Effective Word Of Mouth Tactics – Part XII

My beautiful wife Michele and I love the “24” show, featuring the world-saving exploits of the amazing and amazingly-ruthless Jack Bauer. We’ve watched every episode of every season, as Jack (played by Keifer Sutherland) displays superhuman tenacity, drive and focus to achieve a near-impossible goal — with perhaps the most extreme display of a “Do-Whatever-It-Takes” attitude ever seen on a television show.

Like other fans of the show, we are so used to watching Jack get out of seemingly-impossible situations week after week, that the spectacular seems commonplace to us. How many times over the years have we watched Jack get shot at, shot up, shut up, locked up, knocked down and kicked around, yet keep barreling full-steam ahead no matter what?

Heck! It’s exhausting just THINKING about it!

However, even though I’m a huge fan of the show, it never fails: I need to watch the “Previously, On 24” highlights of last week’s show before every new episode — otherwise, I couldn’t tell you what spectacular, shocking, supposedly-unforgettable events I watched unfold before my very eyes just 7 days before!

Your prospects aren’t any different.

Of course YOU live and breathe your business, and the products and/or services you provide. You know all about your story, your situation and all of the features, benefits, prices and guarantees of everything you sell.

But I hope you don’t make the mistake of thinking that your prospects remember just about ANYTHING about you, your business or your products and/or services whenever you (or your ad, brochure, website, etc.) are not directly in front of them.

Depending on which study you want to believe, today’s consumer is bombarded with between 3,000 to 20,000 marketing messages every single day. Even using the low number, that’s an average of about 200 “Buy My Stuff” communications we’re assaulted with every single hour of every single day of our lives.

Can you say “information overload?”

This is a big part of the reason that you need to stand out and be memorable these days. Unless you’re the only doctor, lawyer, plumber or whatever-you-do in your town, more than ever this is NOT the time to be “just another ________________.”

Because people only remember the interesting, outrageous, extraordinary, strange, wild, surprising and unusual, you need to make sure your ideas and marketing cause your prospects to have one or more of these feelings.

This doesn’t mean you have to have a product or service that is completely out of the norm. In fact, that could easily drive customers away.

You need to have a product or service that is high-quality and easily marketable; and then you need to market it as “extraordinary” and “new.”

In other words, you need to be constantly thinking of new and different products or services, new and different offers and new and different ways of presenting your offers to your prospects.

Sounds like a lot of work?

Then maybe being an entrepreneur or small business owner is not for you.

The marketing of your business should be a fun, interesting, exciting aspect of your life. In fact, once you start using the strategies and tactics that I teach, and you experience even just a taste of the results, I predict that you will, in fact, discover that your marketing efforts are the most interesting, challenging, enjoyable and downright FUN part of being in business.

Being memorable, interesting, outrageous, extraordinary, strange, wild, surprising or unusual is critical if you want to take advantage of the power of Word Of Mouth.

With that in mind, here are some questions you need to ask yourself…

• What are your customers, clients or patients willing to tell your prospects?
• Exactly how do they describe your product?
• What do your prospects ask your customers, clients or patients?
• What are the things they need to know, but are unwilling to ask?
• What happens when these issues are raised?
• Exactly what do your prospects have to know in order to trigger a purchase?
• Exactly how do your customers, clients or patients answer the objections and concerns of your prospects?
• How do your customers, clients or patients persuade their family, friends, neighbors and associates to use your products or services?
• How do your customers, clients or patients suggest that their family, friends, neighbors and associates initially get to know or try your products or services?
• What warnings, safeguards, tips and suggestions do your customers, clients or patients suggest to your prospects?
• Are your sales messages, positioning and important facts about your products or services getting through to your prospects?
• What messages do you need to inject into the marketplace in order to generate positive buzz about you and your business?
• In what ways will you deliver those messages?

Putting in some serious thought about these questions to come up with a strategic plan, and then taking massive action to implement that plan is the way to start to generate positive Word Of Mouth.

And the more interesting, outrageous, extraordinary, strange, wild, surprising or unusual your ideas and tactics are, the more memorable you and your business will be.

You may not ever single-handedly thwart international terrorist activities or save the world, but you can still be a hero in your own right to more customers, clients or patients — not to mention your own family, and bank account.