Do you have a product or service that people who visit your city would be interested in?
Would you like to get local hotels to refer each and every one of their guests to you?
Now how would you like to get all these referrals for free?
Sounding good to you?
Well, it's not that difficult to do.
(I'll show you an actual example of this being done if you keep on reading...)
How a Little Plastic Card Brings a Local Pizza Shop All the Business that they Can Handle
A couple of weeks ago my family and I took a short trip over to San Antonio.
We got in real late at night.
When I checked in the hotel clerk gave me my room card.
I noticed that the room card had an advertisement on one side for a local Domino's pizza business.
Both my wife and I were really hungry so I decided to call up for some pizza.
Instead of having them deliver it to us I told the guy on the phone that I would come pick it up.
Again, I was super hungry.
So while I was picking up our pizza I asked the manager how they managed to get their advertisement on the billboard side of my hotel room key.
He said it was easy.
He simply called up the company that produced the cards and told them that he managed a Dominos pizza joint and he wanted to advertise on hotel room key cards at local hotels in his area.
And within a week or two, the company called him back up with advertising deals with two local hotels.
Eureka!
Here's what the hotel room key card looks like...
After probing a little more he told me he makes a 20 - 1 investment on this advertising venture.
He gets the majority of his nightly orders from these two hotels. "Awesome!"
"I Asked Him What Company He Called Up that Got Him the Advertising Deals So Fast..."
He said, "Look on the back of your card really closely."
See that URL?
That's the company.
So when I got back home I visited the site.
Would you like to see it?
Here it is... http://www.plicards.com
Visit the link that says, "Free Cards from PLI. Learn More."
That's their free hotel advertising program.
What PLI does is get advertisers and then has someone call the local hotels and ask them if they'd like to get their room keys for free.
The answer is usually, "Sure...how?"
Well, you understand how it goes.
Domino's pays the hotel advertising costs, which essentially pays for the hotel room keys.
It's a win - win - win for everyone.
The hotel gets free room keys.
Dominos gets excellent advertising (Travelers ALWAYS look at their room keys multiple times a day.)
And PLI gets more room key orders.
Think, Think, Think. How You Can Make This Work for Your Business?
Think about this referral system.
Business 1 advertises on Business 2's widget that they give to their customers who are also Business 1's ideal prospect.
Business 2 gets the widget for free in exchange for letting Business 1 advertise on it.
Think about how this can work for your business.
Do you know of any complimentary businesses that give (or sell) low cost items or consumables to their customers.
If so, approach them for an advertising sponsorship.
If you just sat down and thought about this referral strategy for a moment I think you'll be amazed at what you can come up with.
I personally can think of a hundred ways I could make this referral strategy work for my business.
You can too if you think hard enough.
David Frey is President of Marketing Best Practices Inc., a small business marketing consulting firm and the editor of the Marketing Best Practices Newsletter. His products include The Small Business Marketing Bible, Instant Referral Systems, and Coaches and Consultants Marketing Bootcamp.