Okay, let me first say that you need to check with whoever regulates you and make sure that this is something you can do. I’m covering my behind by telling you this so please cover yours.
It’s a very simple idea, really. But it could bring you a lot of business in the short term, and a lot more long term.
You’ll need a website (that you control) and a way to capture email addresses. An autoresponder is your best bet. You can see what I use and recommend here.
Yes, you can also do this “old school,” i.e., manually, but you’ll get better results if you automate everything and spare yourself some calluses.
Now, you’re not really going to be paying for referrals. You’re not even going to ask for referrals. Not directly, anyway. Instead, you’re going to ask people to help you build your email newsletter list. You ask them to refer subscribers, not clients.
As people come to your website to subscribe, they see what you do. Some of them hire you, or take the next step in that direction.
After people subscribe, you stay in touch with them. You send them helpful information, and information about what do. Over time, some of them hire you. Or send you referrals. Or send you other subscribers who hire you and send referrals.
Build your subscriber list and you build your client list.
You can stop right there if you want to. Simply ask your clients, friends, readers, subscribers, social media connections and anyone else who will listen to help you build your subscriber list. They’ll help you because they like you. They also want their clients and contacts to know about you and the goodness you offer.
Ask them to Tweet, Like, post, and otherwise recommend your newsletter or download link (for a report, ebook, or other incentive) and your list will grow.
No legal or ethical issues with this, right? Where it gets iffy is when you offer to compensate them for doing so. But doing so could multiply your sign-ups manifold. If you would otherwise get 100 sign-ups, offering compensation might get you 1000.
What you do is announce a contest. Anyone who sends subscribers has their name entered in a drawing for a prize.
How do you track this? How do you know who sent subscribers?
The simplest way is to hold another drawing for all of the new subscribers, with an equally spiffy prize. When you draw their name as the winner, you email them and ask them who referred them and they both get a prize.
There are other ways to “pay” people for their help in building your list. You can sell your book, for example, and set up an affiliate program. There are many others. But if you are allowed to do so, a drawing is a simple and effective way to pay for referrals and get away with it.
For more ideas, get The 30 Day Referral Blitz.
