This is a guest post by Collin LaHay
Word of mouth advertising is the best way to increase revenue.
A recommendation from a friend is far more powerful than an advertisement seen on a billboard. The reason that the awesome movies make so much money while the terrible ones do not has little to do with the advertising budget of the industry, but rather because the customers that pay to see the movie refer their friends by telling them what a great movie it was. Those referred friends ultimately repeat the process and the movie cast makes a bundle. In internet marketing, if you spend $1000 to get 100 customers, cool… but if you can spend $1000 to get 50 customers who enjoy your product so much that they each refer 5 friends who refer 5 friends, you now have a well recommended product and over 10 times as many happy customers.
There will always be complainers.
It does not matter who you are or what product you sell, you must always be prepared that someone will go out of their way to complain about it. You should not focus on pleasing everyone, but rather on focusing on the majority. If the complainer has solid advice, take it and move on. Much like Neil Patel said earlier, people love talking shit. I see many people get in huge arguments over products and it hurts both sides. Not everyone will like every product that hits the shelves (or the web), but everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Let them have theirs!
There is no finish line.
Much like the constant walking around in circles at a movie theater waiting for customers to drop popcorn, with internet marketing your job is never done. There will ALWAYS be people who you have not marketed your websites or products to yet. The internet is a very large and expanding place, and to be an avid internet marketer, you should never stop improving your products or expanding your market.
Always, always, upsell.
When you give a person a chance to improve the product they are already interested in purchasing, 30 to 67 percent of the time they are willing to be upsold, even if it will cost them a little bit more. An extra $0.25 to get a large drink rather than a medium seems like one heck of a deal to the customer, while it brings in an extra $20,000 a year towards the theater. In simple terms, people will always want extra icing on their cake. Give them a better deal and play the numbers game to increase your revenue.
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December 30, 2007 at 11:02 am
I have a Melaleuca blog that not only gets the word out (sort of like word of mouth as people will post), but they post not only about my product, but we also discuss MLM techniques and marketing news, such as what is hot and what is not.
December 13, 2007 at 10:11 pm
Word of mouth is some of the best advertising around. It may be a little slower but it’s definitely more longstanding than other forms.
December 8, 2007 at 2:33 pm
Great read – thanks alot!
December 7, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Thats probably the most important piece of information on this blog post
December 7, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Nice to see someone with actual experience from working in this type of workplace commenting too
December 7, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Nice read. Good relevance to the subject too!
December 7, 2007 at 9:21 am
Always complainers – its so true. Some people will complain even if everything is perfect, its just their nature. I’ve worked retail long enough to know that the customer is not always right but you still have to be nice to them.
December 6, 2007 at 6:48 pm
2007-12-03 was my 31 birhday . I forgot to post DAMN !!!
December 5, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Rule 5; Never run a broken movie. (broken links, non-working video clips, payment systems) which do not work are just as annoying.
Rule 6; If the movie does break during a viewing, offer a bigger and better deal immediately. If the customer cannot buy from your website or misses a deal, make them a better one right away.
December 5, 2007 at 4:29 am
I like it too, I didn’t know he wasn’t a blogger before but it’s a great design. Even the logo looks like an authentic real market sign.
December 5, 2007 at 4:28 am
yup yup yup, word of mouth is everything. You get the best driest kindle, then light it, if you had the best driest kindle, then you’d probably be successful, if not, go look for more!
December 5, 2007 at 4:26 am
lol…
December 5, 2007 at 4:25 am
complete agreed.
December 5, 2007 at 4:25 am
yup, i used to work for pizza hut, the main source for marketing was passing out simple flyers around your neighborhood.
December 5, 2007 at 4:24 am
Yes, complainers may be the key to your success too. No negative publicity was ever bad.
December 5, 2007 at 1:14 am
Word of mouth / word of forums is king.
December 4, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Hahahaha. Thanks for confirming that.
December 4, 2007 at 12:20 pm
Thanks for the informative guest post Collin! And for the record, I like your site design!
December 4, 2007 at 8:52 am
Word of mouth is great, but continuing to educate yourself on correct marketing methods for your mlm biz will do wonders for building leads! Many Melaleuca distributors have great results following various marketing methods.
