Free Report: The Most Effective Marketing
Method Ever Created
There
is one marketing method or 'technique' that will work better than any
other 'method' ever invented by man to successfully market any product
or service. This 'method' is so effective, that it will outperform any
other technique by a factor of 100. This idea is responsible for the
results of nearly every success story ever heard in the world of
marketing. Two things make this technique the most attractive and
easily implemented idea you will ever come across:
a. You already know how to do it. It requires no training or learning
whatsoever.
b. It is free.
But first, a word about . . . .
|
 |
Advertising
If there is one idea I might impress upon you, it is that consumers no
longer usually buy as a result of
seeing ads. They used to. No more.
The consumer is frankly completely and totally overwhelmed. From
newspaper to tv to radio to
websites, banner ads, billboards, direct mail, heads popping up in the
lower right corner of their
favorite tv show, spam - does anyone really think they can enter this
snake pit and see any large scale,
real results? No indeed.
No matter how good, how slick, how sincere - no matter how many lists
you create or e-mail programs
you develop or direct mail programs or ad campaigns your participate
in, you and your product or
service will still be seen as just another ho-hum message. However, it
is worse than that.
Consumers have come to resent and distrust ads that blatantly sell
anything. The message will be
rejected or more likely simply be ignored. Advertising once worked
well. No longer. This is because
people no longer blindly trust what any company tells them. Do you?
None of us do.
This is not to say that advertising NEVER works. Sometimes it does. But
it is an extremely inefficient
method. How do I know this? I was once a media buyer. I spent thousands
upon thousands of my
employer's dollars every month, buying newspaper, magazine, television,
radio, trade show, directory
and direct mail advertising. I tracked every single ad and message I
purchased for over 8 years, day in
and day out. I am intimately familiar with every form of advertising
and the results it will produce.
This brings me to what I have come to call the “fishing through
force” theory. You cannot shove a hook
into a fish's mouth and expect it to bite. In the current marketplace,
you must offer a bait, and allow the
fish to find it. Please understand that the fish are far more
sophisticated these days. These fish require a laser sharp inbound strategy
versus a bombarding
yell in the client's ear outbound
strategy.
That being saidy, there is one form of advertising that creates
absolute trust
and will cause your potential client to seek you out. I have hundreds
of stories detailing the success of
this method. In the interest of
keeping this short, I will tell you but two quick stories.
Two
Stories
I know a man who traveled 750 miles from his home, as he wished to live
in a warmer climate. He
knew but one person at his destination. He rented a room in a tiny
motel and hit the streets to sell his
'product'. In reality, there was no product. It was still an idea on a
legal pad. Yet, within a few days, he
had generated thousands of dollars in pre-sales. Within 2 months, he
had the product in hand. Within 2
years, he turned that product into a multi-million dollar business.
The product was not special. The product was not spectacular. There was
a ton of competition for that
product in that town. Yet he made millions using this idea. He did not
spend one dime on advertising.
The second story is personal. I have built three very successful
businesses from scratch using this
method – a financial services business, 2 magazines and a
marketing firm. I have never spent one
penny of my own money on advertising..
As a matter of fact, this simple method is totally responsible for the
success of my current business. I
turn business away every day, handing it off to others, because I
simply cannot handle everything that
now comes my way as a result of using this method. We are not the only
ones who have done this. I
could go on and on, but I won't.
Sounds like magic, does it not? It is not magic. As a matter of fact,
it is the simplest of ideas. It is one
you use every single day, but perhaps have never thought to use it to
build your business. So, what is
this earth-shattering, mega idea?
The Idea
Everyone loves and trusts their own friends.
If someone gets a referral to some product or service from one of their
friends, they will pass by every
other form of advertising offered them and knock themselves out to seek
out and find what their friend
has recommended. If a friend recommends a website, they will go there.
If a friend tells them a
particular book is quite good, they will spend the money to check it
out without hesitation. (Did you see
yourself there for a moment?)
