Word of mouth marketing works, and this fact cannot be denied. Here are just some of the advantages that it will reward your company with:
Word of mouth:
- customers come to you on their own
- human rumor - free advertising
- increases the effectiveness of traditional advertising
- employee productivity increases
- the flow of customers increases
- the quality of customer service increases
- the company is growing stronger, the brand is gaining strength
People's conversations are a key component of word of mouth marketing. But how do you get people to talk about your company, your products, or your services? Why would they even talk about you? There are several reasons. More precisely, three:
1. They love what you do
Cool products, excellent service, unique chips - it can be anything. The bottom line is the same - your customers are thrilled with you!
For example, millions speak about Apple - even those who have never used an iPhone, iPad, or other gadgets of this company. And why all this? Because their products are so cool that you want to talk about them.
2. They feel important, smart, and useful
No matter how rational we want to appear, the role of emotions in our actions cannot be understated. Show your customers that by telling them about your company, they can show off their erudition and help all their friends solve problems. Emphasize their importance to you - invite them to presentations and private events.
3. The need for identification
By purchasing your product, the user automatically becomes a member of its community, and tries on all the values and ideas that it carries. Try to make sure that your company's customers are united in a certain subculture - so they will feel their involvement in the group, communicate with like-minded people (about you!) and spread the word to the masses.
Key components
Word of mouth marketing includes 5 elements without which it will not work, no matter how much you want it to:
Speakers
Since conversations are the essence of word of mouth marketing, you need to understand who exactly will be talking about you, and establish contact with these people.
At the first stage, you need to answer the following questions:
who are your speakers?
who are they talking to?
What are they talking about? How do I find them?
Speakers can be among your regular customers, as well as those who first contacted you. Also, you should take a closer look at your employees - they are often the ones who praise your company. Speakers also include those who act as a free carrier of your logo - they use branded products (T-shirts, caps, backpacks, etc.). Also, speakers can be professionals of the industry with which your activity is related.
After identifying your speakers, you need to understand how authoritative they are, as well as the size of their audience. And don't forget that quality is more important than quantity! A speaker with a small audience, but high authority in their eyes, can be much more useful than a thousand-year-old without the proper level of trust.
Once you have identified your speakers, contact them. Once you've established contact, go to the next step-give them topics to talk about you.
"The more information you give speakers, the more they talk."
Topics
A good theme must be simple, organic, unexpected, and, most importantly, easy to distribute. It must be viral.
"Be interesting or invisible."
How do I know that the theme will "shoot"? It is hardly possible to judge with firm confidence, but if you try it every day, definitely some, and it will be successful. Trial and error works here like nowhere else.
After coming up with a topic, ask these questions:
- will they tell their friends about it?
- what exactly will they say?
Who will they tell? how can I increase the number of listeners?
By answering, you can easily identify all the shortcomings and pitfalls, and eliminate them. Or come up with a completely new, better theme altogether.
"Remember the rule: what looks great in a press release, booklet, or ad is no good as a word-of-mouth marketing topic".
How to launch word-of-mouth marketing and get People talking about you.
Tools
It's stupid to sit back and wait for people to talk about you. Take the first step. Ask them to tell us about you. For example, place the "Share" or "Tell a friend" buttons on your site. Social media buttons also work well for word-of-mouth marketing, so don't ignore them.
Another tool that will increase the number of conversations about you can be ordinary e-mail marketing. With the right mailing list, you feed your speakers with new topics, and they, in turn, spread them to their entire audience of listeners.
The "Most Popular", "They'll dig with this product", or "Readers' Choice" blocks are also word-of-mouth marketing tools. Psychology works here - "if others liked it, then I should try it too."
Participation
Take part in conversations about you. Thank you for your kind words, answer questions, solve problems, or just communicate. The main thing is to speak on your own behalf. This way you will inspire more trust and respect than an anonymous person hiding behind an avatar with a cat.
If you see that the reviews are not flattering, and are filled with negativity and complaints, try to work constructively, offer help, and make every effort to fix the problem. Believe me, the customers you've helped will spread positive word of mouth about you even more than those who were initially happy with everything.
"Problem solving is the most powerful marketing technique at your disposal."
Tracking
Monitoring is necessary. And with the advent of the Internet in our lives, it has also become easier than ever before. Just use Google and there are hundreds of results with reviews about your company.
After carefully studying their content, you can calculate your reputation index: subtract the number of negative reviews from positive ones (neutral ones don't count). This difference will be an indicator of reputation.
"Negative reviews are your chance. Listen to them and draw conclusions"
