Did you know that only 7% of word of mouth marketing happens online?
The rest occurs in your office when your colleagues mention a new restaurant she ate at last weekend. It happens at your kid’s soccer match when your son’s friend tells him about a new video game he got for his birthday. It happens when your sister calls and tells you about a great deal she got on a new TV at an amazing store in your neighborhood.
Is Your Marketing Built on Sharing?
When you see the world through a sharing filter, you think about how you can get your share of attention. Everything you do as a marketer is structured around creating something memorable that someone will remark about to their friends.
The new cookbook author sends 50 influencers not one but two copies of her cookbook. One to review and one for her to share with a friend. This idea, from Jonah Berger (Author of Contagious and Invisible Influence), illustrates the idea of building sharing into your marketing plans.
- Could your package offer an easy way to share your story with a friend?
- Do you do something with your display that promotes the ‘tell a friend’ idea in a refreshingly new way?
- Can you provide sample sizes attached to your regular sized product so that your customer has a sample to share with her friend?
- Are you able to brainstorm promotions that emphasize getting your brand ambassadors to get the word out to like-minded friends?
I am much more interested in the recommendations of people I know. Friends, whose are foodies rank high when they recommend a restaurant. Friends who are knowledgeable about wine grab my attention when they share information about a new varietal that I don’t know. That “go to guy” in the neighborhood who is always doing home projects, is an excellent resource to get a recommendation from about equipment that he has first-hand experience using.
Social currency is the proof that others like you are using a product or service. And, we want to fit into to a group or community.
Seth Godin created a book two years ago, but he sold them in bundles of 5 at a time. He wanted to encourage you to give them to other people. His promotion helped get his book into five times the average amount of readers he had because he built into his marketing plans, the give-away program. The actual cost of the book giveaway was modest compared to the benefit of expanding his overall reach. (Remember, it was for a limited time). I bought the book and put a copy into the hands of 4 marketing people who I thought could benefit from his knowledge. Two of those friends told me they bought a few of his other books. Genius.
How are you building sharing into your brand and encourage others to tell your story? It helps when you have something remarkable – so people will remark about it.
Care to share? Let’s work together to construct a marketing strategy built on sharing and word of mouth marketing. Text me at 919 720 0995 or email me at jeffslater@themarketingsage.com
Photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Young_toekans_sharing_food_(3910463094).jpg
