I have been around this earth for quite some time now. I am not old, but I have seen enough to realize what works and what doesn't. Now in the twenty first century we get bombarded with advertising every day of our lives. You can't drive down the road, listen to the radio, watch television or browse the Internet without seeing hundreds, if not thousands of ads of products you couldn't care less about. But as soon as your best friend, wife, neighbor, cousin, or second cousin in law mentions their favorite restaurant or a great movie at the theater you jump up off your seat and run to confirm their recommendations.
Word of mouth works! The reason for this is that perhaps in a self defense response to capitalism, we have developed ?ad-blindness?. We tend to ignore as many advertisements as humanly possible in order to carry out a semi-normal life. But when someone you know tells you about a product or event, your defense mechanism does not trigger an alarm. You joyfully take their suggestions at heart and do what consumers do best ?buy.
Don't get too pessimistic. If you are trying to promote a product or service, all is not lost. You just have to adapt to the modern consumer and use what you know to your advantage. As an Internet marketer, I highly rely on word of mouth to get traffic to my website. But since I am a little bit on the impatient side, I have adopted a technique that some may refer to as word of mouth on steroids!
The are programs on the Internet that can act as the mouth that would spread the word all over the world. This handy little tools allow me to write an email, sales letter or web page, as beefed up with graphics, forms, tables as I want it. After I am done creating whatever is I want to say, I just email it to a few of my friends, and to a few hundred of my newsletter subscribers. This is where the magic begins. They will receive this message, but before being able to read all of their contents they are asked to send this information to some of their friends. Before I know it, there are hundreds of people getting my sales letter from their best friend, mother, cousin or teacher. It is beautiful.
Go out there and find your viral marketing tools, it is a sure way to get that word of mouth promotion that will bring quality traffic to your website.
Word Of The Mouth
If so, you may have heard wrong. On the surface though, it sounds right.
NM isn't pure word of mouth marketing in the way professionals use the term.
According to WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association):
Word of mouth: The act of consumers providing information to other consumers.
But WOMMA warns about 'unethical word of mouth marketing':
Shilling: Paying people to talk about (or promote) a product without disclosing that they are working for the company; impersonating a customer."
True word of mouth marketing means one person telling another about something they love, without benefitting financially. They tell because they love it, and because they want you love it, too. Plus it's fun to tell friends about new stuff - it gives you social currency, if you will. And the group of people in the know, of which you are a part, gets bigger - because of you.
The TIVO craze grew from true and pure word of mouth. People who loved having TIVO raved about it to their friends. But not because they were getting paid, which would have made their raves suspect, but just because they loved it and wanted more people to enjoy it like they were.
So, when you talk about the product you love to another, even though you are using your mouth to talk about it, IF you get paid when someone buys, that's called SALES.
If you don't get paid when you talk about how great a product is, it's word of mouth the way marketers use it.
So here's a way to do word of mouth and not have people surprised at the end when they have to confess that you're sellling it: If you talk about your product, use your mouth to tell right up front that you are marketing it, and tell why -- because of what it did for you, etc. Then when they ask, "So where can I get this product?" you won't have to squirm. And they won't be suspicious of why you told them all those wonderful things about it.
Don't you want to know when someone's getting paid for endorsing things?
Today, celebreties and politicians too, have to disclose that they're being paid when they endorse products on TV even though they use them and love them. Because WE want to know that. Don't we?
Both Guillermo Puyol & Kim Klaver are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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