“I get all of my clients through referrals. Word of mouth is all the marketing I need.” Those words didn’t come out of my mouth, nor would they. I tell people they need tools and channels and content and process and stuff. No, this was spoken by the founder and owner of a 20-year-old executive recruiting firm between bites of a Caesar salad the other day at lunch.
This guy had seen my articles in this space and just wanted to pick my brain a bit. And he was buying. So I said yes.
The first thing he wanted me to do was take a look at his website. He admitted it’s out of date and doesn’t really tell his story of a values-based organization very well.
Unless he was a sports agent, or a professional sports management firm, I don’t think it ever told the right story. It was full of stock photography of people in formal business attire jumping over hurdles and cycling and had lots of banners and headlines about goals and finish lines and winning and all that.
I mean, those are some okay analogies, but they don’t make an emotional connection. They don’t tell you anything about this person, or the company, or why you would hire them. The website doesn’t take you to the place where buying decisions are made.
And that’s a mistake. I have heard several times recently that about 80% of the buying decisions we make either originate on the web, or involve an online engagement of some kind. That’s high, huh?
80% of the buying decisions we make either originate on the web, or involve an online engagement of some kind
Maybe my lunch companion had seen the same data, and realizes he is leaving some business on the floor, or isn’t seeing even more come in the door, because of ineffective marketing.
I should establish something before I go further. I am a huge fan of referrals, and have been the beneficiary of a lot of business through referrals and recommendations.
We do business with people we know, like and trust, right? And if a third party with credibility is taking our name down that path, creating that buy-in for us, the heavy lifting is done. We just need to avoid screwing it up.
We do business with people we know, like and trust, right?
So if you have lots of satisfied customers and they are generating future customers, ride that pony! But don’t be a one trick pony and ignore or exclude other forms of marketing.
I was curious about the word of mouth stuff though, and decided to do a little research around it.
A 2010 article in McKinsey Quarterly looked at the impact of word-of-mouth-marketing for businesses and how companies can take better advantage of it.
The article shows how many marketers spend lots of money on elaborate campaigns when often what’s really needed to help influence consumers is a “word-of-mouth recommendation from a trusted source” which “cuts through the noise” of traditional marketing methods.
Indeed, word of mouth is the primary factor behind 20% – 50% of all purchasing decisions according to McKinsey. So it works for sure.
And I think this recruiter I met with will do a new website, and begin to engage with some social media tools, and get with the program a little more proactively.
What do you think? Are there any among you in his shoes who want to tell me to trash my tweets and @#$% my Facebook fan page? Or is word of mouth not good enough these days?
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
My guess is you could easily trash the tweets and the fan page and that your 20%-50% figure is way low.
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You’re probably right Gregg. McKinsey has more resources and a better reputation than me when it comes to asking questions, so I went with their figure. However, like you, I think the figure is way low.
would like to see the exact question that was asked…”Was your reputation a primary factor in your client’s decision?” is going to get a higher percentage than “Was word-of-mouth a primary factor?”
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My office began Tweeting and Facebooking about 4 months ago, with no real results other than a new task to be accomplished: ‘post an update’.
Reputation and/or word of mouth, however were admittedly one of the deciding factors that won me an account I courted for 9 months. Sending emails and stopping by with articles that showed I was keeping up with and understood their industry did nothing, but when I presented them a letter of reference that included the contact information for another of my clients in the same industry, I was asked for a formal proposal.
Word of mouth can be great, but a lot of the time you still have to ask for it or share it yourself.
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You expected results from Twitter and Facebook in 4 months? Sounds like a noob mistake to me.
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You point out an interesting nuance Steven, one I hadn’t thought of. That it wasn’t social media, it wasn’t a tech-based tool that got you an engagement, it was word of mouth. It just happened to be your mouth spreading the word. Interesting. Thanks for your comment.
question for David is how to be such a great writer and where do you get your ideas? does twitter help you do that?
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Thanks for the comment – and the compliment – Gregg! Always appreciated for sure.
I believe being a good writer begins with being a really good reader. And I was a voracious reader from the cradle practically, and that continues to this day. In fact, input is my top StrengthsFinder theme. I am just perpetually curious about the world.
As for my ideas and inspiration, I try to use as much from real life as I can. Typically the most successful posts are going to be ones that are the most organic and authentic, although the “ripped from the headlines” content generate readers as well.
I like the Twitter as source material idea. I probably don’t do use Twitter enough for that reason.