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How to create Word Of Mouth Advertising

Written by: Bob Janet

Article Overview: It’s the best advertising and cost nothing.

How to create Word Of Mouth Advertising

A father from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, named Jack Marucci decides to make a baseball bat for his son. A local college ballplayer hears about the bat and decides he needs one. He uses it and tells a friend. The friend uses it and then tells a pro ballplayer about it. The pro calls, asks for a bat, has some success, and then talks to another pro player. Soon enough, several of the biggest names in major league baseball are calling with orders for more bats. All this with zero advertising.

Positive word of mouth clearly helped Marucci Bat Company achieve success. What was the key catalyst? Credibility. The college ballplayer who used the bat was an All-American at LSU. His experiences with the bat were crucial testimonials with other ballplayers. People tend to listen to others they consider credible sources of information, so once that credibility was established, the word began to quickly spread.

1.Create word of mouth advertising (WOMA) through Credibility
A. First you must have a credible product or service. One that truly makes a difference in the life of the customer or in their business success.

B. You must get your product in the hands of creditable people. People that others will believe, people that others will stop what they are doing and listen to. People that others seek out for advice.

If you are lucky enough to have someone that is creditable purchase your products / services and tell others about them you are fortunate. But who among us wants to wait until we get lucky? Not me.

Back in the 70’s, I was retreading tires for a living, when retreaded tires were looked down upon. Most retreaders relied on low price to market their tires. I decided if I could gain credibility for the tires I produced I could increase my price and profits. I did a number of things to gain credibility for my retread tires:
1. Conducted tours through my retread shop to show the quality and care we used to produce the tires. 2. Gave a better guarantee on my retread tires than new tire manufacture’s gave. my entire adjustment rate (the rate of tires we replaced because of defects) was only 1/2 of 1%, whereas new tires were a whopping 7%. 3. Gave the customers a 100% money back guarantee if they were unsatisfied with the tires in any way.

But the most productive thing I did was to create Word Of Mouth Advertising.
A. I looked around my community to find the most influential people that could help me by being my customers. (Successful business people, clergy, teachers, and community leaders)

B. I aggressively marketed to them with cost savings, quantity discounts and better service than they were receiving from my competition.

I did the same thing when we sold color televisions in the 70’s. We first marketed to people that could afford a color television. Back then most people were still buying radios and black and white TV’s. The black and white TV’s sold for $300- $600. Color TV’s started at $1200. I then asked the buyer to invite his family and friends in for a demonstration I conducted. (I may have been the predecessor to the Tupper Ware Party.)

I am still doing the same type of Word Of Mouth Advertising today in my speaking/sales training business. I first market to the most influential association and business leaders. After I deliver what I promised, a fun-entertaining, content loaded program that will help there members and businesses increase sales and profits immediately, I stay aggressive and ask them to help me by recommending me to their peers.

Find the most influential people to sell to and get them to recommend you to others.

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Article Tags: baseball bat, bat company, baton rouge louisiana, business success, catalyst, credibility, credible product, credible sources, guarant, local college, lsu, major league baseball, marucci, retread tires, retreaded tires, retreading tires, sources of information, woma, word of mouth, word of mouth advertising



Related Forum Posts
Measuring Word of mouth - [quote="jvprosperity":2l2ujat4]I couldn't find the Part 1 Doctrine on the site but I believe from reading the blog posts it had to do with the distractions entrepreneurs and their customers face daily. He may have also talked about Word of Mouth and the true way of measuring it.[/quote:2l2ujat4] Hi Andy, So how can one measure "Word of Mouth" marketing then?
Re: What's Up With Word Clouds? - I would like to see Word Clouds used in conjunction with a Survey. I've been experimenting with Word Clouds within Google Docs forms using the advanced Word Cloud Widget.
Word of Mouth - Word of Mouth marketing by its very nature takes time. You need to develop relationships before people will refer you. Why not boost it a little by making a few partnerships? You could partner with a gym or put on seminars. Think who else targets the same people and how you can work with them and help them. You can also write articles and become and expert in your field - put them online, write a column for a community paper on health, etc. Even a door to door flyer drop with a simple one pager can help drive some clients. Good luck!
Question for Shri - Shri, If you don't mind me asking, w hat software do you use to create your Ebooks? Do you use quark Xpress, or just convert a word processing file like Word into an ebook?
Top 19 Copywriting books - 1. Ogilvy on Advertising. David Ogilvy. Wiley. 2. Positioning: The Battle for your Mind. Al Ries and Jack Trout. Warner. 3. The New Positioning. Jack Trout. McGraw-Hill. 4. Tested Advertising Methods. John Caples. Prentice-Hall. 5. How to Make your Advertising Make Money. John Caples. Prentice-Hall. 6. Guerrilla Advertising. Jay Conrad Levinson. Houghton Mifflin. 7. Direct Mail Copy that Sells. Herschell Gordon Lewis. Prentice-Hall. 8. Sales Letters that Sizzle. Herschell Gordon Lewis. NTC Business Books. 9. Herschell Gordon Lewis on the Art of Writing Copy. Herschell Gordon Lewis. Prentice-Hall. 10. Romancing the Brand. David Martin. American Management Association. 11. The Art of Writing Advertising: Conversations with William Bernbach, Leo Burnett, George Gribbin, David Ogilvy, Rosser Reeves. NTC Business Books. 12. Confessions of an Advertising Man. David Ogilvy. NTC Business Books. 13. My Life in Advertising. Claude Hopkins. NTC Business Books. 14. Scientific Advertising. Claude Hopkins. NTC Business Books. 15. How to Become an Advertising Man. James Webb Young. NTC Business Books. 16. The Lasker Story as He Told It. NTC Business Books. 17. Advertising Concept and Copy. George Felton. Prentice Hall. 18. The Copy WorkShop Workbook. Bruce Bendinger. The Copy Workshop. 19. Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: A Guide to Creating Great Ads. Luke Sullivan. Wiley. This should keep you busy for at least a year. Enjoy!


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