You do good work and people want to refer you. That’s the truth, but, hey, we’re all busy and sometimes we need a nudge, a reminder or even a tangible way to easily make referrals that make sense.

I’ve been pushing anyone that would listen to create boatloads of high quality, educational content. So, here’s your reward for taking me up on that. Great content not only helps people find you and buy from you, it’s also one of the best tools when it comes to establishing strategic referral relationships.

Everyone needs content so if you can be the partner that brings content to the relationship building table, guess what? – you win!

How many times have you had a great meeting with a potential referral partner only to see actual referrals  or working together on clients go nowhere?

Below are five ways to use content to enable vibrant referral relationships.

Invited content

Some people choose to call this one guest content, but in reality if someone asks you to write a guest post on their blog or you ask someone to do the same on your blog it’s really invited content. So many content marketers try to force the idea of “guest” posts with in fact the best opportunities are earned.

Reaching out to potential strategic partners and offering them exposure on your blog or offering content in the form of post for their readers is a great way to get referred and introduced to a strategic partner’s community. This act also potentially lightens the content load for you and your partner.

Co-branded content

If you’ve created a “must have” eBook to use in your own lead generation and capture efforts (please tell me you have!) then take that bad boy to potential and existing partners and offer to let them send it to their community and even cobrand it with their contact details.

Your partners know they should be offering this kind of information and since you showed up on their doorstep with a proven winner, they’ll happily refer you by way of content.

This is a really great approach for a traditional supplier or service provider relationship too. Now your accountant or banker can logically introduce you to their other clients by providing something a bit more useful than a letter saying how great you are.

Sponsored content

One of the most powerful ways to get referred is to get asked to present your expertise to a room full of your strategic partner’s best clients.

If you’ve developed a “must have” eBook as suggested above, then you’ve got the makings of a “must attend” educational workshop or seminar. Offer to present this workshop free of charge as a “value add” for your partners and let them invite their community.

I call this approach sponsored content because the net result is that your partner is sponsoring the event and ushering you in front of an audience as a referred expert.

This approach is even better if you can bring two partners into the act and pitch it to them as a way to offer value to their clients and get some exposure to each partner’s clients as well.

Curated content

Building on the last two points consider the impact of putting together an entire day of killer content. What if you went to your strategic partners and hand selected content experts on a variety of subjects that would draw lots of attention from people interested in getting an entire day of useful information?

Select or curate a big topic and bring in partners who are willing to introduce their networks to the daylong event and pack the house with what amounts to a group referral of all of the partners.

This approach works equally well as a curated eBook of partner content that the entire partner group can share.

Incented content

This last one is mostly a customer or prospect play but some of the best content going is that which your customers are willing to create and share.

Something as simple and silly as a photo or video content rewarding the person who gets the most votes with a prize is an effective way to create some buzz while getting some great referrals in the process.

The key is to structure the ask in a way that prompts referrals – Tell us the best use of our product, show us your results, tell us why you really want to win – things of that nature can generate some very powerful endorsements as people vie for a prize of some sort.

Few of the ideas in this post are that new or outrageous innovative, but like so many things in the game of marketing it’s how you think about applying these ideas that makes all the difference in the world.

If you liked this post, check out our Guide to Content Marketing for Small Business.