How do I get referrals for my video business and what actually works?
Feb 14, 2023
Introduction
It's one of the easiest ways to grow your video business.
You'll see all the self-appointed video gurus on social talking about this subject like it's a groundbreaking technique.
We all know we should be doing it. It’s is nothing new. But are we sure enough, confident enough, to do it right? And what is right?
Well, in today's Q&A, we're going to find out. How do I get referrals for my video business?
Links
- Watch: The Buyer's Journey: The most important marketing concept for video production professionals to understand >>>
- Purchase: The Lead Generation Machine for just $7 >>>
Transcript
00:00:00:01 - 00:00:26:07
It's one of the easiest ways to grow your video business. You'll see all the self-appointed video gurus on social talking about this subject like it's a groundbreaking technique. We all know we should be doing it. It’s is nothing new. But are we sure enough, confident enough, to do it right? And what is right? Well, in today's Q&A, we're going to find out. How do I get referrals for my video business?
00:00:26:07 - 00:00:44:03
So, I'm not going to sugarcoat this. I'm not going to give it some wacky marketing name like ‘The Avalanche’, or ‘The Tidal Wave’. It's a referral. Yes, it's powerful. But it's been around for years - not just in our industry. We all know we should be doing it. But do we really have a system in place to do this on repeat?
00:00:44:09 - 00:01:10:19
Do we know when the time is right to ask the question? Do we know what question to ask? Not sure? Well, let's go back to basics. If you know my back story, you know about my first video business. I started from scratch and, over the course of eight years, grew it to being valued at over $20 million. One of the key contributors to that growth was this very simple system that was placed right at the end of the project sign off process.
00:01:11:07 - 00:01:35:01
Once one of our producers had completed a project with a client, they’d run a wrap up meeting. I remember reading a book called Ask by Ryan Levesque. As you can probably guess, the book is about having open conversations with your customers, asking them questions. I built a simple process, which Ryan called ‘The Ask Method’ that - when the producer that was working with the client noticed the right trigger - they'd ask one very simple question.
00:01:35:01 - 00:02:03:11
“I hope you don't mind me asking, but do you know of anyone else within your network that would benefit from working with us?” We didn't ask if they knew anyone that needed video. We didn't ask if they could recommend us to anyone. We asked if they knew anyone that would benefit from working with us. I talk about this in depth within my book Conversion 90, which is all about sales and the steps that you need to take to convert over 90% of your pitches, proposals and quotes to paid and profitable projects.
00:02:03:16 - 00:02:24:15
But within that book, we take steps to understand our audience - our perfect prospects - intensely. Anyone that you are pitching to, proposing to, quoting to, only really cares about one thing, and that is results. If they achieve results through the content that they are paying you to create, well, that's only going to have a positive impact on their life.
00:02:24:21 - 00:02:47:09
So that's why we shaped that question in that way. We asked if they knew of anyone that would benefit from working with us. That taps into the core desire of any potential client, but it also positions the referral in the strongest possible way. We're not pidgeon-holing ourselves. We don't have to create an exact replica of what we created for the person or company that's referring us.
00:02:47:13 - 00:03:13:14
We get an introduction and we open up a positive conversation with that person's core desires at heart. As you may be aware, today I consult with many of the world's leading brands when it comes to their video marketing strategies. But I also consult, teach and train video production professionals when it comes to marketing, sales and retention strategies. Whenever I start working with a new production client and we're running through their systems, I ask about their referral process.
00:03:14:00 - 00:03:36:22
Most of them do indeed have one, but often it's a follow up email and sometimes it's just sending a form for the client to fill in, where they can enter people's names and potentially email addresses. This just doesn't work. We need to make the client feel like they want to refer us and we need to make that referral as strong as possible. So, we know what to say and when to say it.
00:03:36:23 - 00:04:00:06
What next? Well, this next part is key. Now, we've all heard about audience personas. It's vital that you have one, but the audience personas that I work through with my clients go deeper than the usual age, gender, location, income bracket, and so on. Those details are important, but for our marketing to be as powerful as possible, we need to understand our own audience intensely.
00:04:00:15 - 00:04:37:15
Below this video, you'll be able to download the audience persona worksheet that I use with my production companies, and it's been built specifically for the video world. But within that document, one of the things that we cover is understanding exactly where our perfect audience, our perfect prospects, our perfect clients, spend their time online. This is obviously very important to understand when it comes to driving engagement on our marketing, but it's also massively helpful when it comes to referrals because once our client has told us that they do indeed have a few people that would benefit from working with you, you of course need to ask for the introduction to that person in a one on
00:04:37:15 - 00:05:05:04
one capacity, but you also need to ask whether they would feel comfortable leaving a quick review on the platform that your target audience spends most of their time on. For video creators, videographers, freelancers, owners of video production companies, it's likely that one of those platforms is LinkedIn, if we're targeting clients or agencies direct. Or maybe it's Instagram, YouTube, or even Vimeo, if we're working to support larger production houses on bigger shoots and projects.
00:05:05:13 - 00:05:26:14
So, and you've probably already put two and two together here, we ask them if they would feel comfortable writing a quick review on that platform. Then once that review has been posted, we turn that review into our own post and we use that as powerful Decision Stage content. Not sure what Decision Stage content is? I've got a video on The Buyer's Journey that will help you out.
00:05:26:15 - 00:05:48:24
So, in summary, we first of all ask in our post-production wrap up meeting. And remember, we're asking if they know of anyone that would benefit from working with us. We secondly, ask for an introduction to that person or those people in a one on one capacity. And then finally, we ask them to write a quick review on the platform that we have identified as being most used by our own target audience.
00:05:48:24 - 00:06:14:00
It's as simple as that. Now, as mentioned, you can grab the audience persona worksheet that we use via the link below, but this is just one part of a powerful marketing process that has helped over 3,000 video production professionals worldwide create a constant stream of opportunities (that are perfect for them) into their video business. That process, or strategy, or framework, is covered and taught step by step
00:06:14:04 - 00:06:32:10
in my book, The Lead Generation Machine, which you can get for just $7 using the link below. So, I hope that's been helpful. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments below. And remember, along with the worksheet that you can download for free, and The Lead Generation Machine that you can get for just $7,
00:06:32:14 - 00:06:51:06
you can also subscribe to my weekly emails, where I send out weekly tips, training, step by steps, and deep dives, focusing solely on marketing, sales and retention strategies for video production professionals such as yourself. And the link to sign up to that is below this video too. Thanks for being here and have a great day!
