GasPedal's Word of Mouth Marketing Blog
Give people something to take home and talk about
Archive of tag "permission marketing"
Don’t let customers walk out of your store without offering them the chance to opt-in to get future contact from you.
Offer sign-ups for your newsletter and let them know how to find you on Twitter, on Facebook, and anywhere else you communicate with fans.
This is how you turn one-off sales into long-term relationships. It’s how you turn customers into fans.
How a word of mouth supergenius does it:
At State Street Pizza Company, they make it this easy, this obvious, and this fun:
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A formal talker program — a community, a fan club, an ambassador program, etc. — can help you stay connected to your biggest fans. Yours doesn’t have to be complicated, you’ll just need a few basic elements to get started:
1> A way to sign up
2> Benefits for participation
3> A newsletter
1> A way to sign up
You can’t have a talker program without a way for your fans to sign up. Online, simple subscriber forms on your homepage, your check-out pages, and your sidebars make it easy to get fans registered. Offline, let them sign up on receipts, sign-up sheets, comment cards, invoices, or through simple drop-boxes for their business cards.
2> Benefits for participation
Formal talker programs earn members by offering them something they can’t get anywhere else. Talkers love stuff like insider news, behind-the-scenes content, updates from the CEO, and invitations to private events. Hint: Nobody is signing up for your community to get more ads (they already get plenty of those).
3> A newsletter
A newsletter allows you to stay in touch with all of your community members. It helps keep the talker program top-of-mind for your members and makes it easy for you to share updates or timely information. If you send yours once a week, in a year you’ll have sent more than 50 personalized, anticipated messages to your biggest fans.
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.
Having permission to consistently communicate with fans is key to long-term word of mouth. Three opportunities to do it:
1> Email
2> Communities
3> Events
1> Email
Nothing beats a list of email subscribers that have given you permission to regularly contact them. The best word of mouth marketers build their email lists by consistently offering their fans the chance to sign up: after purchases, in online sidebars and footers, after downloading content, and after recommending something to a friend. Once you’ve built the list, help it spread and grow organically by offering ideas, insider news, or member-only specials that subscribers love to share.
2> Communities
Online groups help you keep your fans organized and easily reachable. There are lots of simple (and often free) platforms available, including Ning, Facebook, and even email-only communities. By giving your fans a place to gather, you’ll not only make it easy for them to create conversations and share ideas, but you’ll also make it easier to quickly contact them with news or updates.
3> Events
Live meetings are often among the most resource-demanding ways to stay in touch with fans, but they also offer the most benefit. These meetings are where fans make real-world friendships with other fans, where they share their ideas and suggestions for your company, and where you get to meet them personally. Only the most enthusiastic followers will show up, but that makes it all the more powerful of an experience.
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