One of the biggest challenges any new business or brand faces is getting the word out. How do you let the world know about your product? How do you get potential customers to trust you? Or how can you guarantee people understand your business? One strategy is word of mouth.

What is Word of Mouth?

Word of mouth is basically free advertising mixed with the snowball effect and topped off with customer satisfaction. It’s a lot, but you can create it.

Word of mouth starts when someone tells someone else about your product and brand – it’s an organic conversation. The end goal is for that customer to tell another person, and then that person tells someone else, and so on until you become a viral name. This means word of mouth is entirely based on customer satisfaction and trust. But before you get there, you need to first give your customers something to talk about.

Make your product or business something that customers will want to share with the world. Also make sure it is easier for your customers to talk about – if your product or business takes hours to explain, find another way for it to be summarized. By giving them a reason to share, you are building a relationship with customers. Now you can encourage that word of mouth conversation through customer service.

You should already be striving for good customer service, but this is an extra layer to it. Having good customer service means customers feel more willing to tell their experiences with your product or business. A happy customer can drive in more potential customers.

Creating Word of Mouth

Don’t base your entire goal of creating word of mouth on the hope that happy customers will spread the word, though. You need to fulfill your end and continue giving your customers the desire to talk. There are a few ways to do this.

An easy way to get people talking is free stuff. Gifts and discounts can go a long way with customers. I mean, who doesn’t like 50% coupons or free T-shirts?

Another way is to create user-generated content. This includes hashtags, videos, pictures, gifs and basically anything that can blow up on social media. People like being involved with viral content.

Creating a space for customers to rate your product or business online can also help. Reviews and testimonials, like on Yelp or Angie’s List, and product ratings allow customers to tell other potential customers what they think about your product or business without directly interacting with one another.

Give and Take

To keep word of mouth going, continue building and refining that customer relationship. Make sure that trust and satisfaction are there, or else you won’t be going anywhere. Listen to the customers and do what you can to keep their happiness.

A customer is putting their reputation on the line to talk about your product or business. Make sure they are doing this for a good reason and not to end up being disappointed when their friend comes back and says the product was bad or the business was awful.