Read Their Lips Let your customers do the talking with word-of-mouth marketing.
By Julia Miller
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
When it comes to chatting up your homebased business,there's nothing more helpful or economical than effectiveword-of-mouth marketing. Stop and think about it: If you see an adproclaiming that one office supply store has the best prices onanswering machines, but your friend tells you another storeactually has lower prices, who are you going to believe? You'reobviously going to believe your friend, because he or she has noagenda, and therefore is a credible source.
The same applies when it comes to word-of-mouth referrals. Someof the most successful homebased marketers are those who are ableto take their base of happy clients and encourage them to sharetheir satisfaction with friends and peers. While word-of-mouthtechniques vary, you can generally expect positive results if youdo the following:
- Call your satisfied customers and ask them to call onepotential client for you. Most people are happy to do this, andthese days especially, help like this is considered "goodkarma." As they say, what goes around comes around. Anotherway to handle this: After you complete a project with a satisfiedclient, ask that client to fill out a feedback card and ask for onereferral.
- Similarly, always ask for the names of potential customers andthe right to use the satisfied client's name in a conversationwith a potential customer.
- Ask for permission to use your satisfied client's name andany testimonials ("She made my business more profitable injust three months" or "His product increased myefficiency 30 percent") in any print advertising or directcampaigns.
- Whenever a new client does business with you, ask how he or sheheard about you. When the client tells you he's been referredby "Harry," make sure the next time Harry stops by, hegets a sincere thank-you and maybe even a discount or freebie.