December 4, 2007 at 7:16 am
Very strong title. It caught my attention and made me read your post. This post is also a lesson in the value of great titles – something I always struggle with.
December 4, 2007 at 1:13 am
I don’t know about this post … but what I do know : Collin, you need to redesign your website. It looks like it was made in the 80’s during disco fever
December 3, 2007 at 11:54 pm
Thanks for confirming that stat Collin; because I was wondering – don’t they say 70% of all stats are made up?
(Yes, I made that stat up too)
December 3, 2007 at 11:46 pm
Thats the key point.
I experienced the same when I ran my restaurant and niteclub businesses. There were times when you got everything as close as possible to perfect, yet there would always be someone who found fault.
Important to focus on your weak points, but you need to be able to determine when its a genuine complaint.
December 3, 2007 at 10:26 pm
Thanks for the positive comments everyone. If anyone is wondering about the 30-67% statistic, I just want you to know that I found it from Google. I do not know if this is completely accurate, but I can personally tell you that the majority (more than 49%) of people I personally upsold while working at the theater did it in a heartbeat.
Thanks for the guest post publicity Jeremy!
December 3, 2007 at 6:13 pm
This is SO true. And it is true in almost any business. You can go through all of the work of getting a new customer or a new sale and then multiply that profit if youonly master the art of upselling. People won’t buy what they can’t afford, and the worst answer you can get is no!
December 3, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Loved this post. I always forget about the upsell, thanks for the reminder.
I also remember doing a case study in college on a chain of movie theaters, and finding out that they make almost all of their profits from the concession stand. To tie that into this post, I would add that there are many ways to make money, and sometimes you can make the most profit from your “sidelines.”
December 3, 2007 at 5:10 pm
Nice post! Word of mouth is king!
December 3, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Cool post Collin. I especially like the upsell part.
December 3, 2007 at 4:28 pm
As always, great article! I think word of mouth is sometimes underrated when, as you say, it’s probably the most powerful/effective form of advertising!
Dom
December 3, 2007 at 4:16 pm
It’s good thing if people are talking sh-t about you, any publicity is good publicity (most of time!).
December 3, 2007 at 4:05 pm
Good points in this post, and it’s true, people do talk shit
December 3, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Great post again. Word of mouth is most important in every business. Thats becuase most scams have a lot of advertising. So people want to find out if its the real deal from someone they trust.
December 3, 2007 at 1:22 pm
This is a great post. I used to work at a movie theater years ago–you’re right about upselling those drinks for a quarter. Who wouldn’t pay the extra 25 cents when they already shelled out 4.75 for a medium drink.
It’s true, you want passionate people to “evangelize” your product or brand for you–this type of thing creates incredible word of mouth and more sales. good post
December 3, 2007 at 1:11 pm
I think you can learn about marketing from every industry.
December 3, 2007 at 12:39 pm
This was a very good post! I always try to express that same theory to those who want to start any business that they may have in mind. Too many people become dependent of what others think of them to the point that they no longer have a unique product or service but rather something that’s created by the public. Criticism is at an all time high from those who choose not to seek new levels of doing business.
Dwayne
http://www.dwaynelattimore.com
December 3, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Yea. It has some very valid points.
December 3, 2007 at 12:18 pm
I like this as well.
Pretty good post.
December 3, 2007 at 11:39 am
Good post. I like this “There is no finish line.”
December 3, 2007 at 11:03 am
Excellent analogies, I always dismiss the upsell because that is just too much coke and popcorn, but because I’m a captive audience I do buy the smaller versions.
December 3, 2007 at 10:34 am
Good post Colin. I worked in a movie theater in college and I remember all these lessons. One other lesson to learn is that it’s all about presentation and experience. In the theater business that refers to cleanliness and friendliness, but in the web world that relates to good design and navigability. Guess that’s web development 101 though.
December 3, 2007 at 9:01 am
“There will always be complainers.” “Always, always, upsell.” good stuff.
December 3, 2007 at 9:00 am
Great analogies. I especially liked the part about the upsell. I’m part of the non-buying percentage (I usually know what I want before I hit the counter and I stick to that), but I have been tempted because it’s just 25 cents more.
December 3, 2007 at 8:52 am
Anything that has become popular, be it movies or great books or the Shoemoney blog has gotten that way by word of mouth.