Acknowledge the Help You Get

I currently have an account with Netflixs. Not long ago they sent me a card telling me that for every person I help sign up, they’ll give me a month for free.

This is by no means a particularly new strategy for getting people to help out your business. Rewarding the help provided to you is a very old tactic indeed. Now, if this strategy for marketing is so old than why is it that so many companies refuse to do it?

I think that’s a very good question.

The reason might be that they just don’t realize how much help their customers might be providing, either because they haven’t thought about it or they don’t just a system to gauge such a thing.

Well, let me tell you this: your loyal customers are providing you with free marketing whether you realize it or not.

Let’s say you use catalog printing and regularly send out a catalog to people’s homes. If that catalog is interesting enough I can bet you that your customers are showing it to friends. They’re keeping their catalog out on the coffee table for others to see when they stop by. They’re doing all sorts of stuff to give your company more exposure, which will then help boost up your sales even more.

So what are you supposed to do?

You might have a system where when people write in to start up a subscription to your catalog they can say who they heard about your catalog from. You then take that name and give the person a twenty or fifty dollar gift certificate to use on anything in your catalog.

What you’re able to do is set up a whole army of people willing to help you out because you’re helping them out. Plus, not only do you get the additional business that comes from so many other people receiving catalogs, but you’re also helping to make sure these people remain far more loyal than they would’ve normally. You’re showing them how much you appreciate the things they do for you, which means they’ll be more likely to stick with you in the future.

Obviously catalog printing is not the only area in which you can make use of something like this. Consider it for whatever type of business you have. I’m sure you can think of a variety of different ways to honor those loyal customers who are helping you out.

This is some prime marketing going on all around you at all times. There’s no reason to ignore it, and certainly no reason to avoid nurturing it into something better. All it takes is a little time to set up a system of rewards, and you both gain new customers, and help make your current customers that much happier.