Page 234 - Duct Tape Marketing

Ramp Up a Systematic Referral Machine

worthy cause, you can increase referrals while improving your
community.

There are many variations on this referral strategy. You
can make donations to a designated charity in your referral
source’s name. You can allow your referral sources to designate
a charity of their choice. If you have a product or service the
nonprofit agency uses or buys, you can donate that.

One of the hidden powers behind this strategy is that the
nonprofit agencies can become strong referral partners. If they
benefit from referring clients, then they may be highly moti-
vated to provide referrals. In many cases, nonprofit agencies
have loyal donors, board members, community activists, and
volunteers who would be happy to do business with a firm
that was providing funding for the nonprofit agency through a
referral marketing program.
4. Give away gift certificates. Although the use of gift certificates
isn’t a true referral marketing strategy, it can be a great way to
generate referrals. If you have a product or service that lends
itself to this, you can provide your clients or referral sources gift
certificates to use as a referral tool. The idea is that your cli-
ents would give the certificates to people they feel would enjoy
receiving them. In most cases, these recipients would be new
clients willing to try your service by using the certificate.

A consultant might give certificates for a one-hour assess-
ment. The value of the assessment, if purchased, might be
$150. It is important that the certificate communicate this
value. Make sure that what you are giving has a high perceived
value. A plumber could give free service call certificates at each
stop and ask the client to hand them out to neighbors.
5. One hundred percent refund for referrals. This is one of
my personal favorites because not only is it a terribly power-
ful referral strategy; it presents such a strong offer that it can

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