This is because most people believe their friends will not lie to them,
jerk them around, yell at them,
blink at them, try to trick them into hitting a buy button or use any
other slick marketing tactic on
them. If their friend tells them something is worthwhile and relevant,
they will often seek it out
immediately in absolute trust and will most likely purchase it.
Those of us in the marketing game know that a referral is like pure
gold, for a referral is pre-sold. It is
often money in the bank. The credibility that lies at the heart of
successfully marketing anything is
inherent in the referral process. This is also why we hear so much
about social marketing these days. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn -
all of these are but updated versions of this very
established
process.
Now I know what you are thinking. You are thinking that there is no way
you know enough people to
make this work for your business. You will need to make hundreds,
perhaps thousands of sales to
achieve the goals you wish to achieve, correct? This, on the surface,
would appear to be impossible.
No one person can possibly know that many people. So, how many people
do you need to know?
Perhaps just one. The man in the first story above knew just one person
in that far away town. That one
person gave him just 5 referrals. Those initial 5 referrals turned into
millions of dollars. I too traveled
halfway across the USA to start my financial planning business, and
knew no one when I started. In
addition, one of the magazines I started was produced on an island,
surrounded by water, where I knew
just two people. Just two. Those two people gave me the names I needed
to get started. Within months,
every business on that island was advertising in my magazine.
Anyone, anywhere, regardless of circumstance or experience, can do
this. No sales experience is necessary to make this work. The only
skills necessary are people skills and all people naturally have people
skills.
It is not about who YOU know. It is about who THEY know - THEY being
those you do know. If
you can learn to create referrals, it is very much akin to printing
money. Is this an
exaggeration? No indeed.
When I talk to a new potential client, I have 2 goals – to
convince that potential client to sign on with
me. The second goal (and the most important one) is to get at least 5
referrals. What does this do for
me?
Every time I get a 'yes' I create the opportunity for 5 more 'yes's'.
On the other hand, every time I get a
'no', I also create the opportunity for 5 potential 'yes's'.
 |
How Many Is Enough?
It is said
that every person knows and holds some influence with at least 250
people. I have no idea
whether this is correct and there is certainly no way to prove the
number. However, let us assume that it
is true. Let us suppose you know 250 people. Each of them gives you
five referrals. At the first level,
this would give you 1,250 people to approach. At the second level, you
would have 6,250 people to
approach. The third level brings 31,250. I will stop there.
Not everyone
will refer you to 5 people. Some will give you ten. Some none.
Nontheless, based on
this, you will most likely never have the need to move to the
second level at all. It might be difficult to personally talk to 1,250
people. However, you
do not have to do this. The social sites now available to anyone on the
Internet offers you an opportunity to create referrals on a scale that
is mind-boggling.
What About Viral Marketing?
Viral
marketing is a way to create referrals by the millions.
Look at the
beer companies. The beer companies spend millions on commercials. One
of them
recently created a viral commercial. 20 million people had passed that
commercial around at last count.
That means that 20 million people actively WENT SEARCHING FOR a
marketing message. Is that
better than an ad? You bet it is.
Here,
someone told their friend about a great (and very funny) ad. That
friend went looking for it. That
friend told his or her friends. They told their friends. On and on and
on and on it went. . . .
This is why
viral marketing on the Internet works like nothing in history. However,
it goes without
saying that 20 million people did not immediately rush out the door to
buy a six pack of beer as the
result of watching that commercial. However, the message was received
because they actively wished
to receive that message.
The downside
here is that viral
marketing will work to create awareness and traffic. However, it may
not create INTERESTED traffic. Ultimately it is interested traffic you
will want to create. Traffic is just traffic. Interested traffic is the
key to success. Ask yourself a simple question now. Would you rather
have:
a. 1000 people visit your site or store who are really not interested
in your product or service OR
b. 100 people who are very interested and came with the intent to
purchase a product or service?
