[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.]
For all of the companies who aren’t selling stuff like sports cars, high-tech gear, and designer shoes out there, you know that word of mouth marketing can be a little more difficult for traditionally “un-sexy” brands. But if you know where to look, you can make anything worth talking about.
Here’s how an online bank, a pharmaceutical company, and some realtors did it:
1. Remarkable people
2. Remarkable customers
3. Remarkable events
1. Remarkable people
No matter what you’re selling, you already have a hidden resource for interesting conversations: the people who work for you. Your employees can make almost anything worth talking about by giving remarkable, human service (even without a physical store). For example, online banking service Simple encourages their customers to contact them “whenever about whatever.” And when one customer tested that statement with an email, she was surprised when an employee responded right away, pleasantly and humanly, even though her email was just about life in Portland.
2. Remarkable customers
It’s not that easy for pharmaceutical companies to look cool in social media — for one thing, they’re facing tons of regulation, and for another, medicine isn’t the most approachable topic. So instead of focusing on their products, UCB Pharma made their message about their customers with the My4Words campaign. It asks customers to share four words about their personal journey with battling disease and staying healthy. People love sharing their own story, and UCB Pharma made it even easier with a short and simple format.
3. Remarkable events
Empty buildings may have a lot of remarkable potential, but it’s not always easy for people to see it. So to get more people talking about the ones available to buy or rent in Webster City, Iowa, one company gave a Tour of Empty Buildings. They asked locals to provide unique history, invited business teachers to share the tour with their classes, and arranged for city and construction managers to answer questions on the tour. By making an event out of it, they created a sense of excitement and curiosity that a “For Sale” sign couldn’t.
