Marketing Messages Should be Heard (and not just seen)

The most effective method to get your message out has always been word of mouth. Hearing a recommendation from a friend, family member or respected colleague usually is enough reason for most of us to give the recommended product or service top consideration. In fact, many times after receiving such testimonial, people will simply go out and purchase the item.

I know this is not news but in light of how our industry is focused on ROI in marketing, I thought I’d revisit this marketing approach.

We all are becoming experts on the benefits of transpromo so I won’t go into that. Instead I’ll focus on what the “promo” area can bring with some creative marketing ideas behind it.

Let’s say large retail chain uses transpromo to add a message onto their monthly statements. They’ll obviously get their promotion into the hands of every single customer.

So what to promote? Sure variable data printing can format each of those statements uniquely to each recipient using business rules and available data but how can we get our customers to recommend our products and services to their friends, nieghbors, associates, etc.?

Actually it can be pretty easy. As always, the key to using transpromo effectively is to provide a targeted offer that is valuable specifically to an individual. Word of mouth starts with offering value to the customer and then bumps it up a notch by adding something of value to their network of friends.

Here is a real example:

In 2005 an online bank offered a promotion that gave new customers a $25 bonus when they opened a new account based on the recommendation of a current bank customer. The current customer received a $10 bonus for each new customer they referred.

Now, if you take away the $25 bonus for the new customers you can imagine that the word of mouth rate would drop because customers are now in the position of trying to  coerce their friends into signing up for their own benefit. In addition to not being nearly as effective, this promotion type can also alienate some customers because they were put in an awkward position and therefore could not take advantage of the offer.

Check out these statistics:

• Recommendations from family and friends trump all other consumer touch points when it comes to influencing purchases, according to new data from Publicis media network ZenithOptimedia.
  (AdAge, April, 2008)
• According to a global Nielsen survey of 26,486 Internet users in 47 markets, consumer recommendations are the most credible form of advertising among 78% of the study’s respondents.
  (Nielsen, “Word-of-Mouth the Most Powerful Selling Tool”)
• Most word of mouth is positive. Across all of Bazaarvoice US clients, 80% of product ratings are 4 or 5 stars out of 5. Across all of Bazaarvoice UK clients, 88% of product ratings are 4 or 5 stars out of 5.
  (“J Curve,” Bazaarvoice and Keller Fay)

And always remember that both good and bad news travels fast.

And that’s the word!