Effective marketing doesn’t have to be expensive—
especially if you know how to get others to do it for you.
If you know where and how to look, you’ll find that powerful
marketing assistance is all around you.
Getting others to do your marketing for you has two benefits. First, it saves money. Second, it’s often more credible, because it’s coming from a “disinterested” third party.
The World’s Most Underutilized Sales Force
Can you guess what is the most underutilized sales force in the world? They’re ideally suited to sell to others, because they’re just like the people they’re trying to sell to. Not only that, but they believe so strongly in the product, they’re the biggest users of it. Of course, it’s your own customers.
What is the secret to getting them to sell your product or service for you? Basically, all you have to do is ask them. The old request to “tell your friends about us” is far more powerful than it seems. People do recommend products when they’re asked, especially if they’re satisfied with the product or service.
It’s another great reason to provide superlative quality and service to your customers. The psychological reasons people will readily help you sell your product or service to others are clearly enumerated by Richard Ott in his book Creating Demand:
- Status — By endorsing a particular product or service, some of the status of that product or service rubs off on the endorser. In addition, the endorser appears knowledgeable, experienced, and becomes someone whose opinions count. (You can also give it a competitive spin with a leaderboard or tiered rewards for top referrers.)
- Shared Experiences — It’s human nature to want to share our pleasurable experiences with others.
- Reinforcement — If we can make others see value in and purchase products or services we have purchased, it reinforces the correctness of our decision to buy.
You should also set up the systems and processes to reward those who refer others to you. Health clubs often use this “member-get-a-member” technique by rewarding their members for referrals with additional months of free membership or chances to win prizes, such as luxury vacations. Build this kind of motivation into your communications with your customers. Encourage them to tell others about you, and tell them what they’ll get for doing so.
In today’s digital age, you can amplify this strategy with automation and AI technology on such social media platforms as Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram. Ask for reviews and testimonials. Encourage customers to share their experiences online using branded hashtags or by tagging your business. For a little extra motivation, consider discounts or exclusive perks.
If you want to more thoroughly track the ROI of your referral or loyalty program, consider using customer relationship management (CRM) tools like HubSpot and Salesforce to automate referral tracking and reward distribution. And, of course, today AI can turbocharge your referral strategy by identifying your best and most influential customers. Automated chatbots can even request referrals for you at the right time.
Finally, incorporating tools like Mention and Brandwatch to monitor your social media can reveal who is talking up your company or products and what they are saying.
Whatever strategy and channels you use, make sure to use a promo code or coupon, so you can track the actual numbers of leads and customers you brought in from referrals and collaborations and then calculate the return on your campaign.
Who Is Already Marketing to Your Prospects?
List all the people, businesses, and organizations that interact with your ideal customers. For example:
- Non-competitive businesses similar to yours
- Competitive business similar to yours (yup, even them)
- Businesses not similar to yours but that sell to the same people
- Complementary businesses (such as bakeries selling pastries to coffee shops or a homecooked meal delivery service teaming up with daycares, hospitals, physical therapists, and anywhere else people might be seeking meal-time help)
- Vendors
- Sales reps
- Trade associations
- Non-profit groups
- Fraternal organizations
Why should another business want to sell for you or do an endorsed promotion for you? Some people will be willing to do it just to do you a favor. Others might see a mutually beneficial promotional opportunity for themselves, because there’s a good chance that if it’s good for you, it could be good for them as well. Sweeten the deal by offering to pay them a flat fee for each customer or lead generated. You can also offer to reciprocate by doing a promotion for them or something else they would appreciate.
Find out whom your customers and prospects associate with and respect and work out a deal with them to directly offer your products or services to their members. (Many trade organizations and non-profit groups may even already have sponsorships in place which you can take advantage of.) When teaming up with vendors, other businesses, and non-profit groups, ask yourself, “How can we help each other market our products or make money more effectively by working together?”
Perhaps you can promote your product to their customers, or you offer to do the work of sending a promotion in their name on your own behalf. Consider how much more powerful this “endorsed” sales message would be than if it came from you.
You aren’t bragging about yourself; someone else is doing it for you. And that someone who is saying all these wonderful things about you is someone known and trusted by the people they’re saying it to. (One of the biggest users of endorsed promotions is insurance companies, which are constantly offering their products through various organizations.)
The possibilities are virtually unlimited. If you’re a lawyer, you can have an accountant promote you to their clients and prospects. If you sell expensive cars, you can have someone who sells expensive jewelry send letters, emails or social media messages to their clients and prospects on your behalf. Your products or services don’t have to be related, but obviously, you and your endorser should both be selling to similar target markets. Here’s what some copy from a typical endorsed letter or email might sound like:
“As a loyal customer of Kensington Jewelers, we appreciate your patronage. You obviously know the importance of fine quality.
