PR Pointer – The power of recommendations

By Joe D’Eramo

One of the worst kept secrets around is that yours truly writes a Substack newsletter entitled My Home Office Hacks. As the name implies, the newsletter shares ideas on how to improve the work from home/home office experience. This week was a particularly monumental week for My HOH (my nickname for it). We gained 14 new subscribers in one day.

How did that happen? While I’ve been fairly proactive in asking people to subscribe, I hadn’t done much to promote My HOH over the last two days. Except recommending two or three Substack publications I typically read.

Well, as it turns out, the publishers of those publications reciprocated with a recommendation of My HOH in their newsletter. And that’s where the new subscribers are coming from.

This phenomenon has me thinking about marketing efforts we do on behalf of PR Works clients. In particular, testimonials.

We tend to think of testimonials only in terms of the recipient of the flattering words or the five-star Google Review. It’s also an incredible way to promote your business as well. Particularly if you can incorporate your business and what you do in the testimonial. For example:

“In writing My Home Office Hacks, I focus on people who work from home or have a home-based business. Many of those folks do not have a dedicated IT staff or resource. Rick’s Tech Tips Newsletter provides usable, practical IT pointers a non-techie can understand to keep their computers and other electronics humming.”

Yes, the testimonial talks about Rick’s newsletter. Yet it also contains something about mine. This opportunity exists in every testimonial or review opportunity.

So the next time somebody asks you for a review or testimonial, don’t think of it as doing somebody a favor. On the contrary, they just did one for you. Plus, the beauty of the review or testimonial is you don’t have to wait to be asked to give one. Just do it and see what comes your way beyond a reciprocal review or testimonial.