Assuming your products and programs are worthy of word of mouth, how do you get it?

Don’t be Afraid to Ask
Here are just a few ways to get word-of-mouth from your clients and even people who haven’t purchased from you yet.

• Include a reminder at the bottom of your ezine for people to forward it to others who may be interested.
• Ask people that rather than forwarding your ebook, that they encourage people to request their own copy, so they’ll get other important information that you share with subscribers.
• At your classes, provide postcard takeaways, again maybe with a recipe, that participants can share with others who they think would be interested in your class.
• Consider a referral bonus such as special free articles or some kind of discount for anyone who refers a new, paying clients (just be sure you’re set up to track who’s new and who made the referral).

New capabilities from Twitter, Facebook and more make word-of-mouth easier than ever, even if it is more like word-of-fingers. But people still talk in-person and on the phone. So make sure you’re exploring all ways to maximize response to your raw-inspired business with this critical promotion tool.

Think about the last time you had an experience with a company that was so amazing that you couldn’t wait to tell other people about it.

• What happened? What made the experience wonderful?
• What did you tell other people?
• How many people did you tell?

How about a bad experience? How many people did you tell? What did you say?

One of the most cost effective forms of promotion for your raw-inspired businesses is word-of-mouth advertising. Word-of-mouth is highly credible because people usually believe what friends, family and colleagues say about you more than they believe what you say in yourself. How can you make word of mouth advertising work for you?

Word of Mouth Begins with Delivering Powerful Benefits
Are your programs so wonderful that your clients spread the word? Design your programs to create exciting results. People enjoy sharing success stories and helping others. So if they achieve great outcomes with you, they’re more likely to invite their friends to benefit as well.

Another way to build word-of-mouth is by giving some extra. What unexpected bonus can you add that that makes your clients really appreciate the value they get with you? Note that it doesn’t have to be something expensive. How about nice recipe cards for your food prep class instead of the usual paper handouts? With online printing sources such as overnightprints.com, zazzle.com, vistaprint.com and iprint.com, you could make these for just pennies.

In my next post, I’ll share some other ways you can get more word-of-mouth to help build response to your business.

Part 2 of a 2 part case on lessons learned from marketing spay / neuter

Last week I talked about a Welsh carver using type style to represent the personality of the deceased on a headstone. That was an unusual example of addressing “what’s in it for me?” for clients. Now let’s turn to using type to answer “what’s in it for me” for pet owners.

Helga Schimkat of Saving Animals New Mexico approached me after my presentation at last year’s Taking Action for Animals conference on how to influence people to spay or neuter their pets. Research revealed that pet owners were concerned about the impacts of pet overpopulation, say spay / neuter as a serious matter and reject spay / neuter promotion that included humor, innuendo or cartoons. These approaches made the owners less likely to trust the organization to provide an important medical procedure for their pet. Continue reading The Right Type of Identity to Get Results: Saving Animals New Mexico

Earlier this week, I attended Artomatic, a major art festival in Washington, D.C. I enjoyed an amazing variety of creative expression. I also looked for examples of good marketing communications.

At left you’ll see a two-sided business card I picked up for Rebound Designs. It does a lot of things right. I’ll use this card to talk about business cards in this post and two to follow.  First, I’ll talk about the role of the business card and what it can do for you. Then I’ll point out some of the strong points in the Rebound Designs card, Finally, I’ll offer suggestions for improving that card, including showing you a mock-up of a redesign.

So what’s the purpose of the business card? Historically business cards were just a way of sharing contact information. But they can be mini-ads that do more to promote what you offer. The one thing the business card should do is help convince people to take the next step with you.

Let’s say you had a lengthy conversation with someone at an event and she’s interested in what you offer. You both agreed that it would be worthwhile for her to check out your web site, and then sign-up for your email list. Seems like you’ve done all the work, so what do you need from the card?

Well, you probably know what it’s like when you go to an event and come back with a lot of cards. And now you’re also facing stacks of to-dos back in the rest of your life. Do you always follow-up on everything that sounded so exciting maybe just an hour ago? I know I don’t. I look at what I’ve gathered and decide which ones represent the most fun, value, information or whatever I’m looking for at the moment. I bet you and most other people do the same. So the purpose of your card is to remind people why they absolutely want to make it a priority to take the next step with your business!

Other times your card has to work even harder. Maybe you met someone quickly on an elevator or a plane, or spoke briefly at a party. Now the card has to give more of a picture of what’s great about your business to motivate that person to act.

What kind of invitation does your business card give? Does it get people to take the next step? Don’t miss my next post covering some of the strengths of the Rebound Designs card. The post after that will show you how to make a good card can be even better!