Category Archive: Newsletter
[Welcome back to the You Can Be a Word of Mouth Marketing Supergenius! newsletter. This is text of the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.]
Love is the most powerful force in marketing. It’s what drives loyalty, excitement, and — ultimately — conversations. You have to work to earn it every day. Three people to focus on:
1> Employees
2> Customers
3> Competitors
1> Employees
You can’t have genuine, sustainable word of mouth if your employees don’t buy into it. If you haven’t earned their trust and respect, how can you expect them to earn it from customers? Earn their love by empowering them, by soliciting (and listening to) their feedback, and by celebrating big when they do amazing things for your customers.
2> Customers
Obvious, perhaps, but few brands strive for this deep of a relationship with their customers. The best word of mouth marketers — the ones we all respect and admire — they’re aiming for love. Most of your competitors are striving for “satisfied” — you can aim bigger than that.
3> Competitors
You can’t solve every problem for every prospect — and neither can your competitors. Focus on those you can do fantastic work for and send the rest to someone you believe in. Both the customer and your peers will love you for it, and you’ll see the benefits when the referrals start coming your way.
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[Welcome back to the You Can Be a Word of Mouth Marketing Supergenius! newsletter. This is text of the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.]
Word of mouth is easy to try out — anyone can get involved. But that’s not to suggest success is guaranteed. Three reasons your program may not be working like you’d hoped:
1> You forgot WOM doesn’t begin with marketing
2> It’s confined to one department
3> You’re getting in the way
1> You forgot WOM doesn’t begin with marketing
Word of mouth doesn’t begin with clever marketing, it begins with great products and services, sold by great companies who employ great people. This isn’t to suggest some “boring” brands are naturally doomed — we have tons of examples proving people love to talk about duct tape, invoicing companies, and lawn care businesses all the same. But they all have one thing in common: The products themselves are fantastic — the smart marketing just amplifies it.
2> It’s confined to one department
While a hard-working, dedicated word of mouth marketer can do wonders for a brand — they can’t do everything. Word of mouth really takes off when the philosophy of earning the respect and recommendation of customers seeps into every department. When everyone is asking one another, “Would anyone tell a friend about this?” — that’s when you start to see real success.
3> You’re getting in the way
As a word of mouth marketer, your job is to make it easier for conversations to take place. Often, this simply means getting out of the way. Avoid constricting things by letting them share wherever they want, using whatever technology they want, in whatever language they want.
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[Welcome back to the You Can Be a Word of Mouth Marketing Supergenius! newsletter. This is text of the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.]
If your word of mouth program is focusing specifically on the friends of your fans, you might be missing a bunch of other potential conversations. Here are three examples worth considering:
1> Family
2> Business owners
3> Strangers
1> Family
Families are typically strong networks that frequently share word of mouth recommendations. Help fans welcome you into their families by targeting the times they all get together: holidays, vacations, and reunions. A favorite example of ours is Jones Soda’s annual “Holiday Pack” of gross flavors that has become a holiday tradition for lots of family get-togethers.
2> Business owners
Your fans shop, dine, and do business with lots of people you’d like to work with. Turn these fans into ambassadors with tools that make it easy for them to recommend you to these companies. Maker’s Mark Whiskey, for example, sent their fans simple stickers they could use to either thank restaurants for carrying Maker’s or to politely request they stock it for next time.
3> Strangers
You don’t have to recruit the most outgoing of fans to create conversations among them and strangers. Make it simple with tools that don’t require a lot of talking: Clothes, pins, and reusable gear all help them show support without speaking. A good test for this: What can you give to a customer that will start a conversation with the next person they see?
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[Welcome back to the You Can Be a Word of Mouth Marketing Supergenius! newsletter. This is text of the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.]
If you’re blessed with natural, amazing word of mouth, you may find yourself afraid to step in and “mess it up.” But done right, you can help these conversations grow. Three ways to do it:
1> Help them come together
2> Adopt existing groups
3> Embrace the “weird” fans
1> Help them come together
Most die-hard fans are simply looking for people who share in their interests. Help them come together with events, online groups, email lists — anything that makes it easy for them to meet one another. Once you’ve made the meet-up possible (online or off), you can get out of the way and let them do the talking.
2> Adopt existing groups
Support your natural word of mouth by adopting existing communities. Find these fans by looking for groups that have developed in online forums or as Facebook groups. Try approaching and building relationships with community leaders by asking if there’s any way you can support them in what they’re already doing so well.
3> Embrace the “weird” fans
Look for opportunities to involve all of your fans — even the crazy, “weird,” or fanatical ones. Brands sometimes get caught off guard when a group of fans develop outside of their traditional target market or get really attached to their marketing or mascots. Great marketers find opportunities to channel this enthusiasm into ongoing fan feedback, new fan groups, or to launch products focusing on their demographic.
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