We've all heard the best and most cost effective way of marketing is through word of mouth. Traditional advertising is becoming less effective as consumers stop paying attention to all of the white noise they pass by every day. Reports from www.Consumerreports.org & various American University studies estimate the average person sees from 250-3000 advertisements per day. Is anyone paying attention anymore? Name one TV commercial and what they were selling when you watched your favorite show last night. Tell me what one radio ad said as you listened on your way to work this morning. Some marketers claim the more you see a message, the more likely you are to pay attention to it (this is usually wrong). Smart marketers have gone away from traditional advertising to spend time, energy, and money on creating word of mouth.
In September 2008, Peggy Stevens led an experiential marketing session to spa industry professionals at the Ritz-Carlton Coconut Gove, Miami for an ISPA Knowledge Network & Marketplace meeting. She touched on how to extend your network word of mouth. What is going on in your community? Amazing how you can work on your island, but not know the mayor or what's going on. What articles have been written on spas in your area, and have you been mentioned in those articles?
Do you know who talks about your spa? Where they are talking? And what they are talking about? If your spa has great products, services, and people, chances are you have customers talking about you to their friends and loved ones. Let's call these people sneezers. I like to call them sneezers because when you need to, it is hard to stop a sneeze, and everyone around you can’t help but hear you. When someone sneezes good news about your business, they create the most powerful form of advertising: word of mouth. If you find out one of your customers sent you a referral, do you reward them by giving them a discount, free product, or at least a thank you note? People are talking online about you, find them! There are number of rating websites along with Google reviews where people review, recommend, or not recommend your spa services. I am confident you can figure out how to get a dozens sneezers in your business to talk online about how great you are. Some great spas do not need to ask their loyalists to sneeze, other spas do. If they are not sneezing about you, you must ask them...right now...today. Sometimes nothing gets done until you ask.
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