Word of mouth marketing dos and don’ts.

Word of mouth marketing, when used correctly and appropriately, can have a tremendous effect on not only your bottom line this year but for many years to come. Brand recognition and awareness increase and it can have a lasting effect on your business. When done correctly or for the wrong reasons, it can have just as powerful effect, unfortunately you won’t be too happy with the results. Here are a few dos and don’ts to keep you on the right word of mouth marketing track.

Do:
Encouraging communications by developing tools to make telling a friend easier like email forward to a friend, creating forums and feedback tools, and becoming involved in social networks.

Do:
Give people something positive to talk about by providing valuable information to share and by creating interesting publicity that stimulates conversation.

Do:
Create and participate in communities that connect people. For example, support communities that would benefit from your niche product. Earlier in this tutorial we talked about the nutritionist and personal trainer that partnered with a local running club. You can also create online forums, chat rooms and membership sites.

Do:
Partner with influential people who are relevant and important to your target market. Communicate with these people the benefit of your business products or services and encourage them to share the information. Some partnerships are developed by supporting interests that are important to your key influencer.

Do:
Listen to and participate in customer feedback. Blogs, forums and chat rooms are all excellent resources to keep tabs on the conversation about your business. Respond to both positive and negative conversations professionally and with courtesy. Engage conversations openly and honestly. Co-creation and information sharing.

Don’t:
Create false identities and promote your business.
Hire people to spread the word about your business. This is called Shilling and if they work for you or are impersonating a customer it is considered highly unethical.
Participate in comment spam, posting links and unrelated comments on blogs.

Word of mouth marketing is about taking a positive and proactive approach to communicating with prospects and customers about your business. It’s about creating and building relationships. Each new positive relationship created is another person working to spread the word about how wonderful your business products or services are.