A Direct Marketing Agency - Helping Brands Acquire and Retain Customers

One of the best forms of advertising comes from satisfied customers. But how easy is it for your customers to leave their comments, or send comments about a product or service to their friends? Here are three easy steps that will help you build word of mouth.

First: It must be simple. Extra questions, several pages, and complex steps will not only make it difficult to pass along their recommendations, most people will stop after the second question and your excellent reference is lost.

Second: The comment must appear trustworthy. If the message is sent as an email, make sure it does not appear to be sent from a bulk system, or the title is cryptic. The recipient may not recognize the value of the message, or worse yet, it may end up in the junk folder. If the comment is left on the website, offer spell checking and have a method to review all comments as they are entered.

Third: Capture enough information to make it relevant for you and your customer(s). Which pages generate the most brags? Has the person bought before they make a recommendation, or do most people browse and then comment? What is the likely hood of a person receiving or reviewing a recommendation to purchase? Also, looking at the content of the recommendations will give you a sense of what the "street talk" is about some of your products. And perhaps learn how products could be used or improved.

Making it easy for your customers to brag about something you sell will improve the likely hood of future sales as well as allow you to capture valuable information leading up to and after the recommendation. Letting your customers advertise for you in a relevant one to one fashion can only lead to increased revenue and return customers.