Word of Mouth Marketing
Word of Mouth Marketing
Word of mouth marketing? There is nothing to it. All of your customers think the world of you, talk about you endlessly to their friends, family and colleagues who, as you relax on your million dollar yacht in the Bahamas, are falling over themselves to give you all of their hard earned cash.
In the real world it is about enticing your customers and others to recommend your business, products and/or services effectively and widely enough that old, new and existing customers buy from you. It is like selling to one person who then sells on to two, three, four or more who, without favour, prejudice or commission, repeats the process.
Never Easy
The more persuasive, positive messages circulating about your businesses the more sales you will make. How to achieve this effectively will vary from one business to the next. It is never easy but you would get bored if it was.
Endorsements
Marketers seek to persuade the public to buy their client’s products and services through endorsements from trusted, highly thought of sports, film, TV stars and media personalities. Word of Mouth is more effective than endorsement because it often comes from someone known to the prospective purchaser. The amount of weight the recommendation carries depends upon the trust and respect you have for the person giving you the recommendation. You are more likely to be persuaded by your best friend telling to buy something than the company selling it.
Trust
Word of Mouth is persuasive as it is based upon an element of trust. The strength of the recommendation is based upon its source and detail. That is not to say your best friend is the person you'll always listen to when it comes to making a purchasing decision. You might place more faith in your accountant, doctor, solicitor or some other professional.
Word of Web® (or ‘Wow’) is winning your customers and potential customers trust by publishing recommendations from the purchasers themselves without charge to, or expecting favours from, the business being recommended.
Customer Testimonials
Self-published customer testimonials can be effective and are worth having. The downside is that they lack credibility. You could open a forum or a chat site but this can be highly risky as disgruntled customers and employees may use this medium to voice their opinions in the most destructive way. You could try to control this yourself but censorship will put you back to square one. To add credibility without endangering your good name your testimonials need to come from Word of Web®.
Detail
The level of detail is important. Let us say you are looking to buy jewellery for your partner. Do you shop with a jewellers described as 'really good' or one that 'offers great service, a wide a range of jewellery and is price competitive"?
If you are looking to buy a gold ring then the same review with details of what the jewellery specialises in (in this case gold rings) would probably get you on the phone if not in the shop. Wow offers web pages to allow you to fill in the blanks and provide more detail.
Bad Word of Mouth
Bad Word of Mouth is the dark side of Word of Mouth. It is invaluable albeit hard to take. The best reviews are usually the negative ones. That said, nobody wants to air their dirty laundry in public. Word of Web®.does not publish negative reviews. Word of Web® strives to be a source of reliable and quality businesses. Wow is not looking to scare people away from a business because of what could have been an isolated occurrence. For more on the dark side see Bad Word of Mouth.
Word of Web®
Word of Web® assists you to obtain customer recommendations and feedback and publishes the recommendations on the internet. Word of Web® is word of mouth recommendations on the web. Wow established itself a few years ago focused on the Lower North Shore in Sydney. Since then Wow has grown to embrace most of Sydney and have commenced collecting reviews from exotic places such as Melbourne.
How do you generate customer recommendations?
1 Set up a link to Word of Web® on your emails and website with an email address (which will be supplied to you) and encourage your customers to send their reviews or feedback. You may wish to add that the review can be an anonymous and any serious issues or problems should still be directed to yourselves.
2. Word of Web® will draft your own web page to complete any gaps in the reviews received and provide additional information and/or a link back to your businesses website.
3 Wow can supply you with its standard review cards or customise them to more closely reflect your business. A sample of the standard card is available at no cost.
4 There is also the direct route. Most customers are happy to respond to a brief "how are we doing" enquiry and may even appreciate being asked.
What does it all mean?
See separate piece on Bad Word of Mouth and Customer Feedback but the flip side of Word of Mouth is the potentially valuable information it can generate for your business. Word of Web® is in a position to collate that information for you and help you make some sense of it. You can never know too much about what your customers really think of you.
How much?
