I was talking with a small agency owner recently who’s really hungry to take their business to the next level.
They, like most people, get most of their business from referrals.
But when I asked them about their last few projects, none of them were their ideal project or customer.
Having to “settle” for what work you can get is not great, but it’s an order of magnitude worse when those clients you’re settling for are sending you a bunch of their friends who are just like them.
Every year in our survey, referrals come out on top as the most common way agencies pick up new work. That makes a lot of sense — it’s not like we’re selling candy bars at the checkout stand. People forking over thousands of dollars are much more apt to do it if their friend told them “Yeah, they do great work”.
But there’s a difference between getting referrals and being given referrals.
One’s strategic, and the other is a convenient excuse to not have to spend time marketing your business.
Being given referrals is something that happens to you. It’s when a new name lands in your inbox out of the blue saying they know so-and-so. It’s being tagged on a Facebook post when a stranger asks if anyone knows a web designer. It’s unpredictable, unreliable, and entirely out of your control.
Getting referrals puts you in control. It’s intentionally building a relationship with photographers, copywriters, or marketers that work with your ideal client and teaming up to help send each other work. It’s creating a referral program. Its a system where referrals don’t happen by chance — they’re engineered to deliver consistent results.
Referrals work. But are you planting the seeds… or just crossing your fingers the next sprout isn’t another weed?
