Blog Marketing Tip - BlogRush

January 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment

We added the BlogRush widget to our site today to help expose our blog posts to a larger audience. The BlogRush site describes it best:

 By adding the BlogRush Widget to a blog, a blogger can get instant distribution for their latest blog post titles across a network of related blogs.

We’re still waiting for approval, so I have no personal feedback on this yet. But, I’ve talked with others who have been able to generate greater exposure to their educational content and a larger network of readers & commenters. Check it out and we’ll keep you posted.

If you are trying to do the same thing with your blog or website, then I would suggest that you subscribe to either our RSS or Email subscription (on the upper right column). I will show you techniques, tips and strategies to help you raise your profile with your prospects. So join me and follow along.

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Referral Marketing Success Story

January 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment

“I get at least a hundred times the referrals now as I did before I had a referral plan.”
      ~ Scott Hensley - Affordable Concrete Cutting

This is an article I pulled directly from a Duct Tape Marketing email newsletter. It showcases the power of Referral Marketing for a Boston contractor. If you are interested in achieving the same kind of success with your word of mouth marketing efforts, visit our site at www.wordofmouthmanager.com

Today I want to share with you, in it’s entirety, a copy of a letter I received from a small business owner who implemented a number of suggestions I gave him in the Duct Tape Marketing book. I chose to share this not to point out how brilliant I am - writing this stuff is the easy part sometimes - but to showcase how acting on what you read - the really hard part - can pay huge dividends.

Scott’s business cuts concrete, not exactly your Web2.0 business - yet, he has developed a simple, but systematic approach to generating referrals and shares it very specifically in this great letter - thanks Scott

Dear John,

I implemented what I call a “passive referral system” days after I read your book. I have a small business in a niche industry and have always been successful at getting the calls, business and the money.

Either way, I can always use more calls, business and money. I never realized the importance of a referral system because I always got referrals without trying, most likely because of my niche.

I am not a “come out and ask” sales pusher type so some of your suggestions don’t work for my personality. I am sure they work, don’t get me wrong, it is just not something you could convince me to do.

Therefore I took the main message from your program, which is to simply have a referral plan and I implemented it. I will explain to you how I do it in a minute but the reason I am writing is to tell you that I get at least a hundred times the referrals now as I did before I had a referral plan.

I get calls from new customers that mention people that I have never heard of and say “so and so referred me!” Simply having a plan is enough for me and I want you to know I would have never thought of it without your newsletters and your book.
 
I merged my referral plan into my marketing plan to some degree. I derive a lot of business from the yellow pages and unfortunately yellow page people are loyal to the yellow pages and the next time they need a concrete cutter they will return to the yellow pages and wind up being serviced by my competition or who I like to call the “uninsured toothless cave man.”

As a self proclaimed marketing professional I like to vision it as similar to the old west, my competition and I are Ranchers. These yellow page customers are wild cattle and when the come up to one of my fences I open the fence quickly and drag them in. I then take my branding iron and brand them. I send them to re-education training, if you will. Everything that they see or hear in the next several days is “Affordable Concrete Cutting” and my logo, so I can gently hypnotize them into never even thinking of leaving my ranch and when they call home or call their friends they tell everyone what a fantastic experience they have had here and how it would be great for their family, friends and colleagues to join them.

On top of that I keep my fences in tip top shape by keeping in touch with my customers by using (USPS Direct Mail) mailings every month or by sending them a decent gift for no reason other than to remind them of the great experience that they have had here. Now, my competition on the other hand, has a real problem with keeping their fences up and the fact is that their customers escape most of the time.

This is when I open my fence up and persuade them into coming in. I then hold them down and “re-brand” them (most were never branded in the first place) and again gently hypnotize them into forgetting the competition and to never even thinking of leaving.  We provide better than great service, we are on time every time and the customer’s satisfaction is priority. Why wouldn’t they tell everyone? Well as you said it yourself because they were never asked to! So now I ask. I don’t ask verbally but I make it more than known that referrals are very important to me.
 
My first contact with the customer is via a phone call inquiry. I mention my company name several times and I make the customer feel great about using us. Next my guy goes to the site and performs the cutting. This is where the marketing and branding or re-branding begins. Once the job has been completed successfully my men give the customer a paid invoice and are instructed to hand the customer ten or so business cards and to ask that they mention it to everyone. The old “your best compliment is a referral” thing.

Unfortunately, sometimes this part gets left out. I counter this by sending each customer a computer generated paid invoice with an insurance certificate request form and a W-9. On the invoice I hand write a thank you and I enclose several business cards and a Rolodex card.

Now, as part of your referral suggestion I put a big sticker on the envelope that reads “Thank You! We appreciate your referrals.” Then I prepare a Thank You card that basically says if you were happy with our service then please tell everyone ( the key is to make sure they are happy in the first place.) I don’t mail this until a day after I mail the invoice. Then I prepare a “gift pack” which is a bubble mailer (lumpy mail) that contains a gift, a pocket knife with my logo on it, a mouse pad, some pens or a couple of pads of paper. Inside the mailing is a bunch of business cards and I don’t mail this until the end of the week because I have to go to the Post Office and by the end of the week there are about 20 - 30.

