The best marketing is by word of mouth

5 July 2010

Whenever I talk about promoting a company’s products or services I always remind people that the best form of advertising is word of mouth, especially in the current economic climate.

One way of generating word of mouth is networking. For brokers, I would advocate that they try out a local networking group. I know many already belong to groups but others should think about it too.

However, choose carefully as some groups are run like military operations while others are more laid back. Choose one that fits your style.
And before committing to a group, you must have a reason for joining it in the first place. So you should think about what you want to get out of it and what a reasonable return on investment might be.

You must also be aware that the output you generate is determined by the input. You should not expect instant referrals from fellow businesses but you will see results over time as you build trust.

For many brokers networking groups can be a great source of word of mouth marketing but this does not mean that everything else can be neglected. There’s little point if your website is not up to scratch or if a member of your staff gives a poor impression when a prospective client makes contact.

Because word of mouth promotion is so effective it’s easy to lose sight of other activities. So don’t forget, your brand, service and website are vital. Word of mouth is great but you must always make a good impression.

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