Pay careful attention… because in this post I’m going to share a single method that’ll build your credibility, grow your business profits, and bring your hordes of free traffic.
But before I jump into the details – let me tell you something about my grandfather (it’s crucial to leveraging this tactic).
You see, the best advice my grandfather gave me was…
“Rich, you’ll go through your entire life with your name, so… never do anything that’ll…
Damage It… Disgrace It… Or Dishonor it!
He died a decade before the Internet was born, but his words are even truer today than ever before.
To this day, I’ve done my best to live up to his standard — I hope you do too!
Because all the credibility tools in the world won’t counter a tarnished reputation.
On the other hand, living a squeaky clean life isn’t enough to get your prospect’s believing in you.
Which is why we’ve been focusing on credibility devices. And this here is the sixth post on growing you profits by growing your credibility.
Just in case you’ve missed the 22 powerful strategies we’ve already covered – here are links to the previous posts in the series…
Alight, with that out of the way – let’s take the conversation even further.
But before I do… Here’s the stunning sight from my beach office this morning…

You know, one of these days I need to talk to you having your own inspiring place to create – but that’s a topic for another day.
Now, where was I? Oh, yeah… growing your credibility to grow profits.
Picking up where we left off…
#23
Referrals
What It Is: Getting your clients, prospects and partners to send you like minded individuals.
Why It’s Powerful: It’s a proven fact that a referred prospect is more likely to engage… more like to buy… and spends more than prospects from any other channel. It should be obvious why.
There’s a level of associated trust. So, if you trust me, and I tell you to trust Joe… your relationship with Joe starts out with more trust than it otherwise would.
Example: One of the easiest ways to foster a flurry of referrals is to ask for them.
But as simple as that seems – many entrepreneurs and marketer simply don’t ask. And that’s insane!
Now, one of the best times to ask for a referral is when you’ve just done something or given something to the person you’re going to ask.
This leverages the law of reciprocity. Because we have a psychological desire to do things for people who do things for us.
Even better yet – is when you ask if you can do the very same thing (what you just did or gave them) for their like-minded friends.
Case in point: We’ve added over a 100,000 prospects to our lists over the years by leveraging simple tell-a-friend pages on our sites.
Here are three examples (each one more potent than the next)…
The first one is from The Attention Age Doctrine 2 opt-in process:

Now, that page did amazing – but this one did even better…

It shouldn’t be hard to understand why this one did better.
Heck, we incentivized it! And when you can… you should too!
But do you want to know the approach that got us more referrals than any other technique we’ve ever created in our entire history?
Of course you do, right?
Well, I must admit this one is a little sneaky.
I call it…
THE REFERRAL-VICE
Here’s the deal…
We’ve only used it a few times… And I’m really questioning if I should let the cat out of the bag on this one.
But, heck, you’re worth it – so here it goes…
You get prospects to opt-in for an amazing piece of media. Doesn’t matter if it’s an audio or video, but… IT’S GOT TO BE DAMN GOOD!
And the longer it is… THE BETTER!
So your prospects are now on the page — listening or watching — to this fantastic (though quite lengthy) piece of content.
And you know what…
THEY’RE TRAPPED!
Since you’re streaming this incredible piece of content… your prospects are stuck in front of their computer, and they can’t go anywhere.
That’s the VICE…
But you being the wonderful human being you are… you place a button on a page (that opens in a new window) clearly labeled “Click Here For The Transcript And Recording”
And guess what happens when they click on it?
It takes them to a page that makes a proposition… tell x friends and I’ll give you the transcripts and the recording to download.
Here’s an example…

See the bottom of the page? When prospects click on that box – it takes them here…

