Earlier this week, I was writing an article for my newsletter; all about how to generate valuable, word of mouth recommendations and have the marketplace saying great things about you. I was writing the article, whilst sat in the lounge of a London hotel, where I had been staying for a couple of days.
Word of mouth marketing
Whilst writing article, a fellow guest asked me if I knew where there was a power supply, so he could plug in his laptop. I told him that I didn’t, because I was using a netbook, which has around 7 hours battery life.
I explained how I charge it in the morning and that I don’t need a power source for the rest of the day. After looking at the machine for 5 minutes and asking a few questions, he asked me for the model number, which I gave him (it’s a Samsung NC10) and promptly got his office to order him one!
It struck me afterwards, that I must have recommended the NC10 to around 20 people, since getting it just over a week ago. This is a great example of the power of word of mouth! By the way, I have no association with Samsung or anyone who sells their products. The reason I have told so many people about the NC10, is that I know how valuable that amazing battery life is to people like me; who often work away from their office and not always within reach of a power pocket.
Remarkable
It also struck me that in the 12 months I have owned my other laptop, I have never recommended it to anyone! My other laptop is bigger, faster and does everything really well. However, unlike the Samsung, with its amazing battery life, the other machine doesn’t do any one thing that is REMARKABLE.
‘Remarkable‘ is the key word here. People will only remark on you, your product or your business if you are remark-able in some way!
Just like my older laptop, which does everything really well, a business needs to offer more than a good quality service if it wants to attract stacks of word of mouth recommendations. People EXPECT a business to offer a really good service, so it’s not remarkable when they get it.
That great service you offer your clients / customers is extremely valuable – it will help you to keep their custom and encourage some of them to recommend you to their friends.
However, if you want to have thousands of people or tens of thousands of people shouting your name from the rooftops, you also need to get creative and offer YOUR marketplace, YOUR version of the NC10’s amazing battery life!