Collect Referrals
Finally, a huge opportunity to begin selling more of your products and
services to your target audience lies in generating and collecting social proof
around the value of your products, what you have to offer. Social proof is one
of the most valuable marketing tools that you can use as it shows your
audience that people have already invested in you and that they thoroughly
enjoyed the products or services that they received. We have seen social
proof be leveraged as a valuable tool throughout the ages—starting with
when a business first comes to fruition and word of mouth was used to spread
information about a business and support that business in receiving more
traction from its target audience. We see it nowadays through testimonials
and recommendations, and it has even grown to the point where an entire
industry rose for the very purpose of leveraging social proof: the influencer
industry. In this industry, every person in the industry has become well-
known for establishing a large network of people who trust them and then
marketing products or services to that audience so that they can earn a
commission each time a product or service is sold.
Collecting referrals is a great opportunity to begin establishing social proof
for your personal brand so that people can see how good you are at what you
do. In order to be able to collect referrals, you need to be willing to ask your
customers to actually give you one, which can be uncomfortable at times,
particularly if you are not sure how you can ask for referrals. Typically
speaking, the easiest way to ask for your clients to give you referrals is to
straight out ask them and receive their answer of either yes or no. That being
said, if that feels uncomfortable for you, you can also include a word about
referrals in your follow-up information. For example, if you send out an
automated “Thank You” email for your clients to receive the following
working with you, you can ask for a referral in there. This way, you are
always asking for referrals and have the opportunity to receive referrals from
your audience.
Another great way to increase the quality of your referrals is to recommend
that they are done in a couple of different ways. Your audience could easily
go to your Facebook page or website and leave a review, or they could write
you back in an email with one that you can easily use on your website or
