How to Get Influential People to Promote Your Services

This is a strategy that I have used again and again to build profitable businesses and grow them quickly right from the start. The method is based on the fact that people buy from people they already trust. If you can increase the number of influential people promoting your product or service, then you can increase your sales.

What’s In It For Them?

If you want an influential person to promote your services, clearly something must be in it for them. In my opinion, the benefit for the influential person must fit three criteria:

• Recommending your services must create revenue for them (preferably directly)
• Your product or service must be high quality and a fit for their customers or audience
• By recommending your product or service, they add value to their own business

For example:

A graphic designer who charges a retail price of $600 for a custom website design offers the same service to web developers at $500, allowing them to make $100 referral fee for each template sold.

A PPC ad specialist who charges the end client a $500 set up fee to launch a new campaign offers the service to SEO’s and marketing companies at $400, allowing them to make a $100 referral fee for each new customer they refer.

Assuming the quality is great, why wouldn’t these influential people offer the service that provides them with a financial benefit? In fact, why wouldn’t they go out of their way to promote your product or services?

You could have spent several hundred dollars for a small ad space on the blog or website of one of these influential people in an attempt to attract their target audience, but the personal referral by an influential person is far more effective than an ad.

When setting a retail price for your products or services, it is critical that you pad in a specific amount that will be paid to a reseller. The retail price you set should not dip into the amount you need to be profitable, but should be added on top if what you need to be profitable. Consider this an acquisition cost. If you sell a product or service directly to the consumer, then you pay yourself the acquisition cost for the time and energy you spent obtaining that new customer.

Defining ‘Influential’

An influential person does not need to be a rockstar blogger or business. While it is true that having your product promoted by someone with an enormous reach can be a huge boost to your business, don’t overlook the many other people with a handful of loyal listeners or customers.

For example, my business My College Fundraising relies on college students that want to raise money for their organizations to pitch the fundraising idea into their college administrative offices. These college students aren’t big company owners or A-list bloggers, but they do have access to the people that need to be sold on the program in order to make it fly.

The way that I’ve priced the product allows me to reward the influencer very well in thanks for recommending my service.

In order to define influential, ask yourself who your customer is already listening to. Who do they trust to give them advice on products or services? How can you make recommending your product or service more appealing for these influential people?

November 05 2007 | Marketing | 1 Comment »