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DuctTapeMarketing.com
April 10, 2007
In this issue:
Resource #1
- Harness the Internet -
New Product
Resource #2
- Duct Tape Marketing Affiliate Program
Main Article
- Create a Referral Sales Force
Resource
#3 - Duct
Tape Marketing the Book!
Free Magazine -
Free subscription to PRWeek Magazine
Further Reading -
Grace Eventually - Anne Lamott
Featured Listening -
A Hundred Miles or More - Alison Krauss
Add your articles to the
Duct Tape Marketing
Article Directory
Participate in the Duct
Tape Marketing Forum
Coming Soon - Duct Tape Marketing Resource Directory
You can always view past newsletter issues here!
Featured Resource #1
NEW
- Harness the
Internet -
Market Your Small Business More Effectively
- program includes 3
- 1 hour audio sessions with
John Jantsch, workbook, and transcripts from each
session.
 No matter if you do business in your town or
around the world, the Internet has become an essential
small business marketing tool! Get Harness the Internet
from Duct Tape Marketing and get your hands on an small
business Internet marketing super class broken into
three fast moving live sessions - each packed with laser
specific details for moving your business ahead in this
rapidly changing medium.
Two ways to
buy - digital files for immediate download or 3 ring binder with audio CD
Visit
the Catalog to
select the version you would like to receive.
Featured Resource #2 - Duct Tape Marketing Affiliate Program
   
I get lots of requests from business owners and marketers
who would like to resell my growing suite of small business marketing
products and earn a commission.
So. . . I've created the Duct Tape Marketing Affiliate
Program to allow approved marketers to easily offer all of the Duct Tape
products to their readers and clients.
You can visit the
affiliate center to enroll
and get the ad banner code you need to
paste ads for each product on your web pages and emails.
You can also visit the
Duct Tape Marketing
product catalog to learn more about each of the products currently
offered. As we add more products you will automatically have the ability to
offer these to your readers.
Featured Article
Create Your Own Referral
Sales Force
Surround
yourself with a network of competent professionals and add more value to
your client relationships.
 Joining
referral networks like BNI or local chamber groups can be a great way to help
you network and generate referrals. The most powerful way to use this strategy,
however, is to grow your own.
Almost any business can benefit from having a group of trusted providers
effectively marketing your business like a referral sales force. When you build
your own private referral network your business benefits in two very powerful
ways: you experience an increase in leads and you have additional resource to
bring to your client relationships. In some cases, this second benefit may
produce the greatest long-term impact of this approach.
How to build it
The key to building your own referral network is to focus on developing
relationships with businesses you can believe in thoroughly. I would suggest
that the first consideration should always be – what can this business bring to
my client and not what can they bring to me. You might start by identifying the
top products and services you know your current clientele need and use.
There are many ways to build a “formal” referral network. Let me explain the
idea of formal. To me that means there is an agreement between the parties that
explains what each party will do. There is a process where each party educates
the other on the best way to refer each other. There are marketing materials of
some form that help each business cross promote. Once this basis framework is in
place, creativity can come into play in many ways.
The one place I see these efforts trip up is when the focus is on compensation.
In other words, if everyone in the group is concerned about keeping score, the
group is bound to fail. You must focus on the benefit to your clients, if you do
that; the universe will take care of the rest. There will always be members that
only want to take; you’ve got to be ready to move them out of your network.
Let me give you an example
This financial planner created his very own referral and lead network by sending
a letter to 10 other professionals that he had worked with and felt comfortable
referring business to. This letter informed them that he was creating a unique
referral network of 100 of the area’s top professional service providers. He
invited them to become members and explained that he needed them to recommend 10
others who belonged in this exclusive group.
He then created a resource directory and website that featured all 100
professionals. The entire group promoted the directory and web site and
referred business to each other. As a result, other professionals begged to
be allowed into the group. The strategy was so powerful that many of network
members did no other form of marketing.
