Can Referrals Be Enough To Keep Your Business Going?
There is little doubt that the best quality referrals come from your existing clients who are happy with your product or service. But will that be enough to keep your business growing at the pace you’d like? The answer would depend on the industry you’re in. A friend of mine does computer networking and his business is 100% by referral, and that keeps him busy. For my business, while we get many referrals from our clients, if I relied on those alone, it would hardly be enough.
So the next question is - how do you generate other leads? Try to establish relationships with close spheres of influence. As a web design company, we have several “partners” such as SEO firms and IT firms, which do not provide the same service as we do, and often refer their clients to us. After a period of time, we have built mutual trust with these partners, and they have become excellent sources of referrals.
E-mail marketing may work well also. You can send monthly e-newsletters to your clients and lead lists. We always try to give some useful information in our e-newsletters, and not be purely salesy, if at all. This keeps people reading and retains their interest.
We also do a few tradeshows throughout the year, which is another avenue for generating leads. And… don’t neglect the dreaded cold calls! Most of us hate doing them, and put it off, but they are so very effective. Do them yourself - allot some specific time each day - or hire someone else to do them.
Overall, use a variety of marketing methods, and you’ll have good leads coming from every angle.
Amir Watynski owns Watt Media, Inc., which helps businesses promote their services and enhance their image with telephone “on-hold” messages and music, and web design services. Website: http://www.watt-media.com Blog: http://blog.watt-media.com
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February 9th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
I just recently joined a networking group which is one of many types of ways that I get lead. I gave the networking tip last week and my tip was to not put your eggs all in to one basket. Should something happen to that basket you would be out of luck.
February 10th, 2008 at 1:09 am
What you say makes a lot of sense to me. My wife and I have talked about this very often because of our design studio. We don’t have the resources to market our small business with publicity, and just a little publicity here and there would be lost in this ocean called Internet.
We agree that we are at our best by making our clients happy with our service and we are grateful to have a nice collection of referrals, so we have decided to rely on word of mouth to get our business working in full. We are still on the way, but little by little we are building a small group of clients that we like to work with. We have mutual admiration and respect and some of them are just in the same vibe as we do in terms of philosophy of life and business.
We think that making a business work is not just about numbers, it is very important to work with people that you respect and you enjoy working with. It looks like a dream but by creating a network of contacts and by referrals it is possible to attract other birds of the same feather. It’s something really worthwhile at the end of the day.