How To Start Your Word-Of-Mouth Marketing Campaign Start telling the world about your business and start getting referrals! Traditional advertising costs money, and isnt very effective in many circumstances. What about word of mouth advertising for your business/charity? Its free, and its the most effective type of marketing. When you buy something do you head to YouTube to research commercials, or do you head online to read reviews, or maybe call a friend or family member to ask their opinion of a local plumber? You use word of mouth, and you trust it, whether you realize it or not! So how can you utilize word of mouth advertising for your business/charity? You can with the ideas below, which will help you spread the word without spending a cent. Yes, theyll take time, but theyll generate great results. Time is money, and you were going to spend money on paid advertising anyway... so why not spend less and invest that time back into marketing/fundraising via word of mouth? 1. Tell your friends to spread the word. 2. It seems obvious, but tell your family (and tell them if you are offering referrals). 3. Email your friends and family. Send them a reminder after a few weeks so they wont forget. 4. Create a Squidoo lens or page on Zujava to market your business/charity. A great backlink for your website, too. 5. Become active on a social network. Try Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, or Twitter. Master just one of those before you spread your wings (or spread yourself too thin). 6. Encourage others to talk about your business/charity by offering a truly one-of-a-kind item. If you can make it customized, this is key. 7. When someone asks you about your business/charity, know what youre going to say. Have a script ready and prepared, so its easy to remember and sounds interesting. 8. Talk more about your business/charity, to anyone who will listen. If youre interesting, they wont be bored, and most people ask what do you do for work? when they first meet you anyway. 9. Make your reputation known to the public by displaying your online reviews in your store, or posting words of praise on your website. The more, the better! 10. Be more honest in your approach. For instance, dont sell a product to them that doesnt suit their needs. While they might not purchase your product now, theyll remember your sincere approach and tell potential customers absolutely everything about your business (and theyll pass the word along). 11. Encourage employees to talk about your business/charity by having open, honest communication with them. Let them give feedback, let them openly discuss issues and be a part of decision making, then theyll reward you by talking about your business/charity with their friends and family. 12. Ask your happy customers if they can be contacted for a referral (or reference), then tell your customers that the list exists if they need it. 13. Attend a local business group where you can network with other business owners. Theyll talk about their business, youll talk about yours. 14. Join Sphinn and network with other search engine marketers/fundraisers. Youll get ahead on this site if you have something useful. 15. Make it easy for customers/donors to find you. Are you listed in the Yellow Pages, and can they find you easily online? (This is where that Squidoo lens might come in handy) 16. Think of products or services that youve personally recommended to someone. What was the thing that made the product/cause so good to stick your neck out and tell someone about it? 17. Offer something on your website that is a useful tool for many people. Not only will you attract links, but visitors might remember the name of your website. A useful way to brand yourself. 18. Be a know-it-all. Nothing instills confidence in buyers like knowing that the person that theyre doing business with is a professional in their field. Answer questions to customers problems and display them on your website, or in a related forum. The point is, you want them to feel comfortable spending their money with you. 19. Speaking of helping people, you can help buyers out by making it easy for them to find the information that they need. Have you ever considered making a part of your website a resource for your targeted buyers? 20. And speaking of helping once again, why not associate yourself with a charity thats somehow related to your business? While it may not be free, its a charity, and people like helping businesses that help charities. Dont be shy about your association with this charitable cause, tell people. 21. Have customers fill out surveys. Create an online poll or create a hand written one so customers can anonymously submit through written forms to tell you what they do and dont like about your business. 22. Simplify your payment methods as much as you can. Offer easy online payments with secure checkout pages. Accept credit cards as well as PayPal, and you could see your websites business pick up in no time. 23. Treat everyone the same -- with a great deal of respect and courtesy. Treat vendors, suppliers, customers and employees the way youd want to be treated. Its not just customers that spread the word about your business, its everyone you deal with. 24. Make the most use of online customer reviews as possible. Getting bad reviews? Fix the problems. Not getting reviews? Ask customers to go online and post them. 25. Handle situations that affect your reputation negatively with dignity. Rectify the situation anyway possible, dont leave your customer hanging (and ready to tell the world that youre no good to deal with!). 26. Branch out part of your business into something thats new and exciting. Offer something brand new that no one is doing, and then educate people about it. An example: if youre a photographer, offer to restore their VHS tape videos and put them online privately for them to watch. 27. Have some sort of insurance policy or guarantee that makes you more of a comfortable purchase, for new buyers especially. 28. People hate spam and heavy sales pitches. Try to eliminate any uncomfortable situations for your buyers, and unwelcome solicitations or messages. 29. Tell your customers how they can use the product they just purchased. Dont just let them leave with it, tell them how they can use it, or how they can reach you for more ideas. 30. Let people know what the differences are between your business and someone elses. Point out the pros of yours, vs. the negatives of someone elses, as long as they are fact. 31. Brag about your credentials. Tell everyone how youre qualified, what school you went to, what degrees you have, awards your community has given your business, and what certification employees have gone through. Dont belittle even small achievements. 32. Reward people that send business your way. Dont just ignore it, thank them at least, and even better, send them a gift, take them to lunch, do them a favor -- something to let them know that theyre appreciated and that makes them want to send more people to you. 33. If youre particularly knowledegable in your field and have a lot of information to share, consider a blog on your website, but be prepared to tend to it on a regular basis (or dont bother setting it up). 34. Dont forget the coupon, coupon code, and freebie method. People love free now more than ever. Offer a steep discount or something free and word will spread. 35. Encourage interaction from your customers in store or on your website through a contest. Offer the winner something worth their time and effort, or you probably wont get good results. 36. Run an event in your business that really generates excitement. If youre a local deli, have an event where you pay homage to the meatball sub and the history of Italian eating. 37. Start spreading out to areas that you arent. If you sell a product thats completely unique, Ebay might be the place to go, or maybe Etsy. 38. Go completely ad free on your website, then display that fact proudly somewhere on your site. 39. Head to a trade fair, event, or show that is based on a field that your business is related. Dont focus on quantity of people that you meet, but making one or two really good connections instead. 40. Dont forget to ask family to refer people to you. They might not otherwise! 41. Its a TV age that were living in, and some people just dont like reading. Make your message, service, or business available via video so potential customers can see you and your work in action. 42. Dont use words that your customers cant understand, and if you do, explain what that word means (without being condescending). 43. At your next event, give away t-shirts or gifts commemorating the event as door prizes, or hold a raffle. 44. Ask your friends and family to bookmark your site on social networking sites, as well as link to it on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc. 45. Just like video, photos are essential for your business. Show them pictures of work and products that youve made on flickr, the photo sharing site. 46. Abandon your old ways of stale advertising. Flyers, direct mail, telemarketing, purchasing email lists, these are all old-school style methods that are costly and getting less effective. 47. Dont hide. Make yourself available for any customer that wants to see you, whether that means online or off. Dont become less active when business picks up, or you can expect business to drop off. 48. Entice your customers to stay connected as much as possible. Dont ask them, just make them really want to stay in touch, whether thats email, RSS feed subscription, to follow you on Twitter, or your send event updates.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 20:45:58 +0000
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