Revisiting: Is Word of Mouth Free?
May 12, 2017 by Dr. Letitia Wright
Filed under Featured Articles, Front Page
I used to talk to a lot of people who said they did all their advertising word of mouth and that they didn’t spend any money on ads. I would remind them that effective word of mouth is not free. If you think word of mouth is free, you don’t understand word of mouth. Word of mouth has evolved a lot since I first wrote this article. Word of mouth at it’s best is now influencer marketing. Influencers work well to get people to your page or event. It worked so well that in April 2017, Instagram Influencers got many rich kids to pay around $10,000 per ticket to a music festival in the Bahamas. The young organizer ( he was 25) was inexperienced and things did not go well. See #fyrefestival on twitter for the details. He spent money on Influencers and got a packed house, only to be unable to spend money on infrastructure. It was a huge fail but pure proof that Influencer marketing works.
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. 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.
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?
How to Ruin a Brand with Dress Down Fridays
May 9, 2017 by Dr. Letitia Wright
Filed under Featured Articles, Front Page, Wright Ideas
Are we still doing dress down Fridays?
A few years back, I went into the bank on Friday and it was clearly dress down day. The people in the bank were in tennis shoes, baggy jeans, too tight tees and my teller actually had on a wife beater with red skull and cross bones. The guy sitting at the loan desk had on a suit but the rest of them look like they just came in from a picnic.
I don’t bank at that bank, thats a story for another day, however I wonder what this is doing to their brand. What are they trying to say with the dress down Friday? Why do they have it? If you are dealing with my money, I want you to look like you deal with money. I think it is not good brand management. Since you have one day a week where you are relaxed, are you relaxed about my money too?
I’m wondering, are we still doing Dress Down Fridays? If so, go ahead and leave a comment about what works and what doesn’t.
Of course, that’s why I love Gwynnie Bee, no worries about how I look!
I Used to be an Imaginary Friend
May 5, 2017 by Dr. Letitia Wright
Filed under Featured Articles, Front Page
I used to be an Imaginary friend!
I have been a lot of things at different times in my life. At one point I was an imaginary friend. Here?s what happened.
When I was a teen, still living at home, my parents bought a house on Harriet St in Altadena. When we moved in, the neighbor directly across the street came over and introduced herself. When I told her my name, I said the family nickname that everyone called me back then.
She looked at me strangely and then smiled. She said “You HAVE to meet my mother and sister!” I said ok. I thought she was a really friendly neighborhood.
About a week later, she came over to say her sister and mother were at her house, and asked if I could come over the meet them. So I did. My new friend said ?Tell them your name!? When I told them, their eyes got really big and they just stared at me. My friend looked at her mom and sister and said “Told you she was real!”
It turns out, when my friend was little she had an imaginary friend by the same name! Her family teased her mercilessly, but she always insisted the imaginary friend was real. When I moved in across the street, she was finally vindicated!
