[Welcome back to the You Can Be a Word of Mouth Marketing Supergenius! newsletter. This is text from the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.]
Passive word of mouth consists of subtle and often unspoken recommendations — but it can be a powerful way to start conversations and earn sales. Three ways to find and feature yours:
1> Feature your clients
2> Highlight the hidden recommendations
3> List your best-sellers
1> Feature your clients
Help prospective customers gain confidence in you by showing off the people who have hired you before. Feature their logos, post samples of the work you did, or even try interviewing them about the project and the results. Even if it’s not an overt recommendation from the client, your great work will speak for itself.
2> Highlight the hidden recommendations
Feature your otherwise hidden word of mouth by better showing the world what’s popular. News sites often do it with their “most emailed stories” list and online retailers do it with their “customers who bought this item also bought…” feature. By showing customers what other people are already purchasing and sharing, you can turn unseen recommendations into useful information for buyers.
3> List your best-sellers
If something’s on your best-seller list, it tells prospective customers that hundreds or thousands of other people before them have invested in the product. Online shopping carts usually have a feature that make this easy to do, while offline businesses use simple signs showing “What’s Hot” or “All Time Favorites” to get the same effect. And while these previous buyers may not have openly engaged in word of mouth, their collective voice is a powerful, passive form of it.
