Building a referral business for a pet care provider

Consider putting in a formal referral program in place

Encourage people to refer you and they get X% off the next time. 

Also I have also seen companies successfully use a discount off the quoted price to encourage a referral. 

You could say to them, 

“BTW there is a 30% for you if you can refer me to 3 people" (which means pass on their info, or send an email to that person and CC you with an intro). 

Nowadays referrals need incentives.

 Ask them to share (and make it easy for them)

Ask your clients to share your message on social media. Give them the blurb ready to go, “your story in 1 paragraph”. So all they need to do is copy and post to their facebook. Make it easy for them to do it. If they are happy customers and loved your service they should have no problem doing this. 

 A contest

Or run a competition. Ask your old clients, even your facebook page audience, and tell new clients that they could be in with a chance to win a free $150 groom for their pet. All they need to do is like and share your post and they are in the contest.

Best of luck with it.  

When making contact with a new prospect, which is best: phone or email?

If it's your "ideal customer" you're going after, then I would suggest prime them a little before hand. Email first, see if they are active on social media, blogs, linkedin blogs etc, start to comment on their activity. So eventually when you do call them there is a more recognition rather than fully cold. 

Your first email most likely won't be read, but if it is read I would suggest you tell them you are going to call at a certain time. It takes the surprise element away from the call. 

​If you really wanna be a pro... do your research on that person. Scour their LinkedIn, blogs, facebook, find out what they are interested in. Use that thing to create a personable connection. (be careful not to be a creepster here whatever you eventually do say, make sure you don't sound like a stalker. When emailing, don't talk business in your first line. Be interesting, thoughtful, and relatable. 

7 of the best (and most useful) {and free} resources to share with you

Everyone loves free shit. Here’s some free resources that will help you.

And best of all, they are FREEEEEE.

Icon Finder

https://www.iconfinder.com/free_icons

What is it: Free icons

Icons are great for websites, flyers, any sort marketing material really.

Canva

Canva.com

What is it: Design anything.

From online banners, flyers and brochures, business cards, inforgraphics. Loads of templates to choose from.

 

Mailchimp

mailchimp.com

What is it: Free email marketing soltuion

its too easy

and now they have built in marketing automation, landing pages, website popups

 

Adspresso — facebook ad examples

https://adespresso.com/ads-examples

What is it: a collection of facebook ads for a variety of companies (over 130K)

If you are in the game of creating facebook ads. This resource is great to see what other people in your industry are advertising like.

 

Hootsuite

hootsuite.com

What is it: Social media manager

Manage your social media posting schedule, follow your competitors, follow important industry influencers. Target influencers with your content

 

Hubspot CRM

hubspot.com

What is it: A CRM

A place for you to manage all your contacts. You can move these leads along the pipeline until they become a client. Has in built email marketing function where you can response to prospects.

 

Gav’s Guide

nononsensemarketing.ca/gavsguide

What is it: Free marketing planner tool

Shows you every possible avenue for you to market your business and reach customers

Also provides a simple drop-down selector to build your own plan and start executing.

Here‘s to your FREEEEEEEEDOM