This posting is about an often overlooked but very powerful form of advertising and that is word of mouth from your own customers. The following article will review this concept with an idea on how to elevate this form of advertising to the next level, with amazing results for your business. Please share your thoughts about word of mouth advertising and any ideas you may have with a comment at the end.
Technorati Tags: Postcard Printing, Full Color Postcards, Word of Mouth, Leads, New Customers, Advertising Campaign
Give Your Word of Mouth Campaign a Kick in the Butt
As a businessperson, there are probably many ways in which you try to promote your business (if you are not, you should be). You advertise in the local papers. You place unique, attractive signage outside of your store. You might even record a spot to use in a radio ad. If you have a really big advertising budget, you may even be able to do a local television commercial.
Still, even with all these marketing strategies, perhaps the most reliable way to advertise
is the oldest: by word of mouth. If someone hears about your company through a friend or associate, they trust that information (whether it’s good or bad) more than they trust what they see in ads. If one of your customers tells his friends that he had a great experience at your store, and was served well, his friends are much more likely to come to you for business.
So, ideally, you want every one of your customers to go out and promote your business by telling everyone they know about you. But they are not going to do it on their own. You have to encourage them to spread the word.
A very effective way to gently prod your customers into helping you is by sending them a postcard. A good-looking, quality postcard, with some encouraging words on it, can really do wonders for promoting your business via word of mouth.
But you should make sure the postcards you send are of very good quality, and are attractive. Do not get boring, black-and-white ones. Spring for full color postcards; it will be well worth it in the end.
The design you choose should be associated with your business, including the color scheme. Make it something that will remind the customer of your business every time they look at it. A very good place to go for postcard printing is someplace where you can choose from hundreds of different options and a place where they will literally do everything for you, even mailing.
Whatever you do, just focus on printing good, attractive postcards, and only send them to former customers. Put a few words on the card asking these customers to tell their friends and family about your services. You will be amazed at the results you can achieve.
Think of it this way: postcard printing is a whole lot cheaper than making a television commercial!
For more information, you can visit this page on postcard printing and full color postcards

10:35 am on April 14th, 2008 1
I couldn’t agree more - I definitely think word of mouth is the way to go and the postcard idea is very smart. However do you think there is a parallel tool for online services or products that don’t have physical mailing addresses? I’d probably argue that email newsletters definitely don’t have the same punch. What do you think? Ways to get web visitors to promote your service?