In the last post we talked about how to conduct word of mouth research and then put that research to work. Today we’re going to give you some great tried and true ways to use word of mouth when building and executing your campaign. Put it to Work!
We’ve done it in a list form, so you can go through and highlight the ones you want to put into action. These are offered by George Silverman which you can find in his amazing book The Secrets of Word of Mouth Marketing.
Here they are:
• Give them something worth talking about
• Cater to your initial customers shamelessly
• Give them incentives to engage in word of mouth
• Ask them to tell their friends
• The customer is always right
• Always tell the truth
• Surprise the customers by giving them a little more than they expected
• Give them a reason to buy, make them come back and refuse service from anyone else other than you
• Make eye contact, and smile, even through the telephone
• Find ways to make doing business with you a little better: a warmer greeting, a cleaner floor, nicer lighting, a better shopping bag, extra matches, faster service, free delivery, lower prices, more selection.
• Never be annoyed when a customer asks you to change a large bill even if he doesn't buy anything.
• The customer is your reason for being. Never take her for granted. If you do, she will never come back, and will go straight to your competition.
• Always dust off items, but never let the customer see you doing it.
• Never embarrass a customer, especially by making him feel ignorant.
• Never answer a question coming from a desire to show how smart you are. Answer with a desire to help the customer make the best decision.
• Never shout across the store, "How much are these condoms?" or anything about the personal items a customer is buying.
• When you don't know, say so. Do whatever you can to find out the answer.
• Every customer is special. Try to remember their names.
• Don't allow known shoplifters into the store.
• Don't ever let two sales staff talk when a customer is waiting. The worst thing you can do is count your cash while a customer is waiting.
• If you can suggest something better, they will be grateful. Always respect their choice.
• Never pressure anyone into buying anything.
• Never knowingly give bad advice. Just help people come to the right decision.
• Personally visit the store of the competition or assign people to visit and report back to you.
• Hire a shopping service to prepare periodic reports on how your people are treating your customers.
• If you hear of a store where the management is insulting the customers, buy it, then put up the sign "Under New Management" outside. Then sell it later based on the increased sales.
• One expert (in the drugstore's case, a nurse or physician) who is convinced you are better brings hundreds of customers and their friends through word of mouth.
• Always look for ways to make a stranger a customer.
• People will walk several blocks to save a dollar, or see a smile, or be treated right.
• Always run a sale promotion or an offbeat event. Make them come back to see what you are cooking up next.
• Use the best sign-maker you can find and pay him more than anybody else.
• If someone is mad at you, they will tell everyone who will listen for as long as they are angry, maybe even longer. So correct any dissatisfaction, and ask customers to send their friends.
• Treat your employees and salespeople who sell to you the same way you treat your customers.
• Have a zero error system. There may be terrible consequences for example, if a mistake is made filling a prescription. Have people check each other's work for safety.
• Occasionally make intentional mistakes to see if people are checking.
• Always measure your performance.
• Always ask a customer to "come back soon"
• If customers say they are moving away, offer to send them their favorite items by mail.
• Tell jokes.
I know this is a lot of information to digest, so I we’re going to wrap up this lesson and leave you with the homework of going through and taking a look at the tips and tricks you like best. Also, look for tips that fit your company, products, services and target customers for the most effectiveness.
For help visit www.deepequity.net
S.H.O.C.K. Strategic Marketing "Everything you know about marketing your business is WRONG!" I specialize in finding immediate cash hidden inside businesses. Take my 45 min. / $10,000 challenge. www.deepequity.net
Monday, August 29, 2016
Friday, August 19, 2016
Search & Implement
People only remember the extraordinary, strange, wild,
surprising and unusual. You need to make sure your ideas and marketing reflect
these reactions. This doesn’t mean you have to have a product or service that is
completely out of the norm, in fact, this could easily drive customers away.
You need to have a product or service that is high quality and easily
marketable, then you need to market it as extraordinary and new.
As you’re research word of mouth, there are some questions
you need to ask along the way:
What are the users willing to tell the non-users?
·
Exactly how do
your customers describe your product?
·
What are the
non-users willing to ask the users?
·
What are the
things they need to know, but are unwilling to ask?
·
What happens when
these issues are raised?
·
Exactly what do
your prospects have to know in order to trigger purchase?
· Exactly how do
your customers answer the objections, concerns, and qualms of your prospects?
·
How do your
customers persuade their friends to use your product?
