What do you think of the Grasshopper commercial?

Between our rebranding campaign once again being discussed and summer launch parties, these past couple weeks have been big for Grasshopper! Check out where we have been in June and July.

• WorkBar Boston and Grasshopper Partner to Rev Up the BeIn Initiative for Boston’s Startup Community

  The Summer entrepreneur launch party at Workbar Boston celebrated Boston’s large entrepreneurial population. Different companies networked and shared advice, good food and drinks. Read Boston Innovation’s recap of the story

• Webcast – Finally an affordable small business phone service for Small Business

  Canadian Small Business features Grasshopper as a phone system solution for small businesses. Read the full article and listen to the webcast!

• 20 Tips Your Small Business Can Use To Build Web Credibility

  Every business today has a website, so how exactly do you make yours stand out? Small Biz Trends features Grasshopper in this article and how it can make contact easy.

• Five Ways to Increase Sales From Existing Customers

  Jonathan Kay, Grasshopper’s Ambassador of Buzz, talks about the importance of customer connection via Twitter in Bnet’s article on key strategies to how to get even more sales from your current customers.

• Entrepreneur Recruitment with Jonathan Kay

  Get Your Biz Savvy features Ambassador of Buzz Jonathan Kay in an article about his job, Grasshopper’s campaign, and entrepreneurial ideas.

• Case Study: Grasshopper- Rebranding done right

  Grasshopper’s rebranding campaign is featured in The Rules according to you, which talks about Grasshopper from the GotVMail days to their creation of new products.

• 22 Small Business Phone Services

  Small Business Trends talks new and upcoming phone services and the features they like- and Grasshopper is one of them! The author in particular liked the faxes emailed as PDFs features.

With the beginning of our National Entrepreneurs’ Day campaign, there are a few great stories from this past month. Check em out!

• Bootstrapped SaaS Gains Critical Mass

  Forbes discusses bootstrapping and how it you can build sizable companies without venture capital. Grasshopper is featured as one of the successful companies who have done so.

• Are You Ready for National Entrepreneurs’ Day?

  AOL Small Business features the Grasshopper National Entrepreneurs’ Day campaign and even takes an excerpt from the blog.

• Twitter Users Campaign for a National Entrepreneurs’ Day

  Inc. Magazine breaks down the National Entrepreneurs’ Day campaign and the importance of Twitter as a medium.

• Live: Big Omaha 2010

  ZDNet covers Big Omaha 2010 where Grasshopper co-founder David Hauser is a speaker.

Here at Grasshopper we know how important it is for our customers to be able to reach us. We love getting feedback on what we’re doing well and what we can do to improve.

We also love helping other entrepreneurs succeed. Whether it’s getting press coverage, writing about their business or simply providing useful information, our goal is empower entrepreneurs.

Here are a few places you can find Grasshopper:

• Twitter

  @grasshopper not only offers updates on the Grasshopper virtual phone system but provides information for and from entrepreneurs. Get tips on starting a business, running a small business, marketing ideas and more. Follow us now!

• Facebook

  See what’s new on the blog, read what our customers have to say or watch one of our favorite Grasshopper videos. http://facebook.com/grasshopper puts many of the Grasshopper outlets all in one place. Let us know what you would like to see, ask questions or just stop by and say hi! Tell us you like us!

• LinkedIn

  LinkedIn is a great place to network with Grasshopper employees and see what jobs are available at the company. Join the Grasshopper Entrepreneur Network and chat with fellow entrepreneurs or just see what’s new on the blog.

Grasshopper is also out there in forums, blogs, etc working to share our knowledge and learn yours. Send us a tweet, write on our wall or leave a comment here and let us know where you get your info.

On every page of the Grasshopper.com site, we have a navigation element that allows users to click on the link, fill in the form and send a $25 credit to their fellow Entrepreneur, encouraging them to sign up for the Grasshopper virtual phone system.

The Word of Mouth Marketing theory dictates that once you have the customer in the door, it’s much easier to convert them to a paying customer, especially if their friend sent them in the first place. By comparison to the COA (Cost Of Acquisition ) from search, online advertising, print, TV, and radio, it’s a no brainer. In addition, if this new customer now endorses you to his or her friends, it causes a ripple effect.

Pieces that any good referral program should include:

• Understanding the lifetime value of your customer verses cost of acquisition

• The existing client should feel as though their reference is valuable.

• Insuring the referred potential client feels their incentive is significant enough to make the purchase.

Finally, the referral program you present your customers with needs to be easy to use and require minimal effort on the part of the referrer.

Have any questions about our Refer an Entrepreneur program or want to showcase how your referral programs have been successful? Leave a comment.