Word of mouth is the oldest form of marketing out there. You do a great job for one customer and that customer goes and sings your praises to other people that then become your customers too. A lot of small businesses try to curtail their marketing budget by relying on word of mouth. The problem is that it is hard to be profitable or to scale business from word of mouth alone. The catch 22 is that you have to keep an influx of customers that will continue to tell new people about your business for the word of mouth method to be successful. The problem is, not enough customers actually tell others about your business –even if they had a great experience.
Although your business may not survive from word of mouth alone, it is still a great practice to ask for referrals along with having traditional and social media marketing strategies. Here are a few ways get your referrals rolling in:
- start with delivering more than you promise and make good on your promise to your customers by selling great products and giving excellent service
- ask for the referral; sometimes customers simply need to be reminded to spread the word
- offer an incentive that would be valuable enough to your current customers for them to go right out and bring in new customers for you
Word of mouth marketing is not obsolete. It is however, just one part of a marketing plan. For information on creating a total marketing plan, let’s talk. Go HERE.