·
How do your
customers suggest they initially get to know or try your product?
·
What warnings,
safeguards, tips, and suggestions do your customers suggest to your prospects?
·
Are your sales
messages, positioning, and important facts about your product getting through
and surviving word of mouth?
·
What messages do
you need to inject into the marketplace in order to turn the tide in your favor
and how will you deliver them?
There are two main reasons why word of mouth research is so
important:
- To get the real impression and
feedback from customers
- To define word of mouth itself
and the concept it creates
There is a simple formula that can help you conduct your word
of mouth research. It’s called the “2-2-2” model.
2-2-2- Model
What this breaks down to is:
·
2 groups of
customers
·
2 focus groups of
prospects
·
2 mixed groups
(enthusiasts & skeptics)
In these groups you need to ask the following questions:
- What would you tell a friend?
- How would you persuade a
skeptic?
- What questions would you
anticipate from a skeptic?
- How would you answer their
objections?
The best way to conduct these groups is by teleconference.
This ensures you’ll get a good variety of demographics for your customers and
potential customers. It also allows people to feel safe and more able to
express their true feelings. These teleconferences should not be conducted by
you, but an independent party to avoid adding pressure to the situation.
We’re going to transition a bit and talk about how to
construct a word of mouth campaign. First we’ll talk a look at the essential
ingredients you need to put together a campaign.
These ingredients are:
·
A superior
product
·
A way of reaching
key influencers in your marketplace
·
A cadre of
experts willing to bat for you
·
A large number of
enthusiastic consumers
·
A way of reaching
the right prospects
· One or more
compelling stories that people will want to tell to illustrate your product's
superiority
· A way to
substantiate, prove, or back up your claims and how the product will work in
the real world
·
A way for people
to have direct, low-risk experience, a demo, sample, or free trial
·
A way of reducing
overall risk, an ironclad guarantee
Once you have those ingredients
ready to use, you should consider the situations in which your company can benefit
from a strong word of mouth programs.
Some of these situations are:
·
When there are
credibility problems
·
When there are
breakthroughs
·
When there are
marginal improvements
·
Where the product
has to be tried in large numbers or over time
·
Where there is high
risk in trying the product
·
With older or
mature products that have a new story that people tend to ignore
·
With unfair
competitive practices such as spreading rumors, or telling lies about your
product
·
When there are
governmental or other restrictions on what you may say or claim directly
While, most of the word of mouth tactics are positive for
your word of mouth program, there are a few products to avoid using in this
program.
They are:
·
Products where a
seminar would not provide meaningful added value
·
Products that
can't be tried and where there is no consensus among experts
· Products that are
clearly inferior, without having a compensating superiority for similar
products
·
Products that are
so personal or emotion that rational discussion is irrelevant to the decision
·
Products where
the decision value is so small (low price/low volume) the medium will not be
cost-effective.
This wraps up this post on word
of mouth research and how that research can be used when putting together your
word of mouth campaign.
Thursday, August 11, 2016
Science of the Memes
Science of the Memes
Today I'd like to discuss the science of the memes and how
spreading ideas around and through society is ingrained in humans.
Memes
This refers to types of ideas that spread the fastest through
society, why they spread fast and how that affects consumerism. You can use
this same information to create a lasting positive impression about your
company, products and services. People are more likely to try a new product or
services when they feel protected and reassured by the masses.
It’s been determined that spreading ideas is essential to the
survival of a society. There are 5 main situations where this occurs. They are:
- Crisis
- Mission
- Problem
- Danger
- Opportunity
Think of evangelism. This is prime example of people not only
spreading the word, but convincing people to jump on board and start to spread
the word themselves. To do this effectively, you need to incorporate a few key
things that always catch people’s eye:
- Sex
- News
- Unique Results
- The Unusual
- Helping Others
- Secrets
Next we are going to switch gears a little and talk about
viral marketing. While, traditional marketing can be used to your advantage,
the reality is viral and online marketing is the king of the castle. You can
spread the word online like the plague, if you know what to do. Here are some
simple steps to do this:
- Find an interesting idea
- Make it easy for people to experience or trial
- Spread the idea while people who are in close contact with others
- Take advantage of existing communication methods
- Develop the way of trying your product in such a way that it automatically draws more try-ers
Some great places to use viral marketing are:
- Geocities
- Ebay
- Roger Wilco
- ICQ
- AOL Instant Messenger
- MSN Instant Messenger
- Winamp
- Hotmail
- “Tell A Friend” Buttons
- E-Greeting Cards
There are six things everyone should be doing to benefit from
word of mouth on the Internet:
- Put WOM components on your website.
