It’s not often that a rock star gets looped into a marketing blog. But in this case, there is common ground. One number in particular.
55.
Get it?* If not, keep reading.
55% of people have made a word-of-mouth recommendation to someone else in the last 30 days. In fact, when asked to select just one source of information to rely upon when making purchases, half of all Americans would select online or offline word of mouth. However, the vast majority of businesses have no defined word of mouth strategy in place. That’s just nuts.
Be honest with yourself. How is word of mouth currently playing out for your business?
- My customers/clients usually don’t talk about us at all.
- My customers/clients usually talk about us in a negative way.
- My customers/clients usually talk about us in a neutral way.
- My customers/clients usually talk about us in a positive way
- My customers/clients are true advocates, refer new customers, provide great reviews and recommendations, and convey exactly what we want them to say about us.
So, where is your company on that scale of 1-5? I’m willing to bet 55 tacos that most readers of this article cannot honestly score themselves a 5. Send me an email, and tell me your score.
Word of mouth is directly responsible for 19% of all purchases and influences as much as 90%. Read that again. Word of mouth influences as much as 90% of all purchases?!? Every human on earth relies on word of mouth to make buying decisions.
What is it then, that makes us talk, recommend, buy, and vote? We did the research, and we have the answers. The information contained in our 2018 Chatter Matters research report—downloadable here for free—provides remarkable insights into just how powerful and effective word of mouth marketing really is.
Do you think males and females use word of mouth equally? How about millennials vs. boomers? No, they do not. To really craft your word of mouth strategy, it’s important to identify your target audience(s), and use the information in this report to align your strategy accordingly.
And a key part of that strategy beyond knowing your audience is knowing exactly how to get them talking and saying the right things to promote your business. It’s not just about good a product or service is—it has to be something remarkable and repeatable.
Those are just two tidbits detailed in the book Talk Triggers by Jay Baer and Daniel Lemon. This is the definitive, practical guide on how to use bold, operational differentiators to create customer conversations. It contains the step-by-step process and guardrails to get your customers talking about you in exactly the way you want them to. Your existing customers are your best, most cost-effective source for new customers so it only makes sense to have a well-crafted plan in place to capitalize on word of mouth.
The book provides plenty of examples of how other businesses have accomplished this, which can inspire you to develop your own Talk Trigger. At Convince and Convert, we’ve refined this process for clients who want to stand out from the competition and need some guidance in developing their talk trigger and putting it into place.
So, borrowing a bit from the song title, “I can’t drive 55… percent of people to recommend my business,” without a plan. We’ve compiled and distilled the data (download Chatter Matters for free), we’ve got the process (buy Talk Triggers online), and we’ve made it available to you.
*Sammy Hagar’s popular song from 1984 is “I Can’t Drive, 55!”