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?
Marketing Online with SEO
July 9, 2010 by Dr. Letitia Wright
Filed under Featured Articles, Front Page, Wright Ideas
This is a guest post provided by Eric Woolf of Pixels and Dot’s Cincinnati web design and online marketing team.
Everyone has heard that the internet is becoming larger and larger for doing business. And it really can be a profitable to sell your products or services online but it’s becoming more competitive than ever. Advertising rates are going up making it more expensive to get exposure to your site so there are other ways to do it inexpensively.
The first that I suggest is to optimize your site for the search engines. This is known as search engine optimization or SEO throughout the internet marketing community. By optimizing your site for the search engines you can get free traffic when people search for your type of product or service. Being listed on the top few spots allows you to get a lot of exposure to your site and more sales.
To get you started, some of the basics of SEO are listed below:
Optimize your pages for the keywords that you want to rank for by including the search term in the Title and Meta description tags. Then you will want to include that same term into the body of the article so the search engines know that it’s relevant for their results.
Include anchor text links to the page that you want to get ranked for from other pages. So to rank your site for Cincinnati search engine optimization, you would link to that keyword with the URL. The following sentence is an example: “Also check out our local Cincinnati search engine optimization and internet marketing services.”
Getting a lot of other sites to link to your website is one of the most important factors when ranking your website as an authority for the search engines. As I have done here, writing and providing free information can help provide other websites fresh content, while providing a link back to your site.
The second way to market through the internet inexpensively is with social media. Connecting with people through social media pages gives provides an increase in brand recognition and exposure since millions of people use it to connect.
I hope these tips help! Be sure to leave any comments below.
How Service Professionals Can Market Themselves Effectively Through Storytelling
December 22, 2009 by Dr. Letitia Wright
Filed under Featured Articles, Wright Ideas
Online business owners increasingly realize the power of storytelling for website content, blogs and even teleseminars. Storytelling for business has become a hot topic.
Independent professionals increasingly use stories to promote their services. They realize that readers relate to narratives rather than straightforward essay type content because
– stories create suspense, compelling readers’ attention
– when readers pay attention and hang on for the “what next,” they’re not multitasking
– readers and listeners remember stories far longer than they remember abstract ideas.
Stories are particularly helpful for professional services such as coaching, where marketers face challenges simply explaining what the service offers. Clients often have no idea what to expect and don’t realize the value of hiring coaches, massage therapists, healers, or even certain types of psychotherapists and lawyers.
So lots of people are jumping on the story bandwagon. But that’s not enough: you need to understand how to tell your story most effectively to motivate readers to consider hiring you. For example, here is one story told my a professional (all details disguised):
“When Jane called me, her home office was a disaster. She was spending lots of time filing papers but she couldn’t find anything. After we talked, she realized that filing papers was not a good use of her time. Or maybe if she really had to file, she needed a way to make that filing become a revenue-generating opportunity.”
What’s wrong with this story?
This story is what I call a client success story. It’s got some of the ingredients, but is missing a few key pieces. How about this:
“When Jane called me, her business was stalled. As we reviewed Jane’s schedule, we realized her day disappeared around 9 AM when she took up the task she dreaded most: filing.
“I talked to Jane about her goals for the business. We discovered that Jane was overwhelmed by paper, including some papers she didn’t need to create, let alone store. I showed Jane my unique 5-step system for handling paper.
“Jane told me she felt like she gained two hours each day. We identified other tasks she could be doing that would lead more directly to revenue generation. After six months, Jane reported, her sales increased and she had three new clients.”
Business storytelling calls for an understanding of business as well as the storytelling process. Get instant access to information about using stories for your own business, with detailed examples. Download an audio file and learning guide at Story Telling For Profits. From Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D., the Website Makeover Coach MakeWebsiteProfits.com.
