How effective Word of Mouth can be for your business

Earlier this month I celebrated my son’s 18th birthday. To mark such a milestone in our lives (a young man coming of age doesn’t just affect him) we went out for a meal. And how did we know which restaurant to go to? Word of Mouth. We had had many recommendations of this brilliant Thai restaurant in Reading.

From the outside it didn’t look much, and the inside was pretty basic as well, but as the evening wore on it was packed! And that was because of the food, the best Thai meal I had ever tasted. And I’m sure a majority of the people there were because they had either experienced it before or they had learned through Word of Mouth that this was the best Thai in town.

Word of Mouth may be an old-hand, traditional form of marketing, but it still works the best. People buy from people, and if someone recommends a particular business to you, you will be more inclined to use or give it a try. It is an effective way of ‘warming up’ a contact, which if it has been ‘tried’ before by someone you know, your deposition towards it will therefore be more favourable. To gain Word of Mouth scenarios you need to make more contacts yourself through the many various networking opportunities available.

Of course Word of Mouth works best if the results you provide to the recommended customer meets their expectations. It’s a good idea to find out how you were hyped up to the prospect so you can fulfill those requirements, notwithstanding thanking the referrer with an appropriate gift, especially if the Word of Mouth transaction has resulted in a successful sale. Being nice to all parties concerned will help pave the way to more future Word of Mouth recommendations. And always keep an eye out for any Word of Mouth referrals you could make, as ‘tit-for-tat’ situations can bring up the most wonderful results!

It’s being popular that does it at the end of the day!

Popularity has a lot going for it! In today’s world of marketing activities, I’m afraid if you aren’t, you will find it difficult to succeed.

It doesn’t necessarily mean having lots of friends and acquaintances. But it does mean being widely known for what you do, and this can be achieved by being understandable, memorable, likeable and attainable.

As part of my digital marketing diploma studies, we have been looking at affiliates. Don’t get me to explain them, I’m still learning! But what I have gathered is that they do depend on popularity. It’s no good placing a banner or advert on a blog or affiliate website if the traffic to these sites isn’t up to scratch! You need to have a dependable supply of interested people regularly passing by in order to have a chance of making money.

Another side of popularity is continuous presence! There are plenty of Twitterers and Facebookers who seem to be always there, tweeting, posting, commenting and making a general noise. But this needs to be full of added value and well worth listening to, or otherwise you’ll find yourself being ignored.

Providing influential material and valuable content is a guaranteed path towards popularity. Altruism helps greatly, but don’t let yourself be taken advantage of! What can you give others that will make a difference to their worlds? What valuable goodies can you share, not only to promote yourself but others, that will enrich everybody around you? Web2.0 today consists of interaction, sharing, communicating, conversation, providing added value and a worthwhile experience.

And Web3.0 is gaining momentum now! What can you offer on the back of what you already provide? What is relevant that will enhance your superb marketing skills, show forth your thriving business and expand your company’s potential? How easily can you provide this added value, so it will make your customers’ lives better? What is the availability of your goods and services within new and exciting virtual and technological capabilities?

Being popular is due to what kind of service your business provides, whether it delivers what is claims, and how wide-spread you’ve managed to publicise it. This also depends on the message, delivery and attitude you portray, not to mention the quality and functionality of your products. Do you thoroughly understand your customers, and have gone out of your way to make life easier for them? Are you giving them what they want, as well as what they need? Does your reputation go before you, to benefit from Word of Mouth and advocacy?

Popularity is a fascinating subject – it’s really worth having a think about it…

How can small businesses benefit from social media?

Alice Elliott

Yesterday I gave a talk about social networking to a group of home businesses. I see this kind of business as embryonic enterprises for the future, as you never know which one will become hugely successful, and they also are very good at word of mouth referrals if they like what they hear!

I concentrated on the main four: Blogging, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. If anyone wants to see the PowerPoint Presentation I used during my talk, you’ll have to connect with me on LinkedIn to view it on my profile page!

Blogging is always first, as to me that is the most important. Ideally it should be treated as the hub of your business, a medium of expression and social interaction, an extension to your website that can be regularly updated, making it attractive to the search engines and feedable to other social networking sites. New material is fed to and from it, links transport spider activity from fully stocked blogrolls and overflowing comment boxes, and tags and categories stimulate searchable reactions and a researcher’s dream. Subscribers wait with bated breath for your next contribution, and Twitter transports your humble post to an unconceivable audience.

LinkedIn gives us order in the social networking world – you know where you stand and there is no nonsense to cloud the issue. Your CV-like profile could easily be scrutinised by prospective employers and even headhunters. Gather as many recommendations (and give back in return) to boost up your credibility. Explore the social scene through its Groups and use the Questions section to aid research to expand your business or solve a problem, and the Answers to spread your expertise while helping others – remember best answers are shown on your signature!

Twitter should be treated for what it is, instant messaging to a large audience. It is purely social (selling is not tolerated) and provides access to a huge amount of people you wouldn’t normally be able to meet. Use it to keep your ear to the ground – what are people saying about you? Are your tweets valuable enough to share? What is your competition up to? What has the person you most admire said recently? Are there any happy or disgruntled customers to respond to? What questions can you put into the Twittersphere to get almost immediate answers? What links can you glean to direct you to websites and blogs in your industry so you can learn more? OK, there’s plenty of silly antics going on, but light-relief is sometimes a good thing, and relaxed networking can gain you good contacts, especially if you have the same sense of humour!

