The Galvanizing Blog: Most Recent Posts
No Small Tomatoes: How to Maximize Social Media Value
If you’re busy running your business, you may not feel that you have time for social media. Believe me, I get it. It’s easy to fritter away hours on Facebook and other social media platforms like Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Instagram without seeing immediate...
How to Create a Winning Referral Program
In a series of prior blog posts, I wrote about the multiple benefits of cultivating business referrals. While there are many ways to structure a company referral program, I’ve found that the most successful programs follow a few simple rules. Four Steps to Creating a...
An Attitude of Gratitude Can Help Build Business Referrals
Have you ever referred business to someone and not heard anything back? It’s one of my pet peeves. More important, it represents a missed opportunity for the person who lets the referral go unacknowledged. Ways to Demonstrate Appreciation To let someone know how much...
How (and When) to Ask for Customer Referrals
Studies consistently show that customers depend on referrals to determine what they buy—and who they buy it from. In a previous blog post, we addressed why business owners need to change their thinking and learn to ask for specific customer referrals. In this...
The Key to Getting Business Referrals is to Ask for Them
Do you offer a great product? Provide outstanding customer service? If you answered “yes” to either question, ask yourself one more: Is your business getting the referrals that it deserves? Referrals through word of mouth are a great way to grow a business....
What Customers Value: How Referral Marketing Can Support the Community and Build Your Business
As a business owner, you know about the undeniable power of word of mouth. It is much easier to turn a qualified referral into a new customer than it is to try to sell your services by marketing to the masses. With 92% of people making purchasing decisions based on...
Regular Check-Ins Build Customer Loyalty and Drive Referrals
Are you an insurance agent, accountant, financial advisor, counselor or other professional services provider? If the answer is yes, you need to be conducting regular check-ins with your clients. For years, I purchased my insurance policy through an agent that...
Monitor Your Word of Mouth to Keep Your Business Growing
Word of mouth is a powerful force. It can help your business grow—or it can keep it from reaching its full potential. As a business owner, you need to understand exactly what word of mouth is doing for you. An organization called TARP conducted research that found for...
Make the Most of Your Social Media Effort (and Stay Sane)
If you run an independent local business you may be questioning the value of social media—especially now that the days of organic (i.e., “free”) likes are over. Even with the support of a much larger parent brand, some independent operators are finding it difficult to...
Be Remarkable: Provide Service That Inspires Customer Referrals
To grow customer referrals, you need to give people a reason to talk about what makes your business unique. In other words, make your business remarkable. Consider a few examples: You won’t find a receptionist in any of Umpqua Bank’s “retail stores” (i.e., bank...
Leverage Word of Mouth Marketing for Your Business
The best way to grow a businesses is through word of mouth marketing. It is nearly impossible to succeed with an advertising-centric approach, and here’s why: You need over-the-top creativity—today’s ads are expected to educate, entertain and enthrall (the “Wow!”...
Five Ways to Master Relationship Marketing
It doesn’t matter what business you are in. If you sell a product or service to real people, i.e. humans with thoughts, opinions and feelings, you are a relationship marketer. If the term “relationship marketing” sounds a little touchy-feely to you, consider the...