Back to: Sparking Word-of-Mouth from Customers To Boost Your Bottom Line

So, let’s say you are finding ways to stand out and be talkable, but you feel you need a little more “oomph” to get the word out. Here are some Word-of-Mouth Strategies to consider.

Good word-of-mouth marketing strategies involve finding ways to support satisfied customers and making it easier for them to talk to their friends.

Encouraging communications

  • Developing tools to make telling a friend easier,
  • Creating forums and feedback tools, and
  • Working with social networks.

Creating communities and connecting people

  • Creating user groups and fan clubs,
  • Supporting independent groups that form around your product,
  • Hosting discussions and message boards about your products, or
  • Enabling grassroots organization such as local meetings and other real-world participation.

Working with influential communities

  • Finding people who are likely to respond to your message,
  • Identifying people who can influence your target customers,
  • Informing these people about what you do and encouraging them to spread the word, and
  • Good-faith efforts to support issues and causes that are important to these people.

Creating evangelist or advocate programs

  • Providing recognition and tools to active advocates, and
  • Recruiting new advocates, teaching them about the benefits of your products, and encouraging them to talk about them.

Researching and listening to customer feedback

  • Tracking online and offline conversations by supporters, detractors, and neutrals, and…
  • Listening and responding to both positive and negative conversations.

Engaging in transparent conversation

  • Encouraging two-way conversations with interested parties,
  • Creating blogs and other tools to share information, and
  • Participating openly in online blogs and discussions.

Co-creation and information sharing

  • Involving consumers in marketing and creative (feedback on creative campaigns, allowing them to create commercials, etc.), and
  • Letting customers ‘behind the curtain’ to have first access to information and content.