More and more, consumers are relying on friends and family members for advice on what to purchase, where to shop, tonight’s dining experience and tomorrow’s evening out This is great news for organizations who want to get the word out, i.e., market a new product, service or communicate an event, because word of mouth is essentially free.
Despite this oh-so-obvious fact, few organizations properly implement buzzmarketing by leveraging the “friends and family” network but it’s easy to do, and, did I mention..it’s FREE.
First, identify your friend network. You’ve already got it essentially. No need to create a new spreadsheet. Your organization’s “friends and family members” are its vendors, community alliances, partners, third-party providers and the friends and family members of your employees.
Second, tell ALL your employees, not just your sales and marketing gurus, about your new product, service or event. Every employee should know what your organization is doing, promoting and trying to be known for. It’s always a bit baffling when the receptionist or gatekeeper of an organization doesn’t know that the company just merged with an international conglomerate, is having an open house and Madonna is performing or has launched a national campaign introducing a new organic, non-caloric, gluten-free chocolate bar. Basically, everyone from the janitor to president and every stakeholder in between needs to know what is going on with your company!
Third, encourage every employee to tell a friend about the event, product or service. And always make sure the “buzz” is clear. Concisely communicate the product, service and event and why a person should attend, buy, partake, etc.!
Communicate via email, word of mouth, phone calls, etc. to these friends and family members what is going on at your company. Remember, we all have a business and personal friend network. If properly informed, they can do more for our cause than any mass advertising. All we have to do is tell them and excite them.They will do the rest.
A note about friends. Some friends are promoters and natural sales people who are likely to go out of their way to tell others about your cause. Others however, are more likely to be soft-spoken supporters. Don’t expect every friend to blast away emails, Tweets or Facebook posts about your cause. All you want to accomplish is awareness that produces discussion in conversation as your friends and family members interact with others in your market.
The more people that know about the organization’s cause, the better the discussion (and results).
So go out there and start a discussion with your friends and family and keep them informed. They will talk and you will benefit from the “friendly” conversation at no charge.
- Justin McCullough
leader4hire.net
