Harnessing the Simple, but Effective Art of Referral Marketing

“Business owners tell me every day that the way they generate the most new business is through referral marketing,” John Jantsch writes on ducttapemarketing.com, a Web site devoted to helping small businesses with their marketing. “Yet they don’t seem to grasp the power of this statement. Few if any businesses harness the true power of referrals by making the receiving of systematic referrals a cornerstone of their marketing efforts.”

Referrals, he says, work because they are credible. “When a trusted friend tells you about a business, you transfer that trust to this company, he writes, “even if you’ve never heard of them before.”

By PAUL B. BROWN

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/business/smallbusiness/15toolkit.html?_r=1&ref=smallbusiness&oref=slogin