Getting a referral to your business is one of the best things that can happen. When someone is directed by a friend to use your services, that’s a fantastic way to start. As I shared last week, your job at that point is to simply not blow the opportunity.
Your data may get very confused with this kind of lead, though. It’s like I shared last year about Jason Blumer and last touch attribution. To recap that story:
- We heard him speak at a conference.
- We subscribed to his blog.
- We subscribed to his podcast.
- We connected with him on LinkedIn (where he shares great stuff).
- We Googled his company so we could reach out to become a client of his.
Notice the last item on that list; we searched for him on Google so we could reach out. We already knew who he was, and we knew we wanted to work with him, and we merely used Google as a way to find his stie and reach out. As a result, his analytics will clearly show that Google sent us to him; this is technically true, but from a business perspective it’s completely misleading.
Referrals are awesome, but just realize that they may manifest as a lead from Google in your systems and that’s ok. Simply be aware of that and pay close attention to how people are really finding you before they go to Google to close the loop.
