The Referral Engine by John Jantsch is one of my favorite business book reads this year. Great advice, practical, easy to implement and proven to drive cost-effective, organic customer growth.

In the September issue of CRM Magazine, John gave an interview in which he highlighted his 4 C's of Marketing. I've included them here, but I also recommend a read of his full Q&A (as well as the book).

Content: Prospects expect lots of educational content and may not trust an organization that's not committed to creating a rich Web presence.

Context: With so much information out there, marketers need to get very good at filtering, aggregating and personalizing content.

Connection: Social technology has changed how individuals see companies, and marketers must meet the heightened expectations of an open and personalized organization.

Community: Social technology has made it much easier to create communities around shared ideas, so businesses must develop ways to create community both online and offline, with customers and staff.