Now, do you see why that works?
You’re prospects are on the page getting this great content – but they’re trapped…
You offer a way out… And by clicking on that button they’ve just made a small commitment that they want the downloads…
And now in order for them to fulfill that micro-commitment (and get out of the vice) they’ve got to refer others.
And it’s as simple as that.
I wasn’t planning on revealing this technique… so know this: What I’ve Just Explained Is A GEM!
What make me so certain?
It’s Consistently Generated….
A 55+% REFERRAL RATE!
In other words more than half the prospects that hit that page referred two friends…
Think about that for a second… do the math…
Imagine giving away a free audio/video and having more than 55 out of every 100 people refer another two prospects to your site.
Is that INSANE or what?
Now, for those of you who are math whizzes and realize that if this continued indefinitely you’d have everyone on the planet on your list, realize over time the process degrades. How soon it degrades is a function of the quality of your content and the size of your market.
But don’t be fooled – it’s the most powerful generator or targeted (trusting) traffic you’ll ever come across.
Use it with my best wishes.
Tomorrow we’ll continue the conversation on credibility.
But before you go…
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I’ve got 2 quick question for you…
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Oh yeah, if you got value from this post – don’t forget to tweet and stumble this too!
To higher profits and beyond,
Rich Schefren
Link to this post: If you found this page useful, consider linking to Building Credibility… Boost Business Profits, And… Light The Fuse For Massive Amounts Of FREE TRAFFIC! ...
Asking for referals is straight to the point yet I always forget to reciprocate with my readers, etc. I need to do a better job at this. Great article. Thanks Rich!
you’re welcome jack!
Always a giver Rich..great ideas! I’m going to update my VFG and play around with a new offer asap..
(and nice view btw…)
cool beans denny – let me know how it works out for you
okay so im gonna be quick as i snuck over here to read your daily post in between writting my report, ( i’ve blocked the whole day to writting sessions )
but wanted my daily fix of your blog, so here i am …
… and all i can say is “WHAT” out loud !!!
55% referral rate OMG
im sending Garry to read this post and to fit something like this into our marketing campaign,
shakin my head shocked with the results.
keep rockin it,
Alex
right?
this is really an amazing process – which is why i don’t think i am going to mail for this blog post… it’s only for my most loyal blog readers – no one else.
awesome :)
Ok, this is getting spooky. Every day I think, I must sort out…. and then you write a blog post about exactly what I wanted to focus on.
So , yes, loved it, hadn’t thought about the referral-vice, but will implement it within the next 24 hours and let you know if I can match or beat your results.
Thanks
Paul
great minds think alike paul… glad to be of service and please do share the results – i’d love to know how you make out with it.
I’ve popped over straight away Aex, lol.
What a great strategy you have revealed there Rich.
So simple and yet so so POWERFUL
Definitely something we’ll have to incorporate without a doubt.
I’m already thinking of loads of opportunities of where we can use it now!
Thanks for writing such a valuable post :-)
Garry
my pleasure garry – and it’s nice to make your acquaintance. alex raves about you all the time!
Hi Rich
Now THAT is impressive. And I like the way you built it up in three steps; straighforward, then with incentive, finally with the “vice” method.
Had a really interesting chat with a guy called Niall Devitt yesterday, http://www.bloggertone.com; and touched on how the bar gets incrementally higher, in making marketing initiatives stick (specifically, we were discussing what it takes to make something viral in the social media world, and the weakness of “copying” in attempting this)
But it does make me think – I would REALLY REALLY like to know today what your method nr 4 will be for leveraging tell-a-friend.. before you use it .. LOL.
Great post.
Sean
thanks sean… right now there is no number 4 – necessity is the mother of invention, right?
but thanks for the compliment and for your consistent commenting – i appreciate it and you!
rich
Nice write-up, Rich. Certainly a powerful technique. Could you tell me a bit about the tech behind it? Like, what software you are using to have those extra emails send out to friends in the second landing page?
I know you use Infusionsoft and it may have that option, but could it be done using Aweber? Or is it done using a script or something?
I like the idea of referrals, and I know they can work, but I’ve never really tried it. I really should get to this soon as I know it has worked so well for so many other small-business owners. I’ve done newsletters but never referrals, so thanks for bringing this back to my attention.
There are many other different ways to increase traffic, as I’ve read in this article by Dr. Ivan Misner http://budurl.com/8egh. You might have more ideas as regards his advice too.
Refer a Friend has always had the highest credibility factor. Direct, proven friendship is the best form, but a chain of good behavior/trust building is almost as good. When someone is a good member of a community, doing good works when they can, they build trust. Even if you don’t know them well, seeing it happen builds that level of trust.
I tweet what I consider worthwhile business blogs. As a result, I’ve picked up a few followers. The trust factor is both the most effective and cheapest, as well as the easiest to screw up. Because you don’t have a direct, previous relationship, if you make a mistake, the past history isn’t there to smooth it over.
Sort of like a blind date, hitting a rocky patch. Ordinarily the two might be a perfect match, but getting off on the wrong foot can doom the relationship. When you, as a business, offer what may seem to be real value for free, or a low price, you are seen as establishing the “trust factor.” If someone else has said, this is really good (referring to the low price package) that trust factor elevates the value of it a great deal.
It’s why the best thing you can do, is establish a good reputation, in a community. People see you as trustworthy, and a friend. So, when you offer a deal, you’ve built an inferred referral trust.
I was at a bootcamp in London UK last November. I got talking to Nicola Cairncross and she told me just how good your stuff is. I have to say I’ve come to the party a little late but better late than never as they say.
Love the idea of the referral strategy and I’ll definitely give it a go. Just have to find something of amazing value to give then I’m away.
Hi Rich, wow such content in a blog post, I love it.
Never tried the tell-a-friend method or referral-vice but from what you showed us today they seem to work a treat.
Thanks Sally :)
This is a really great post Rich! I’ve just recently launched my video series and you’ve pointed out a few things to me that I’m not doing, but should be doing, such as providing tools for my affiliates and the “tell-a-friend” technique.
Thanks for the advice!
John
Hi!
I’d like to thank you for great and valuble content Rich, and give something to you as a token of gratitude. I hope it’ll be useful.
To go further with 55%+ method, you could say to your prospects, that video is available in streaming form only for a short period of time, and you are giving away a file and a bonus (for example an e-book) to all people who reffer this e-book to their friends, AND person who reffers the most will get a special prize for example one of your high priced products.
What do you think about that?
Cheers from Poland
It was supposed to be “…to all people who reffer this video to their friends” :)
Thanks for the great tip Rich,
now I have to get to work on building a tell your friend page.
your appreciated
Ron