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.
An article from