[Welcome back to the You Can Be a Word of Mouth Marketing Supergenius! newsletter. This is text from the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.]
All those customers that come in and out of your store or visit your website every day represent a huge word of mouth opportunity. It’s all about turning these passing shoppers into active talkers. A few ideas to get you started:
1. Get their contact information
2. Give them a reason to come back
3. Make it all worth talking about
1. Get their contact information
It’s a lot easier to build a relationship with a one-time customer if you have their permission to contact them again. Email is still the best way to do this, and a great newsletter can keep them thinking about (and talking about) you long after the original sale. Some brands are figuring out how to do this with Facebook and Twitter, and that’s fine too. Whatever tool you use, find a great way to ask everyone who comes in the door.
2. Give them a reason to come back
A customer you can get back into your store is exponentially more likely to talk than a one-time shopper. Try inviting your customers back with an invite to a private sale, a training class, or a special event. Whenever you meet a new customer, always have a reason ready for them to come again — and to bring a friend when they do.
3. Make it all worth talking about
All the tools and tactics you use to get people talking should be in addition to a fundamentally remarkable shopping experience. Think about everything the customer experiences from the moment they meet you and ask yourself, “Would anyone tell a friend about this?” If not, it needs more work. New customers are more than a potential transaction, they’re an audition.
[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.]
You don’t need an advanced degree to be an amazing word of mouth marketer, you just need to focus on being great at the fundamentals. Regardless of your budget or your available tools, don’t forget these basics:
1> Use the tools everyone knows
2> Put it in an email
3> Keep it simple
1> Use the tools everyone knows
When putting your content out there for the world to discover and share, use the tools everyone is familiar with. Put your videos on YouTube, put your photos on Flickr, and put your presentations on Slideshare. Burying your content deep on your corporate website and hosting it on your weird proprietary platform only serves to make it impossible to find and annoying to share.
2> Put it in an email
Email remains the fastest, most portable, most effective word of mouth tool ever invented. Share coupons via email, start a newsletter, and get in the habit of creating email versions of everything you hope to spread. Retweets and re-postings on Facebook are wonderful, but nothing beats a personalized endorsement from a fan delivered straight to the inbox of a friend.
3> Keep it simple
As a word of mouth marketer, your job is to make it easier for conversations to take place. Use simple topics and simple technology. If whatever you’re doing is making it more complicated for a fan to tell a friend, why are you doing it?
You work so hard for a click on your web page. You put so much effort into getting someone in your store. You do so much just to earn a fan. But without a way to contact them again, you have to start all over the minute they walk away.
Extend the relationship by always asking for their email — online or off. Regular, anticipated newsletters delivered to their inbox are the only form of advertisements your fans request.
How a word of mouth supergenius does it:
You don’t have to make it complicated.
Chicago’s Logan Bar & Grill attaches a simple comment card to every bill, but instead of just looking for feedback, they ask for email addresses so fans can subscribe to their newsletter.
The opt-in is a simple addition to a conventional practice, allowing Logan Bar & Grill to extend the relationship with customers they might otherwise never see again.
