Cherche La Trust: Even in 2010, Referrals Beat Digital Marketing Strategies
A new study published by RainToday observes that while web-based lead generation and e-business capture mechanisms continue to make gains as BD tools for professional service providers, the average accounting, law, or financial planning firm still finds “golf course networking” to be its most effective expenditure.
Here we are in an era that’s spawned every conceivable communication technology breakthrough, and yet no one has managed to replace the “human referral.”
Is it possible that we’re not droids after all? Is it possible that we make irrational calculations? That we trust a data-driven, sophisticated Web site less than the unsubstantiated opinions of our 7-year-old’s beer-bellied, chain smoking soccer coach?
Sure, you might take your babysitter’s recommendation for a new non-dairy creamer. But complex professional services too?
You betcha.
And so it’s always been our goal to merge technology with the human factor—an effort that’s led to the recent social media revolution.
Balance is the key element. And that’s precisely why the most effective social media vehicles are technologically unobtrusive—mere conduits for distinctly human expressions.
So pay more attention to the man behind the curtain. Particularly if he’s a chain smoker.
