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Word of mouth marketing doesn’t always require an overhaul. Sometimes it’s just small tweaks to what you’re already doing that turn a regular company into a buzzworthy one.
Here’s how you can turn discounts, product packaging, and even jokes around the office into conversation starters:
1. Make it goofy
2. Make it smaller
3. Make it weird
1. Make it goofy
Not a Burger Stand in Los Angeles, like a lot of restaurants, features their promotions on a chalkboard outside to draw people in. But unlike a lot of restaurants, their promotions include, “Order in the voice of Jabba the Hut and get 10% off your meal,” “Start 2014 off like the Dude. Wear a bathrobe and get 10% off,” or “Order in the voice of Captain Picard and get 10% off! Be Patrick Stewart and we’ll give you anything you want. (Fit in a ‘Shut up, Wesley!’ for an extra 5% off!)” This isn’t your average happy hour special, it’s an (easy) way to make your promotions and your customers’ experience worth talking about.
2. Make it smaller
Nike came out with a new line of shoes that are really flexible. To prove it, they folded the shoes in half, and sold them in a box that’s one-third the size of a normal shoe box. It saves Nike on cardboard, shows the flexibility of their shoes, and makes them stand out on a retailer’s shelves. But more importantly, it was just a creative improvement on something they were already doing: putting shoes in boxes. No big marketing campaign, no crazy stunts, just a smaller box.
3. Make it weird
When one employee at Raygun, a screen printing shop in the midwest, took a nap during his lunch break, another co-worker took his picture and photoshopped his sleeping face into tons of situations like Kanye and Kim Kardashian’s infamous music video, The Brady Bunch opening credits, and on the local news. But after posting the photos to Facebook with #dillynaps, the joke around the office became a big word of mouth topic with their fans. The posts even caught the attention of the media, who interviewed Dylan Boyle, the guy behind the memes. This falls under the category, “You never know what will catch on.” In this case, it was just a silly office prank that turned into a big hit because they shared it with everyone else.
