There are literally thousands of companies out there that only use affiliate marketing to sell their products or memberships. This is how it works; the company loads their digital product or membership to an affiliate marketing site. The marketing site manages all operations and facilitates a safe environment for the producers and the marketers. The affiliate scrolls through the various products and chooses a good product. He then is generated a link that contains his personal code. This link can be attached to an advertisement banner. These links can then be placed anywhere on the internet; blogs, social networks, emails and websites. Anyone who clicks the link will be taken to a sales page about the product. If they make a purchase the affiliate receives a commission. These commissions are usually very generous, most of the time more than 40 % and often as much as 75% of the sales price. We provide the extra added advantage.

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I enjoyed this article. Before purchasing anything, I usually ask friends for referrals, and I see this all the time on Facebook (friends asking for referrals & suggestions on what to buy). Word of mouth advertising can make or break a business these days.

I'd agree (vehemently) that marketers should focus on creating an excellent customer experience in order to win customer loyalty and earn referrals. But too much emphasis is placed on the notion of merely getting referrals - the companies that ask us to "refer a friend" or provide incentives for making word-of-mouth recommendations.

If your product and service is good, people will recommend you, without prompting, without bribery.

Pressuring customers into making recommendations may have the short-term benefit of boosting sales - but in the long run, it will reduce the value of referrals. When we begin to get the sense that our friends referrals are anything other than genuine, word of mouth will lose its value, and it will damage not only marketing, but our interpersonal relationships.

Perhaps that seems extreme - but hyper-aggressive marketing efforts have thoroughly ruined e-mail, and made most people reluctant to answer a ringing telephone - and in the long run, they have the same potential to putrefy social media.

I don't think that's what you're suggesting - you make it clear that the right way to get referrals is to create an experience people will be eager to share - but my sense is that many will be looking for a shortcut to build their business by getting referrals, without all the fuss and bother of making a good product.

In my opinion customer experience is by far the most important thing that we should rely on. Satisfied customer will always put on a good word about your business.

Consistency is very important. I agree with you finding the right phone and plan is always a pain.

When I was freelance English teaching in Asia years ago, I was both a customer (studying the local languages - Thai and later, Mandarin Chinese). So I was able to improve my teaching methods and get valuable feedback. But many people--and this included many freelance teachers overseas--just waited around for referrals and testimonials. I would ask my customers (students) for referrals and testimonials. Those same actions serve me well now.

I agree,
Become friends with the people and the will love you like their own. Show high respect for everyone you come across online. Before long with the right traffic you will become a known marketer and your clients will be your success.

When your a online success you will owe it all to the people that had faith in what you said.

I have been hearing about this alot recently. I was a little unsure of it but it seems like an excellent tool. Is there any backend work that needs to be done to get this working?

Great post Michael!

What comes to mind as well is the "My Coke Rewards campaign where they had around 5.5% click through rate on their short codes... its only going to get bigger...

if you would like to read more about marketing, please see:
http://marketmpb.blogspot.com

best!,
Matt

That's a very interesting comparison indeed. You should have bought the google nexus one :) Best phone i have ever had that's for sure. But i agree 100% with what your saying. Customer service is a must for business growth. Good post.

I totally agree. I know a lot of companies out there commission some local companies or call centers to do the selling of their products. Referrals can drive our eagerness to want that certain product too. Most of the times, friends would give us comments that won't let us sleep for nights until we buy the product they've been telling us. So a very good way to sell or promote products is having a very convincing referral too.

Hmm that was a somewhat meandering post that didn't really give me what i was expecting from the title. Generating an excellent customer experience could do with a post on its own, so perhaps you could have included a few more tips around referral marketing such as loyalty and reward programs for referrals that encourage people to tell friends. Ellaborate on the use of feedback and inclusion of customer reviews for "who like this product and why" for new customers to relate their needs for their decision.
Your post about understanding what can be (in the mobile phone market) a complex set of product attributes is far more consumer-centric than marketing - after all this was a product specific decision, not a consumer experience or marketing exercise.