Offer the best and most up-to-date product and service.

To make people want to recommend your business, they have to know and be convinced that you are offering a top-notch product or service. In addition, they need to know what sets you apart from others in your field.

How will they know this? Well, you have to tell them yourself (without sounding egotistical). While they can probably see this in the way you run your business, you also need to make an effort to give your customers information that allows them to judge the quality of your business for themselves. If you are offering financial advice, for example, you may want to point out to your client that while a 15% return for a type of investment is considered excellent, you have done substantially better than that for his account. The customer will appreciate you much more for that.

You can also have someone they trust tell them how good your business is. Positive reinforcement from a trusted person can be extremely effective.

Create an easily understandable business description.

If getting a personal recommendation is a key part of your marketing plan, your customers must be able to communicate to others what it is that you really do. You must provide them with some general kind of information about your business so they can tell others about you. After all, you do not want customers misrepresenting your business.

Instead of gaining new customers, you might hear comments like, "I thought you were doing this-and-that, because that's what someone told me." From what may have been intended as a positive recommendation, your job will now turn to damage control. Your first task, therefore, is to articulate a clear, easily understandable statement of what your business is about.

Think this is easy? Business owners who can clearly communicate what he or she does is the exception. Many business owners are vague about what they themselves do. Develop a clear understanding of the broader domain in which your business functions. You need to define the range of domains in which you can legitimately sell what you do.

If you are manufacturing pots and pans, for example, saying that you are in the business of making pots and pans is only half of the story. In order to create a meaningful description of your business, you must go one step further and consider the role of a pot or pan in your customers' lives.

What is it about your business that touches other people's lives? Pots are used for cooking - but what kind of cooking? If people can use your pot to steam and boil, but not for frying, you can conclude that you are in the "health" business. Since pots are stored somewhere, you are also in the kitchen storage domain. Pots need to be cleaned, so you also need to add the "cleaning" domain. The shape, finish and overall aesthetics of your pot also makes it part of the "decorating" domain.

Educate customers about your business.

Some of you operating well-established businesses - such as a grocery or retail clothing store - need not concern yourselves too much with educating consumers as the majority of them already have a clear understanding of what you do and when they might need you. You only need to communicate the special features of your business, or what sets you apart from your competitors. Tell potential customers that you do a better job or offer extra service.

However, it is a different story when you are running a business in a new, obscure or technical field. Hand out your business card that says that you are selling wholesale lapidary supplies, and chances are you will be met by blank stares. Even less obscure businesses, like Internet Marketing Consultant, still need to be explained to consumers, as it may not be clearly understood.

Even if your business has been in operation for some time, don't assume that you do not need to educate customers about what you do. The more people know about what you do, the better they will see when, how and why they will need you.

Ensure clear pricing structure.

Nothing wins the trust of a customer faster than a sound pricing policy. Put in trickeries - e.g. saying that a product is free only to have the fine print saying that a monthly fee of $2 will be charged to their credit card, or offer a free CD but charge $7.50 for domestically shipping the CD - and customers will run as far away as possible.

The key is to make sure that you do not confuse or mislead your customers. State up-front what is included, and what is not, in your price. Online businesses, for example, must clearly indicate their prices including shipping & handling and other taxes to avoid shopping cart abandonment. If you are running a service business, which doesn't have a tangible product to which a price can easily be attached, be sure to tell your customers clearly what your price is even before they ask.

Open management policies.

If you want positive recommendations from other people, forget the practice of "playing your cards close to your chest." Openness builds customer trust, which is the prime requisite of any marketing without advertising campaign. In particular, you must have an attitude of openness in your pricing, your treatment of employees (if any), and your willingness to answer questions about your products and services.

Help customers find you.

Having the best product or service will not mean anything if people don't know that you exist. Ask yourself these two important questions: “Do the maximum possible number of potential customers know how to find my business?” Assuming a potential customer knows who you are, “Can he/she actually get to your goods and services with reasonable ease?”

