Any Warrior ideas for this offline opportunity? Loan referrals

[jkt777]

Hi Warriors,

There is a finance company in my area that makes small personal loans.
They offer $30 for referrals and are going to $40 next month to try and drive holiday business.

The company has offices in several states so there is a website to find locations but no affiliate program.

I have some local traffic but there is no incentive for anyone to mention me or my site. I have thought about offering $10 if I get the referral but wondered what else might work.

I know there are some very creative offline warriors and probably opportunities like this in every area so I thought I would post and see what some of you would suggest.

Thanks, Joel

[TimCastleman]

You could do a couple of things.

1. Setup a website with the city and what they offer, so, lubbocksmallloans.com to get traffic, show people what they do, how they work, etc.

Do photos of the place and even a video with the manager/owner. Work out a deal where they could make a special code for you to give the people so they know who to credit the loans to.

Then go around and place fliers on bulletin boards, car windows, etc to that they can log on and learn more.

Think about it, Christmas is coming and people need money to pay bills.

Tim

[Killer Joe]

Hi Joel,

$40 allows for PPC promotion, so that is a good thing.

However, without a difinitive policy for paying out referral fees, such as a bonified affiliate program, collecting the fees may be an uphill battle.

I'm making an educated guess here that the common way they pay those fees are through current customer recommendations and not CPA, as an example.

Do they include verbage in their TOS on how you can promote their offers?

Is there a contact at corporate HQs that you can approach about creating an affiliate program?

The reason I ask is that if they are ambitious enough to bump the offer from $30 to $40 it has probably crossed someone's mind that having an affliate program would be useful. But the rub may be that they are not aware that such tools exist. Surprisingly, this could be true.

I know this can happen because years ago I dealt with a major US company that had 2200 outlets and they reorganized their corporate structure when I brought it to their attention that they had major inefficiencies that could be easily remedied. They weren't aware of it, they just needed someone to point it out to them. It seemed obvious from the outside, but it had never occured to them to look into it. My company charged $70,000 for the idea. They were happy to pay it.

My point is that someone such as yourself may have insights into ways that a company can improve their marketing, and if you can get infront of the right people there you can make a pitch for your idea and perhaps walk away with a profitable contract.

It never hurts to think big, and it never pays to assume that any given company already knows which end is up.

KJ

[shaddai]

I kind of have the same idea as KillerJoe: Go back to the local office & see if it would work if the customers came from everywhere. You could refer people to their closest local office, or work out some sort of agreement where if someone's from Paradise Montana and a local office is 500 miles away, that they automatically use YOUR local office & do the transaction with Paypal or ACH from one bank to another.

Write up a small text teaser that contains a bit.ly link, because bit.ly automatically gains attention from looking weird. Get it into someone's 60,000 member IM list & you're off to the races. I say IM list because IMers think about $ all the time...it's a natural audience. Once you generate enough $$ there, I'd head for Facebook ads..because Facebook permeates main street.

Seems to me a small loan business that used Paypal could be a huge deal if it's promoted right....especially in this economy where the cash flow to the middle class isn't working 100% right anymore. With Christmas coming, you get the picture. If the company can approve in under a day based on credit score, you could be onto something really big. Wedge yourself into that process if you can.

Todd

[jkt777]

Thanks everyone for the ideas.

Killer Joe, You are correct that the referrals are offered to current customers.
There is no tos that I can find. The corporate website is pretty bad IMO. They list branches in 21 states but nothing about affiliates or referrals.

I know the manager here so think I will go see her this week and see what we can do.

Joel

[Killer Joe]

Joel,

Just a couple thoughts...

If you have the resources and time to put together a comprehensive proposal that you can get in front of the powers at the corporate level you could possibly do far better than your original idea of just getting referral fees.

If your proposal had the elements needed to convince them they should add an affiliate program for getting referrals there could be some good money in it for you as a facilitator.

When you go and see the local manager remember she is only hired help and has an ego that you don't want involved in any negotiations. That's not to say anything negative about this person, she could be top notch, but you want to keep as many steps out of the process as you can.

Her ability to introduce you to her higher ups will go a lot farther than having her take the ball and run with it, so to speak. That's only if you want to take this to the next level. You may be happy just to see them have an affiliate program down the road.

One thing to keep in mind is this whole process takes a catalyst, and somebody has to be that catalyst. It won't happen organically. If you can put a deal together you can reap a big reward here.

You don't need to know everything about creating and maintaining an affiliate program, you just need to know where to find the information to get them started. They would probably take it in-house anyway, but if can show them where the money is hidden corporate clients are good payers.

Best of luck,

KJ

[michaelmacro]

FYI, there was a product called Offline Marketing Pro by Steve Mount who is a warrior. Look him up and I would recommend getting in touch with him, his product is based on doing marketing programs for businesses and I think could help you out.

[tpettit]

This is pretty much classic lead generation - I suggest you setup a lead capture page and work out a way to sell those leads to the company (either per lead or trust them to track and have them pay you per completed loan). That way you can control the lead flow and if they change their mind or stop paying you, you can find someone else to buy the leads. With your own domain, all of the traffic ideas mentioned above by other will work well - free, paid, offline, online.

[chrisnegro]

Originally Posted by tpettit

This is pretty much classic lead generation - I suggest you setup a lead capture page and work out a way to sell those leads to the company (either per lead or trust them to track and have them pay you per completed loan). That way you can control the lead flow and if they change their mind or stop paying you, you can find someone else to buy the leads. With your own domain, all of the traffic ideas mentioned above by other will work well - free, paid, offline, online.

Joel:

Ditto TPettit here....

Keep us up to date on how you are doing with this campaign as we can all learn from you.

Success,

Chris Negro