How do I get referrals for my video business and what actually works?

Introduction

It's one of the easiest ways to grow your video business. You'll see all the self-appointed video gurus on social media talking about this subject like it's a groundbreaking technique. We all know we should be doing it—it's nothing new. But are we sure enough, confident enough to do it right? And what is right?

Most video production professionals know they should be asking for referrals, but do they really have a system in place to do this on repeat? Do they know when the time is right to ask the question? Do they know what question to ask? If you're not sure, let's go back to basics.

What You'll Learn

• The exact question to ask that positions referrals in the strongest possible way
• Why the wording of your referral request matters more than you think
• A simple three-step referral system you can implement immediately
• How to turn client reviews into powerful decision-stage marketing content
• Why understanding where your audience spends time online is crucial for referral success

The Origin of This System

When building my first video business from scratch to being valued at over $20 million over eight years, one of the key contributors to that growth was a very simple system placed right at the end of the sign-off process. 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, that book is about having open conversations with your customers, asking them questions. I built a simple process which Ryan calls the Ask Method that when the producer working with the client noticed the right trigger, they'd ask one very simple question.

The Question That Changes Everything

Here's the question: "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?"

Notice what we didn't ask. 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 of anyone that would benefit from working with us.

This wording taps into the core desire of any potential client—results. Anyone you're pitching to, proposing to, or quoting to only really cares about one thing: results. If they achieve results through the content they're paying you to create, that's only going to have a positive impact on their life. So that's why we shape the question in that way.

This approach also positions the referral in the strongest possible way. We're not pigeonholing ourselves. We don't have to create an exact replica of what we created for the person or company that's referring us. We get an introduction and we open up a positive conversation with that person's core desires at heart.

Why Most Referral Systems Fail

Whenever I start working with a new production client and we're running through their systems, I ask about their referral process. Most of them do have one, but often it's just a follow-up email, or sometimes it's sending a form for their client to fill in where they can enter people's names and potentially email addresses.

This just won'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.

Understanding Your Audience

We've all heard about audience personas. It's vital that you have one, but the audience persona I work through with my clients goes deeper than the usual age, gender, location, and income bracket. For our marketing to be as powerful as possible, we need to understand our own audience intensely.

One of the things we cover is understanding exactly where our perfect audience, our perfect prospects, our perfect clients spend their time online. This is obviously very important when it comes to driving engagement on our marketing, but it's also massively helpful when it comes to referrals.

The Three-Step Referral System

Step 1: Ask in the wrap-up meeting. Once your client confirms they do indeed have someone who would benefit from working with you, you of course need to ask for an introduction to that person in a one-on-one capacity.

Step 2: Request a one-on-one introduction. This personal connection is far more valuable than a name and email address on a form.

Step 3: Ask for a platform review. 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, and owners of video production companies, it's likely that one of those platforms is LinkedIn if you're targeting clients or agencies direct—or maybe it's Instagram, YouTube, or even Vimeo if you're working to support larger production houses on bigger shoots and projects.

Then, once that review has been posted, turn that review into your own post and use it as powerful decision-stage content.

Take Action

You can grab the Audience Persona Generator via the link below this video. It's been built specifically for the video world and will help you understand exactly where your perfect prospects spend their time online.

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 is covered step by step in the free Lead Generation Machine course—one of three free courses that come with a boatload of helpful resources you can access now.

Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:25:00
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 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?

00:00:25:00 - 00:01:11:00
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 that we should be doing it, but do we really have a system in place to do this on repeat? 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 backstory, you'll 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 signoff process. 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, that book is about having open conversations with your customers, asking them questions.

00:01:11:00 - 00:02:14:00
I built a simple process which Ryan calls the ask method that when the producer that was working with the client noticed the right trigger, they'd ask one very simple question. 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 of 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, or quotes to paid and profitable projects. 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's 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. So, that's why we shape that question in that way.

00:02:14:00 - 00:03:17:00
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 pigeonholing ourselves. We don't have to create an exact replica of what we created for that person or company that's referring us. 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. Most of them do have one, but often it's a follow-up email, but sometimes it's just sending a form for their client to fill in where they can enter people's names and potentially email addresses. This just won'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.

00:03:17:00 - 00:04:22:00
So, we know what to say and when to say it. 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 persona that I work through with my clients goes 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. So, below this video, you'll be able to download the audience persona generator 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 someone that would benefit from working with you, you of course need to ask for an introduction to that person in a one-on-one capacity.

00:04:22:00 - 00:05:27:00
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. 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 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. 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 in person or those people in a one-on-one capacity.

00:05:27:00 - 00:06:06:00
And then finally, we ask them to write a quick review on the platform that we have identified as being most used by our target audience. It's as simple as that. Now, as mentioned, you can grab the audience persona generator 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 in my free course, the lead generation machine. One of three free courses that come with a boatload of helpful free resources that you can get access to now by clicking the link below. So, go check it out and have a great day.