Answering these two questions involves thinking about a lot of things about your business. There is no one way to list information about your business in a way everyone will find it; you need to try different venues and see which of these works for your business.

Is your business name easy to remember? Can people find where you are located? If you are operating a traditional store, it is extremely important that potential customers know where your business is located. You must think about your location's convenience of access, as well as the visibility of your signs. If you are on the Internet, your domain name must be easy to spell, type, and remember. How do you expect users to remember a 36-letter word domain full of dots and hyphens?

Whether you are operating online or offline, telephone accessibility is extremely important. Be sure that customers can always reach you, or at least be able to leave a message when you are not around. Also, consider how a Yellow Pages listing can boost your presence. Note, however, that some businesses are a perfect match for the yellow pages, while for others, it is a waste of time and money.

You also need to find ways to creatively and widely list your services. Try specialized phone books, trade and professional association directories, Chamber of Commerce publications, online listings such as directories and electronic bulletin boards.

Keep a database of customer information.

It would be very easy to tap customers to help market your business if you know how to find them. Devise ways to get some information from your customers, including their mailing addresses and phone numbers. Some big retail stores get their customers' name, address, phone number and birthday to plan promotional offers around their birthdays. Also keep a listing of their referral sources, if applicable, and a separate list of interested parties.

Have an open recourse policy.

Try as we might, we cannot avoid slip-ups and customer-related problems. You may have unintentionally charged the credit card of your customer twice. A customer may return a dress bought from your store that turned out to have a manufacturing flaw. A car that was not repaired right will be brought back to you for another round of repairs. A customer may make a request for a refund after the pottery ordered from your Web site arrived in a thousand broken pieces.

How well you respond to complaints can spell the difference between winning the recommendation or the wrath of the customer. To avoid losing customers (and their referrals), you need to establish an effective recourse policy. You need to provide a way where customers' complaints and grievances can be addressed and given a fair resolution. More than that, you need to make sure your customers understand and trust what you offer. You can gain customers' loyalty when you promptly and attentively make sure that they are treated right.

Design and implement a marketing plan.

A marketing plan objective is to give your customers, associates or prospects a sense of participation in your business. A marketing action plan should include three basic elements: (a) the statement describing your business; (b) list of people you already know who are in a good position to recommend your business to their friends and acquaintances; and (c) list of marketing actions and events that will stimulate the people on your list to make recommendations.

The next step is to plan your marketing actions, which could either be direct, parallel or peer-based. Direct marketing entails contacting people by telephone or in person to inform them of an event or a promotion. Recitals of dance schools where families and friends of performing students are invited is a subtle way of direct marketing. Or if you have the cash, you can follow America Online's lead in mass mailing software and offers of free access time to entice potential customers to use their service.

Parallel marketing, on the other hand, is aimed at promoting your business area in general, and not just your business. You basically tie your business with a complementary product or service, whether as part of an information package or suggestions of other valuable products that you know your customers will use and appreciate. A lawyer, for example, could send his small business clients a booklet on partnership laws. An Italian restaurant could have a regular drawing among customer entries for tickets to the opera.

Peer-based marketing requires an understanding of your role as part of a group of peers in your field and to make effective use of it.

Create a calendar of events.

What good is a written marketing plan if it is never executed? Sometimes you are so caught up with your day-to-day tasks that you forget to implement your marketing action plan.

It is strongly suggested that you need to plan ahead and spend time and effort doing creative marketing on a regularly scheduled basis. Keep track of events, scheduling major events well in advance. If you want to meet business people in your area, for example, you can schedule an open house for businesses. The steps leading to this event could include designing fliers and invitations to businesses, printing these materials, meeting with business owners, ordering flowers and catering, and planning for the logistics of the event.

Don't wait for business to slow down before putting your marketing plan into action. The best time to market is when you do not need the business.