If your clients or customers perceive that you do a great job for/with them, the easiest marketing strategy is one of referrals…
…providing either you ask for them or you’re so tightly niched that you’re the person everyone automatically thinks of when someone needs your business’ skills.
Last year, we more than doubled our business revenue with minimal social media, no paid ads and attendance at only one conference (for NLP and TimeLine Therapy®).
We grew the business primarily through referrals. And, I’m both proud and embarrassed to say that we didn’t ask for them.
Proud as our clients thought of us first whenever one of their colleagues needed support in increasing profits through leverage and retention.
Embarrassed as referrals are a highly leveraged marketing strategy and we didn’t have a referral plan in place.
This strategy only works if:
- You help your clients get the results they hire you for and
- They understand what you do (and don’t do) and can explain it to others (or you do such a great job that they simply say “You must hire your first name“).
And it’s greatly enhanced when you have a program in place which includes asking your best clients for a referral. 😉
P.S.: To follow-up on last week’s blog post, I went with Builder #2.