Word of Mouth Marketing: How To Generate Positive Word of Mouth for your Business

I don’t think there is any marketing tool more powerful and more cost-efficient than word of mouth. How so?

1). Word of mouth is viral because it’s driven by buzz and hype, as a result, public attention and excitement can quickly go very widespread. What better way is there for your product or business to gain exposure than to have a vast number of people talking about it, referring to it and endorsing it over and over again to other people?

2). Word of mouth is persuasive. What other marketing tool has the power to make or break your business based solely on customer reactions?

3). Word of mouth confirms the claim of a product or business. Possibly the most important effect of word of mouth marketing is that it draws out the most honest responses from buyers. Because the responses are complimentary, free from any payment or public pressure, anything that the masses put their stamp of approval on makes any advertising claim valid.

4). Word of mouth marketing costs close to nothing to implement. Apart from a very minimal outlay to kick start your promotional campaign to get people hyped over your excellent product or offer, the follow-on personal endorsements from your actual buyers come about for free. Word of mouth can also be effortless on your part as it can naturally multiply on it’s own. For as long as your product or business is regarded as exceptionally useful, interesting and one of a kind by your target market then people will just keep talking about it.In today’s digital marketplace, word of mouth marketing has reached a larger scale due to the dominance of social media. Businesses need to be extra alert with securing online positive word of mouth from their clients because with just a single tweet or blog comment, word of mouth marketing can boost sales, strengthen branding, bring in new customers and repeat sales.

Here are a few tips to get people to talk about your product or business and to keep them talking about it positively:

Create buzz

If you want people to talk about your product or business, simply give them something interesting to talk about it and give them the means to tell others about it. The key is to grab attention and spread excitement not just one time but continuously:

• Give out trial runs or product sampling – A sneak preview of a product/service/feature can instantly perk up interest as everyone is an easy target for freebies.
• Hold contests/raffles – These are tried and tested incentive-offers, come up with something unique or create a new twist on an old format.
• Gimmicks – Create a publicity stunt, invite a celebrity to a special opening, celebrate your company’s first year with a limited 3-day sale or sponsor a popular local event for an exchange deal

Provide quality customer service

Customer service is the framework where loyalty and trust is built on. This is where your company can really stand out in a different way from other similar businesses. Quality customer service is simply going out of your way to please the customer. It is that extra effort, one sincere action, the personal touch that ultimately affects buyers choice to keep remembering you and recommending you.

Guarantee customer satisfaction

Manage and meet customer expectations all the time. How do you do this? Back up your brand’s claim or promise each time. Good examples:

• Maintain your price range within the level your buyers expect, if you need to increase prices make sure you communicate this to them with a little justification of why you need to do so.
• Ensure the credibility of your products or services. If you claim exclusive, make sure it’s one of a kind and limited to a few people only. If you claim high-quality, back it up with your money back guarantee and product or service warranty or provide for fair return/exchange policies

Value your customers

Listen to customer feedback. Provide a platform where buyers can be influential to others, encourage a forum where they can express comments and reviews and then make improvements based on their recommendations so they sense that they’re being heard. Any one feels great when their opinions count. Communicate with customers regularly. Keep them in the know about upcoming specials, new products and offers, changes in prices or terms and conditions, details on business growth.

The strategy with positive word of mouth is that when it gets started you need to sustain it in order to retain it. Positive word of mouth marketing starts from satisfied customers and is sustained and retained by a loyal and trusting contented customer base.