Holiday Word of Mouth

 

When you are first beginning with your word of mouth marketing, where should you start?

Well, with people who already know you.

Family, friends, colleagues, casual acquaintances, and people who have known you in the past.

However this type of word of mouth is not just useful when you are starting out.

Holidays are often a time when you will automatically meet people whom you haven’t spoken to in ages.

Rather than be a conversation hog and just talk about yourself, or be a wall flower and talk about nothing, here’s how to start making conversations that will automatically lead to word of mouth for you.

By the way, if you are thinking that doing this would be inappropriate in some way then go right now and review this previous post to make sure you understand the attitude that’s right for this. Then read on.

First of all, in conversation there is one best way to be interesting to the other person, and that is by being interestED in them.

Find out about them, their interests, their activities, what they are passionate about, what they are involved in, what they are hoping to move on to next.

That’s all it takes for most people to open up and reveal more about themselves than you ever knew.

Simply leave yourself aside for a while and be curious about what’s making them tick.

You may find out you can help them or someone they know in ways that you never would have known about otherwise.

Or you may simply have built up a relationship that will carry goodwill forward for you.

Either of these is fine.

The second part of this word of mouth may take you a bit more planning.

You need to have something to say when you are asked about yourself and how you are going.

You might have a whole lot of things to say at this point, but in terms of word of mouth I suggest you say something that is very, very short, ie less than 30 seconds long, 60 at most, and that allows the listener to identify very clearly if there is someone they know who would have need of you, and what they might say to them about you.

Make sure you do not just name your profession or business. If you give people the chance they will simply pigeonhole you into thinking of you as “just another XXXXX”.

Often you will have to highlight a specific part of what you do, rather than the whole package.

For example you might say, “I help people who are about to retire check whether their current investment plans are really as safe as they’ve been told”. Or, “I help out husband’s who’s wives keep nagging them about getting all the handyman jobs done around the house.”

Then shut up.

Stop talking and let the conversation continue based on their response.

You may have triggered in their mind someone who fits the description you have, and the conversation may turn to this. Never trust this type of referral. Simply get enough information and permission to follow-up at a later time if suitable.

More commonly the conversation will very quickly drift back to them again.

You will have planted a seed and, if you have done your job correctly, that seed is just waiting for the moment when the person you have been talking to comes across the situation you described and they “spontaneously” think of you.

Deliberately natural word of mouth at its best.

Author:  Martin Russell at Word of Mouth Marketing