For any company, generating great word-of-mouth might be the Holy Grail in terms of achievement from a marketing standpoint. Especially if you’re a young company or small business, getting audiences to talk about you is not only critical but often the key differentiator between simply existing and having a thriving enterprise.
And yes, in order to do that well, you have to offer great products and/or services and provide amazing customer support. From a marketing standpoint, that has to be a fundamental part of your business if you’re going to succeed in general. But beyond that, there are ways you can generate more word-of-mouth or at least the digital equivalent among your existing and potential customers, as well as your network and beyond. Here are 5 tactics you can employ in the digital sphere, which will help others discover you.
No. 1: Doing a Campaign to Generate Social Proof
Another effective strategy for getting the digital equivalent of word-of-mouth is to run a campaign for social proof. This involves asking for testimonials and ratings of your products and services. If you’re a local business, you might also ask for ratings and reviews on Google Reviews or Yelp. You can also develop video testimonials or get photos from customers that help add to the sense of trust, as others can see that these are real people.
Social proof is incredibly powerful because people tend to trust the opinions of others. If they see that other people have had a positive experience with your company, they’re more likely to trust that they will too. And if you make it easy, for customers, many will definitely leave a review or rate you highly (both great forms of word-of-mouth). One thing that we recommend to clients that serve a local population (especially in person) is to develop a process for getting on-site customers to leave a review after you have served them – for example, handing out a paper with a QR code that goes to your site or a review site of some kind.
No. 2: Getting Referrals or Inbound Links from Other Sites
One of the most effective ways to get the digital equivalent of word of mouth is to get referrals or inbound links from reputable websites. This not only drives traffic to your site but also helps to boost your SEO in a particular industry because inbound links/backlinks from a high domain authority website are a critical part of the ranking. In some B2B industries, in particular, referral traffic from a reputable site can convert at an even higher rate than organic traffic.
One way to get a lot of inbound links is to regularly create high-quality content that other sites will want to link to. For example, if you run a marketing firm, you might create more marketing blog posts about the latest trends in digital marketing. 😊 This type of content is valuable to other sites, and they’re more likely to link to it.
Another way to generate an inbound link: Ask. That may seem somewhat simplistic but it’s the way a lot of inbound linking campaigns are set up through email and reaching out to reputable website owners to discuss content you might have that would be relevant to their audience.
No. 3: Putting Your Company Out in Social Constantly
On the surface, this may not seem like one that should be classified as “word-of-mouth.” However, putting yourself out there for your network to see allows you to stay top of mind for them so that if people ask them about a particular type of company, they can think of you first for that product or service. Also, given the structure of many social media platform algorithms, comments or likes on a particular post by those in your network will also often be shared with individuals in their network, increasing the reach.
Obviously, to do this tip effectively, you need to be active on social media. This means posting daily, if possible, and engaging with your followers. You should also be strategic about the content that you post. What’s critical in many cases is to establish your authority on a particular topic, which you can do through multiple formats including blog posts, videos, infographics, e-books, and/or other downloadables.
Indeed, one of the main reasons we at Marketing Nice Guys do a number of blogs each month is to make sure we’re staying top-of-mind among our network so that we can take advantage of this reach.
No. 4: Creating User-Generated Content Campaigns
User-generated content (UGC) campaigns are a great way to get your customers involved in promoting your brand. These campaigns involve encouraging customers to create and share content related to your products or services. This could be anything from photos and videos to blog posts and social media updates.
One example we love from the not-too-distant past was Burberry’s “Art of the Trench” campaign, which generated a lot of buzz by encouraging customers to share photos of themselves wearing the company’s signature trench coat. A great form of social proof (and hence word-of-mouth), it was so popular that Burberry created a site dedicated to showing off customers wearing its stylish coat.
To run a successful UGC campaign, you have to make it easy for customers to participate. Companies do this in different ways: Creating a branded hashtag for audiences to use, or providing them with a template or guide for creating content. Some also consider offering incentives for participation, such as discounts or prizes.
No. 5: Doing Something Really, Really Creative
Do you remember Dos Equis’ “Most Interesting Man in the World” campaign? It involved a character that the beer company created who could basically do anything. It was funny and ridiculous (the narrator explaining, in one commercial, how the Most Interesting Man in the World once gave his own father “the talk”). But it worked and it basically put the Dos Equis brand on the map, generating huge word-of-mouth, with audiences even repeating the lines to others.
Why was it so successful? Because it was super creative. And that’s not an easy thing to do by any means, as you first have to understand what it means to be creative and how to establish the right conditions to foster it. Moreover, a lot of companies don’t really know how to do that and aren’t willing to take the risks necessary. If you are, though, and have a particular approach, this can definitely work for you to generate word of mouth.
And if you need a marketing partner to help you execute one of your ideas or come up with some, don’t hesitate to contact us at Marketing Nice Guys.
