Referral marketing, just like any other type of marketing, works against you if your product or service is not up to snuff. Having a good product is necessary (but certainly not sufficient) for referral marketing to work.

On the other hand, there is a danger of falling into the “best product” trap. Far too many entrepreneurs spend all their energy on perfecting the product and not enough on marketing it. It’s not necessary for the product to be “the best”. Your product just has to be “good enough to do the job”.

Referral Marketing Tip #2: Make Every Customer Feel Special

Now, isn’t this a novel idea, to not simply ask for referrals but actually deserve them?

Many referral marketing seminars, books, and courses teach us to always ask for referrals. This idea can be taken too far. Like that birthday card from a realtor that comes full of nice wishes, two of his business cards included to give to your friends, and a P.S. in the end suggesting that he is “never too busy for your referrals”.

Well, how would you feel getting a card like this? Right, I’d want to wash my hands too. There is a time and place to ask for referrals as there is a time and place not to.

How about sending a card to them and making it entirely about them? A card that says “Happy Birthday”, “Happy Thanksgiving”, “Thank you”, “I appreciate you”, etc? The type of card that doesn’t scream, “Gimme, gimme gimme!” The kind they could only get from the person who really, truly cares about them — you!

When you stop worrying about referral gimmicks and start caring about your customers, is when you open referral floodgates. When you are no longer forcing referrals, you are allowing them to happen.

Referral Marketing Tip #3: Give Your Customers Something To Talk About

You start getting more referrals when you give your customers something to talk about. This can be a special event, a specific feature of the product, or simply something out of the ordinary you did for them.

For example, you can link your business to a charitable cause or a community campaign to save a local landmark. When the conversation at the office water cooler turns to the subject of the campaign, with your happy customer present, they will be only too eager to give you a plug.

When it comes to product features, the recent release of the new iPhone comes to mind featuring the messenger app. Given the blackout of the Blackberry network a few weeks ago, everyone wants to talk about the new iPhone. Several of my friends defeced from the Blackberry camp as a result.

And finally, here’s a story of how I made it easy for my accountant Chris to talk about my marketing services. One day, he received a greeting card in the mail from me that had a picture of our Prime Minister “saying” how he was concerned about the Federal Budget since Chris’ clients were paying so little tax. This card, taped to Chris’ desk for every visitor to see, invariably gets a chuckle. The next thing you know, my name is being kicked around.

Or at least, referrals are not very likely to happen just because you have sent out a bunch of holiday cards.

Here’s why: Everybody sends out Christmas cards, or “Season’s Greetings” cards, around this time of the year. Your card, when received by your client, will have to compete for their attention with so many other cards from other people.

Does this mean you shouldn’t be sending out holiday cards?

Not at all. You should use any and every occasion to “ping” your network, and the month of December is ripe with oppotunities.

However, if you want to see some really amazing results from holiday cards, pick a different holiday! How about sending a Thanksgiving greeting card? Or an April Fools card? Or some other bizzar holiday cards, be it Mardi Gras or The Groundhog Day?

Be inventive. Take a closer look at the calendar and use all the weird and fun holidays as a reason to contact your network and see your referrals grow as a result.