Today, let’s talk about how word of mouth marketing messages are delivered and how you can influence those messages.
There are essentially 3 methods of word of mouth marketing:
• Expert to Expert
• Expert to Peer
• Peer to Peer
EXPERT WORD OF MOUTH MARKETING
When experts are talking about your products or service you will usually receive an amazing rush of sales and new customers, so obviously this is one of the best things that can happen. You can also help to facilitate this by offering free products to experts for them to review.
Expert opinion can also bring about new ideas that help to fuel new products, services and operating systems within your company. If you take the time to change or develop the opinions of even a small group of experts, you will have the opportunity to help your market explode.
There is a standard word of mouth delivery system that, in most cases, takes a few years. But, you can speed this up into only a few weeks.
The standard system is:
• First impressions from an expert
• Organized trial of your products or services
• Pooling peer experiences
It’s important to know exactly who is advocating for your products and service. Take the time to find out who they are and reward them. While you may already have a customer service system for filing complaints, do you have one for compiling praise? Most likely not. If you take the time to show these people appreciation, they will help take your products and services to the top.
Some of the ways you can show them appreciation are:
• Invite them to a customer appreciation dinner
• Offer to video tape their testimonials
• Ask to interview them for feedback to foster improvement
• Offer them a premier customer membership
• Ask them to join a referral incentive program
PEER WORD OF MOUTH MARKETING
There are lots of things you can offer your biggest fans to help spread the word about your products and services.
Conventional media has been around forever and while it can still be effective it’s lost a little of its luster over the last few years.
There are a few reasons for this:
• It’s expensive and doesn’t necessarily return results
• It can be boring & lacking in something fresh and new
• It is often in too short of a time slot to offer enough information
While these are all true, there are ways you can make conventional media work for you. For the information to be effective it needs to be presented in the right sequence, come from the right sources, be relevant to the target customer, be credible and be delivered at the right time in the medium. This then, is the starting point of your peer-to-peer word of mouth marketing. It starts the story for people to share.
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WORD OF MOUTH AND THE PRODUCT ADOPTION CYCLE
We’re going to switch gears a little and talk about the two phases of the product adoption cycle. Traditional media is great for taking you through the information stage where you can offer the information you need to your potential customers, but it’s not so great for measuring the results of those efforts.
Without these results you can’t fine tune your marketing and therefore it can easily miss the boat, lose potential customers and waste a whole lot of money. Once a consumer has the information they need, they’ll go through a verification process as they analyze whether or not the purchase was a good one. This is often done by comparing what experts say and what peers say. Word of mouth reviews can be the marketing tool that seals the buying decision.
Consumers generally get their information through:
• Direct experience with the product
• Interaction with peers using the same product
• Experts’ experience
• Scientific journals and other resources
• Independent reviews and opinions
You can accelerate this process by:
• Providing your own demos and free trials
• Offering them indirect experience through the experience of others
• Offering a good, true story that can be passed around
Notice that the last part of this marketing/ product adoption funnel is peer to peer word of mouth marketing.
Once you have the ability and are able to work through these concepts, you will be able to target your customers much better.
If you need help with any of this along the way, try our GUIDED TOUR at www.iamcharlottehoward.com to gain access to our experienced business coaches.
To Your Success!
Charlotte
Charlotte Howard is the Founder of the Hair Artist Association with over 4000 members, CEO of Heart Centered Women Publishing, Founder of Wealthy Women Inner Circle and Co-Founder of Wealthy Women Entrepreneurs.
She’s written and published thousands of best selling books. She’s one of the most-highly paid board certified book writing prosperity life coaches, women’s book publishing consultants and influential women’s book publishing expert trainers in the world.
Charlotte has been called by the Information Marketing Journal an “Information Marketing Genius”. Amazon and the Yearbook of Experts named her one of the most influential women in the world of beauty, business and women’s transformational book publishing industries.
She is also in the Top 1% Most Followed Transformational Public Figures In Beauty, Women’s Business and Women Book Publishing on LinkedIn, with over 100,000+ fans across her pages.
Charlotte is a proud homeschooling mom of 4 beautiful kids. She loves the beach, reading, writing and traveling with family and friends. She is an avid Netflix and Amazon Prime lover. Since leaving corporate america she’s finally been able to enjoy a freedom based lifestyle and believes everyone should be able to do the same.
