So you just started your business and your marketing budget is slim to none. Don’t fret. Maybe the viral marketing power of word-of-mouth can drive business to your door. But without clients or marketing, how can you get word-of-mouth started?
Even if the paint is still wet on your walls, your website is spanking new and your letterhead just arrived, there are ways to start getting the word out before word-of-mouth kicks in. But don’t expect a marketing magic bullet to suddenly appear. There are many ways to market a new business, just as there are many types of businesses and owners.
“Word-of-mouth is far and away the dominant force in the marketplace. Yet it is also the most neglected,” says George Silverman, president of Market Navigation, Inc. and author of The Secrets of Word of Mouth Marketing (Amacom Press). “People think they can’t do much about word-of-mouth…that it’s out of their control.”
But that can be an expensive mistake. There are many things a startup business can do to spark the huge power of word-of-mouth marketing. For a few businesses it just happens. For most it is a self-generated marketing “miracle.” These seven steps, suggested by Silverman, can lead to word-of-mouth success.
7 steps for word-of-mouth viral marketing success
- Send the same simple message through all of your communications. If it’s not simple, it can’t survive being passed via word-of-mouth.
- Don’t position your product or service as part of a general category.
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