Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

When is the Right Time to Run a Referral Campaign?

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When is the Right Time to Run a Referral Campaign_The other day a client asked me to review a letter to clients about some technology glitches their company recently had. One person involved had included the idea for a referral contest to engage the clients.

All I could think was “How do I tell my client that this is a terrible time for this?”

Luckily my client agreed with me. Phew.

Running a referral campaign to increase leads to your business is a great idea. It might be a social media contest or an ongoing practice that you have in your business.

However, if your business is in the midst of having just upset a good chunk of your clients, that’s not the time to ask them to refer business to you. It’s the time to make sure that you go above and beyond in your customer service and acknowledge the hassle. On a case by case basis you can send a specific thank you/apology gift and make sure that all clients are happy to be working with you.

Then, once all glitches are worked out and things are running smoothly you can setup your referral campaign. Referral campaigns can be great. I recommend setting them up in a quieter time in your business. Make sure that you have time to do the follow up and have time for the additional work when it comes in. For some people that’s the summer, for some it’s the beginning of the school year.

Figure out when a quieter time is in your business, then figure out WHAT you want to offer – is it special pricing for new clients? What’s the contest reward for current clients?

By all means run a referral contest if that’s a good lead generation tool. AND make sure that your clients will gush about working with you.

Stop Believing Scarcity is a Thing

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stop believing scarcity is a thingI read and watch a LOT of news. I also keep an eye on Twitter throughout the day. My daily news consumption is either a lot or not enough depending on where you fall in the spectrum. One thing that I really appreciate on Twitter is how generous reporters are with other news outlets. These days there is MORE than enough news to go around. From the White House to #MeToo to immigration, a lot of reporters are covering a lot of details and not everyone can cover everything.

I love when I see Maggie Haberman tweet out an article from Politico or the Washington Post. Or when David Fahrenthold tweets out an article from a Florida paper about drama at Mar-a-Lago. There’s more than enough news to go around and making sure that their followers and readers catch a story that they didn’t have time to write is thoughtful to the bigger picture.

So what does this have to do with small business marketing?

When I work with a client I always want to make sure that they are getting access to the best of what they need. Last week I received a “no thank you” email from a potential client because they wanted someone to help specifically with a service I don’t offer. And that was great, we weren’t the right fit to work together. But they are going to find someone who is. I often tell clients we’ll figure out what You can do, what I can do and what we need to outsource to someone cheaper, smarter and more efficient than either of us to do.

If you continue to feel like you’re losing business to someone else, step back and look at what they are doing differently. Maybe you need to niche down further in your business. Maybe you need to have better follow up systems in place (honestly, this is it for a lot of people). Maybe if you trust your gut you know that wasn’t going to be the right fit client anyway and you’re honestly better off than having to fire them or they fire you in 6 months.

As a small business owner, encourage and support other small business owners. Encourage them and share their knowledge with your network. Talk with them and learn more about their niche and expertise. You may find that something you LOVE doing is their least favorite part of the job, or vice versa.

Stop believing that scarcity is a thing in your business. There is more than enough business to go around.

Local Business Owners: GDPR Applies to You Too

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A couple of weeks ago I was talking to my good friend Jen McFarland at Foster Growth. She’s my go to gal when I have tech questions. So, as GDRP has become THE hot topic for small business owners in the last couple of weeks, I asked Jen to share her recommendations. For most of my clients we’ve talked about this already and made changes as needed. My recommendation – read Jen’s blog post and start to implement the changes with your web developer and with your newsletter signup forms in the coming weeks and months to be ahead of the game.

If you’re like me, your inbox started overflowing last week with one updated privacy policy after another. Each email referenced the need to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

What in the Hell is GDPR?

In 2016, the European Union (EU) passed GDPR to serve as a data protection stand for its citizens. The regulations went into effect May 25, 2018.

The EU was ahead of the curve in viewing email addresses and online surfing habits as personal information in need of being protected. It’s almost as if they saw the whole Facebook Cambridge Analytica thing coming… but I digress.

GDPR is similar to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) used to protect our credit card numbers and any personally identifiable information associated with credit card payments. My advice if you’re a business owner and don’t know about PCI compliance – don’t be like the City of Portland – always use a 3rd party payment processor and never take credit card numbers on paper unless you want to comply.

Like PCI DSS, GDPR seeks to protect EU citizen’s personal information. In this case, all of the data collected, stored and processed via an online transaction.

I’m a US Business. Why Should I Care About GDPR?

You might think it has nothing to do with your business, but the regulations apply to any online service or company that collects, processes, manages or stores information.

The scope of the law isn’t to enforce EU businesses. The regulation intends to protect EU citizens regardless of when or where the data collection happened.

That means you too, local business owner.

Typical cases where your business collects information and may need to update its privacy policy or processes to comply with GDPR:
• Tracking codes installed on your website (e.g., Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, Google Adwords, Bing, Twitter, et al.)
• Newsletter opt-in or a free ebook/gift
• Collecting emails as part of a point-of-sale system (or your online store saves emails to a list)
• Exchanging information with another business or individual that results in receiving, processing, managing or storing personal information from the EU (applies to all information, including information you have from years ago)

As you can tell, these regulations are pretty far-reaching. The good news is, it’s straightforward to comply (unless you fall under #4 in the list above – in which case, consult your attorney and IT department).

Here are a few simple steps to get you started:

Step 1: read a little about GDPR on Wikipedia or other trusted sources like (here or here) and comply with any updates sent by your vendors that collect information on your behalf (e.g., Google Analytics, MailChimp, ActiveCampaign, etc.)

Step 2: create or update your privacy policy (and then follow it). I used Terms Feed to create my updated privacy policy. You can also consult your attorney.

Step 3: make it very clear what people are subscribing for and that they can unsubscribe at any time. No more auto-subscribing, unless you are strictly B2B and correspondence falls under the “legitimate interest” provision.

For example, I added these words to my opt-in forms “Subscribes you to Foster Growth LLC email list. All emails include an unsubscribe link. You may opt-out at any time. See our privacy policy.”

Most point-of-sale systems allow you to add text letting people know that by giving you their email address they are consenting to be added to a list

Step 4: notify everyone on any existing lists and give them the option to unsubscribe

Step 5: add a cookies policy to your website and notification so people can opt-out of cookies (cookies are the tracking codes you use for Google Analytics, Facebook ads, et al.). I used Terms Feed for my cookies policy and CookieBot so people can opt-out of cookies.

Here’s the link to a more comprehensive GDPR checklist.

If you have questions, consult your attorney, web developer, or tech strategist.

Take action now because there are penalties for not complying. Also, it’s likely increased data protection will spread beyond the EU.

About the Author

Jen McFarland is a technology strategist and project turnaround artist. Her company, Foster Growth, helps businesses make better technology decisions. Her superpowers are listening, evaluating problems, and finding direct, simple solutions. Jen’s approach delivers substantial results like 250% increases in web traffic and a 98% reduction in data entry.