Getting Referrals and Recommendations
Getting Referrals and Recommendations
The trivia business is a competitive industry in which to succeed. Not only do you need great questions, a good format, unique appeal and the personality to ensure the audience are interested in you throughout, but you also need to be business savvy and know how to improve, increase and raise your workload. One of the joys of being a trivia host is that you will find yourself moving around from place to place. Trivia nights come and trivia nights go and what you are doing this month may be entirely different to next month. This means you need to be flexible and adaptable but also you need to build up a strong word of mouth. Yes, it is true that you need great advertising materials and a good social media presence to make this aspect of your business work but one of the key ways in which you are going to succeed as a Trivia host is word of mouth which means getting referrals and recommendations.
Put yourself in this situation: A salesman is telling you how great and wonderful their product and service is. Ok, so that carries a little weight in your mind. Now, imagine a friend tells you how great the product and service same salesman has. Now that carries MUCH weight in your mind. Therefore, the more people are talking about you the more chance you have in getting more bookings. Getting referrals and recommendations is obviously vital to the success of your business and here are a few key tips.
Firstly let us look at your customers. You deliver your quiz to hundreds of people every week and you need them to remember you after your show. Why? To get your name out there. Chances are a lot of your customers will mention their trivia exploits in conversations and mention in other bars, venues and the like about the trivia night. How can your customers spread your name if they don’t know it? You need to make sure your customers know who you are or at least your company name. Now, giving out business cards every week may prove expensive and wasteful as customers will end up with hundreds over the course of the year. But what you can do is lace you materials with your company logo and name. My company name is given to customers in the following ways –
- Announced at the start and end of the quiz. “(Your company name) would like to thank you for playing” “Let’s get set for the (your company name) quiz”.
- My hand outs have 3-4 logos on each with website details. I also include facebook and twitter details on the answer sheet.
- My backdrop has my company name and logo with the facebook and twitter accounts.
- The posters in the venue advertising the trivia night have the company information.
- If you are using Trivia Software with a video screen, make sure you are branding your company name, logo, website, etc into the software game itself.
The above simple steps enforce into my players minds who is hosting the quiz. Therefore when talking about it to friends, family, and other companies they will easily be able to refer you. No more “This guy hosts a trivia night I go to….I can’t remember his name”. Your customers and players can be a vital source of business so let them know who they are dealing with.
More ideas to get referrals and recommendations:
- The other important tool in your marketing is going to be the people who hire you. Before you ignore this, hear me out……If you go into a venue, increase business, please the bosses and increase profit the chances are you are going to have a good productive working relationship with the venue owner. Use this. The venue owner will, more than likely, also know hundreds of other venue owners and be in touch with them, just like you should be in touch with local trivia hosts. If you are looking for business then have a word with the venue owner….ask them to put word out there to other networks to recommend you. You will find that they will do you this favor. Obviously, give them guarantees that your Trivia Night is safe at their venue. I have done this before and it works a treat.
- Diversify your work! Do weddings, parties, birthdays and schools. This will help get word on the street and if you get into businesses like wedding Trivia then you will pick up work through word of mouth in that front. Schools as well tend to stick to one person so getting into one school will be worthwhile for the long run.
- At each event you do, be sure to set up a small table in a good area that holds your fliers, brochures, business cards, info sheets, etc. Nowadays, a small folding table is crazy cheap and takes 60 seconds to setup with all your marketing materials. Nothing strokes your ego more than to realize many of your marketing materials are gone when the show is over. These are now potential clients for you at a future time.
- Post pictures and videos of past shows on YouTube and Facebook. Then as people share your stores, pictures and videos, you gain a bigger audience. Let social media work for you.
All in all, your big tool needs to be word of mouth. Above all else though for word of mouth to work you have to ensure your trivia product is fun and exciting. People will not recommend or refer potential customers to you if they had a bad experience themselves so you need to not only give them a good experience but also make sure they know who you are and what your company name is and then let your customers help YOU make profit and improve business!
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