Word of Mouth is without doubt the biggest source of new client referral for any Profession and one they rely heavily.  Is it working for you or do you need another strategy?

According to FTAdvisor 37% of Financial Advisors rely on referrals from other professionals, generally lawyers and accountants, and this trend is set to grow along with the huge percentage of referrals that are generated from your current clients. 

Referrals are perhaps a double edged sword, vitally important but as a marketeer it is perhaps also worth asking how can you claim your power back??

As a starter you should definitely be giving equal investment to your own organic lead generation. The problems you solve are based on practical requirements but with huge emotional inspirational drives, a content marketeer’s heaven!

With a huge general audience out there with BIG emotional reasons to buy what you sell a great inbound marketing strategy fulfils your ideal self made referral platform.  

The hierarchy of needs of what is required for Word of Mouth Recommendations as detailed by Wealth Management are all easily applicable to Word of Mouse recommediations too:

1                    Exceed Professional Expectations – lets take that as a given, this is not the purpose of todays article.

2                    Emotionally Connect – INTENTION is everything in todays marketing world – to show you care is the holy grail. This plays right into the hands of most professional industries from IFAs to legal, medical.  The problems you solve based on all the emotional reasons your customers buy from you gives you huge traction on your platforms in the long term within your core markets. Despite cynics saying otherwise any professional who is operating on BS caring for profit before people will be found out. Nothing will create a tsunami of unfollows and clients shutting the door on your content into their lives than inauthenticity and BS merchants. On the flipside those professionals who can sow the seeds of empathy, compassion, coupled with product knowledge, authority and leadership have a huge harvest to reap

3                    Activate Conversations – with such advanced technical automation, clients are totally in control of what content they consume with opt out and ins along the way there is the opportunity to create whatever conversation your client or potential client wants to be in, not to mention the compliance issues that automation clears up.  A REBO (Research Online Buy Offline) shared that 50-82% of smartphone users consult their phone pre-purchase, this is based on a huge set of buying behaviour ranging from someone asking on facebook for their friends/family’s recommendation to researching generic products/companies/brands. Interestingly I could find no metrics for the professional world but suffice to say you are selling to human beings first so why would they not operate in the same way when looking to buy.

4                    Refine the narrative – you cannot tell your advocates what to recommend or what to say and likewise on line but you can be in control of all the conversational seeds you sow and as you get to know your market better you can keep refining your signposting and content for when they do come and do their research. How amazing would it be to see a point when the discovery chat and all the warm up is exchanged for warm leads ready for a chat and to buy. 

It sounds simple, the framework is but the work required to set it up isn’t. Once it is done it is done and with amazing analytics you can tweak and tweak to your hearts content. Couple this content with awesome focussed targeting tools that that are available on all social platforms the fun bit is easy!!  Define your target market, just one for now but they are all waiting to hear from you and get building amazing relationships and your own lead generating referral system.

I am Laura Greenwood of Your Lead Generation. Guiding business owners to enjoy the benefits of a lead generating strategy that works for you in your sleep creating a more sophisticated business working smarter for you. Call me on 07703 520490 or email laura@yourleadgeneration.co.uk to see if I am the help you need!