Tapping into the Power of Word of Mouth Marketing

If you ever needed proof of the power of Word of Mouth Marketing, look no further than the Nielson report from October of 2007. 

"Word-of-Mouth the Most Powerful Selling Tool" is the title of the Nielson report and after surveying nearly 27,000 internet users from around the world, Neilson found that the most trusted form of advertising was "recommendations from consumers" aka "Word of Mouth Marketing."  The trust rating on word of mouth was the highest of all forms of advertising at 78 percent.

So how powerful is YOUR Word of Mouth Marketing?

Do you have a plan in place to ensure that the talk on the street about you and your product is positive and enhancing to your bottom line?  Do you know how to get people talking about you and your business?  Do people even know that you are in business?  I mean, of course your friends and family KNOW you are in business ... but do they know how to talk about your business in a way that creates interest and referrals for you?

Most business people want to have good things said about them and hope that their message will spread like wild fire.  They truly do.  Sadly, hope, is not a good strategy.  To make the most of your marketing message, you must have a plan ... and that plan must start with you. 

Garbage in - garbage out

This is something that we've all heard about in and around communication especially when it comes to computers.  If you put bad or incomplete or confusing information in, you are going to get the same result coming out the other end.

The same is true with people.  If your branding or marketing message is not clear to you, how can you ever expect that others, upon hearing your message, will become ardent in spreading the word for you?  If you are not clear about what you have to offer and why, by golly, people should be beating a path to your door, then how can you expect anyone else to be any better at passing the message along?  A confused mind always says no ... and you don't want people confused about your business!

Sadly, most people (hopefully not you) have not taken the time to really think through what they should be saying.  They have not deemed it necessary to craft an easy to remember, easy to repeat message to make sure that the good word about them gets spread easily far and wide.

Networking is all about creating Word-of-Mouth Marketing

But you already knew that, right?  Everyone who is out networking is working to build awareness of and for their business with the plan of eventually finding new clients.  A great networker knows that in building relationships with others, they are likely to gain the trust of these others who will then become advocates for them.  And I'm sure that you want to have plenty of advocates who will talk you up to their friends, family, and clients.

I like to think of it as creating an army of walking, talking billboards.  You've experienced this whenever someone raves to you about someone else.  They might say something like, "Oh, my gosh, I know the perfect solution for you.  You really need to meet so and so.  Let me get you their info.  I know that they will take excellent care of you and they are just the person to solve that problem for you!"  Walking, talking billboards spread the word about you and your business when you aren't there to do it for yourself!

How do you get people talking about you like that? 

Well, first, I'm going to assume that you know that you need to build good, strong, reciprical relationships.  And, I'm going to assume that you have worked through the stages of helping people get to know you, like you, and trust you.  (If you need help with any of those please feel free to visit my blog at http://thesavvynetworker.typepad.com for articles to help you with that.) 

Your advocate team will become walking, talking billboards for you when they like you, trust you, and want to support you in your success.  Most people who will become buzz builders for you do it as much for you as for themselves.  That is because most people LIKE to help other people.  And they like to be seen as "in the know." So help them become buzz builders for you by giving them great information to pass along about you.

Craft a memorable and impactful message to get your word of mouth groove going

People who convey confidence and create interest in their products or services have a high awareness of how they serve their clients.  They have spent time thinking about the who, what, how, where, and why of their business.  And you can do this too:

• WHO - who do I serve?  Who are my favorite clients - which ones make my heart sing? (the kind I want more of)  Who are my not so favorite clients - which ones give me heart burn? (the ones I want less of)  And who are the folks in between? 
   
• WHAT - what is the pain that my clients feel?  What problems do they have?  What issues keep them awake at night?  What is their greatest fear? 
   
• HOW - How do I solve my favorite client's pain?  How do I help them?  How do I relieve their stress?  How do I become their champion? 
   
• WHERE - Where do I serve my favorite clients?  Do I go to them?  Do they come to me?  Do I serve them in person?  Do I serve them over the internet?  Do I serve them individually or in groups?  Do I work locally or globally? 
   
• WHY - Why should anybody care about what I do? This one answers the "what's in it for me?" question that everyone is always thinking about.

Once you've figured out the answers to these questions, you can craft the information into a tight presentation that covers the emotional reasons that people do business with you. 

And then you practice, polish, and practice some more.  Kind of like WASH, RINSE, REPEAT.

Activate the Mental Rolodex

When you have faithfully thought through these questions about your business, you can easily paint a picture of your business and how you help people that your advocates can then carry around in their own mental rolodex.  

The next time they hear someone complaining about an issue that you can solve - click, whirl, click - their mental rolodex will kick into gear.  The word pictures that you created and embedded in their brain (top of mind awareness) will be activated and they'll SEE you as the solution.  AND, they'll advance your business in excited terms and move that referral right along to you.

Help others to help you spread the word about your business

Become aware of the component parts of your personal marketing message.  Hone in on the emotional hooks that will get people interested in learning more about what you do.  Practice your presentation so that it simply and effortlessly rolls off your tongue. Build relationships and be an advocate for others.  And remember to smile and be friendly. 

When you take the time to prepare, your confident message will take wings and your word of mouth marketing will soar!

(Zita is hosting a Biznik event to discuss the book Endless Referrals on May 6th in Bellevue, WA click here for more details)