Small Business Marketing Strategy: The 7 steps to get your clients, colleagues, and prospects to become your small business marketing apostles.
Most small business owners agree that they’d love to get more qualified referrals. The key is simple — you and your small business need to become more referable! In my 20-plus years of working with successful business owners, I’ve discovered 7 small business marketing strategies that will virtually guarantee your small business a steady stream of qualified referrals.
Small Business Marketing Strategy #1. Show you care
The saying, “clients don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care” is the cornerstone of an effective small business marketing and referral-building strategy. When clients know you truly care about them, they feel compelled to tell others about you. It’s all about building strong relationships and taking the time to make an extra phone call, send a birthday card, or set up a lunch or coffee date. By going the extra mile and finding out what your clients are passionate about you will have an army of referral sources. If one of your affluent clients loves roses, take her to the annual rose exhibit. If another loves golf, take him to the annual tournament that comes to town. Clients and prospects are starved for affection and attention, and even small gestures can have a dramatic effect on the number of referrals you receive.
Small Business Marketing Strategy 2. Be predictable
A friend of mine who serves on the board of a homeowners’ association is a very qualified service provider and owner of a small business. I mentioned his name one day to a friend of mine, and another woman with us said, “I would never use him.” She proceeded to tell us how unprofessional, disrespectful and mean he had been to people in his subdivision. My friend looked at me and said she wanted someone who was predictable. In less than five minutes, this small business owner lost $10,000 worth of potential business because he wasn’t professional.
An affluent women shared that she was scheduled to meet a designer. She had seen this woman’s work and was excited to use her and had already referred her to other friends. After being stood up on two occasions, she fired the designer. The amount of referrals and income lost was significant not to mention the affect this had on the designer’s small business reputation.
The moral of these stories is to always do the right thing, even when you don’t think anyone is looking… Because chances are, they are looking and telling others.
Small Business Marketing Strategy 3. Get your clients and prospects into the “referability zone”
Part of any small business marketing plan should include a plan to promote referrals. Anyone who’s ever been a serious runner understands what it feels like to be “in the zone.” Similarly, you’ve got to get your clients and colleagues into the referability zone. To do this, you need to make sure they immediately associate you with the key words of your message. If your small business provides marketing and consulting to entrepreneurs for example, you want people to think of you — and refer you — whenever they hear someone say “business opportunity,” “small business marketing,” “small business marketing consulting” or any other word or phrase that describes a small business or entrepreneur who can use your services. To make this happen, you need to send consistent messages — with pictures and words — to your clients, prospects and colleagues on a regular basis. You’ll know this strategy is working when a client calls and tells you something like, “You need to call Jerry because he needs help marketing his business.”
Small Business Marketing Strategy 4. Ask for referrals upfront
Before a colleague of mine accepts new clients, he asks them if they’ll refer others to him if, after working with him for a year, he’s done a good job. He then takes the time to learn exactly what his clients want and need to ensure he’s meeting their expectations. At the end of the year, when his small business consulting clients meet for their annual review and say he’s done a good job, he reminds them of their agreement. Guess what? His referrals have quadrupled!
Small Business Marketing Strategy 5. Under-promise and over-deliver
A very well-connected colleague recently shared that he was using some new software that I was interested in. When I began asking him questions, he said that he felt they’d oversold him on the front end and were not delivering on the back end. I can only imagine how many referrals this software company lost because of this flip-flopped strategy. Your small business marketing strategy must focus on exceeding expectations and do whatever they can to ensure they do not under-deliver.
Small Business Marketing Strategy 6. What can I do for you?
When your business marketing strategy is focused on helping others and do everything you can do for them, you’ll be amazed at the referrals you get in return. Look at all your relationships from the perspective of, “What can I do for you?”
Small Business Marketing Strategy 7. Create reciprocal referral relationships
This has been my most profitable small business marketing and referral strategy. Simply identify five or 10 other small businesses who target the same client, but ideally do not compete. Ask the other small business owners if they want to set up a mutually beneficial partnership by agreeing to cross refer clients. The reason you choose five or ten other small businesses is because some will be better reciprocal partners than others. You want to find the one or two who are as committed to creating a small business marketing strategy that has a consistent flow of qualified referrals.
Becoming referable doesn’t usually happen overnight, but you can make it happen, if you create a process in your small business marketing plan. Start with two of the small business marketing strategies listed above and monitor the results. Keep the ones that work best for you and continue to add strategies until you have more referrals than you can handle!
