Word of mouth is a powerful tool that can help to generate and nurture leads so it becomes a valuable part of your marketing strategy, on a par with advertising.
Here are four tips to boost your business’s prominence and get people talking about you.
Word of mouth starts with happy customers, and customers are happy when they receive exceptional service. To achieve this, make sure you provide responsive, comprehensive and consistent customer service. Put together a communications plan that includes sending your clients relevant information designed to solve a problem or fulfill a need, rather than simply promoting your services. Get to know your clients and ask for feedback so you know where you can improve, but also where your strengths are.
82% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses, with 52% of 18 to 54 year-olds saying they ‘always’ read reviews, according to BrightLocal.
To respond to that, letting customers leave reviews easily is important, whether there’s a prominent call to action on your homepage, or you send personalised mailers to your customers asking them for a review. You’ll find that even negative reviews can be a benefit, as they allow you to demonstrate your customer service skills - we’ve written before about how you can manage negative reviews.
Once you get a review or a testimonial, make sure you have somewhere prominent to display them, whether on your website, your Facebook page or in your advertising. Having a strategy that secures the best outcome can really pay dividends.
To help, we’ve got an online review generator tool especially designed for brokers.
While hosting a webinar will involve time and effort to get right, the word of mouth generated by a stellar performance can catapult your business into people’s consciousness and ensure referrals come in thick and fast.
Alternatively, you could run a regular podcast that engages your customers, local businesses, or the wider property community to promote information sharing. For an example of how we use this, check out our Growth Series podcasts.
Make your passion about property clear to your clients and involve them in conversations that’ll benefit them and their approach to managing their own property, or help them to make more informed decisions about mortgage and protection products. You can do this by offering them an opt-in blog or newsletter, you can host events, invite your clients to ‘client appreciation parties’ (or a simple Christmas party), or you can champion a local community or charity event.
Read more: How to make the most of networking events
Download: Tips for getting the most out of exhibitions and conferences
Word of mouth is going to happen naturally, as Nielsen found: 92% of consumers trust referrals from people they know. So having a section of your marketing strategy dedicated to paying word of mouth the attention it deserves can go a long way.
We hope these tips work for you: for more tips on growing your business, don’t forget to visit our Growth Series.
Read more: The Impact of Word-of-Mouth Marketing
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