The Untapped Potential of Word of Mouth Marketing
Everyone is aware of the concept of word of mouth marketing.
It’s common sense that if people enjoy your product or service, they will talk about it and market it for you. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that this is the case with any business.
But, word of mouth marketing isn’t merely done by chance. There is actually a way to create talkable experiences and facilitate your own word of mouth marketing “campaign”.
I recently read a book known as Talk Triggers by Jay Baer and learned quite a bit about this process and how it works. So, I figured I would share some of what I learned in a blog post to help other people who are interested in creating their own word of mouth marketing foundation.
This article covers the gist, but I would definitely recommend reading the entire book if you really want to dive into this subject. It was a great read and if you are interested you can find it below.
The Basics.
Every business owner or marketing executive dreams of having natural word of mouth marketing. It is an amazing feeling to have people naturally talk about how much they love what you are doing.
But, there is one issue with this. You have no control over if it happens or not.
Many business owners try things such as “tell your friends about us to receive free in-store credit” or “leave us a review on Facebook for a discount”.
While yes, this may work and may generate a bit of a discussion about your business, it isn’t genuine and it doesn’t have the same effect. It isn’t the same as if someone single-handedly decided to go out of their way and tell their friends about how much they loved your products.
So, how do you make it to where these genuine words of mouth interactions happen?
Talk Triggers.
This is where the information from Talk Triggers comes into play. Again, if you want the full thing, check out the book, because it is going to do a lot more than I am in this short little article.
What are talk triggers?
Talk triggers are a way to make the inconsistent word of mouth behaviors of your customers into a compelling and repeatable action that you can leverage in order to grow your business.
As stated in the book, it makes word of mouth “powerful and purposeful” instead of “situational and uncertain”.
What does a talk trigger look like?
In short, a talk trigger is a way to get people talking about your company or brand in the right way, in order to generate natural word of mouth marketing. A few of the examples that were mentioned in the book were the following:
- DoubleTree hotels providing their guests with free cookies with every stay
- The huge menu at The Cheesecake Factory
- Five Guys giving extra fries with every order, no matter what
- Air New Zealand creating a comfortable “sky couch” for their flights
These are all experiences that helps to get the consumer talking. They are inherently interesting and unique features that stand out from other companies in these fields. But, most importantly, they are things that cannot be easily claimed or replicated.
What are the specifics of a talk trigger?
A functional talk trigger needs to truly show that your company is different and make customers feel that difference. They cannot be a simple, easily replicated claim such as “fast service”, “good food”, “comfortable beds”, or “clean rentals”.
There are hundreds of restaurants that claim they have the best pizza or the best service, but there are very few that give away free meals to military customers.
You need something like the latter. Something that is ingrained in your company culture and something that stands out among a sea of generic claims.
How do talk triggers work?
Talk Triggers work by making customers or clients feel a specific way about your company. They need to have a reason to talk about their experience and going above and beyond expectations (even above and beyond the expectations of “good service” and “good food”) is the way to make that happen.
Let’s talk about the free DoubleTree cookies.
DoubleTree Hotels gives all of its guests free, fresh baked cookies with every single stay. On the surface, it sounds stupid. But, in the mind of the consumer, it works wonders.
The free cookies are a unique and interesting dynamic that adds to the already pleasant experience of staying at one of these hotels. Customers don’t really care to go out of their way to share the fact that the beds were comfortable, but, when the free cookie is thrown in, they now have something unique and cool to bring up in conversation. The cookie is the catalyst that creates the rest of the discussion about the hotel as a whole. It is the unique thing that triggers the discussion, or, the talk trigger.
Criteria of A Talk Trigger
I am not going to go fully into depth about the criteria of a talk trigger, because that is what the book is for. I genuinely enjoyed this book more than any other marketing book I have read, so I am going to continue to push the idea that you go and read it for yourself. The authors are great and I know you will enjoy it.
However, I will briefly mention the criteria of a successful talk trigger.
Remarkable
Your talk triggers must be remarkable and unique enough to warrant a discussion. Don’t be afraid to do something crazy. Giving all of your customers a customized business card isn’t going to do it.
Relevant
A functional talk trigger must be relevant. This means that it must make sense in the context of your company and your mission.
For example, if you decided to give away a free yoga mat to every customer in your bowling alley, it wouldn't make sense. It would be stupid and it probably would make people think you are insane.
Reasonable
While it is important to have a remarkable talk trigger, you also want to make sure it is reasonable. If you are offering to fly all of your customers to Tahiti and give them unlimited Strawberry Daquiris, they probably aren’t going to believe you.
You don’t want people to doubt the validity of your claims.
Repeatable
Your talk trigger must apply to every single person who walks into your door. Choosing a random customer here and there and giving them something cool is not going to work. You want to give everyone equal access for a talk trigger to work in it’s fullest capacity. You aren’t gonna get people talking if they have a 1/1000 chance to receive something.
These are the basics of talk triggers and how they can help your word of mouth marketing campaigns for your business or brand.
I may sound like a broken record at this point, but I insist that you read the book to learn more about these things and expand upon what you have read here with stuff like “steps to create your own talk triggers” and “types of talk triggers”. It helped me develop some of my own and it will help you as well.
