Guest Post: Great Word of Mouth Marketing Strategies for Your Business

One of the first steps you should take when starting a business is deciding how you will market your products or services. There are so many marketing strategies to choose from, and you should constantly be reviewing and changing any problems with your marketing strategy if you want to have a successful business. Word of mouth marketing (WOMM) can be a very powerful strategy if used properly. It’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s usually free.

 

If you decide to focus on WOMM, you should know that there is no right or wrong way to this approach. Each company is different, so what works for you may not work for another business, or even one of your competitors. You will need to find the best way for your company to maximize exposure, so here are a few strategies you could use from the beginning.

Talk to friends

If you don’t have much experience in sales, or you are not very experienced in marketing, you may find it difficult to sell your business to others, especially those who are closest to you. You may feel like you are putting a burden on them or that they won’t understand what you are trying to do with your business. Word of mouth marketing is a perfect solution. This way, you are not asking them to sustain your business financially, but you are asking them to tell others about the great qualities of your business. When you ask your friends and family to tell their others about your business, you will be able to trust the information they are giving to your potential new customers. Starting with those who are closest to you will give you a way to promote yourself and your business with a strong support group to back you up.

Give before you take

You could also start supporting other small businesses in your community to gain their support in return. When you make an effort to help those around you, their customers could start to talk about your business as well. Make sure that the other businesses and their customers know how much you care and support them, and they will be more likely to share positive information about you.

From there, you could try giving out free samples to people who will use them. This process is called seeding because you are “planting a seed” that will grow by word-of-mouth. The key with this strategy is to find people who will like your product enough to tell others about your business. These customers should also have a strong influence on others as well as the ability and the resources to tell many other potential customers about your product.  Once you have sent out the free samples, make sure you follow up with the recipients to see if they enjoyed the product and ask them if they will tell their friends and family. Sometimes, all you need to do is ask.

Customer service is the key

With any business, customer service is always the key to success. A happy customer may be able to help your business a little, but an unhappy customer can do a lot of damage, especially to a small business. When you think about it, customer service is an investment. You want to build strong relationships with your customers so that they want to tell everyone about their great experiences with your business. There are more than a few ways to approach customer service to ensure positive word of mouth, but these are the strategies I found most beneficial.

• Go above and beyond – When you go above and beyond what your customer expects, they will definitely have a reason to talk about your business. Try to exceed even your best customer’s expectations, and treat every customer with that level of enthusiasm.
• Make customers feel like insiders – Ask your customers what they think about your business, your products, and/or your services, and then actually listen to what they have to say. Let them know that their opinion matters to you, and that you want to do what is best for them.
• Provide quality service from the start – This will give even the newest customer something to talk about.
• Respect – It’s sad that this must be included, but some businesses simply don’t treat their customers with respect. Even something as small as knowing a customer’s name will let them know that you are trustworthy.
• Stay in touch – Keep your customers informed about sales and send them any coupons that might help them save some money. Enough of this communication will increase their visits to your business and keep them talking about you.

Author Bio:

Amy Young is an author who writes about small business ventures and marketing advice to help the small business owner.  The company she works for strives to help small business owners with financial and credit problems. 

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