Effective Word Of Mouth Tactics – Part I

In last week’s post, I shared my considerably disappointing experience flying on Spirit Airlines – universally recognized as America’s Worst Airline.

Dozens of people chimed in with their own Spirit Airlines horror stories, and several thanked me for alerting them to the despicable practices of the airline so that they would never have to experience the horror and indignity themselves.

A few dozen people also shared my tale of woe with their followers and fans on various social media sites, creating a rippling effect that has already likely exposed my story to tens of thousands of people, at least.

This is just one prime example of the power of Word Of Mouth in today’s over-connected society – how one disgruntled customer can spread the word to thousands of people almost instantly. It gave me the idea to start a new series teaching all about Word of Mouth and how it can make or break your business in an extremely short amount of time.

Word of Mouth is easily the most powerful form of marketing. And it is absolutely free.

But that doesn’t mean you should put no effort, time or money into maximizing it.

People talk about the ads they see, the experiences they have, the products they purchase – basically every interaction they have with a business. If you treat people right and spread the word about your products and services in a positive way, you’ll attract the right customers and clients who will sustain your business for the long-term.

Now here’s the bad news…

As positive as Word Of Mouth can be for your business, the other side of the coin is how negative it can be as well. Bad news invariably travels faster than good news, so if you have a less than high-quality product or weak customer service system, then your customers are likely to tell everyone they know not to buy your products and services.

The age of technology has proven to be an amazing boom in the world of Word Of Mouth. Blogs, podcasts, videos, websites, emails, forums, Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites are making it easier and easier for consumers to share their experiences with their friends, family, co-workers – and even complete strangers.

And, remember: This is all free advertising for you.

One important benefit of positive Word Of Mouth is that it shortens the time that it takes your prospects to become your customers, clients or patients.

This is what’s known as “accelerating the customer decision cycle” – helping your customers, clients or patients choose more quickly and easily. The best way to help your customers make their decisions more quickly and confidently is to offer simplicity, ease and a fun purchasing atmosphere.

When you do this properly, your customers will buy more frequently, spend more money than usual, refer friends and make the decision to purchase from you more quickly. Obviously, this can multiply your revenue and profits many times over.

The time it takes your customer to decide and purchase far outweighs any other component of marketing. When you focus on customer decision speed, that forces you to take a hard look at all aspects of your business, including your brand image, positioning, value, customer service, guarantees, product quality and more.

One of your biggest challenges – especially in today’s increasingly skeptical society – is figuring out ways to eliminate as much friction – or stress – as possible in your prospects’ decision-making experience.

No matter how easily people find decision-making, there is a certain amount of anxiety that we all experience whenever we make a buying decision – especially from a new source or for a large amount of money. When you help to minimize this emotional response that your prospects naturally have, you will soothe their anxiety and they will make their decisions more quickly and confidently.

They will then be much more likely to share their positive experiences of dealing with your business with their friends, family, acquaintances and yes, even strangers.

Here are just a few steps you can take to accelerate your customers’ decision-making process:

• Make your benefits, features, claims and promises obvious, clear and concise.
• Share complete, easy to understand, credible, balanced and valuable information with your prospects and customers.
• Use comparisons that clearly differentiate you from your competition.
• Offer rock-solid guarantees that are more than your customer could expect.
• Guide your customers gently through the decision-making process to make it easy for them to buy.
• Make trial periods easy and valuable.
• Provide simple and honest evaluations of your products or services.
• Optimize your website so that it provides a smooth, user-friendly experience.
• Share relevant, positive and powerful testimonials and success stories.
• Improve your prospect and customer experiences by providing informative articles, videos and/or software downloads.
• Make sure that your support, delivery and other operational systems are flawless.
• Offer toll-free and/or live support phone numbers.

All of these components, implemented properly, can go a long way to assuring that you profit from positive Word Of Mouth about your business and avoid the damage that Spirit Airlines-like negative buzz can create.

This wraps up the first post in my series on Word Of Mouth. Next week I’ll teach you more about the power of Word Of Mouth, and share specific ways you can trigger more of it to grow your business.