Referrals

It’s a proven fact that a referred prospect is more likely to engage… more likely to buy… and spends more than prospects from any other channel. It should be obvious why.

With referrals, there’s a level of associated trust. So if you trust me, and I tell you to trust Joe… your relationship with Joe starts out with more trust than it otherwise would.

One of the easiest ways to foster a flurry of referrals is to ask for them.

But as simple as that seems — many entrepreneurs and marketers simply don’t ask. And that’s insane!

Now one of the best times to ask for a referral is when you’ve just done something for the person you’re going to ask. This leverages what psychologists call the law of reciprocity — the desire to do things for people who do things for us.

Better yet is when you ask if you can do the very same thing for their like-minded friends.

Case in point: We’ve added over a 100,000 prospects to our lists over the years by leveraging simple tell-a-friend pages on our websites.

Here are three examples (each one more potent)…

The first one is from The Attention Age Doctrine 2 opt-in process:

Now, that did really well — but this one did even better…

It shouldn’t be hard to understand why this one did better.

Heck, we incentivized it! And whenever you can do that… you should!

But do you want to know the techique that got us more referrals than any other we’ve ever used in our entire history?

Of course you do.

Well, I must admit that this one is a little sneaky.

I call it…

THE REFERRAL VISE

Here’s the deal…

We’ve used it only a few times… And I’m not sure I should be letting the cat out of the bag on this one.

But, hey, you’re worth it — so here it goes…

You get your prospects to opt in to listen to or watch something amazing. Doesn’t matter if it’s audio or video, but… IT’S GOT TO BE DAMN GOOD! And the longer it is… THE BETTER!

So your prospects are now on your Web page — listening to or watching this fantastic (though lengthy) content that you’re streaming. And you know what?

THEY’RE TRAPPED!

They’re stuck in front of their computer, and they can’t go anywhere.

That’s the VISE…

But you being the wonderful human being you are… you’ve placed a button on the page that’s clearly labeled “Click Here for the Transcript and Recording.”

And guess what happens when they click on it?

It opens a new window that makes a proposition: Tell two of your friends to watch/listen to this and I’ll give you the transcripts and the recording to download. Here’s an example…

See the bottom of the page? When prospects click on that — it takes them here…

Do you see why that works?

Your prospects are on the page getting this great content — but they’re trapped…

You offer a way out. And by clicking on that button they’ve just made a small commitment to get the downloads. And now, in order for them to fulfill that micro-commitment (and get out of the vise), they’ve got to refer two of their friends.

It’s as simple as that.

And this technique is A GEM!

What make me so certain? It’s consistently generated…

A 55+% REFERRAL RATE!

In other words, more than half the prospects that clicked that button referred two friends…

Think about that for a second… do the math…

Imagine giving away free audio/video and having more than 55 out of every 100 people refer two more prospects to your site.

Is that GREAT or what?

Now for those of you who realize that if this continued indefinitely you’d have everyone on the planet on your list, you have to understand that, over time, the effect is attenuated. How soon is a function of the quality of your content and the size of your market.

Still — it’s the most powerful generator of targeted (trusting) website traffic you’ll ever come across.

[Ed. Note: Using referrals to bring qualified (that means ready to buy) prospects to your online business is just one of the techniques that was covered during last week’s 5 Days in July Internet Business Building Conference. If you couldn’t make it — no worries. We recorded the whole thing and put together a home study program for you. It’s like bringing the whole conference to your living room or home office. You get the same lessons in website building, search engine optimization, copywriting, content and product creation, and much more, that the attendees did. And you can learn and implement those lessons at your own pace.

Rich Schefren’s businesses have done over $35 million in sales. A renowned business strategist, Rich coaches many of today’s top Internet gurus and service providers on streamlining their businesses while exploding their profits. Learn more at www.StrategicProfits.com.]