Book Summary: Secrets Of Word-Of-Mouth Marketing

Written by Regine P. Azurin


Continued from page 1
your product or service is (plus 3) torepparttar “talk ofrepparttar 121301 town” level (plus 4). 13. Examples of those who have reached plus 4 level of word-of-mouth marketing are: 14. Lexus Automobiles, Saturn Car Company, Harley-Davidson, Netscape Navigator, Celestial seasonings herbal tea, The Internet, and Apple Computer 15. Some ways of harnessing word of mouth are by using experts like customers, suppliers, salespeople, experts’ roundtable discussions and selling groups. Take advantage of seminars, workshops, and speaking engagements, dinner meetings, teleconferenced panel discussions, and trade shows. “Canned” Word of Mouth consists of putting out videotapes, audiotapes, using a well-designed website, or distributing CDs. There are also ways such as referral selling programs, testimonials, and networking methods, hotlines (1-800 numbers) and e-mail. 16. Using traditional media for Word of Mouth means using customer service as a word-of-mouth engine, public relations, placements, unusual events, promotions, word of mouth in ads, sales brochures, or direct mail, salesperson programs, sales stars, peer training, or using salespeople as word-of-mouth generators, word-of-mouth incentive programs (“Tell-a-friend” programs), useful gifts to customers (articles, how-to manuals) that they can give their friends. 17. Employees should be actively spreading word of mouth about your products. Spread stories around about examples of superior customer service. Give people a common mission and make rewards dependent onrepparttar 121302 accomplishment of that mission. 18. Word of mouth acceleratesrepparttar 121303 process of customer decision-making, from deciding to decide, asking for information, weighing options, evaluating a free trial, and then finally becoming a customer and advocate. 19. With customer-oriented service, your company can increase sales via word of mouth.

Specific steps in creating a word of mouth campaign: 1. Find some way to getrepparttar 121304 product intorepparttar 121305 hands of key influencers. 2. Provide a channel forrepparttar 121306 influencers to talk and get all fired up about your product. 3. Gather testimonials and endorsements, like actual letters of praise. 4. Form an ongoing group that meets once a year in a resort but once a month by teleconference or daily by list group 5. Create fun events to bring users together and invite non-users. Saturn, Harley-Davidson, and Lexus have been successful with this approach. 6. Produce cassettes, videotapes, and clips on your Web site featuring enthusiastic customers talking with other enthusiastic customers. Custom-create some CDs for each potential customer. 7. Conduct seminars and workshops 8. Create a club with membership benefits 9. Pass out flyers. Tell friends. Offer special incentives and discounts for friends who tell their friends. 10. Userepparttar 121307 Internet! 11. Do at least one outrageous thing to generate word of mouth. 12. Empower employees to gorepparttar 121308 extra mile. 13. Network and brainstorm for ideas 14. Run special sales 15. Script! Tell people exactly what to say in their word of mouth communication.

By: Regine P. Azurin and Yvette Pantilla http://www.bizsum.com "A Lot Of Great Books....Too Little Time To Read" Free Book Summaries Of Latest Bestsellers for Busy Executives and Entrepreneurs Mailto:freearticle@bizsum.com

BusinessSummaries is a BusinessSummaries.com service. (c) Copyright 2001-2002, BusinessSummaries.com - Wisdom In A Nutshell



Regine is President of BusinessSummaries


Articles That Sell

Written by Bonnie Jo Davis


Continued from page 1

Third, compile a list of article archives that accept contributions in your topic area, such as http://www.articles911.com/, http://www.expertarticles.com/, http://www.ezinearticles.com/, and http://makingprofit.com/mp/articles/submit.shtml.

Fourth, explore both on-line and offline e-zines and newsletters. There are several directories to help you target those to which your article is relevant, including http://www.ezine-dir.com/, http://www.ezinesearch.com/search-it/ezine/, and http://www.ezinelocater.com/.

And lastly, consider performing another web search, this time for your specific topic (e.g., "employee retention"). I would even recommend taking it a step further by utilizingrepparttar search phrase "employee retention articles," for example, to generate a list of web pages that are compilations of links to articles similar to your own. This is a terrific way to be "found" by individuals actively researching your topic.

It is imperative that you reviewrepparttar 121300 editorial and formatting guidelines for each site and customize your article accordingly. Most web sites that accept contributions include a page with submission information and requirements, or providerepparttar 121301 editor's email address so that he or she may be contacted directly with questions.

If your article is accepted, it may take up to three months for it to "go live." Some web sites do not acknowledge receipt of your submission and may even publish it without notifying you. It is important, therefore, that you create a log to record, follow-up, and track your submissions.

Consider adding a page to your web site that lists where your work has been "featured," and update it each time an article is published or reprinted.

As mentioned inrepparttar 121302 opening of this article, on-line promotion is a continuous process. To keeprepparttar 121303 momentum going, it is recommended that you develop new articles as often as time allows and repeatrepparttar 121304 submission process at least once each quarter. Be sure to create a "Bookmark" (Netscape) or "Favorite" (Internet Explorer) file forrepparttar 121305 web sites you identify, giving yourself a "head start" when writing on similar topics inrepparttar 121306 future.

While submitting articles can be a tedious and time-consuming endeavor,repparttar 121307 free publicity and client leads it generates make it well worthrepparttar 121308 effort. And if publishers value you as a consistent source of high-quality content, you may even be invited to serve as a columnist or regular contributor. Doing so will keep you in regular contact withrepparttar 121309 people with whom you wish to do business - enabling you to position yourself as a problem solver, a strategic partner and, most importantly, permit you to remain "top" inrepparttar 121310 minds of your potential and existing clients."

Bonnie Jo Davis is the author of the new special report "Articles That Sell: Use The Best Kept Secret Of The Internet To Promote Your Business For FREE!". To learn more about Bonnie and her favorite free marketing tactic visit http://www.articlesthatsell.com/.

(c) 2002, Davis Virtual Assistance. All rights reserved.


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