And last but not least, Facebook. Seen as a purely social, this networking medium can be adapted for business purposes. OK, it’s great for keeping an eye on your kids while they’re travelling, catching up with your sister’s family in Australia and sharing your latest photos, (not mentioning sheep throwing and the like), but your personal profile is vital if you want to extend your Facebook uses further. Without it you cannot create group and fan pages, which can act like mini-websites or blogs that are totally searchable in one of the biggest websites on the net. Paste up your latest information in all forms of media, brainstorm some sessions, feed blog posts and answer comments and requests from your ‘fans’, while updating your status updates automatically appear on Twitter (careful what you say!). Treat it as an extension of your website and blog all over again…

This is a lot to cope with, and many worried expressions confronted me from the other side of the room as their owners puzzled how they were going to find the time to keep up with all of this. Don’t worry, you don’t need to social network constantly, just consistently. Either set aside specific times to update your profiles, or dip in and out during the day to catch up on what’s going on and pop in your contribution – you’d be amazed how much you’ll achieve! And if you really can’t keep up with it all, hire an online marketing business to do it for you – of course!

Go find your customers, don’t wait for them to find you

Alice Elliott

Gone are the days when customers came to you. The internet may be compared to a massive shopping-mall, but it is, of course, so huge, there is no way anybody could possibly walk pass your shop (website) unless they knew it was already there.

There are some websites that capitalise on this phenomenon, due to their reputation. They may display a select niche unavailable elsewhere, or provide a service that is second to none. They certainly will have a select following who sing their praises, and word-of-mouth and referrals can be the backbone of a business’s survival.

The alternative, while you are trying to obtain these dizzying heights of recognition, or fine-tune your reputation, would be to increase your visibility. To confirm my first statement, you need to go where your customers are, as well as being very easy to find.

Of course the optimum place would be on the first page on Google (every Search Engine Optimisation provider’s objective), but this is notoriously difficult to achieve. Google positioning is as unpredictable as the British weather. Research into patterns of how visitors use search engines show that many don’t pan below the ‘fold’, the area underneath what is visible, and approximately 80% don’t go further than the first page of their search.

You could spend some money on a pay-per-click campaign (Google Adwords) to achieve your first page position, but bear in mind that only about a third of surfers look at the sponsored ads. And unless you know exactly what you are doing, a huge portion of your marketing budget could be whittled away, especially if you don’t know what your objectives are.

There are alternatives to raising web-visibility. Social networking sites (Facebook is the most visited website online; Twitter is aimed at increased PR and brand awareness; LinkedIn is aimed at professionals and their Answers section could certainly raise your expertise status), blogging (which should act as an interactive hub of your online presence) and YouTube (where adverts are watched far more than on TV, and are searchable for criteria and keywords) should certainly be added into the equation, and form a considerable part of your online-marketing stategy.

So my questions are: what are you doing to bring your online presence to where your customers are? And if so, are you reaching out to the right kind of customer, or are you frequenting the correct social media for your target market?

How to use Facebook for business

Facebook has been criticised as a social medium that is aimed more towards the social side and less towards business activities.

Well, this was proved wrong by Perry, my beautician friend. She effectively used Facebook to combine social and business together to further her success.

She has just launched her new unisex beauty salon called Perry’s Beauty in Caversham, a well-to-do part of Reading. It is a wonderful place, full of purple and white (we have a lot in common), large, airy and welcoming. It’s not like a usual salon which tend to be pink and fluffy.

This was a big venture for her, because at just aged 22, she spent all her savings on what she had always wanted, her own beauty business. She also has a fantastic business brain and hopes to start franchising her business brand within the next few years – I wish her well, as I can certainly see her potential.

She wanted to create a large launch party in October and invite all her friends. The incentives were bubbly on arrival, with five minute therapies available, an enticing raffle draw and a collection towards her favourite charity. The launch was to raise awareness of her new premises, and to encourage word of mouth advertising.

She used Facebook to invite all her friends, of which 100 responded and attended the party. It was like sardines in her little salon. The press came and she got two huge write-ups in the local newspapers.

She updates her Facebook Group Page with photographs of her salon and information about her services, and aims to post special offers every month. And her clear, bright, purple branding is working, as she gets new clients every day from passing trade, plus referrals and recommendations.

By the beginning of the New Year she will start looking for an assistant so she can stay open for longer to treat more customers, and to stop working such long hours. She needs more time to work on her business, not just in it, and that includes updating her social networking profiles and pages.

Work more with your customers’ feelings

Watching the ads on telly, the Dulux paint one caught my attention.  It was very short, and it consisted of a sad girl with a green background, and then her emotions were reversed as the green changed to a cheery yellow.

Dulux were playing with how the girl felt towards her newly decorated walls. It didn’t need to say which paint to use, as it’s logo is universally recognised (very useful) but it was working on the result of her choosing a better, happier colour. It was a method which was understood by all, didn’t require too many words to cloud over the issue, and played with feelings rather than the hard sell.

That is the way to go during a recession, reverting to how are your customers going to feel if they buy your product or use your services. What tangible thing will they have in their paws they can appreciate, understand, feel good about, show others and talk about?

Word of mouth is an inexpensive and extremely powerful form of advertising, and gathering testimonials as well as warranting good comments and reports will serve you no end. Spruce up your customer relations, provide a tip top service and ask for referrals! Use the social side of your business without getting bogged down with paperwork or selling scripts!

Oh, and another good technique is to produce case studies that will explain your business – if customers can see how you’ve improved the lives of others, then they will want a piece of the pie too!