Once you put your group together there are many ways to take advantage of
power of this new sales force.
Create a blog network
If ten or fifteen related businesses were to get together and create a blog
focused on a specific target market, in a specific geographic location, they
could easily create a very valuable local resource. With very little effort
this blog would rank very highly for local search engines terms related to
the blog topics. Even with the mainstream recognition of blogs this is still
a wide open opportunity.
Interview each member for a teleseminar series
Host a monthly interview with an expert and feature one of your network
members. You can conduct these interviews over the phone and have all the
members invite attendees to the teleseminar series. Record each session and
you’ve also created some killer content for other marketing efforts. Keep
these calls non sales, high impact, and information rich.
Create co-branded white papers
You should be creating and using white papers in your lead generation
efforts anyway, so take those educational pieces to other members of your
network and let them start offering them to their clients and prospects. Put
their logo on the cover with your logo and you’ve got an instant hit.
Do endorsed mailings
One of the simplest ways to promote members of your referral network is to
mail a letter to your clients endorsing another member’s work. If every
member of the group were to do this same thing you could experience an
instant flood of new business.
Put on a group workshop
Once you have built a strong group you should consider hosting an all day
workshop covering the hottest topics of concern to your target market. Each
member of the group can present a topic and all parties invite participants.
For some groups this could turn into a profit center above and beyond
referrals.
Distribute marketing materials and offers
It’s pretty simple to create little leave behind marketing pieces so that
when the plumber makes a house call he can leave a special offer from the
heating and cooling and electrical members of the group.
Bundle each others products and services
In some cases partnering with your referral network can help you make a much
more competitive offer. Putting your products and services together with two
or three other providers might give your firm the ability to compete with
much larger organizations.
With some careful consideration and a little effort you could build a
referral network that would rival any sales force.
Related article -
The Ultimate Referral System in 7 Steps
. ~ ~ ~
 John Jantsch is a veteran marketing coach, award winning blogger and author of
Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide
published by Thomas Nelson.
He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing small business marketing system. You can find more information by visiting http://www.ducttapemarketing.com
You may reprint this article in its entirety if you attribute the article to John Jantsch and include the information about the author above.
Featured Resource #3
 Duct
Tape Marketing - The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide
-
foreword by Michael Gerber, author of the E-Myth, afterword by
Guy Kawasaki, author of Art of the Start - Hardcover, 304 Pages, Nelson
Business.
Check out the
book
"I have read your book and I am
impressed with the "hands on" approaches you use. Having taught marketing at
the MBA level I appreciate your book for getting past the theoretical
approaches that are so commonly used."
~ Thomas Lowther - Senior Director - American Institute of Architects
Featured Reading
Grace Eventually
- Anne Lamott
You might guess pretty quickly
that this book is not a marketing book, it's not a business book at all.
Based on the title you might conclude that it's a book about religion or
spiritual life. It is that, but I'm not pushing the topic or theme. The
reason I love this book is the Anne Lamott is one of my favorite writers.
Her style, whatever the topic, so inspires me to write that I think I could
enjoy reading her grocery lists.
I do happen to find her essays on
the trials and tribulations of finding oneself in the everyday little things
both entertaining and enlightening. One word of warning: she can tell it
like it is in pretty plain language.
If you find you like her style, an
earlier work,
Bird by Bird, might be my favorite book.
Featured Listening
A
Hundred Miles or More: A Collection
- Alison Krauss
 Alison
Krauss, sans Union Station, puts together an odd "collection" of songs from
other projects, outtakes from recording sessions and duets from tribute
albums, but like everything she does - if she's singing and playing the
fiddle - it works.
The duets are my favorites. Her
version of How's the World Treating Your with James Taylor is a keeper.
There are several songs from the Cold Mountain soundtrack as well.
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Featured Resource #1
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Featured Resource #3 -
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spending one dime on advertising
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More
Featured Resource #4 - Blog Lightning - How To Create and Promote Your
Blog In A Flash
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