The answer
here, b, is obvious. And so, as regards to creating referrals,
generating NAMES is good,
but this is not the goal. Generating the NAMES of INTERESTED PEOPLE is
the goal. The people you
know are aware of the needs of their friends. If they like you and
trust you, they will give you those
names.
A point that
becomes important here is the fact that the names you receive will be
pre-qualified. The
referrer will most likely refer you to people that actually need your
product or service.
Results
It is said
that advertising, direct mail and telemarketing produce a response
rate, on the average, of less
than 1% (most put it at about ½ of 1%). This means that if 1000
people see and ad, receive a piece of
direct mail or receive a telemarketing call, about 5 will take action.
Those numbers are abysmal.
Marketing is not the simple game it would appear to be on the surface.
Over 50% of new businesses fail and, as regards
salespeople, the turnover rate on an annual basis runs around 95%.
Traditonal advertising is a model
based on failure.
However, the
rate of return on referral approaches is nearly 100%. Why is this so?
Let's look at a quick
example by looking at two approaches:
Example 1
You are
sitting in your office. The phone rings. You answer it and a voice on
the other end says:
“Hello, my name is Bob Jones. I am a representative of the XYZ
Corporation of Omaha. I am calling
everyone in your neighborhood today to . . . . .” CLICK. If the
poor sap got that far, he would consider
himself lucky. Of course you are not going to talk to Bob Jones. He is
a stranger and a telemarketer at
that. Now, let's look at another.
Example 2
The phone
rings. You answer it. A voice on the other end says:
“Hello,
Bill? Bill, my name is Bob Jones. Your cousin, Ella, asked me to call
you. Do you have just one
moment?”
Now, will
you talk to Bob? Certainly you will. If for no other reason you will
talk to Bob out of respect
for Ella. Bob is not a stranger. Bob is not a telemarketer. Bob is a
friend of cousin Ella.
Contact Anyone You Might Wish
Everyone
knows someone who knows someone who knows someone. Now, who do you have
a need to
contact? A newspaper reporter? A politician? The President of the US?
Ask your
friends who they know who might know someone who knows who might know
someone.
(Enough of that. You get the idea). Ask and then follow the responses
you get. Using this method will
allow you the opportunity to meet anyone you might wish to meet –
and you will meet them on a
favorable basis. Anyone. Billionaires. Politicians. The media.
How Do I Ask?
What Do I Say?
I Am Afraid To Bring Up The Subject!
What If They Say No?
Etc Etc Etc . . .
If you are a
business person, you must understand that honesty is always the best
policy. The best way
to ask for referrals is to be completely and totally honest about what
you are doing. Here is the
approach I recommend:
a. Do it in
person. It is best to be looking into the eyes of the person you are
going to ask.
b. Be honest
and sincere. State your needs honestly. Say something like:
'Bob, as you know I am building my __________ business and would like
to talk to some new people.
Who do you know that might benefit from _________________?”
There.
That's not so hard now, is it?
Ask your
spouse. Ask your kids. Ask your neighbors. Ask your aunts, uncles,
cousins, brothers, sisters, your grocer, your baker, your candlestick
maker – ask everyone. Keep asking. Don't stop.
What is the
bottom line here? You can advertise and market to strangers all day.
You will achieve a success rate of around 1%. Or, you can use referral
marketing and achieve a success rate of close to 100%. The choice is
yours. What is required? The asking of one simple question - "Who do
you know that _______?"
Remember,the
people you know like you and want to see you succeed. Trust in that and
simply ask.
Learn to create referrals and you will never run out of potential
clients or prospects. But, even better
than this is to learn to create a referral strategy that will lead to
those you wish to contact. Learning to
create a referral strategy that works will cause you to be successful
beyond your wildest dreams. You
will create a never ending stream of pre-qualified potential clients
that you can
meet on an extremely favorable basis.
You need but
ask.
Posted by Don McCauley
|