Every new customer is placed on my mailing list and they are mailed a gift, a letter or a post card every month, come Hell or high water! Since I started using the stickers and the Thank You cards my business has exploded and is increasing exponentially.

 Just a small suggestion for referrals works incredibly. Now I know you would probably say that verbally coming out and asking works better and I am sure it does but that’s not my style. The point is that thanks to you I have a referral system that is active and in place and it is working.
 
Thanks
 
Sincerely,
Scott Hensley
http://www.affordableconcretecutting.com/

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Companies that Get It: Mick Hooper & Crosswind Realty

December 4, 2007 | Leave a Comment

We analyze the marketing practices of small businesses everyday and constantly see a lot of room for improvement. In our travels, we occasionally run across a company doing it right. This Blog series will focus on companies who get it and what they are doing right!

I would like to introduce you to Mick Hooper who owns and operates Crosswind Realty. I have had the pleasure of working with Mick as a customer as he is representing me as a broker for a property I have on the market. Mick stands as a shining example of how marketing for a small business should be done. And he has done it in what is arguably one of the most competitive, me-too marketing and commodity riddled industries in existence: Real Estate. How can anyone really standout in Real Estate??

For all those small businesses out there that think they must compete on price or by trying to out-gimmick your competitor, this is for you!

Lake Travis Lifestyle!

Mick has been tremendously successful at carving out a niche market in the highly competitive real estate industry by focusing exclusively on the Austin lake area properties and is a true expert in all things Lake Travis. He has the unique advantage of showing you your future home with a view from the lake – right from his office. That’s because his office is literally a 43’ yacht appropriately named ‘The Office’. Mick has been featured on The Travel Channel on an aired episode of Vacation Home Search, featuring Austin waterfront homes on Lake Travis. Needless to say, he is passionate about the lake lifestyle in Austin.

His message is conversational, fun and educational all at the same time. He speaks to his audience from a position of knowledge with a singular message in everything he does. And he demonstrates that expertise through his Blog, his website and all other forms of communication. For example, his email newsletter, which of course contains the latest hot listings, also focuses on bringing you news from the lake, such as his reminder about the Holiday Boat Parade and Fireworks Extravaganza. Or about the economic aspects of buying property in the Austin lake area. He recently hosted a party for all his clients and prospects called Dock-toberfest at, where else, Lake Travis of course.

The Company In Action

Working with Mick’s company as a customer and their marketing efforts of my property have been no less impressive. In break neck speed my property was profiled and released with photos, a virtual tour and featured on both of Mick’s websites: www.greater-austin-homes.com and www.laketravishomes.com. It is also featured in multiple MLS systems, AustingHomeSeach.com, Realtor.com, Yahoo Real Estate and about a dozen others!

I have literally never had a chance to wonder if my property is getting the attention it deserves. The ongoing communications through multiple touch points systematically keep me in the know on how my property is being marketed. I recently received a Marketing Report Update which showed me how many unique web visitors have viewed my listing and how many took the virtual tour! (By the way, there were 11,314 unique visitors in 4 weeks!) This is referral marketing at its finest because through this process, he has already convinced me to shout their praises from the rooftop.

Mick’s grasp of internet marketing is astounding and he clearly understands the value the internet can bring a local small business.

All those small companies with NO website because you think it doesn’t help a local company, listen UP!

Internet Marketing Extraordinaire

Mick’s site is all about local, specific to the area, speaking to people about the Austin Lake area lifestyle and property. He ranks amazingly well for local searches in Google. Mick’s site is engaging and fresh and lacks nothing in delivering the information you as a prospective buyer of lake property might need. He gives you access to his MLS search in return for letting him send you valuable information. I receive these communications and they are not sales pitches, but just great relevant information. He keeps it all fresh through fun photos depicting his lake lifestyle and Blogs all about your potential lake lifestyle and local waterfront real estate news: www.laketravishomes.blogspot.com. He features customer testimonials throughout which give you to confidence you are working with a successful company. You get to know Mick and begin to know, trust and like him. And more importantly, you begin to look to Mick as the expert. And who wouldn’t rather work with an expert!

Summary of why he gets it:
• Mick clearly understands people do business with those they know, like and trust.
• He has a tightly defined target market and singular core message
• He creates credibility through educational and informational marketing
• He has become the expert on Lake Travis property
• Has created his site as a resource rich web presence to deliver that expertise
• multiple points of contact create a marketing conversation with his audience instead of self promotional ‘marketing speak’
• Sound internet marketing practices through great local search rankings, opt in email marketing, relevant and fresh informational content, testimonials and Blogs

For a small business looking to make a change in their marketing, there is no better role model the Mick Hooper and his company Crosswind Realty. As a customer I am gushing, as a marketing professional it makes my heart happy and validates what I do and believe in. I have little doubt that Mick will sell my property and little doubt he is the guy to do it. He leaves nothing on the table! Kudo’s Mick, nice work!

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