Small Business Makeovers

“If they don’t try you the first time, then they’ll never try you the second time and they’ll never try you the first time if you don’t give them an irresistible reason to!”

- T. Harv Eker, NY Times Best-selling Author of “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind”

Harv tells a story about an ice cream retail store that was located in a low-visibility location in a strip mall. Business was slow and the owner was on the brink of closing the shop. She had tried all the usual marketing ideas and nothing seemed to work.  The problem was that nobody knew the store was there.

Case Study – Cones ‘R Us

Then Harv explained the concept of the irresistible offer: offer something at a ridiculous price or for free to get people to try you for the first time. So they put up “bandit” signs and posters all over the area that read:

FREE ICE CREAM CONES
Saturday June 12
Cones ‘R Us – 3345 Main St. Plaza

What do you think happened? The little store was swamped with people all day long. There was a line-up out the door of people wanting free ice-cream cones.

Now Cones ‘R Us was on the map. People had tried them the first time. Now the job was to get them to come back. This was accomplished by giving everyone who got a free cone a coupon for a $1 discount on their next purchase of $5 or more. The cost of the ice cream that they gave away was nothing compared to the profits that they made on the repeat sales to all those grateful and enthusiastic customers. Do you think people told other people about the free ice cream? You betcha.

That ice cream store was later sold for a tidy profit, all thanks to the irresistible offer.

Create Your Irresistible Offer

Okay, so maybe your product costs more than ice cream and giving it away would be nuts. I get that. But can you give away a taste, a sample, a trial, some advice, a consultation, an inspection, a seminar, a free report, free video or free CD.

Remember to tell people why you are giving it away from free. The best reason is because you want them to try you out. Other reasons might include that you are so passionate about what you do that you want to help as many people as possible. I’ll talk more about what to ask for in return the next tip.

In many small businesses, referrals or word of mouth advertising is the main source of new clients. This is especially true if you provide a product or service that requires skill or special expertise.

We all prefer to do business with people we know, like and trust and we tend to look to others for recommendations when we are looking for a trusted service provider. In my experience, clients will tell others about you if you deliver great service. And I’ve also discovered that some clients will go out of their way to tell others about your business if you give them an incentive to do so.

Here are just a few businesses that can benefit from a formal referral program:

• Financial Advisor, Mortgage Broker, Realtor, Home Inspector or Insurance Agent
• Health professional: Dentist, Chiropractor, Massage Therapist, Naturopath
• Personal service provider: Esthetician, Hair Stylist, Wedding Planner or Photographer
• Business supplier: Web Designer, Graphic Designer, Lawyer or Accountant
• Home service provider: Plumber, Builder, Electrician, Painter, Flooring Supplier
• Children’s Services: Camp, Lessons, Private School, Tutor, Day Care

Case Study

The rack card on the right was designed to let clients know about the rewards program. For all new referrals, clients receive a choice of two rewards – 1) a night at the movies for two, OR 2) a $50 gift certificate at a nearby spa.

“Now wait a second,” I hear you saying. “That’s going to cost me a lot of money.”

You’re right. It is. And yet it really isn’t. The only marketing dollars you have to spend are to promote the program and you can do this through low cost no cost ways like posters, bill inserts, email, point of purchase hand-outs or rack cards. The back of your business card is another great place to promote your referral program.

Unlike paid advertising, a referral program doesn’t cost you anything until you get a new client! It’s like having your clients as commissioned sales people. The revenue that one new patient will bring will be hundreds or even thousands of dollars. So the cost of promoting the program and giving the rewards is easily justified.

Another benefit is that people will talk about you. I remember when we bought a new horse trailer and told a friend about the great service we received. They soon bought a horse trailer of their own and the dealer sent us a $50 dinner certificate as a thank you. We must have told dozen more “horse” friends about the reward we received and about our trailer. The word of mouth advertising that the dealer got for that $50 was priceless.

What Kind of Rewards Should You Use?

There are many ways to set up a referral program and I’ll cover them all in my “Low Cost No Cost Marketing” Business School video training course for small business owners. Here is just one creative reward idea:

• Partner with one of your clients or suppliers in a joint venture. They provide the reward for free to you (or at a discount) and they benefit by receiving new clients from you. For example, a Chiropractor might partner with a local restaurant. When a referral is made, the person making the referral receives a gift certificate to the restaurant.

An added spin to this is to offer the same reward to the new client as a welcome gift. So now both the referrer and the referral receive rewards. That means you’ll have to clients raving about you!

How Often Should You Reward?

Reward for referrals every time – don’t make your clients reach 3 or 5 or 10 referrals before they receive a reward. People like recognition every time, even if it’s small. By all means, when someone reaches 5 referrals, give them a special bonus.

Referral programs are a great way for you to get creative. Find out what rewards would interest your clients and make them fun and exciting. And remember to tell your other clients about your top referrers in your newsletter so that the buzz spreads.

If you do business locally then regular face-to-face networking with your ideal clients and with those people who are connected to your ideal clients is a must. My personal practice is to attend one networking event per week.

Some formal networking groups such as Business Networking International (BNI) or the Chamber of Commerce require an annual membership fee and on top of that you pay $10 or so per meeting. Others are free to join.

Which Groups to Attend

Depending on your target market, certain networking groups are going to be more suitable (and profitable) than others. For example, my ideal clients are small business owners and self-employed men and women aged 35 to 60 with annual revenues of $50K to $1M who are looking for cost-effective ways to grow their business.

I have discovered that I can connect with my ideal clients at BNI, my local Chamber of Commerce, Roaring Women, local Entrepreneur groups listed on Meetup.com and industry association groups.

Attending BNI as a guest is free and is a great way to see if there is a fit with your business.

Meetup.com is a great free service that has hundreds of niche groups that you can join in your area (right). You can also start a Meetup group of your own.

I’m amazed at how many business owners don’t know about the free services offered by Google that can put your business on page #1 of a search. If you’re not using Google’s services, the first thing you’ll want to do is sign up for a free Google account.

Gmail

When you sign up, make sure you get a gmail account (gmail is Google’s email service) for your business name or key words, not your personal name. For example:

Get: “victorialawyer@gmail.com” – not petersmith@gmail.com

You don’t need to use this email address and you can simply forward all emails from gmail to your regular email account. The reason I recommend setting up the gmail account is that the more services you have with Google, the higher you tend to rank on the search results.

Google Local Business Center

We’ve all done a Google search and seen the little map come up with the pushpins on it like the one below. Those business listings (A – G) are called Google Local Business listings and they’re free. Your business might already be there, especially if you are listed in the phone book. But is your business displaying on the first page?

Notice that in the search results above for “dentist Victoria bc” that only two of the listings (B and G) have a link to their website. These businesses have set up their listings with Google and “claimed their listing”. Now you can click right through to their websites unlike all the others (A, C, D, E & F) who only have a link to maps.google.com

So how do you claim your Google Local listing?

Simple. Go to google.com or google.ca, create your account, login and click on “Business Solutions” (see below). Then click on “Local Business Center” and complete your listing. With Google Local Business Center, you can add keywords, list your products and services, your business hours, upload photos and videos and collect reviews from clients.

When you’ve finished, do another Google search for your business using your key words and city and you might just find your business listed on the first page of Google! When one of my clients, Dr. Geoff Pratt claimed his listing, his practice immediately went to page 1 and his new patients doubled!