilizes the resources of others

Get your message into other peoples emails and onto others websites, that way their recourses are being used, not yours. And once your campaign has enough momentum, sit back while your customers do the marketing for you.

Conclusion

Viral marketing costs very little, in fact if you go to the right places it can be free. Given that, and the huge potential benefits, you marketing campaign really should catch the viral marketing bug!

I am almost 10 years now FULL TIME working from home on the internet making money online and I have put together the following website to share all of my secrets with you at http://www.DecideYourIncome.eu

Regards Always

Mark McCulloch

http://www.CoachOfSuccess.com – mark@markmcculloch.com

Internet Marketer and Entrepreneur, Committed to creating success

(UK) 07875 647 867 (Call Me Anytime), Skype – mark.mcculloch1