Referrals, Marketing, and more…..Imagine this story for a minute

In my last post I talked about why referrals are so powerful. That there is an endorsement from, generally, someone the person respects. But generally the reason why referrals are so powerful is because the person who is referred was looking for your product or service in the first place.

So let’s use this analogy.

You’re walking down the street minding your own business. And suddenly, out of nowhere, someone comes up to you and says, “You need to see me. I can help you. I can help you have a happier life. I can help you lose weight, sleep better, and have more confidence.”

Now what would you do? Would you run away from this person? Would you stop and listen?

And let me also ask this. Who is this person? Why is he approaching you?

Well, let me fill you in.

In this example the person is a psychologist. He is trying to bring you into counseling.

Were you asking to be talked to? No. Were you looking for counseling services? No.

He just saw you and went, “Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me!”

So what is my point. Well, here it is. If you are NOT looking for something, then it is incredibly hard to sell that person your product or service. Yet small business owners are constantly trying to do this. They blast their message out to tons of people who are not interested.

This is exactly like cold-calling. Now, am I saying you should NOT do cold-calling. No, not necessarily. What I am saying, however, is that you need to have a strategy in place to figure out what you are doing ahead of time.

Do doctors, attorney’s, psychologists, all come up and start saying, YOU NEED me. Actually, the answer is YES and NO.

Here’s how some of them do it. It is called advertising. They interrupt you, but instead of themselves doing it personally, they do it via media.

Now the #1 goal in proper marketing is to market to…get this…the right market! The right group of people. Yes most people don’t do this and narrow it down to be precise. Why not? Lazy, uneducated and more.

And this is by far the most important part. Because you can have the greatest marketing message in the world, but few 12 year olds can afford buy a Mercedes. Do you see what I am saying? The who you are going to is the #1 priority. This is exactly why most people get referrals. Someone is saying, “Boy I wish I had this, or do you know of anybody” and someone chimes in recommending…you!

So you gotta place and put your advertising in the correct place.

This is reason #1 why a lot of marketing fails. Because it is too wide, too scattered, and not directed.

The reason you want to narrow down your focus is because you can create language that will attract those people, and you can target these people precisely. You can be “direct” in your marketing. It’s too expensive to go after a ton of people. What you have to do is go small, small, small and focus.

People in business say “niche” all the time. I don’t think most people say why you need to niche.
I think these people who say this think (and it is partly true) that if you niche people look at you as an expert in their field. And like I said that is somewhat true. But the real reason you niche is so you can craft your marketing message and target it appropriately.