Your best marketing comes from OTHER people!

Hola amigos,

I’m going to let you in on a little secret 🤫

Ready?

Your best marketing comes from OTHER people.

What I mean is, no matter how great your email, social post, website, or ad is, those forms of marketing always going to be trumped by a word of mouth referral.

As Tim Stoddart puts it:

While anecdotal, this has proven to be true in my life.

I’ve never had to close one deal from a cold email. All of my gigs are from people recommending me to their friends who need marketing help.

The last agency I worked with experienced similar results. Most business was referred to them by previous customers.

So whether you’re a one-man shop like me, or an agency with 50+ employees, word of mouth is going to be the most valuable form of marketing you have.

How to guarantee word of mouth referrals

Listen, nothing in life is a guarantee.

But there are strategies you can implement to make sure your happy clients refer your services to people they know. Here are 5 of those strategies:

1. Ask for referrals

People avoid asking for referrals and reviews because they feel like they’re being too pushy. That’s a bad reason not to try it out, in my opinion.

If you did great work for someone or sold someone a quality product, my guess is most would be happy to refer you to people they know.

I mean, if you got the shingles on your roof replaced and thought they contractor did a great job, would you not refer that contractor to other people? Sure you would!

People love to brag about things they bought or competent people they’ve hired.

Spice up the incentive to refer by giving the referrer something in return, like a $100 gift card somewhere.

2. Do what you say you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it

This catchy phrase was coined by my last boss and I’ve always been a fan.

Doing what you say you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it puts you ahead of 95% of the competition. Assuming that whatever it is that you do is done with competence, people will refer your services to others.

3. Admit mistakes

Everyone makes mistakes.

There’s nothing wrong with making mistakes.

What’s wrong with mistakes is when you try to cover them up or ignore them — don’t do either of those things.

Owning mistakes helps you to stand out and it’s something consumers appreciate. The honesty will put you in the good books of your customers and will lead to increased likelihood of referrals.

4. Be friendly

The dividends paid on friendliness cannot be understated. Smiling, being polite, and caring about the people you serve is the quickest way to a customer’s referral (assuming you do good work).

Being friendly is always a winning strategy.

Why word of mouth marketing works

I’ll let this quote sum it up for you:

The bottom line is that people hate being sold to, but they love to buy.

Referrals are great because the person sharing the recommendation does not gain anything financially — this puts peoples’ guards down and makes them more likely to believe the claim that your product/service is exceptional.

All this is so say that if you needed one action item for this week, whether it’s for your business or for a client, look at incorporating word-of-mouth referrals/reviews into your copy and find ways to increase the number of nice things people are saying about your brand.

Have a great week.

Adios,Andrew

If you’re a business owner who’s looking to boost your email marketing efforts and make more money, I am offering FREE 15-minute consultations.

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