Word of Mouth Tactics – Part 2

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

The reality is that everyone needs an advisor to guide them to make a decision. We rely on the expertise of others to make the right decisions as they are 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 this path when working to understand word of mouth:

• Accelerate the decision making process for increased profits.
• You can accelerate product making decisions by 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 only to seek out more information before the customer even considers purchasing. When you get information from a friend, 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? We know how powerful it can be, but to define it: Word of mouth is a communication that occurs between a customer and a potential customer. There is usually a relationship of some kind and an established level of trust between these two people.

Now, compare this to advertising where you are providing a message to a potential customer in which they have not established a relationship or level of trust with you. 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 of the reasons it works:

• The information is custom tailored to the potential customer because of the friendly relationship of the referrer.
• It is more personal, relevant and believable.
• It is customer driven.
• It is self-generating and can take on a life of its own, especially with the information age of the internet.
• It becomes part of the product’s description.
• 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 coming from?
2. What products 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.

This wraps up this lesson on word of mouth. If you need help understanding word of mouth and how it can impact your business, feel free to contact us.

Next time we’re going to dive into the nine levels of word of mouth. These levels help you understand which word of mouth is positive and which is not.

Stacey Sagues              Stacey@pegcoaches.com       404-951-9023

Philip Lewis                 Philip@pegcoaches.com        713-823-8253