You can reach far more prospects if you’re not the only one out there touting your services. That’s why referrals are so great–others are essentially out there marketing for you. But you can also seek out referral partnerships as well.
One of the strategies from last week’s 5 Ways to Get New Clients Now call was to find others who serve the same clients you do. And one of my suggestions was to specifically look for other types of businesses your clients usually need to either get the job done or to get better results (and vice versa).
For example, I would bet a big frustration for nutritionists is getting their clients to follow through on their meal planning and healthy eating. But if the nutritionist has a personal chef she could count on to help her clients reach his goals, her job becomes a lot easier. And the client will be a lot happier because he’ll start seeing better results.
On the flip side, a personal chef whose client is always complaining about not being able to lose weight could benefit from seeing a nutritionist.
So once you’ve identified a type of business to pursue, one of the best ways to contact them is with a postcard mailing.
Reach Out & Touch Them with a Postcard
Postcards are great because they’re fast, easy and automatically stand out in the mailbox. And in this case, you don’t need as much copy to pique their interest.
- Start by appealing to their frustration. For example, the personal chef could say something like, “Are you tired of clients who can’t stick with their meal plans because they hate to or don’t have time to cook?”
- Briefly introduce yourself and then spell out how your services can help them and their clients. (Don’t assume they’ll make that leap themselves–they’re probably in too much of a hurry to do so.)
- Also mention that you frequently need to refer clients to businesses like theirs.
- Then give them a call-to-action with at least one way to contact you. You may even want to send them to a page on your website where you have more information, including talking points for them to use with clients.
More good news…using an online service to send postcards is fairly inexpensive. You can design your card and upload your names and the company will print, add postage and mail them.
If your mailing list is small list of names, the US Postal Service website may be the best way to go. I once sent out a mailing of just 10 postcards through the service they’re affiliated with for less than $10.
Of course, you could also go totally DIY by buying some heavier paper (aka cardstock) from the supply store, printing, cutting and mailing them yourself if need be.
For best results, plan to follow-up the first mailing at least twice. You can use another postcard, a phone call, letter or email (depending on what you have) over the next few weeks.
In short, referral partnerships are a win-win for you, the other business owner and the client–and postcards are an easy and cost-effective way to drum some up.
Want to know what else we covered? Sign-up to get a FREE audio recording of the 5 Ways to Get Clients Now…Without Cutting Your Prices call!
