[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.]
Your customers aren’t going to work hard to spread the word about your stuff. Sometimes you have to give them that extra push and go the extra mile to make it easy to talk about you. One of the best ways to do that: Put a physical word of mouth tool in their hands.
Here are three things to give your customers:
1. A long-term reminder
2. A little encouragement
3. A shareable gift
1. A long-term reminder
Wahaca Mexican Market in London gives their guests a matchbook-style batch of seeds with easy instructions to grow your own chili peppers. And if you get a great photo of the finished product, you have a chance to get your chili plant featured in their cookbook. We love word of mouth tools like this that stick around for weeks and months to come — growing a plant is not just fun, it’s a daily reminder of Wahaca Mexican Market.
2. A little encouragement
If you did a Google search for Halls Cough Drops, you’ll find blog posts about them, Tumblr tags for them, and a bunch of photos of the wrappers. Why so much talk about a throat lozenge? Because they have little encouraging messages on the wrappers like “Nothing you can’t handle,” and “You’ve survived tougher.” People even pin them up in their cubicles. What small change can you make to your packaging to turn it into a keepsake?
3. A shareable gift
Realty Austin’s Josh Lasserre hand delivers a big box of Cane River pecans to each of his client’s homes once they move into their new place. It’s a nice housewarming gift, but it’s also something unique they’ll share with friends, family, and their office — and that starts conversations about Josh. When you send your customers a gift, think about who else that gift can reach.
