Delivery of Word of Mouth Messages
In this lesson, we’re going to discuss the delivery of word of mouth messages, and things that you can do to help influence your word of mouth.
3 Methods of Delivery
There are typically three different methods of word of mouth delivery.
They are:
- Peer to Peer
- Expert to Peer
- Expert to Expert
Experts discussing your service or product will typically result in you getting a tremendous rush of sales and new customers trying out your product. This event can be one of the best things to happen to your business. You can strive to achieve this by getting in touch with experts and offering them free products that they can review and share with others.
Getting an expert’s opinion can go further than just bringing in new business. It can also help you in getting new ideas. It can help you to create new operating systems, products, and services. If you’re able to develop the opinions of just a few experts, you can help to make your market burst open.
Standard Word of Mouth Delivery
A standard word of mouth delivery system can take a few years to ramp up. There are some things that you can do to speed this process up to just a few weeks.
This standard system is:
- Hearing from the experts with their first impressions
- Creating a trial of your services or products
- Putting together the experiences of peer customers
Stop Ignoring Praise
It can be essential for you to determine who is being your advocate through word of mouth. You want to reward these people. You probably have a system in place that handles your complaints and working to keep those customers happy, but what happens with praise? You probably don’t keep track of it, and that’s got to change. You need to take the time to give those satisfied and talking about your product some extra love. This change can bring your company over the top.
Ways to show appreciation include:
- Host customer appreciation events, such as a dinner
- Get their testimonial on video
- Interview them for feedback on what you’re doing right and what can be better
- Offer them a premier membership or other program
- Create a referral incentive program where they are rewarded by others using the service
You want to find ways to help them stay satisfied with your company and to spread that happiness with others.
The conventional media methods have been in place for a long time, and are still useful, but there are some reasons why many feel that it’s starting to lose its luster. These include:
- High expense and may not receive a lot of results
- Old and dull rather than new and inventive
- Not enough time to give all of the information you want
There is truth to each of these reasons, but you can find ways to make conventional media fit your need. You have to find the right sequence and sources to be effective. Credible information must be shared. It has to be relevant to your target audience and delivered using the right medium.
Product Adoption Cycle
Let’s go over product adoption cycles now. The traditional media is excellent for the informational stage. This stage is when you reach out to your potential customers with information about your product, but it’s hard to measure how these efforts go over with your audience.
Not having these measurements can make it hard for you to develop your marketing to what it needs to be. There’s a chance you could waste money and lose out on potential customers. Once you get the information into the consumer’s hands, they will want to analyze if this purchase will be a good one for them. They will get their information for making this decision using:
- Their experience with the product or service
- Their peer’s experience with the product or service
- Experts’ opinions
- Resources like scientific journals
- Reviews and opinions from other independent sources
You can add to this available material in a few ways.
- You can give out demos and free trials
- You can offer prospective customers an indirect experience by letting them know about what other customers experience
- Share true stories and testimonials
Being able to understand how word of mouth is delivered and how you can positively impact that delivery will help you to be more successful. Do you need more assistance with how you can impact your company’s word of mouth? Contact us today to learn more about how our services can help you and your bottom-line.