Got a referral from a stranger

Two pretty exciting things happened this week that makes me feel like PodReacher has turned a new corner with growth:

1. We were referred to a new client by a person I've never spoken with and who we've never even done business with.
2. An article (https://podreacher.com/16-ways-to-promote-your-podcast/) I created last week was used as a tutorial on a prestigious academic website (hello social proof)!

Let me break those down in case it can be helpful to anyone else.

On our contact form, we have an open-ended field asking the prospect how they heard about us. When I received a new message this week from a prospect asking for an estimate, he said he heard about us from a person I've never spoken to or done business with. We have been getting more referrals, but it's always from people I know or have spoken to (I've done a good amount of outreach to podcast and SEO consultants who have started referring our services).

I've been focusing on two client avatars for growing the business, and this prospect exactly matches one of them. When we got on the phone, I asked him more about what led him to our services. He's part of one of those Forbes Councils and asked for a recommendation for how he can repurpose his episodes into articles in their private Facebook group. Someone in that group had heard about us and mentioned us on that thread. I've put a little more time into Facebook over the last three months. No ad spend or anything like that - just interacting in relevant groups. I' feeling pretty good about that minimal investment so far!

Last week, I hit publish on a list article, 16 Ways to Promote Your Podcast. I put a lot of thought into it and tried to really drill down on resources and tools to differentiate the content. Once published, I started promoting it and sent it to some podcasting newsletters that I thought it would be relevant for (side note: newsletters are such a GREAT way to distribute content).

It was linked in Podnews and it turns out the director of the Advanced Media Institute at UC Berkeley reads that newsletter. She emailed me to ask if she could use it as a tutorial on their website. I did a quick video on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6559840539930345474/) about this too, and also added their logo to PodReacher's about page.

I don't think I'm doing anything super unique, but that might be the point. By taking action on tried and true methods day after day, you will see results!