Bookend Your Sales With This Word-of-Mouth Marketing Strategy

This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "Oversubscribed" by Daniel Priestley. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.

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How effective is word-of-mouth marketing? How do you get people talking about your company?

Word-of-mouth advertising is as old as time, and it’s still hugely effective. In Oversubscribed, Daniel Priestley explains how you can take advantage of this method before the sale to build demand—and after the sale to keep customers excited about your product.

Keep reading to learn an effective word-of-mouth marketing strategy you can use to get people talking and keep people talking.

Before the Sale: Build Demand Through Word-of-Mouth

Since the central theme of Oversubscribed is to have more customers than you can handle, a great deal of the book is devoted to methods of attracting those customers. Priestley argues that word-of-mouth advertising is more effective than other forms of marketing, and he describes a word-of-mouth marketing strategy you can use before and after a sale.

Priestley warns that mass marketing strategies like commercials and printed advertisements aren’t as effective as they used to be, largely because people are tired of being advertised to. There are so many companies and products already fighting for people’s attention that mass advertising would turn your product into part of the background noise of modern life, meaning your would-be customers would just tune you out.

(Shortform note: The death of mass marketing has been a theme in business books for quite some time—for example, in Seth Godin’s book Purple Cow (2002), he makes a similar claim that mass marketing strategies don’t work anymore because people are simply overloaded with advertisements. However, many experts disagree with that opinion; some argue that mass marketing is still a key part of an effective marketing strategy because it puts your product in front of as many eyes as possible. Others believe that modern technology like social media will reshape mass marketing and make it more effective than ever, once advertisers perfect information-gathering and targeted advertising techniques.)

Rather than mass marketing, Priestley says that word-of-mouth is the best form of advertisement—in short, people will buy what their friends are buying. In fact, word-of-mouth marketing is more effective than ever because social media allows your customers to advertise your company to their connections quickly and easily.

(Shortform note: Whether or not mass marketing is still effective, some research supports Priestley’s claim that word-of-mouth advertising is more effective. According to Nielsen, one of the biggest names in media research and data collection, over 90% of people trust suggestions from friends and family members more than they trust any other type of advertising. Furthermore, customers who are referred by a family member, friend, or peer (through social media, for instance) spend, on average, twice as much as those who find a company through regular ads.)

Here are a couple of different ways to get people talking about your company:

Differentiate yourself. Set yourself apart from the competition. Here are a few ways to do that:
- The most effective way to stand out is to offer something truly unique.
- If you can’t offer something unique, give yourself an edge of another kind over your competitors. One strategy is to undercut their prices. Another is to offer a product that’s more convenient than the current options.
Build a tribe. Advertise your company, not just your products. Create a market niche and build brand loyalty by carefully designing your company’s image. Here’s how in a nutshell:
- Advertise your company values.
- Focus on good customer service.

After the Sale: Keep People Talking

Your work isn’t done just because you’ve made the sales. When fulfilling orders, Priestley suggests giving your customers more than you promised. Exceeding your clients’ expectations will excite them and get them talking about your company, making it so the end of one marketing campaign is also the start of the next one. For example, you might include a free sample of another product you sell or send your customers thank-you notes and small gifts.

Note that exceeding expectations doesn’t mean you have to work harder or strain your resources; you can accomplish the same thing by setting customer expectations a little lower at the start. For instance, if you’re prepared to deliver your product in one month, you might tell your clients that they’ll have it in two months—they’ll be very happy when they get it earlier than expected.

(Shortform note: “Underpromise and overdeliver” is popular business advice, but some research suggests that it might not be as helpful as people think. A behavioral study found that, although people were indeed disappointed when others failed to uphold their promises, exceeding those promises didn’t make the test subjects any happier. In short, this study suggests that the best approach is to make the most appealing promises you can live up to—that way, you’ll attract as many customers as possible and those customers will be satisfied with your company.)

Finally, when you start your next advertising campaign, make sure to broadcast how successful your business already is. Remember: Demand breeds demand, and people want what’s hard to get.

(Shortform note: Although Priestley is arguably correct that people will be more likely to support a company that’s already proven itself to be successful, make sure to stay humble in your advertising—an arrogant tone could drive away potential customers. In other words, celebrate your victories instead of gloating about them, and make sure to acknowledge that your success is due to your customers, not due to your own “greatness.”)

Bookend Your Sales With This Word-of-Mouth Marketing Strategy