Let’s take it old school for this blog post. I’m talking the original craft of marketing. For example, let’s take Coca-Cola in 1888, a true staple in branding and marketing in the business world. Asa Candler, the business mogul behind Coca-Cola, created an incredible marketing initiative giving away coupons for free Coca-Cola to consumers. He then gave free barrels of Coca-Cola syrup to stores reluctant to stock this drink. As customers with coupons flocked to those stores, store owners rapidly returned as paying customers. And thus, one of the most influential brands in the world set foot on the path towards its purpose. By incentivising both store owners and customers to talk about Coca-Cola, Candler was able to produce buzz and build his brand. The cool thing about WOMM is that its contemporary efforts to create experiences worthy of being passed from person-to-person has evolved incredibly. In this article we’ll be examining some tips and tricks for you to leverage WOMM effectively in your business!
Focus on Quality over Quantity
Over the past few years, marketers have focused on gathering a following base on various social media outlets, however this doesn’t really help. Connecting with your followers is incredibly important as opposed to gathering and increasing your following base. Having 100 really passionate fans that live, breath and vouch for your brand is more effective than 10,000 fans who signed up for a contest of sort. Now, how do you ensure that you’re properly connecting with your followers? Engage, Equip and Empower!
– Engage: Be a part of the conversation. Listen to what your customers have to say about your product/service and understand where they are coming from.
– Equip: Give your customers various reasons to talk about your brand. This includes your value proposition, services, competitive advantages, etc. Different customers can be triggered by different topics of conversation, so play on that to understand what they want and where they’re coming from.
– Empower: Let your consumers speak on various platforms. Some people are more comfortable DM’ing you, some feel more comfortable commenting on a post, or some feel more comfortable calling you. Give your customers the power of speech!
Leverage Technology
Technology has improved social connectivity creating for an easier consumer experience to do your marketing for you. Take a simple post for example. This post, if it resonates with your following base, will be shared across multiple platforms to friends, friends of friends and so on. Hundreds of people will see their trusted friends vouching for a post and brand. Fueling conversations and driving passion will make a huge difference for your brand, especially when taking technology into consideration.
Focus on Reactive Word of Mouth
A friend of yours is going on a trip to New York City for the first time and asks you what restaurants he should check out! You being a food connoisseur start suggesting a few of your favourite restaurants. That’s an example of reactive WOMM. When you refer to someone, you are reacting to the situation. These forms of WOMM work very well as they are a part of the discussion. Keeping on top of mind sharing relevant information with your following is incredibly important for reactive WOMM to transpire.
Focus on Proactive Word of Mouth
Now, working off of the same example above where you and your friends are simply talking and you randomly mention how you recently visited NYC and checked out all these amazing restaurants, that’s an example of proactive WOMM. You’re not waiting for the conversation to come up, you were simply so amazed by the good restaurants in NYC that you had to tell your friends about it. Proactive WOMM is by far the most superior type because it necessitates your customer to be so captivated with your product or service that they are obliged to find a way to bring it up in discussion, even if it’s not on topic. Telling a story when asked is one thing. Telling a story without being asked is something else entirely. It requires more conviction and more passion. To make sure the WOMM is proactive as much as possible, you need to make certain that your Talk Trigger is truly distinguished. You have to do something diverse, that your customers do not expect, and then find desirable.
People are 90% more likely to trust and buy from a brand recommended by a friend. Although the demographic of people is smaller than your overall following, it is the sect of followers that you should focus on. Converting your followers to actual brand advocates will help you grow your ROI incredibly.
