Strategy for word of mouth

Word of mouth is an inexpensive marketing strategy that supports a business activity to bring in more customers. Photo / Thinkstock

Anne spent five minutes utterly raving about a Café in Masterton which she and her husband frequent weekly.

"Anne" I asked. "How did you find out about this café' in the first place?"

"A friend of mine said I must join their birthday club for their free dinner invite."

Yes this is incredible word of mouth to kill for!

You might think I was so impressed by the café' because of their activities. The birthday club. The double out-of-towner stamps. The free cup of coffee for throwing a ping pong ball in a cup on a shelf.

The strategy behind it

No it wasn't these ACTIVITIES. Anyone can do that when people walk through the door.

It was their clever and oh so very, very inexpensive marketing strategy that supported and propelled the activity and brought people back to them. Do you remember why Anne went there in the first place? Yes, the birthday club. Can you effectively run a birthday club or bring people back to you without a database of customers? Their incredible success was twofold.

First collecting and keeping information (it needn't be fancy, an Excel spreadsheet will do). Next the clever activities to bring people back again and again and spread word of mouth.

The strategy is simple. Use a database to increase business turnover AND add value to customer service. Adding to the database strategy is of course using social media as your cloud database. Whatever activity you do by email with the database in your computer, you replicate it online.

Written by Debbie Mayo-Smith, One of New Zealand's most in-demand speakers, trainers and bestselling authors. Debbie works with companies that want more effective staff. For more tips and business ideas sign up for her free monthly newsletter.