You read through Overcoming Your Marketing Roadblocks, and you realized that you need more leads and stronger relationships.
This part of your marketing can be fun. You believe in what you offer, and this is your chance to show others why. It’s time to meet new people and introduce them to what you do.
There are a lot of ways to get new leads for your business. However, acknowledging the fact that around 80% of my clients are marketing their businesses on a tight budget, I want to make sure you have all the tools you need to do relationship marketing.
Why?
Relationship marketing is the kind of marketing you can do with any budget. If you have no money to spend on marketing, you can do this. If you have tons of money to spend on marketing and advertising, you should still do this. Relationship marketing is all about the various ways you can build the community around your brand, nurturing the audience directly, and watch it grow from within. I promise you, even if you are spending money on ads, you will get a better return by cultivating the community you create as a result.
There are three main categories for relationship marketing:
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Referral building – This is where all that inspiring word of mouth comes from
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Partnership marketing – Building alliances with other businesses. No matter what business you have, I recommend this.
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Community building – Being attentive to and communicating with the audiences that follow you, in any forum.
If you start with those three fundamental categories, you will find that any marketing tool you use will allow you to leverage these ideas for maximum impact. This is the kind of marketing you layer onto all the marketing you do to make it work better, faster, and stronger on your behalf.
Like what you’re hearing? I’ve compiled some resources to make it easy for you to get started!
Marketing Tips of the Week (Free)
Cultivating Word-of-Mouth Marketing Ambassadors for Your Small Business – Some truth to bear in mind if you want word of mouth to be a viable marketing strategy for your business. Read Here
Boosting Your Business with Partnership Marketing – An introduction to my favorite kind of marketing, and the only kind of marketing I can recommend that works for most every business, if you get creative with it! Read Here
How to Create Engagement on Social Media – An example of techniques you can use to community build on social media. There are many places you can build community, and this is one of them! Read Here
Digital Guides and Worksheets
Referral Marketing Guide – A fillable workbook that will guide you through the steps of actively growing the word of mouth for your business. You can use this resource to find new interest, leads, referrals, and momentum in your business NOW. This walks you through:
- Listing your contacts
- Sorting your contacts to make it easier for outreach
- Example outreach messages you can use to get the ball rolling (avoid writer’s block altogether!)