That’s why I thought you might like to know about a car dealership I discovered a few weeks ago.
You know, automobiles are a lot like the precious gems we sell—both need to be carefully polished. But seriously, I can tell you from my personal experience that they treat their fine automobiles as carefully as we treat our jewelry. And they treat their customers with the same high level of service as we strive to maintain here at Kensington Jewelers.
That’s why I highly recommend that you consider them for your next automotive purchase.” …and so on.
You should also consider partnerships with high-credibility digital influencers with strong followings among your target audience and who align with your values.
Help Yourself by Helping Others
One powerful opportunity for getting others to help you with your marketing is through non-profit groups, if you work with groups aligned not only with your target audience but with your values. Aligning yourself with a group with a mission you can get behind can add a level of authenticity to your marketing, as well as to your brand as a whole.
For one thing, non-profit groups are always seeking ways to raise more funds. For another, many groups, especially smaller local and regional ones, struggle to raise the funds and awareness necessary to carry out their mission effectively.
Here are some ways to tap into the power of non-profit groups:
- Offer to pay them for every sale or lead they bring you. For example, if you’re a restaurant and you usually get 20 customers on Wednesday night, offer to pay a local non-profit $5 for every customer over 20 they bring in by getting word to their members any way they see fit.
- Have them produce and send a letter or email promotion for you to their members, or ask them to allow you to do the mailing yourself. You gain the implied endorsement of the group.
- Give them coupons (physical or digital), promo codes, discount certificates, or app-based rewards to distribute as part of their fund-raising drive (which will then also help you to track the effectiveness of the collaboration). They can sell them or use them as incentives to get people to contribute. “Donation Dollars” are physical or digital certificates that look somewhat like money, are good for something free or a certain amount off a purchase, and tie into the non-profit group or event for which they’re being used.
- You can also do deals regionally or nationally with larger non-profits—motivating them to promote you or letting you promote to their members directly.
You can also collaborate with non-profits through digital platforms such as GoFundMe. For example, you can specify that part of the money raised will go to a non-profit—creating good will for you and support for a good cause.
One caveat: when working with non-profit groups, make sure you’re following their guidelines and policies for legal and ethical partnerships. Because of regulatory concerns and the need for transparency, non-profit groups are sometimes limited in what they can say and how they endorse businesses and services.
Turn Competitors into Partners
Your competitors may very well already have done your marketing for you. By that, I mean they may well have leads they just haven’t been able to convert to sales but that you might be able to. Perhaps your product or service is less expensive, or is more expensive (with more bells and whistles), or is larger or smaller or different in some way that might appeal to prospects they’ve been unable to close. Perhaps you’re simply better at closing certain types of prospects.
So why not offer to buy those leads from one or more of your competitors? Why not offer to sell or trade them leads you’ve been unable to convert? It sounds crazy, but it’s a great way to get new prospects very inexpensively and to turn your unconvertible prospects into cash.
Of course, the ultimate way to take advantage of the marketing your competitors have already done is to buy them out. If a business is struggling financially, you may be able to put together some excellent deals—excellent for you because you can purchase customers for a fraction of the cost it would normally take to obtain them, and excellent for the seller because he gets money from you instead of losing it by staying in business.
There are two ways to do this. The first is an outright buyout of the business. The second is to offer the owner a percentage of the sales or profits you make from his or her customers for as long as they keep doing business with you. The second way is a no-lose proposition for you and a steady stream of income for the seller.
Be sure to consider how to leverage technology to maximize impact. For example, co-host a webinar or an email campaign targeting your shared audience.
The Opportunity for Opportunity
This chapter could easily fill an entire book. Because once you become sensitive to the opportunities all around you, the possibilities to extend your marketing reach for little or no cost are endless.
Don’t get overwhelmed, however. You can’t do everything. Sort out the opportunities that have maximum profit potential. Then focus your energies on the most promising one.
NOTE: As always, ensure that all customer data complies with privacy laws such as GDPR and CCPA.
Probe Questions
- How can I turn my customers into my best sales force?
- How can I utilize companies, groups, and organizations who already work regularly with my target markets?
- How can I utilize my competition by buying the leads they haven’t been able to close, selling them the ones I haven’t been able to close, or simply buying the business or their customers outright?
Million Dollar Resources
Contagious: How to Build Word of Mouth in the Digital Age, Jonah Berger, Simon & Schuster
The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself, John Jantsch, Portfolio Penguin, New York
Talk Triggers: The Complete Guide to Creating Customers with Word of Mouth, Jay Baer and Daniel Lemin, Portfolio Penguin
And two relevant timeless classics:
Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got: 21 Ways You Can Out-think, Out-Perform, and Out-Earn the Competition, Jay Abraham, Truman Talley Books, St. Martin’s Griffin, New York
The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies, Chet Holmes, Portfolio, New York (Recently revised and updated)
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