When you build relationships, you hope people will shout the name of your business from the rooftops. You want them to tell absolutely everyone who is even remotely interested in your niche to visit your blog, follow you on social media, and invest in your products. This happens via word-of-mouth marketing.
You can’t force word-of-mouth marketing, but you certainly can encourage it. The first step in doing this is forming great relationships and getting people really excited about the things you’re doing. People are a lot more likely to check you out if they heard about you from a friend or trusted advisor. You can have all the ads, articles, and other content out on the web you want… but the unfiltered words of other people will always be more effective than all of those things combined.
That’s why, throughout this guide, I have spent a lot of time telling you to build relationships with everything you do in driving traffic and marketing. When you focus on relationships and really helping people, word-of-mouth marketing will sort of fall into place. You’ll have proven yourself as an expert and as someone who delivers on your promises.
In addition to forming relationships so people naturally talk about you everywhere on the web, you can also actively encourage word-of-mouth marketing. It can be as simple as asking people to pass your free book around. You can ask them to share your newsletter content with a friend. In marketing, we learn that we have to give people a call to action – it’s part of human psychology. Sometimes, all you have to do is ask.
Another part of word-of-mouth marketing is differentiating yourself from other people in your niche. There are no doubt other great marketers out there who are also trying to drive traffic to their properties. You have to stand out from the crowd.
Zig where other people are zagging. Be creative and try new things. This will get people talking about you and will help spur your word-of-mouth marketing. You will naturally start to get links and have people searching for you on social media and in the search engines.
Word-of-mouth marketing is great because it’s something that’s pretty hands-off for you, as long as you’re actively building relationships, creating content, and doing things people want to talk about and share. Share facts and tips people aren’t hearing everywhere else. Develop products people really need but haven’t yet been served by in the marketplace. Focus on the potential for word-of-mouth marketing with everything you do for traffic.
Creating Brand Evangelists
Getting people to talk about you to others is great. What’s even better is having a slew of brand evangelists all over the web, as I mentioned earlier. Let’s study this concept in more depth.
Have you ever loved a product or company so much that you told everyone you saw? Maybe you evangelized about a new mattress or other product that totally transformed the way you sleep or live? Or, maybe you’ve been trying to earn money online for a while and you finally found a forum and leader that catapulted you to success. You’re likely to tell everyone about those things because you’re so excited about them.
Think about the companies you’ve freely evangelized for. What do they do differently from everyone else? Have you noticed that your recommendation has meant a lot more to people than it would have if they’d just seen an ad for the brand you’re evangelizing for?
Experts say your brand will become extremely successful if you have around 1,000 dedicated brand evangelists. That number might be much lower or higher for you, depending on your niche and your goals. But the power behind that small percentage compared to your overall market is unbeatable.
How do you get these great brand evangelists? You have to think about what your brand and your products do that no one else’s does. Why is your stuff better and more helpful? How does it change people’s lives? How does it make them feel? These are all questions you should answer for yourself in your marketing.
Your goal is to treat your best customers extremely well. You want them to be so loyal to you that they hardly even think about other companies. You should always be surprising them and thinking of ways you can improve and help your customers and readers even more.
What is the personality of you, your brand, or your company? Sometimes, we get so caught up in trying to copy the success of someone else that we lose ourselves. There’s something unique and special about you that will attract brand evangelists. But that won’t happen if you try to be something you’re not.
You should be actively seeking feedback from your customers and readers. You might think that you are creating loyal followers, but then you’re frustrated because you don’t see evidence of that after all.
However, if you’re constantly seeking feedback, you can make slight shifts in the way you approach people and run your business so you attract lifelong readers and customers. If you have brand evangelists, you’ll never have to worry about getting traffic again.
Remember that you should strive to think outside the box. Brand evangelists want to share news and things you’re doing. They want to talk about the positives and negatives of the direction you’re going. They want amazing stuff to share in their social media accounts. Give them content, products, and ideas that will knock their socks off. This is what will get them, and other people, talking.
They say that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. The same holds true when you’re talking about your readers and customers. 80% of your results will come from 20% of your readers and customers. That number might be even smaller when you’re talking about brand evangelists specifically, versus people who are simply fans of your company and who buy products of yours. These brand evangelists aren’t just happy with your company – they’re crazily, head over heels in love with your company.
For word-of-mouth marketing, and acquiring brand evangelists, you want to make sure your content is really shareable. Make it super simple for other people to talk about you and to share what you’re doing. Actively encourage them to do so. Pay special attention to your best customers. Nurture your active blog commenters and social media commenters. Really care about people and what they need and you should see some fantastic results.
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