What kind of geek are you? At ArcStone, the Minneapolis web design & marketing agency I work at, several geeks depicted below are represented. What about you?

Why should you learn more about referral marketing and brand advocacy? Because it works and it’s one of the fastest, inexpensive and most effective means of finding new business.

A referred prospect comes to you as a hot lead, not only pre-disposed to buying your product or service but also with a certain amount of goodwill towards you, bestowed by word-of-mouth. Because a friend, coworker, mentor or family member has recommended you, this new customer already has a sense of what they are getting and a baseline of trust established. This makes them ripe for easy conversion from prospect to client. There really is no better kind of lead.

Referral Marketing Systems
Studies show that the majority of customers would be happy to give a referral, if they had only been asked. That means that to increase your sales, you simply have only to ask your existing clients for a referral. If you don’t already have one in place, it would really serve you to implement a referral marketing system.

A referral marketing campaign can be done through e-mail, phone calls, direct mail or even social media. But whatever you do, get started today. Then automate as much of it as possible to help you leverage your time and resources. The more automated your system, the easier you make it for you and your employees to ask for those sought after referrals – and easier means it’s more likely to be done consistently.

Brand Advocacy
Want to know the top reasons people “friend” or “follow” a brand? Often it’s to give feedback, praise or complaint, but the overwhelming reason nearly two-thirds of people “like” a brand, is to receive special offers and promotions or to participate in contests. This represents quite a marketing opportunity for savvy business owners.

There is nothing quite like brand advocacy. At what other point in time could you so easily identify, engage and recognize fans of your brand? With social media, your brand advocates seek you out and gladly hand over their information in exchange for engagement, input and perks.

This is where you can be most effective – your social media presence can act as a loyalty program for your fans. Remember, fans are potential brand advocates waiting to be asked for their opinions, referrals and opportunities to be your brand ambassador. Social media allows for easy market research, the chance to encourage and reward brand advocacy activities and reaffirm customer loyalty to your brand.
It’s an exciting time to be in business, never before could you so easily and inexpensively market to your ideal segment, earning quality referrals and loyal brand ambassadors – you have only to act.

Recently, we were tasked with designing a new site for a well-known clinic in Minneapolis called Kass Clinics. Every project has its challenges and for Kass Clinics, the challenge was how to equally show the diverse services that Kass offers without making the design clumsy and not user-friendly.

Kass Clinics offers four distinct types of services:
Varicose Veins Treatments
Treatment for Hemorrhoids
Cosmetic Care like Botox, Adult Acne & Treatment for Sun Damage
Healthy Aging Treatments like hormone replacement therapy

We wanted to design a site that was easy to navigate, elegantly designed, SEO friendly & provides the content people are looking for. We choose to create a homepage with four entrances that link to landing pages for each specific service group. All of the areas are equally represented, nothing is buried below the fold and the design is clean. Mission accomplished!