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How to Spur
Word of Mouth
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Your goal as the business owner is to get people to talk often, favorably
and in the right way about your products. Learn some of the ways you can
spur the buzz about your business.
By Mayumi Mendoza
Staff Writer
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Sociologist Stanley Milgram developed
the proposition known as the small world phenomenon in 1967, that states
that a chain of six people at most connects every person in the United
States. Popularly known as six degrees of separation, this theory has even
seeped into pop world culture with the popular Kevin Bacon game.
(article continued below ...)
Understanding that each person is connected to six other persons
underscores the power of word of mouth in marketing your business. A person
can share information and influence other people about a product or service
quickly and easily.
For example, Melinda may have visited your restaurant and was extremely
pleased with the food and the quality of service. Upon reaching her
apartment, she calls her sister and recommends your restaurant, who in turn
calls her boyfriend who then calls his buddies, and so forth and so on. Word
can travel fast in this small world.
Your goal then, as the business owner, is to get people to talk often,
favorably and in the right way about your products. Below are some of the
ways you can spur the buzz about your business.
Develop a high quality product.
The first step to generating buzz about your business is to produce or sell
a meaningful and quality product. It must possess a quality that is worth
talking about. Your product may be something that improves the quality of
life, innovative, and connects or elicits passion among its customers.
People will not hesitate to pass on or recommend to others a product that
they think offers something valuable.
Ask for it.
Don t hesitate to request your customers and prospects to recommend you to
any other person or organizations they think might benefit from your
products or services. A happy customer will be more than willing to talk
about you to their circle of family and acquaintances. Request them to give
you a list of friends or family members that you can contact or include in
your mailing list. Also ask people to pass the word about important company
news and product developments.
Create something to talk about.
Find every example of what you want to promote, such as superior customer
service, and spread the stories, since word of mouth tend to spread by
stories
Set up a formal referral system.
Referrals can allow you to bring in quality new customers at a fraction of
the cost of advertising. The key is to start with a quality product or
service that other people can feel confident about referring your business
to their friends, family members or others. Then give them incentives to
spread the word about your business.
One effective way to solicit referrals is to approach businesses that
offer complimentary (but not competing) products or services, then
requesting them to refer clients to you. For a business selling baby books
and videos, a good referral partner would be a business selling baby clothes
or furniture. Same market, but different products fulfilling different
needs. For every client referred to you, you will pay them the agreed
referral fee.
Develop contacts with key people in your field.
According to authors Jon Berry and Ed Keller in their book "The Influentials:
One American in Ten Tells the Other Nine How to Vote, Where to Eat, and What
to Buy", consumers today place more weight on the recommendations of their
more influential neighbors than what they see or hear on TV. So-called
opinion leaders, these people have the power to influence the general public
and the consumers.
Create a test market and collect testimonials.
Experts say that the best strategy for word-of-mouth marketing is to seed
your product in a group. This can be achieved by selecting a small group of
influencers who can try and test your products, then use their testimonials
in your ad campaigns. Book publishers for example, sends out draft copies of
new books to key people in the target market for review and comments.
May 4, 2004
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