There are numerous ways that you can get your message out to potential customers, but the main ones are advertising & PR. I know that online is a huge area, but, in this instance I am grouping advertising together as advertising encompasses TV, radio, magazines, local press, billboards, leaflets, Blogs, podcasts, social media, public speaking, networking etc etc.
In this post, let’s look at getting your message out via advertising. In my opinion, one of the key aims of advertising is to get word of mouth marketing. I posted on Twitter recently that 53% of online traffic at the moment comes via WOM. When your satisfied customers tell others how great you are and suggest that they also use your product or service, that’s pretty much the best kind of publicity you can get!
To get this process started and before anyone can talk about your business, they need to know about it and this is where the initiatives mentioned above come into play. Sometimes, this can come from a YouTube video, sometimes it can come from social media and/or traditional advertising in a local paper or it can even come from giving out samples in the high street. It almost doesn’t matter how it get’s started; it matters that it does get started.
Do you know when people are most motivated to tell others about you? This might shock you, but it is right after they have bought or made a purchase.
Here are just some suggestions on how to spread the word:
Offer customers a reward for doing so; maybe a coupon for the contact details of 3 friends who might have a similar need to them.
Add a ‘tell a friend’ or ‘share’ button to your website or Blog.
Create space for them to talk. i.e. adding some sort of forum to your website.
Maybe introduce some sort of limited edition label to what you do.
Create a club that gives benefits to members.
Whatever you decide to do, people will always talk about the outstanding or unusual!
