We have all experienced the brilliance of Word of Mouth Marketing in our businesses, it is a powerful way to "spread the word". In a recent article that was posted on the Customer Evangelists Blog. The numbers say it all ....
- 56: The average number of times an American discusses brands in ordinary conversations every week.
- 72%: The percentage of brand-related opinions delivered from a person to a family member or personal friend; 13% are delivered to co-workers and 7% are delivered by a professional or expert on the topic. (I suppose that puts us marketing bloggers in the distinct minority.)
- 41%: Number of conversations about brands that reference an item seen or heard in the media or in marketing material; 15% refer to an ad, 8% refer to a form of editorial or entertainment content, 5% refer to a point of purchase item, and 4% refer to the lowly coupon or other promotion.
- 62%: Percentage of marketing-related discussions described as "mostly positive."
- 9%: Percentage of marketing-related discussions described as "mostly negative."
- 92%: Percentage of word of mouth conversations that occur offline; 71% of those occur face-to-face, and 21% occur by phone.
These stats are courtesy of a new study (PDF) from the Keller Fay Group.
A Real 'Gift' Voucher
I received a gift voucher the other day, it was the typical DL size certificate that was valid for $50 at the given store. I really appreciated it, however it got me thinking -
Why don't stores actually make their gift certificates actual gifts?I mean wouldn't it be more enjoyable for the gift giver to be able to wrap something substantial up as opposed to simply giving an envelope? For example couldn't a clothing store actually print t-shirts which are the actual gift certificate - It wouldn't cost more then $5.00 per t-shirt to produce but I bet they would sell 10 times as many gift certificates because they are unique and are tangible.
A Shoe store could embroid the gift certificate into a sock?
A Hardware store could engrave small shovels?
A Hairdresser could engrave a small hand-mirror?
A travel agency could create a 'message in a bottle' style gift voucher?
Sales Checklist
Do you have a sales checklist in your business?Sales checklists are a great sales tool - Not only will they help your customers make the right choice of product but they will more often then not upsell your customers into additional products.
A Paint store could create a checklist they give customers when they enter the store titled
'The A1 Paint Job Checklist - Everything you need to know and to create a killer paint job'. They could then list all the items required to do a perfect paint job
1. 9m brush
2. Roller
3.Turps
4. Masking Tape etc etc
A Travel Agents checklist could include:
1. Airport Parking
2. Car Hire
3. Travellers Checks
4. Luggage etc etc
By simply assisitng and educating your customers its amazing how many add-ons you will be able to incorporate into the sale.
Interactive Billboards
What a creative way to promote your product... This interactive outdoor ad for Friskies bird seed makes a wonderful connection to the product, the audience and the product benefit - I think the birds like it aswell. I communicates everything it needs to in a straight forward way- yet, at the same time very very innovative.
3M have also embrassed the growing trend of intereactive billboards with this unqiue approach to advertising thier 3M Bandages.
Stamp of Approval...
Nightclubs across the UK are getting creative and using specially designed stamps as proof of entry for patrons. The person would then wake up on Saturday morning and be reminded of the free CD offer in Saturday morning's Guardian newspaper.
This creative marketing exploit gets the Preneur Marketing 'Stamp of Approval' -terrible punn I know ;)
Two Lessons, One Blog
Ok.. So I messed up. I had planned to write about a particular marketing idea/concept that required a photo - but when I went to take the photo of the 'thing' I wanted to capture, it had gone... But from that I now have 2 Entrepreneurial lessons to cover...
1. DON'T PROCRASTINATEI know its an obvious lesson but don't do it... and too many people do. I had driven past what I wanted to photograph numerous times and each time said to myself 'next time' and then one day it was gone - never to return. If you have an idea or task, simply get it crossed off your to-do list now - not 2moro or the next day. As an entrepreneur you will no doubt come up with some other amazing idea that needs to be done and the to-do list will grow exponentially if you don't act now...
2. CREATIVE 'SHOUTING'So this is what I was trying to get to initially with this blog. There is a chemist on the Highway to the Mornington Penninsula here in Melbourne and it has been very creative in getting it customers attention - shouting its message.
See..the store next to this chemist had a HUGE window frontage and had obviously been empty for quite some time. What the chemist had done is 'rent' the window space of the store next door and had it sign-written with a huge promotion/advertisement 'shouting' to the thousands of cars that passed everyday. It was a very simple and cost effective way to get its message out and ensure passer-bys didn't miss them. People spend thousands to advertise on billboards along that road but this chemist was able to grab as much attention ( if not more because it was different) as those billboards for a fraction of the cost..
[inset picture here - D'OH]
How can you creatively and effectively SHOUT your message to potential clients or customers?
Check out this blog post on how KitKat created a market in Japan - its a very unqiue approach to ceating demand for a product and expanding into a new territory..
http://alphamale.typepad.com/blog/2006/04/how_kitkat_beca.html
