In our last blog we got started on the topic of the new book I’ve written with referral marketing expert Paula Hope. The new book looks at how to combine referral marketing with content marketing in order to optimize your marketing for massive success. This concept is what Personal Marketing is all about. The topic really turns around the issue of your Relationships. Whether you are creating online or off-line relationships, I can tell you that the kind of relationships that result in business do not happen overnight. When you combine a trusting relationship with a deep knowledge of your business, add in your colleague’s confidence in you, plus a knowledge of referral marketing, you will receive very well-qualified, easily closable, beautiful referrals.

Here’s Paula’s referral marketing formula:

You + Trust + Deep Knowledge of Your Business + Confidence + Referral Marketing Knowledge = Well-Qualified, Easily Closeable Referrals

Your role in all this is to develop those deep business relationships of trust and confidence in you. Paula notes that you can receive exponential results from the kind of personal investment that keeps referral marketing relationships rolling, specifically:

1. The closing rate (the percentage of referred prospects which result in a closed deal) is a whopping 34%!
2. Your confidence is much higher when you approach a referred prospect.
3. Price is less of an issue with a referred prospect.
4. Adoption of additional services during the first year of business is greater.
5. The Creation of a referral culture within the new relationship pays dividends.

So, reasons for investing in referral marketing abound!

One last key point about integrating referral marketing into your world: You are always the best sales person for your company, if you understand and embrace the power of personal marketing.

As we noted earlier, Personal Marketing is a combination of new business development methods used by professional service providers to create and leverage a dedicated network that results in ongoing and high-quality referrals for easily-closed business. These successful outcomes are generated through informed and targeted personal activities (referral marketing) and a strategic and active online presence providing ongoing value (content/online marketing).

Referral Marketing + Online Marketing = Personal Marketing

One of the key reasons so many businesses fail is that business owners don’t always fully appreciate the task at hand. The book Paula and I have written, Your Personal Marketing Playbook, aims to make sure that our readers are well prepared for the process of launching and growing their own business or practice. It provides plenty of insights and tools from the two most widely-chosen, and effective, methods of new business or client development, and we like to think of it as a friendly, supportive companion along the path to more business. Keep tuned for updates on when our book will be in print!

I’ll look more deeply at this topic in my next blog. In the meantime, if you want to get a jump on this information, I invite you to contact me today to discuss how personal marketing can be leveraged to your business advantage.