The Day Word Of Mouth Referral Marketing Became World Of Mouth
Tags: referral marketing, social media marketing, word of mouth marketing, world of mouth
Monday March 21st 2011
The New Buzz Words For Your Business “World Of Mouth“
One of the best ways in which to build any business is through word of mouth referral marketing. As an offline business owner of a company that reached a £1.4 million pound turnover our highest referral rate was around 95% because we offered a good customer experience and offered very good customer service.
You may have noticed the increase in REVIEWS online for hotels, books and restaurants and it will have an effect on the way we shop around for the best deal. How many of you have used Google to do some research for a hotel, read negative reviews about it and decided NOT to even think about going there!
We are bombarded by marketing messages every day from all sorts of places, on the radio on our drive to work, billboards as we queue in the traffic, TV, the internet and even our beloved mobile phones are being targeted more and more as our habits change from PC .. to Laptop .. to phone to check our email.
It has become increasingly important to us what “our best friends” experiences are like when they buy something new or try a new restaurant and as an online business owner you need to be very aware of the current trends. People are becoming NUMB to marketing messages and IMMUNE to TV adverts, with SKY+ and TIVO most people are choosing to skip past infomercials and adverts and just watch the TV on their terms.
You Tube is full of REAL TOTALLY BELIEVABLE PEOPLE and that is who your customer is more likely to trust, rather than a glossy production that features a celebrity endorsing a product that they probably wouldn’t if they were not getting paid to. This is how consumers buy today and this is exactly why building your brand in the right way is so important today.
You cannot just have a beautiful website and they will come like in Field of Dreams anymore. Social Media is the most amazingly effective way to build your brand for free, *NB you will still want to use Paid Advertising but with Social Media you have the ultimate way to hang out where the people are and make an impact.
So where is everybody?
Social Networks in 2010 were up 22% and that was an increase of 43% on the year before.
Email is down 28% … video is UP!
Twitter’s growth rate from 2009 – 2010 was 368%
Facebook’s was over 250% .. although Facebook is clearly headed for some kind of world domination, Twitter is not far behind.
50% of employees defy company policies regarding using social networks while at work and one third of Facebook users check their Facebook updates and requests before they brush their teeth!
People do not want to talk on the phone as much now, if you talk to your friends everyday on Facebook and see their updates why would you want to call them? Worse for telemarketers and cold callers .. if people are wondering why their friends are calling them .. they are going to be hostile to strangers calling them out of the blue.
So in case things aren’t very clear yet … your business NEEDS Social Media .., not because it’s free .. but because it’s your customer’s preferred way of connecting with you, your brand and your company.
To be a good networker, or someone who attracts others to them requires that you LISTEN and are approachable and friendly, people will go a LONG WAY to avoid an obvious “sales hunter” with dollar signs in their eyes! Facebook has a different etiquette to Twitter, and remember anything that is said on Facebook .. stays on Facebook.
In 2011 you need to think about your business in a new three dimensional way ..
Content Marketing + Paid Advertising + Social Media = the new formula that includes the VITAL ingredient right now … WORLD of MOUTH
Share the message & be INSPIRED to TAKE ACTION today!
Diane Cossie
Creative Online Marketing Tip For This Week
“Diversify Your Traffic At All Costs.”
I learn from some of the best marketers in the world and I learned this from Daegan Smith …. one thing is clear I’d rather have a steady flow of traffic that supports a business long term than risk putting all my eggs in one basket for immediate profits, and the reason is I like my lifestyle .. it’s flexible and adaptable.
There are basically two ways to create a long term stable business in the direct response marketing world. The first is to build your business around the media of direct mail. The reason is, if there was one media that IS stable, it’s direct mail. If you can make that work, you can make it work for a long time because it’s mature.
* We who play online are NOT working in a mature media world.
Every single day things change, things we can do today we may not be able to do tomorrow (I.E. Adwords), and building our business on that slippery slope is dangerous.
The way to build a business that’s stable in a non mature media world (i.e. constantly changing) is to build on a base of diversification. If any one source of traffic goes away, just as Adengage just did, it’s not going to devastate my business.
It’s a HUGE mistake to see one new traffic source as the “KEY” to your wealth.
If you want to make sure your business survives and your choice is to market online, make sure you’re getting traffic daily from at least 10 or more unique sources.
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Be Inspired Today To Give It All You’ve Got!
