Word-of-Mouth Strategy: How Your Customers Can Power Your Marketing

November 2, 2018

Do you invest an ample amount of time and money in advertising and marketing?

Do you invest time and money in a word-of-mouth strategy?

If you’re like most businesses, the answer to those questions is a yes to the first and no to the second. Most companies take word-of-mouth recommendations from their customers for granted. What’s crazy about that is 90% of purchases are influenced by word-of-mouth. Yet most businesses are spending a majority of their time and marketing budgets on advertising that their customers just don’t trust.

Today on the podcast, I’m joined by best selling author, Jay Baer. Jay is the author of a new book along with Daniel Lemin, called Talk Triggers – The Complete Guide to Creating Customers with Word of Mouth. Jay and I dive into why word-of-mouth marketing is so effective, the impact of word-of-mouth marketing online versus off-line, what businesses need to know when creating a word-of-mouth strategy to get customers to talk about them, and so much more.

Let’s do this!

About the show:

The Casual Fridays Podcast is a show for marketers and businesses looking to get on the social media fast track. The podcast is an interview format, where each week I get up close and personal with top brands and leading experts to talk about digital marketing, social media marketing, influencer marketing, and more. The Casual Fridays Podcast is sponsored by Tack – a tool that helps brands and businesses find and acquire digital rights to user-generated content (UGC).

About Jay Baer:

  • Founder of Convince & Convert – an experienced, highly focused analysis and advisory firm that creates effective, best-in-class digital marketing strategies for the world’s most interesting organizations.
  • Best Selling Author of books including Youtility and Hug Your Haters.
  • Co-author of a new book with Daniel Lemon called Talk Triggers – The Complete Guide to Creating Customers with Word of Mouth
  • Co-host of the Social Pros Podcast

In this episode, here’s what you’ll discover about word-of-mouth strategy:

  • Why word-of-mouth marketing is so effective.
  • How people trust others more than ever today, more so than businesses.
  • What businesses need to know to do word-of-mouth on purpose.
  • How businesses can create a repeatable word-of-mouth strategy.
  • The different types of people that make up word-of-mouth marketing.
  • The impact of word-of-mouth marketing online versus off-line.
  • How B2B can benefit more than B2C when it comes to word-of-mouth marketing.
  • Why you’ll never get 100% of your customers to talk about you through word-of-mouth marketing.
  • The naming convention to the types of customers each business has that fuel word-of-mouth marketing.
  • What qualifies as an online word-of-mouth recommendation versus an offline word-of-mouth recommendation.
  • Why offline word-of-mouth recommendations are more impactful than online word-of-mouth recommendations.
  • How businesses can thrive if they’re receiving both online and off-line word-of-mouth recommendations.
  • What businesses need to know when creating a word-of-mouth strategy to get customers to talk about them.
  • What a “talk trigger” is and how they impact your business.
  • Why a “talk trigger” is the exact opposite of a surprise & delight.
  • The six-step process to create a “talk trigger.”

Quotes from Jay about word-of-mouth strategy:

  • “50% to 90% of all customers are influenced by word-of-mouth.”
  • “Word-of-mouth is the most important part for any business that doesn’t have a strategy.”
  • “We assume all customers talk about us. But, that’s not a good plan…”
  • “Competency does not create conversation.”
  • “Nobody has ever said, ever, let me tell you about this adequate experience I just had.”
  • “The best way to grow any business is to let your customers grow it for you.”
  • “If you get your customers to tell others about you, you get new customers at no cost.”
  • “The persuasive power of offline is more powerful because generally, you know that person better.”
  • “A third of customers won’t say anything about their experience with a business, ever.”
  • “Word-of-mouth is more critical for B2B businesses. The value for a B2B customer tends to be higher than a B2C.”
  • “91% of B2B purchases are influenced by word-of-mouth.”
  • “Same is lame. Doing the same thing that everyone else does, does not create conversations.”
  • “A talk trigger has to be repeatable and something you build into your business process.”
  • “A talk trigger is not marketing. It is an operational decision that creates a marketing advantage.”

Items mentioned in the show:

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TalkTriggers Infographic