Links and emails to Wow - FREE
Publish initial reviews received - FREE
Anything else – Enquire
Bottom Line
Most businesses recognise that Word of Mouth is a powerful marketing tool but do little to utilise it. You do not have to wait and hope that someone will ask one of your happy customers before they have time to forget what a great job you did for them. You can do more and Word of Web® can help you to do it.
Word of Mouth Marketing - To learn more about this author, visit Colin Simmons's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
Nothing to it..
Word of mouth marketing? There is nothing to it. All of your customers think the world of you, talk about you endlessly to their friends, family and colleagues who, as you relax on your million dollar yacht in the Bahamas, are falling over themselves to give you all of their hard earned cash.
In the real world it is about enticing your customers and others to recommend your business, products and/or services effectively and widely enough that old, new and existing customers buy from you. It is like selling to one person who then sells on to two, three, four or more who, without favour, prejudice or commission, repeats the process.
Never Easy
The more persuasive, positive messages circulating about your businesses the more sales you will make. How to achieve this effectively will vary from one business to the next. It is never easy but you would get bored if it was.
Endorsements
Marketers seek to persuade the public to buy their client’s products and services through endorsements from trusted, highly thought of sports, film, TV stars and media personalities. Word of Mouth is more effective than endorsement because it often comes from someone known to the prospective purchaser. The amount of weight the recommendation carries depends upon the trust and respect you have for the person giving you the recommendation. You are more likely to be persuaded by your best friend telling to buy something than the company selling it.
Trust
Word of Mouth is persuasive as it is based upon an element of trust. The strength of the recommendation is based upon its source and detail. That is not to say your best friend is the person you'll always listen to when it comes to making a purchasing decision. You might place more faith in your accountant, doctor, solicitor or some other professional.
Word of Web® (or ‘Wow’) is winning your customers and potential customers trust by publishing recommendations from the purchasers themselves without charge to, or expecting favours from, the business being recommended.
Customer Testimonials
Self-published customer testimonials can be effective and are worth having. The downside is that they lack credibility. You could open a forum or a chat site but this can be highly risky as disgruntled customers and employees may use this medium to voice their opinions in the most destructive way. You could try to control this yourself but censorship will put you back to square one. To add credibility without endangering your good name your testimonials need to come from Word of Web®.
Detail
The level of detail is important. Let us say you are looking to buy jewellery for your partner. Do you shop with a jewellers described as 'really good' or one that 'offers great service, a wide a range of jewellery and is price competitive"?
If you are looking to buy a gold ring then the same review with details of what the jewellery specialises in (in this case gold rings) would probably get you on the phone if not in the shop. Wow offers web pages to allow you to fill in the blanks and provide more detail.
Bad Word of Mouth
Bad Word of Mouth is the dark side of Word of Mouth. It is invaluable albeit hard to take. The best reviews are usually the negative ones. That said, nobody wants to air their dirty laundry in public. Word of Web®.does not publish negative reviews. Word of Web® strives to be a source of reliable and quality businesses. Wow is not looking to scare people away from a business because of what could have been an isolated occurrence. For more on the dark side see Bad Word of Mouth.
Word of Web®
Word of Web® assists you to obtain customer recommendations and feedback and publishes the recommendations on the internet. Word of Web® is word of mouth recommendations on the web. Wow established itself a few years ago focused on the Lower North Shore in Sydney. Since then Wow has grown to embrace most of Sydney and have commenced collecting reviews from exotic places such as Melbourne.
How do you generate customer recommendations?
1 Set up a link to Word of Web® on your emails and website with an email address (which will be supplied to you) and encourage your customers to send their reviews or feedback. You may wish to add that the review can be an anonymous and any serious issues or problems should still be directed to yourselves.
2. Word of Web® will draft your own web page to complete any gaps in the reviews received and provide additional information and/or a link back to your businesses website.
3 Wow can supply you with its standard review cards or customise them to more closely reflect your business. A sample of the standard card is available at no cost.
