[Welcome back to our Word of Mouth Marketing Lessons newsletter. This is text from the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using this handy form.]
We don’t always share techie examples of word of mouth marketing, because word of mouth shouldn’t rely on digital or social media to work. But that doesn’t mean your web strategy couldn’t use a little WOM boost.
Here are three ways to do it:
1. Feature your customers
2. Give it some personality
3. Make sharing fun
1. Feature your customers
Photo thanks to Fashionista.
For their first anniversary, Free People, a women’s clothing retailer, replaced models with photos sent in by their customers. If their customers love them enough to share pictures of themselves wearing their stuff, they’ll certainly love getting recognized too. Even better, lots of their customers are fashion bloggers and big talkers online. Once their followers see how much Free People values their fans, it might inspire even more photo submissions and more word of mouth.
2. Give it some personality
Photo thanks to Grow.
To tell their clients and friends “thanks,” digital agency Grow created a site for them to choose a T-shirt called “Thank you begins with a T.” Each Grow employee modeled a different shirt and created an interactive design to fit their personality. For example, their office manager, Sheeryl, stands behind a play, pause, and fast-forward button that shows off her dance moves when you click them. That gives their customers a look at the personal side of their business while also showing off their digital chops.
3. Make sharing fun
Photo thanks to Adverblog.
Publicis Groupe gives a digital greeting at the end of every year with a YouTube video. But last year’s video used facial recognition to give it a twist. The more people who gathered around to watch it, the more outrageous the video got. That’s a techie example for a word of mouth basic: build sharing into your experience. The more fun you make it to share your stuff, the more your customer will want to do it.
