This is a continuation of part one of this article on surefire ways to lower your marketing costs.
Hire Some Bird Dogs to Lower Your Marketing Costs
This method goes back long before the Internet was around and I believe it got its start in the car sales business. Well it still works today. In fact, I use it myself more so in the digital environment rather than with business cards as it was originally carried out. Basically, you are paying someone a referral fee for anyone they refer to you who becomes a new client. You can decide the amount of the referral fee depending on the type of product or service you sell, however, don’t be stingy because you want to make the incentive strong enough to compel people to participate.
You can either use a fixed price per referral or a percentage of the total sale. That is for you to decide, but make the reward significant enough to keep your bird dogs happy. Remember this is found money. These are customers that you have obtained with virtually zero effort or marketing dollars. Folks, it really doesn’t get any better than that.
Here’s The Best Way To Do It
You can either have some special one-sided business cards printed just for this purpose or simply add second side printing to your next order of regular business cards. Most printing companies only charge a small additional fee for second side printing so you can get a lot more mileage out of the same card. Keep the wording simple like this: “Want to save (x-amount) off of your next purchase/service or want to get a free (blank) with your next (whatever), simply present this card to us.” There would be a line on there that says referred by or recommended by _____________________________. The person or customer that you gave these cards to would have already printed their name in that blank space before handing them out to their friends and colleagues. If your customer has a very common name, you could tell them to print the name of their street on there as well; for example, Bob Smith – Elm St. so that credit goes to the proper individual. If you treat your customers well, most of them will gladly recommend you anyhow and if there is a financial reward for doing so, you can bet they will be even more inspired.
Keeping Track Of It All
Keeping good records is an important part of making the system work which can help to lower your marketing costs. All you need to do is set up a simple way to track the referrals that came from those individuals and make sure that you send them a check once per month for any new business they sent you. I know some of you are thinking that seems like too much work or on you (huh? take out) are going to lose too much money, but believe me it is well worth it. You can have a team of eager commission-only sales people who are willing to promote your business and have a steady stream of new customers who want to take advantage of the freebie you are offering on that card. It is a win-win scenario for everybody and I strongly encourage you to try it in your business.
Call it a Day
Okay there you have it. Those are some of the easiest and cheapest ways to lower your marketing costs and thereby get more exposure for your business. By implementing some of these strategies you can get more mileage out of your current advertising and marketing campaigns. You don’t have to do everything at once and you don’t have to do it all, however you can certainly improve your odds for success and profits by making some of these a part of your regular marketing strategies.
