Is Word of Mouth Free?
July 30, 2008 by Dr. Letitia Wright
Filed under Wright Ideas
If you think word of mouth is free, you do not know much about word of mouth.
Many of you think word of mouth is free advertising. One person tells another person and it grows exponentially. What examples can you think of that worked like that? All of those big word of mouth successes started with a good infusion of cash to get the campaign started. It does not start with a purchase. That is the great hope of people who have no budget for marketing and advertising. It starts with a sample. If you can not afford to have people sample your product, it’s hard to make any kind of word of mouth happen.
Word of Mouth happens when people get your book, or item and get to use it. Company’s spend millions making sure people sample their products. Online marketers spend lots of money on online and offline ads to get to you take a free ebook/report.
I love it when I talk to people who do not do advertising, they are going to make it by word of mouth. I ask them about their goals for their company, and to name a company that made it to that size with word of mouth. No one has come up with a name yet.
If you are reading this because of the note I sent you in my auto-responder, guess what? The auto-responder costs money! The good ones are NOT free.
Yes, word of mouth is a great tool for promoting your business, however word of mouth is not free.
Let me ask you this…
How do you use word of mouth?
Name a huge company that made it on word of mouth only?
Is word of mouth enough to make YOUR company grow?
What do you think Word of mouth ?
Hey Dr. Wright,
Great post. Word of mouth is great, but most folks don’t see the effort and strategy (and cost!) behind referrals and word of mouth marketing. Still gotta have someplace to send them to (web site or blog), e-mail newsletter and/or autoresponder software. Still gotta get out there and network online and offline to that there are “mouths” out there who will spread the word on your behalf.
And most importantly, you still have to develop a quality product or service that people want.
Jamila White – “The E-Commerce Diva”
http://www.ecommercediva.com
http://www.bootstrapbabes.com
http://www.jblossom.com
Hi Dr. Wright,
Thanks for this post!! That is so true and very few of us really know what it takes to get your product of service advertised via word of the mouth. The product or service would not be known about if you didn’t first educate the public through advertising and marketing.
May God Continue to Bless You.
Rosanne Reid
http://www.TunguskaMist.com/4416645
http://www.thehealthyway.cyberwize.com
http://www.youravon.com/rosannereid
http://www.twitter.com/rosannereid
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I think so. Word of mouth is the best think you can have for business. Great review here.