[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.]
You’ve got an infinite number of talkers you can seek out and earn word of mouth from. But because you don’t have an infinite number of hours in the day, start with these:
1. New customers
2. Long-time customers
3. Loyal employees
1. New customers
First-time customers make for powerful, eager talkers. But you only get one first impression, so you need to make the most of it. Give these potential talkers the chance to sample your best stuff and the tools to tell everyone about you. If you’re a restaurant, for example, this could be your one shot to blow them away — so make sure they get to sample that dessert everyone raves about (and a menu to take back to the office).
2. Long-time customers
Long-time, loyal customers can be your word of mouth bedrock. They already know how great you are, but they forget or don’t realize just how important their referrals are for you. Inspire them to talk by inviting them to join VIP groups, asking for their input on business decisions, or just simply asking them for referrals. Think about it — when was the last time you reminded your best customers how much their word of mouth means to you?
3. Enthusiastic employees
It’s fun to work at a place worth talking about, and many of your employees would love to help share your company and cause with their networks. Make sure they have access to samples, beta products, sharable discounts, and any sales materials they can forward to friends and prospects. Use tact in doing this — you don’t want to make anyone feel pressured to talk — but you want to make sure they have all the tools to do so when they feel the urge.
[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.]
Word of mouth isn’t another tactic for the marketing team — it’s a fundamental way of doing business that works best when everyone is involved. Three teams you should be earning buy-in from:
1. Customer service
2. Product development
3. Leadership
1. Customer service
Get your front-line employees dedicated to earning the respect and recommendation of your customers. Give them the tools and the authority to thrill them, and the incentive to do it. No department has as much opportunity to earn the company tons of buzz and new, raving fans.
2. Product development
Word of mouth is as much about product features as it is about marketing. You’ll find some of the most sustainable word of mouth topics will come from your product development teams. For inspiration, point them to the flower vase in VW Bugs, Apple’s pink and purple computers, and White Castle’s miniature burgers.
3. Leadership
Getting your leadership involved in word of mouth is how you take it from side projects and skunkworks to a fundamental part of your company. You can help this happen by teaching them that word of mouth is more than goofy stunts and viral videos. Show them the numbers, the case studies, and the potential of what word of mouth can do for your company.
[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.]
You can have amazing word of mouth — and you can get started on it today. There are a lot of advanced techniques you could use, but all you need to get your program going are these basics:
1. Start with a single group of talkers
2. Try a new topic today
3. Track, measure, and repeat
1. Start with a single group of talkers
Start your word of mouth program by focusing on getting a single group of talkers telling more people about you. Aim for a specific group of customers or people that talk to your customers. Think cab drivers, waiters, business travelers, new customers, longtime customers — the more focused, the better.
2. Try a new topic today
Once you’ve decided on your talkers, your job is to give them something to talk about. Things like sales and discounts, a special event, or new product features are classic ways to get people talking. Don’t get too complicated, just focus on a topic that is simple, portable, and repeatable.
3. Track, measure, and repeat
Add simple tracking tools to help you measure the results. Try special coupon codes you can track, follow the online conversation levels about you, and start asking “How did you hear about us?” on all of your forms. Whether you’ve earned a bunch of new talkers or just a few, you’ll now have a framework to quickly test and measure your next word of mouth experiment.
[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.]
No matter what industry you’re in or how much regulation you may be facing, you can earn the respect and recommendation of your customers. A few ideas to get you started:
1. Look to the great stuff you can share
2. Connect talkers by being a middleman
3. Earn buzz with amazing customer service
1. Look to the great stuff you can share
If you have heavy sharing restrictions on certain topics, look to the areas where the rules are less rigid. The U.S. Navy, for example, isn’t blogging about top-secret strategies — but they do share some fascinating stuff like flight videos, photos from aircraft carriers, and images from their humanitarian support. If the U.S. Navy can do this, what’s holding you back?
2. Connect talkers by being a middleman
Whatever your policy may be, your fans and customers want to talk, share, and connect with each other — and they’ll often do it with or without your help. Even the most regulated brands are finding ways to support this natural word of mouth. For ideas, look to the pharmaceutical brands with patient communities, the financial brands who bring people together for tax advice, or the insurance companies who help people get tips on what to do about fender-benders.
3. Earn buzz with amazing customer service
Word of mouth is as much about customer service as it is about marketing. Are you so regulated you can’t send thank-you notes? Fix problems and apologize sincerely? Waive the aggressive fees and penalties? No matter how much regulation, there’s almost always the opportunity to create loyal fans with a focus on fantastic customer support.
