Why You Should Promote Others Instead of Yourself: The 12x1 Rule
The new rules of marketing are different because our target markets are getting smarter and less distracted by traditional outbound marketing. The service industry target markets are people who buy from people they like.
I was recently listening to Chris Brogan,a social media expert on Twitters Blog Chat, talk about self-promotion and promoting others and how that benefits you. He mentioned the 12x1 rule which states: for every one time you promote yourself on your blog, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, in person etc. you should promote something/someone else 12 times. This may sound really weird to you but let’s diagnose the benefits of the 12X1 rule:
Networking
We all know networking is huge in the service industry. The majority of business comes from referrals and generally those are the best clients. By promoting other companies products and services in your network even if don’t know them directly you will make new networking opportunities and in turn more possible referrals.
Others Will Do the Same
When you promote other products and services they will do the same out of just sheer courtesy. If you are an electrician at a house doing a job and someone mentions how they are looking for a house cleaning and you know one, recommend on to the homeowner. If you are an electrian and you are connected via twitter or linkedin (even if you do not know the cleaner directly) retweet a small shout out or re-tweet something they tweet. Don’t forget to follow them.
Trusted Advisor
If you are well connected and have a lot of resources at your disposal people will continue to come to your for advice and suggestions on who they should use. Even if they are not ready for your services you are planting seeds for the time they will need you for that big job.
Creating Conversation
By promoting others to your network you can also create a conversation around their products are services. This will allow you and the person you promoted the ability to gain some intelligence from your target audience about what types of products and services work well with what networks.
Expanding Your Reach
The bottom line is networking requires reach to be effective for both parties. By promoting other peoples products and services not only will they do the same to you but other people will start to follow you because you have penetrated into the person you promoted to reach.
The take away is: people do not like spam or being sold to anymore- they want solutions to their problems. Wither it is from you or your competitor they are going to seek out this information and trust them.
About The Author: Steve Teneriello is the Founder of The Service Coach and is a seasoned senior marketing strategist and business development professional experienced in both residential and commercial sales and digital marketing. Throughout his career Steve has worked with over 300 small to medium-sized service business owners helping them develop and implement systematic and formula driven marketing, sales and operations strategies that fuel growth and profitability. Learn More About Steve
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