The least expensive (free!) and most satisfying way for business owners and managers to grow their businesses is through third party endorsements -- word of mouth referrals from happy customers -- yet few businesses help make those referrals easy to make.

Customers are most inspired to tell others when your service exceeded their expectations in at least one of five ways: you provided your product or service in ways that were faster, less expensive, more convenient or fun, or with some added value benefit that your competition doesn't offer. You're sure to stand out from any competition when you are the first business of your kind to provide some of these points of difference. Competitors who institute your "extras" will be copycats, playing catch up to you.

As to the first two benefits, you can inspire customers to refer their friends and colleagues to your business because they can gain "bragging rights" for showing others how to save time and money by purchasing a product -- yours -- online.

Here are three ways to encourage online referrals to your business:

1) Do it yourself  
2) Recommend-It.com 
3) Automatic Response

1) Do It Yourself. . .

To do it yourself all you need is a webpage with a form and a warm request for their referral, perhaps thanking them for their business and asking for their further support. Use the form to get the necessary information to both send a gift of appreciation (coupon, special added service, electronic postcard etc.) to your customer who is making the referral, and the right questions (beyond basic contact information) so that your first communication to your prospect is filled with some specific information, where possible, about how your service can help them. Be sure to describe on the referring page how you will be contacting the prospect so customers are comfortable enough to fill out the page

After customers fill out the form on this webpage, they can press "SUBMIT." The information will go directly to your e-mail mailbox -- other mailbox that you designate. You may choose to e-mail, mail and/or fax your offer to the prospective customer, depending on the best approach for your kind of product. For example, if you are selling a product that can be credibly viewed on your web page, you might send an e-mail, inviting the prospect to visit that page. If your service or product is best-experienced in-person, say a restaurant, you might send an email and an invitational postcard.

Click Here for a demonstration of #1

2) Recommend-It.com. . .

If you'd like someone else to establish the web page for you, contact a company called Recommend-It.com. They will create the webpage for you at their site. They or you will then place a small graphic on your site that says, "recommend-it.com". You may have descriptive copy on your home page, requesting that your customers "Recommend Us to Your Friends." Customers can then click on this graphic which takes them to the form where they fill in the required information and Recommend-It.com will pass this information along to your friend or colleague.

Recommend-It.com sets up a form on their site. Your task to contact the company and place the graphic on your site. This is not a labour intensive task and signup is easy.

See Recommend-It.com for a demonstration and more details.

3) Automatic Response. . .

The third option is the easiest and very inexpensive. Use a program such as the one we've written called emailer. Customized for your website, Emailer will automatically facilitate the referral for you. With this option you can also design the referral page exactly as you like. Add your own personal graphics or advertising banners. After the initial setup, with the look and feel that you, desire there isn't anything else to do besides sit back and let your visitors spread the word about your products or services. The system passes on the message to the prospect, without you having to pass it on. If you would like to track the amount of referral sent with the system, customize the program to ensure that a copy of the referral is sent to your mailbox.

See a demonstration .

Remember, your two most cost-effective ways of growing your business faster are through increasing per-customer sales and attracting customer referrals. With this article, you might accomplish both as customers reinforce their good judgement in using your services as they express their satisfaction to others they know. We'll offer more suggestions on how to increase per-customer sales -- through the right cross-promotional partners -- in a future article.

" Internet Publicity at affordable prices for small business service and products."