17 Aug What Does Word Of Mouth Really Get You?

[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Blog: What Does Word Of Mouth Really Get You?” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]

What Does Word Of Mouth Really Get You?

Around 99% of the businesses we’ve worked with over the years tell us that word of mouth is their biggest referral source. When we ask them how it happens exactly, they stop short and are unsure of how to answer the question.

That’s because word of mouth is elusive, intangible, and something you cannot directly control. Whether someone has a negative or positive experience with your business is the starting point of word of mouth and one area in which you can have some control, but beyond that, the whole point of word of mouth is that it is genuine, unscripted, unadvertised and credible.

So, what does it really get you and what can you do about it? Word of mouth gets you a whole lot and is often underestimated and underutilized.

Public relations is one of the strategies we talk about utilizing to help control, or engage word of mouth business growth. So, how exactly does it happen?

Media interviews is one way PR pros help. We don’t pay news stations to run stories about our clients, nor do we have a crystal ball or any magical control over what they decide to cover. However, PR people are experts at uncovering organizations’ stories that are particularly newsworthy and connecting those stories to appropriate media personnel. To go a step further, they uncover stories that both the media will like to cover, but also that your audience will also connect with.

Great, so how does that help or emulate word of mouth business growth? Here’s how! Since media coverage has both an immediate (whether seen on television or read from a paper, for example) or recurring impact (meaning seen online or through a social share), people learn your story through someone in the media. Often reporters are well-known and seen as ‘friends’ or someone people can trust as the audience gets to know their personalities. Plus, the public knows that such stories aren’t advertisements, or paid for, thereby offering more credibility to the story.

Why does that work for you? Let’s say your PR team uncovered an amazing story that your business is doing to help the community in a unique way. Then they effectively tell the media that story and it is covered or shown to a mass audience. That audience now knows about your story, what your business is doing, and has more of a compelling reason to do business with you.

Whether it’s a restaurant or a medical practice, people want to do business with those who ‘do good’, connect with their values, or help their own situation in some way.

To sum it up, word of mouth is when a friend tells their circle about a positive (or not so positive) interaction with a business. Their circle then trusts this source and is aware of the business and inclined to interact.

Media interviews often mirror that same experience, even though it is not a recommendation by a personal friend, but through a news outlet.

In short, media interviews can drastically change perception, increase sales, engage audiences and build audiences for businesses in the same way that word of mouth does.

For more information on media interviews, or other ways PR teams emulate word of mouth, check us out at www.nspublicrelations.com.

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]