- Assign people to monitor your viral marketing.
- Place testimonials in different places on your website to walk a customer through the purchasing cycle.
- Set up an email marketing campaign.
- Stay up to date on what products and services the experts in your industry are recommending.
- Use your website to demonstrate the great ways people are using or finding success with your products and services.
- Here are other non-viral Internet opportunities to explore:
- iPhone's
- Handheld PC’s
- Blackberrys
And other well connected electronic devices
For more FREE marketing information visit www.deepequity.net
Friday, August 5, 2016
Decoding WOM Messages
Today we will talk about how word of mouth messages are
delivered and how you can influence those messages.
There are essentially 3 methods of word of mouth:
·
Expert to Expert
·
Expert to Peer
·
Peer to Peer
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 improve with
·
Offer them a
premier customer membership
·
Ask them to join
a referral incentive program
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:
·
Expensive and doesn’t
necessarily return results
·
Boring, lacking
something fresh and new
·
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.
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 can easily miss the boat and 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. They 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 demo’s and free trials
·
Offer them
indirect experience through the experience of others
·
Offer a good true
story that can be passed around
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 go to www.twfics.com/one-on-one-coaching
Monday, August 1, 2016
WOM Meets Customers Head-On
Today we'll cover the idea of
shortening your customers’ decision making process with positive word of mouth.
There are essentially 5 stages in the decision making process.
They are:
- Give
the product a chance and transitions from a “no” to a “maybe”.
- Check
out the options and investigate the different products available.
- Observe
the product to check for potential benefits, features and operations to
see if there is a fit with their needs.
- Become
a customer and purchase their first item. They will be discriminate with
their first product as they form their opinion of you.
- Purchases
again and starts spreading positive word of mouth as an advocate of your
products.
So, let’s take a closer look at each one of these.
From “No” to “Maybe”
This stage is really important
because if your potential customers don’t even take a second look at your
products and services, then you have no chance of sealing a deal. This is why
you need to offer credible information and well thought out pricing, guarantees
and incentives.
Investigating Your Products
At this stage they are taking a
closer look at your product line to see if there is actually anything that
could benefit their life. This is where you need to make sure your hard
information is right out there in front for the customers to see and compare.
Trial Period
Customers often feel more at
ease and ready to purchase when there is some sort of a trial in place. They
usually want to try vicariously through someone else, so they don’t feel any
risk involved. A good way to offer this is through demo videos, product
demonstrations or a tour of your facilities. This stage may invoke a reaction
of “I tried it and liked it. You should check it out.”
Make a Purchase
At this stage, they have taken
the risk of purchasing one of your products or services and are now evaluating
how easy, convenient, cost effective and satisfying your product or service is.
At this stage a common reaction would be, “It was really easy to use and learn
from. It’s really great, you should get it!”
Advocates for Yours Products
At this last stage of decision
making the customer is immensely pleased with your product and often keeps
using it and/or comes back for more products and services. They are likely telling
everyone they know how much they like it, that they use it every day and have
already (or will be) back to your establishment for more.
We talked a minute ago about the
different types of purchasers. Now we are going to take a closer look at their
characteristics, so you can figure out which tactics are best to use at the
right stage of the decision making process.
The Innovator
- Wants
to stand out from the crowd
- Know
what’s hot and trendy
- Likes
“strange” or “weird” new products
- Wants
to be the first to try and will talk about it animatedly
Early Adopter
- Driven
by excellence
- More
concerned with possibilities than realities
- Always
looking to be a leader
- Always
looking for a new vision
Middle Majority
- Wants
to be perceived as competent
- Concerned
about practicality and easy comparisons
- Needs
an easy way out if not satisfied
- Wants
products that meet the industry standard
Late Majority
- Generally
skeptical and wants to know the risks upfront
- Needs
to shop around for the best deal
- Needs
a support system
- Wants
what everyone else has
Laggard
- Needs
it to be completely safe and traditional
- Needs
reassurance that nothing will go wrong
- Won’t
try new things unless it’s the last resort
- Will
search for loopholes and problems
- Wants
to use it in the standard industry way
As you can see, each type of
consumer wants something just a little different depending on their personality
type. The key to successful word of mouth is to target and cater to each type
of consumer.
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