The Do’s and Don’ts of Word Of Mouth Marketing
by Leeia Ladipoh on May 9th, 2008
When you see how effective word of mouth advertising can be, you should begin to look for more people to tell about your business.
The more people you tell, the better your chance of having a successful business. But there are things to do, and there are things not to do.
Don’t Plug Where You Aren’t Supposed to
When you’re online in a chat room, notice that no one is saying anything about their business. You may think, “what can a small plug here hurt?”, so you say something about your company.
This can be harmful because it is called spam – and on most sites, spam is illegal. It is important to note that if you even put a small plug in about your business on an unauthorized site, you are spamming and can be kicked off the website.
Do not do what some do and be tempted to have others posting for you. Getting your staff or hiring an outside source to present your business on sites that do not want it is also spamming.
Don’t Be Dishonest
If you get people to talk about your products that don’t really use them, that is being dishonest. You are lying to the people. When you see an advertisement for a certain product, you want to know the person really uses the product they are advertising. If it works for them, other people will try it.
Getting people – especially celebrities – to lie about a product they don’t use is wrong an unethical.
The best way to run a business is to be honest. Be honest about where you advertise. Before you place an ad or chat about your business in a chat room, be sure that it is welcome on that site, or don’t do it.
Be honest about who you have advertising for you. Make sure they are doing everything legal. In addition, be honest about who you get to say testimonials from. Make sure they really do use the products – or don’t use them in your advertising.
Do Tell the Truth
Honesty is always the best policy. If you lie, you will eventually be exposed.
Eventually, when everyone finds out that you have been lying, you will lose customers and most likely your business. By being honest, you will gain customers and you will be successful in your business adventures in the long run.
Do Put Yourself in Your Customer’s Shoes
Think about how you would like to be treated if you were a customer. Now let’s say you found out that the owner of a business you were dealing with was lying and wasn’t really doing what they said they were doing.
Let’s go further and say that the celebrity that is doing commercials for the company never used the company’s products. How would that make you feel?
The bottom line is that honesty is the best policy, as well as only offering information about your business where that information is welcome.