The more that people talk about your business, the more business you’re going to get.
Even though we’re in a digital age where online marketing is easy and popular, word-of-mouth is still the most powerful marketing mode at your disposal. 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and peers and 74% of people identify word-of-mouth as one of the main factors in their purchasing decisions.
Then there’s this from Contagious by Jonah Berg…
“A word-of-mouth conversation by a new customer leads to an almost $200 increase in restaurant sales.”
The point is, word of mouth is powerful.
People trust other people’s opinions, unmodified and given to them straight. But how can you generate more positive word-of-mouth for your business? How can you use word-of-mouth to get more leads, referrals, and build more brand awareness?
Here are 8 ways.
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Tip #1: Create an Impeccable Closing Process
No one likes a bad experience.
Whether you’re visiting a website, talking to someone you’ve never met before, or hiring a new business, you don’t want things to be difficult and complicated… neither do your prospects and clients.
Make your closing process as simple, honest, and clean as possible. If problems arise, see if you can solve the issue without mentioning it to your client. Give them a realistic closing date and do everything you can to stick to that — close earlier if you can!
Optimize and iterate your internal processes until clients seamlessly move from home-seller to cash-in-hand. They’ll thank you for it and they’ll tell all their friends about how easy working with you was.
Tip #2: Help The Client However You Can
The easiest way to build more word-of-mouth for your business is to impress your clients. The people who decide to work with you… make it your mission to blow them away with how awesome your service is.
Go above and beyond to solve any problems you can help them solve, even if it’s unrelated to the service that you offer. Give them referrals to great lawyers, listen to their story, propose solutions to house-selling obstacles, and always have the client’s best interest in mind.
Then, when they’re finished working with you, they won’t be able to stop telling all their friends about how your business helped them.
Tip #3: Choose a Unique Selling Proposition
What sets your business apart? What makes you different from market competitors? Why should people work with you?
The answer to those questions aren’t just great for convincing leads to work with you, they’re also great for word-of-mouth marketing.
Think about it, if you’ve branded your business as the best house buyer for people going through probate, then you’ll be the first person that comes to mind when people are going through probate and need to sell their home. If you’ve branded your business as the best company for helping people sell a home during divorce, then you’ll be the first person people think of when they’re going through divorce and need to sell their home.
When you have a compelling and distinguishable selling proposition, the right people talk about your business more often.
Tip #4: Do Something Noteworthy
One of the best ways to get people talking about your business… is to do something different, weird, or unexpected.
Nothing gets people talking quite like irresistible gossip — and if your business is a fundamental part of what people are gossiping about, then you’re generating tons of word-of-mouth for free.
So engage your natural creativity and cook up something that people won’t be able to stop talking about.
Could you lead a protest about something that you really believe in? Could you do a flash mob in the middle of your local shopping center? Could you pay street performers to keep your sign nearby?
If you can get the local media’s attention, even better!
The sky is the limit here — it just depends on how creative and willing you are to do something people can’t forget.
Tip #5: Start Asking For Referrals
I’m not going to beat a dead horse here, but you need to start asking for referrals if you’re not already. This is the lowest-hanging fruit in regards to generating word-of-mouth for your business; just ask people to tell their friends about you!
If a client was happy working with you, then they will be more than happy to give your business a referral. But only if you ask.
Tip #6: Share Client Testimonials
Get an awesome testimonial from a client?
Awesome! Share it everywhere you can — on social media, with your email list, with prospects who might be interested in seeing it. People trust testimonials nearly as much as they trust recommendations from close friends. Make sure to take advantage of that fact and give your testimonials the furthest reach they can possibly muster.
Tip #7: Collect Reviews
In order to share testimonials and in order to generate positive word-of-mouth, you’ll need to proactively collect reviews for your business. Even if a client was exceptionally happy about your service, they probably won’t give you a review unless you ask for one.
But reviews are immensely powerful for converting prospects, encouraging leads to call you in the first place, and creating word-of-mouth buzz about your business.
Whenever you can encourage people to talk positively about your company, you should. And asking for reviews is one easy way to do so.
Tip #8: Give Money to Charity
Passionate about a charitable cause?
Well, not only can giving some of your profits to charity make the world a little bit brighter, it can also generate really healthy word-of-mouth for your business.
Lots of big companies use this strategy to generate buzz — TOMS, Skyline Socks, and Better World Books have built entire brands using this marketing method.
So… why not your business? Why not make the world a better place and create buzz for your business at the same time.
Win-win.