Every now and then, I read a book that challenges me to redefine my approach to my freelance editorial business. John Jantsch’s The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself did just that this month, and I’m using it to reshape my marketing strategy for 2017.
The Referral Engine focuses on how word-of-mouth referrals, strategic partners, and content marketing are the new drivers of successful businesses.
Here are Jantsch’s seven steps to winning new clients, exceeding their expectations, and creating long-lasting relationships with them. If you’re a freelance editor like me, hopefully this quick summary will leave you with some exciting new ideas on how to market your services.
1. Know
First, Jantsch writes, it’s critical to define your ideal client:
The easiest way to get started with this is to think of your best client of all time. Pull up their picture and put it next to the above answers.
Next, figure out where this client looks for information, and cultivate a presence there. For example, are they active on Facebook? Do they read the local newspaper? Find ways to get in front of this specific person, because it’s likely that your other ideal clients will be hanging out there too.
Goal: Know your ideal customer, and get them to notice you by meeting them where they already are.
2. Like
Once your ideal clients are aware of you, make sure you have plenty of content for them to explore online, including:
Make sure that you write with your ideal client in mind!
Goal: Collect email addresses to add to your list.
3. Trust
Once a client gives you their email address, send them high-value learning tools and content via email to further build trust in your brand. This type of content can include:
Be clear about when and how often you’ll be emailing them so they know what to expect from you and don’t feel bombarded.
Goal: Get the customer to trust your brand enough that they want to try out your services.
4. Try
Instead of going straight from the sales pitch to a signed contract, it’s important to make sure the client is a good match for you. The best way to do this is by:
Goal: Get to know the potential client, and only accept the customers who will be a perfect fit for you.
5. Buy
Success! You landed a great new client. Now it’s time to make sure they’re “onboarded” (marketing lingo at its finest) seamlessly. You can do this by:
Goal: Meet—and exceed—client expectations so they will refer other great customers to you.
6. Repeat
This is the second-to-last step before (hopefully) moving clients to the stage where they will actively refer new business to you. To get to the final stage, you need to ensure that the client has everything they need to be successful. You can do this by:
Goal: Offer additional help to ensure that clients get the most out of your services and will want to refer others.
7. Refer
The end goal is that customers become your “cheerleaders” and actively refer business to you. To further strengthen your client relationships, try:
Goal: Give more valuable information to customers and actively provide ways for them to connect and refer people to you (the biggest mistake you can make is not asking for referrals!).
This article was originally posted on the Copyediting website, November 22, 2016.
