[Welcome back to the You Can Be a Word of Mouth Marketing Supergenius! newsletter. This is text of the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.]
Word of mouth can work for anyone in any industry — including business-to-business brands. The topics and tools may vary, but the fundamentals are the same: Find people who will talk about you and make it easy for those conversations to take place. A few ideas to get you started:
1> Give away white papers and research
2> Send an email newsletter
3> Connect your clients
1> Give away white papers and research
Great research always gets shared. Case studies, polls, surveys, data — they all get quoted, forwarded, and linked to. And when you publish this stuff, think like a true word of mouth marketer and make it really easy to share.
2> Send an email newsletter
Email newsletters (like this one) are special — they’re the only kind of advertising people ask for. They’re also the single most forwardable word of mouth tool. Create a newsletter and put a sign-up form on your homepage — even if only a few people sign up, they’re probably among your most eager talkers.
3> Connect your clients
Good things happen when you connect your customers with one another. Host summits, create communities, launch an ambassador program, have a BBQ — they all drive enthusiasm and get people talking. SAP’s customer communities, CoffeeCup Software’s ambassador program, and Intuit’s small business community are just a few examples of great BtoB brands creating word of mouth by connecting their customers.