4 There is also the direct route. Most customers are happy to respond to a brief "how are we doing" enquiry and may even appreciate being asked.
What does it all mean?
See separate piece on Bad Word of Mouth and Customer Feedback but the flip side of Word of Mouth is the potentially valuable information it can generate for your business. Word of Web® is in a position to collate that information for you and help you make some sense of it. You can never know too much about what your customers really think of you.
How much?
Links and emails to Wow - FREE
Publish initial reviews received - FREE
Anything else – Enquire
Bottom Line
Most businesses recognise that Word of Mouth is a powerful marketing tool but do little to utilise it. You do not have to wait and hope that someone will ask one of your happy customers before they have time to forget what a great job you did for them. You can do more and Word of Web® can help you to do it.
Word of Mouth Marketing - To learn more about this author, visit Colin Simmons's Website.
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 The Power of Word of Mouth
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| Positive word-of-mouth generates referrals, and referrals generate business. So word-of-mouth is free advertising---an important marketing tool that can contribute to your success. |
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Talking Behind Your Back is Good
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| Most of us grew up with the concept of “Don’t talk behind someone else’s back”. A similar philosophy is “If you’ve got something to say, say it to their face”.
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Word of mouth matters
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| It is widely accepted that word of mouth is the most powerful marketing tool… It’s free but you have to earn it and it can make or break your business. |
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They're Talking About Your Competition
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| Social media takes conversation marketing to a new level. But it also lets you scout the competition like never before.
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Word-of-Mouth: The World's Best-Known Marketing Secret
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| Everyone knows about it, but hardly anyone does it well. It's time to change your approach to word-of-mouth marketing. |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Joe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: http://www.business901.com Web/Blog: http://www.FundingYourNonprofit.com http://www.linkedin.com/in/business901 – Linked In http://www.twitter.com/business901 – Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) Jay Kubassek is a Canadian born entrepreneur, internet marketing genius, professional speaker, international real estate developer/investor, executive film producer, extreme sport enthusiast and a passionate supporter of several charities worldwide. In 2007, Jay's vision and dedication to help other entrepreneurs and business owners duplicate his marketing success led to the creation of his fourth company CarbonCopyPRO, an internet marketing firm already worth over 15 million dollars that has over 20 employees and contract workers with clients is 12 different countries. Jay resides in NYC with his girlfriend Jamie, three year old son Milo and dog Cooper. As executive producer he recently premiered his first film in the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. As an adventurist he is racing the 2008 Baja 1000 off-road race and is a member of the 2008 U.S. National Elephant Polo Team, The New York Blue who will be representing the US in the 2008 World Championships in Nepal. Visit Jay's Blog: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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Michel NerayMichel Neray has over 25 years of experience as an award-winning copywriter, an Internet pioneer, a tradeshow pitchman and a senior sales and marketing executive. An online pioneer, he was one of the first marketing professionals to embrace the Internet by building websites as early as 1993. In 1994, Michel co-authored a book entitled "The Great Crossover: Personal Confidence in the Age of the Microchip", which made it to Jack Canfield's Achiever's Recommended Reading List. Michel founded Portfolios.com in 1995, the world's first online source directory for creative professionals and one of the first websites based on community generated content. Since creating The Essential Message in 2003, Michel has helped thousands of independent professionals and entrepreneurs as well as growing corporations find a better way to differentiate, position and brand themselves. In 2005, his chapter "Everything Starts With A Conversation" was selected as the lead for the book, "Sales Gurus Speak Out" and re-published in 2008 for 'Awakening The Workplace Volume 3'. He is also a co-author of "In the Company of Leaders" (2008) with 40 top North American leadership experts. - Visit Michel Neray's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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 Colin Simmons (Visit Colin's Website) Word of Web is word of mouth recommendations on the web. Its function is to give recognition to quality businesses endorsed by their customers. It doesn't matter what the business does so long as it is recommended by its clients and customers. Word of Web also lists community and charitable concerns. Reviews can be submitted on and off line. Prizes are given for the 'best' reviews.
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