Ask your parents and grandparents how they found businesses when they were growing up. Maybe if they grew up in the larger cities, they'll tell you the Yellow Pages...but you will find more often than not, it was word of mouth. Let's take a look at the value of this.
Word of mouth, first and foremost was free advertising. This plays out in two different ways. One, you don't have to pay for any of it! The second is what it means to the potential client...you didn't pay for it, so it's going to be more honest. As a consumer you watch advertisements all the time, and wonder how much of something is real. Television ads stretch the truth and so do most marketing companies... (We will not alter reality or stretch the truth for you. Don't ask.) Free advertising is unsolicited truth and bears that credibility. Expanding on credibility... where did they hear it from? Because the reference is someone they know, your product instantly inherited their credibility.
Now lets talk about consumer numbness... You click on a link in Facebook to see "Unbelievable Photos" or "Fill in the blank Atrocities." You expect to get a link to a news article... What you get is below...
Word of mouth, first and foremost was free advertising. This plays out in two different ways. One, you don't have to pay for any of it! The second is what it means to the potential client...you didn't pay for it, so it's going to be more honest. As a consumer you watch advertisements all the time, and wonder how much of something is real. Television ads stretch the truth and so do most marketing companies... (We will not alter reality or stretch the truth for you. Don't ask.) Free advertising is unsolicited truth and bears that credibility. Expanding on credibility... where did they hear it from? Because the reference is someone they know, your product instantly inherited their credibility.
Now lets talk about consumer numbness... You click on a link in Facebook to see "Unbelievable Photos" or "Fill in the blank Atrocities." You expect to get a link to a news article... What you get is below...
I counted no less then 11 advertisements on this page... Oh and thankfully you can't hear the one in the background that took forever to load and slowed my computer down. We are numb, I scroll through these pages as I'm sure you do and never notice a single advertisement. This is why most advertising campaigns fail... Your advertising in places people don't look. Our minds tune out the margins, our DVR's are 5 skips and a quick back to bypass all the commercials, our radios are Satellite.
Get your customers back by developing word of mouth advertising. So you are asking... How does word of mouth work...? Utilizing Social Media and Word of Mouth is a lot like a section in math we hated... Pascal's Triangle. You will see this demonstrated to the left. You tell two friends, they tell two friends, and so on... By row four alone we have told 31 friends... Realize two things, your Facebook has more then two friends, and the iterations have the potential of going forever... FOR FREE!!!! Interested in developing your social media marketing campaign yet? |
Want some help managing a Google Account, Yelp Account, or making sure you show up on web searches... Give Phoenix Consulting a call. We can help you out!
-Will Holloway, MBA
Owner
-Will Holloway, MBA
Owner