How To Implement & Understand "Word Of Mouth Marketing"

In my last post we started our series on word of mouth marketing and talked about how to make your customers purchasing experience a short, easy one. Today we are going to continue with that theme. We are going to talk about the power of word of mouth and how to mold it to your advantage.

The reality is everyone needs an advisor to guide them to make a decision. We rely on the expertise of others when we need to make the right decisions and process the information as it is explained to us. When you take the time to understand exactly what and how word of mouth works, you’ll see all the great advantages it has to offer you.

Remember these points when working to understand word of mouth:

• Accelerate the decision making process for increased profits.

• You can accelerate product decisions with better communication and making the process easier.

• Instead of low-ball advertising and the used car salesman approach, try delivering on your word of mouth promises.

Traditional advertising draws about one response for every thousand ads and most of those are to ask for more information before the customer even considers purchasing. When you get information from a friend or trusted colleague, you are more likely to take their word for it and act. On average customers purchase two out of every five recommendations their friends make. That’s a HUGE difference.

So, what exactly is word of mouth? Well, we know how powerful it can be, but to define it: Word of mouth is a communication that happens between your client and a potential customer. There is usually a relationship of some kind between these two people with an established level of trust. Now, compare this to advertising where you are providing a message to a potential customer where they have not established a relationship with you or a level of trust. Who are they more likely to take advice from? The answer is clear!

We talked above about the benefits of word of mouth now let’s take a look at some reasons why it works.

Here are some of the top reasons it works:

• The information is custom tailored to the potential customer because of the friendly relationship with the referrer.

• It’s more personal, relevant and believable.

• It’s customer driven.

• It’s self generating and can take on a life of its own, especially now in the information age of the Internet and power of social media.

• It becomes part of the product’s description. "Think client testimonials"

• The source of word of mouth can be important and more effective when coming from an expert.

• Word of mouth saves you time and money.

To fully utilize word of mouth you need to understand:

1. Where is your word of mouth marketing coming from?

2. What products of yours are being affected by word of mouth?

3. How is your word of mouth traveling?

Once you know these things you can work out a plan on how to trigger more word of mouth.

Now lets talk about the nine levels of word of mouth marketing which gives you tools to measure the word of mouth circulating around your company, products and services. You can then see where you are getting negative or weak word of mouth and find ways to correct it.

So, launching into the nine types of word of mouth-it should seem relatively obvious that the negative types are, well, negative and the positive types are positive.

The 4 negative types of word of mouth marketing from the worst to mildest.

1. This is the worst of the worst and means your product is creating a scandal. Remember, when the popular over-the-counter pain relievers, like Tylenol, were deemed unsafe? Yea, you won’t want that kind of word of mouth.

2. Disgruntled customers are going out of their way to convince other consumers from purchasing your products and services. They are boycotting you.

3. While, not outwardly boycotting, when customers are asked about you, they will give a negative response.

4. At this level, people are mildly dissatisfied and while not outwardly talking about it, they will have an opinion if asked. Now they may purchase from you despite their negative feelings, this can be a little confusing.

The 5 positive types of word of mouth marketing from least to greatest:

1. This is sort of a neutral place to be. Customers are using your products, but don’t really talk about it. People rarely ask them about it, so they aren’t sharing their opinion with others. This can be a bit of a slippery slope, because you don’t want to turn that neutral experience into a negative one. In fact, you should work to make it a positive one.

2. At this level we are finally starting to work our way into positive word of mouth marketing about your company, products and services. This signifies that people are generally pleased with your products, but unless asked, don’t really say anything about them.

3.When asked, your customers will talk about how much they love your products.

4. Customers will go out of their way to talk about your products, services, company and their shopping experience with you. This is most evident when you see how people recommend movies to their friends and family.

5. Your product is the toast of the town. There is an obvious buzz going around and your business is the place to be. People are not only talking about your great products and services, but they are talking about their shopping experience, your customer service and how they know your company will help them in the future.

Some great examples of #5 companies are:

• Lexus

• Harley Davidson

• Lululemon

• Tesla

• Apple

• Costco

Well that's it for now. I'm going to stop at this point so you can take some time to look over what kind of word of mouth marketing you are generating. If you need any help with this process, please reach out with me to go more in depth into the process and how we can improve the results of your word of mouth marketing, until next time. Have a great labor day weekend! /90dayprofitbreakthrough