Just Go Write Blog

I had an absolutely fantastic time presenting at yesterday’s seminar for home-based businesses, run by St George and Sutherland Shire BEC. So many wonderful entrepreneurs, and all keen to ramp up sales with PR and testimonial marketing. It’s great to be out meeting so many passionate, positive business owners.

Growing your referral sources
Referrals or word-of-mouth recommendations are priceless. Anyone who reads this blog regularly will know how passionate I am about testimonial marketing. But how do you accelerate the referrals you receive?

Referral sources are the lifeblood of your business. Whether they are current clients or colleagues in complementary businesses, you must make sure you are initiating P.R. activities to constantly remind those sources about you – so they can refer more prospects to you!

Before you explore your referral opportunities, you absolutely need to know your target market. After all, if you can’t describe your target market, how can you educate your referral sources about them? The more descriptive you can be here, the better. For example, don’t just think “women”. Think “women ages 20-35 who like sports and fitness”.

Then it’s time to look for your referral sources. Do some online research regarding your target market. What newsletters, magazines, blogs and e-zines do they read? What websites are they visiting? What non-competitive businesses exist that also target your market?
Come up with a list of your top five websites, e-zines, magazines and non-competitive businesses that are already reaching your ideal client or customer.
Contact these websites and ezines and see if they will:
- Review your book, products, services, or ezine for their readers. If so, send them a review copy and follow up a week or two later. Request that when they run the review they mention your e-zine and direct people to your website to sign up.
- Accept guest articles. If so, then submit one of your best, with a short bio that links people back to your website to sign up for your ezine.
- Swap ads or recommendations for each other’s websites, products, or services. If you have an e-zine that reaches the same target market they want to reach, this is a great win-win.
- Approach the non-competitive businesses. See if they will link to your website. Perhaps they will co-find some joint marketing, such as a direct mail, live or teleseminar where you both promote your products and services and harness the opportunity to grow your database.

I’m a PR freak and a marketer. I know that fresh new content on my blogs improves SEO. But give me the choice between hanging out with my 4 yo, 2 yo and better half or plugging away at my blog, then the kids (all three of ‘em ;-)) win every time. My mentor advises me that persistence is not necessarily getting things done quickly (blame the former radio journo in me who thrived on half hourly deadlines) but simply getting them done. Whilst I still get plenty of other writing gigs done quickly, my poor neglected blog often suffers. Ditto Twitter. Although Twitter - @PhilippaLowe - gets way more attention than my Facebook account. So easy. So few words. So loving Hugh Jackman’s tweets.

As a wrote earlier in my weekly ezine (see I do write regularly - sign up here), internet marketing is all about keeping it real. Human. I don’t buy from a computer screen, I buy from the person, or the brand, with personality I respect. Whenever I sit down to write our ezine or blog, I always imagine I’m telling my closest friend some news that I’m really excited about. Remembering there are real people at the other end, not just faceless inboxes. A few tips to keeping it real:

1) Use personal language. Try to talk to individuals, not a mass market. If you’ve had feedback, share it - a sincere relationship encourages dialogue.

3) Don’t be afraid to exhibit personality. Whether it’s an individual or a brand, make sure it’s consistent. I like to hope that when readers of our ezine or blog hear me at a speaking engagement, they already ‘know’ what I’m going to sound like because I strive for an authentic voice when I write.

3) Encourage user-generated content. Offer open communication channels, run surveys, ask for feedback. Include success stories. Allow your customers to do your sales and marketing. Check out my Boost Business With Testimonials Kit (AUS$34.99) for ideas.

Overall, if I’m a bit behind in my blog, or forgot to tweet about our newest clients my world doesn’t fall over.  People buy from people - whether it’s online, over the phone or over the internet. Make your communications personal, transparent, accessible and authentic. Be human!