Word of mouth, one of the most effective marketing tools out there, used to take years of patience and infallible customer service to build up. Now, thanks to the lightning speed of social media, empires can be built or destroyed in the time it takes to ‘like’ a website on Facebook. People trust their friends’ opinions – and crucially their friends won’t bother telling them about products they know they won’t be interested in. With 6 out of 10 jobs in the US being secured through friend connections, it’s time to get up to speed with our top 5 tips.
- Get synced in. Build your page, and buy ‘like’ ads. Your page should have attractive but simple content, and encourage people to chat about your product. Push your page out to your customers’ networks to capture new business.
- Make your product advertise itself. That little chomped-out Apple logo displays to everyone around that the user values Macs over PCs. So think – if someone buys your product, how will other people know?
- Offer social currency. Can people use your product to offer something valuable or scarce? People like the value that such things bestow on them. Give them something special to offer, and they’ll offer it. Top hint – make it practical and useful, such as exclusive discounts.
- Emote it. Emotion sells, stories sell – a juicer needs a new home? Boring. A fluffy white kitten called Perdie who survived 3 nights in an abandoned car in sub-zero temperatures needs a new home? Now you’re talking. Sponsored stories have already given organisations such as Unicef great success. For added success, link with something that your key market is already talking about; common ground encourages people to talk more.
- Trigger it off. Amazingly, people tend to talk about breakfast…at breakfast time. Either tap into a logical trigger, or set your own. Did people automatically associate KitKats with tea breaks? Probably not at first – but they sure do now.
We would love to hear your stories of how effective word of mouth marketing has worked for you.