Revisiting: Is Word of Mouth Free?

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.

Small Business Apps: Are they worthwhile?

This is a question I’m sure every small business owner or manager has thought about at some point.  To answer this question properly, you must first ask yourself “Is it worthwhile to have your products and services available in the pockets of every customer new and existing?” I hope your answer is YES!! Not only does this changing mobile technology give you the ability to communicate directly with your exact target audience, it also makes way for an immense amount of free piggyback advertisement. 

This type of exposure only a few short years ago would have cost us thousands; now with a good app building service like the one I strongly recommend to small business owners on my website at www.QuickAppSuccess.com, it’s a fraction of what it used to be. More than 90% of consumers own mobile devices and everyday more of those consumers are buying online.  As we all know, increasing overall customer satisfaction is a key to maximizing profits.  This means mobile friendly marketing strategies are essential to any successful business.  Remember, if you build it, they will come. 

 

 

Think Marketing Only Means Advertising

Think Marketing Only Means Advertising

If your marketing plan is only focused on the advertising part, you?re missing a big piece of the puzzle. Just putting out advertisements, is not the entire mix of marketing that is necessary to bring you more buyers.

Brand management, networking, market research, customer support, and a sales strategy are all pieces of the marketing puzzle that you will be missing if you focus your plan only on advertising. Advertising is a piece of it, but marketing is the comprehensive approach to getting your products into the consumers hands.