How to Get the Word Out About a Product Adored by Customers Just because your company has stellar customer reviews, doesn't necessarily mean word-of-mouth marketing will occur. To get your company to become a viral hit, you need to focus on building relationships.
By Taryn Langer
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
Q: I have product, and people like it in comparison to competitors. It gets five stars on all platforms, users message and email us about it, and we have the best price. But the problem is how to tell more people about it? How to make it go viral?
- UserID Hemant982
A: First, congratulations an all the positive user ratings. If customers are volunteering positive reviews, especially noting you beat out other competitors they've used in the past, you are already building up an army of brand ambassadors who will likely spread the word to others: Keep these people happy.
So now onto your problem: How to spread the word? The first thing I'll tell is there's no silver bullet for virality. For a concept or product to go viral, the stars need to align with the following: interesting shareable content or utility, a groundswell of activity around it in a concentrated period of time, and the combination of something with a big wow factor that resonates with a mass audience. And even then, it may not always work.
That said, you first need to get in touch with these possible brand ambassadors. That core audience is out there, you just need to determine where they are. They could be watching your local evening news, reading The New York Times, addicted to Rachel Ray, grouped on Facebook and Pinterest or vocal on Twitter. Spend some time dissecting your core audience, and then you'll be able to seek them up in these public mediums.
Related: 4 Unconventional Ways to Turn Customers Into Brand Advocates
You should begin having conversations with your audience on social media: Don't sell to them or pitch your company. Rather, understand what's important to them and determine how you can fulfill their needs.
Once you have a good sense of your target demographic, start getting the word out. If your company and product are already publicly available and operating, you lose some of the appeal of "launching," so now you need to examine what's better about you versus the competition. Once you can communicate that, start identifying the media and social-media platforms that connect to your audience and begin following those groups or those reporters that cover topics that intersect with your business.
Related: How These 10 Marketing Campaigns Became Viral Hits
Then develop relationships with your local media. You'll be surprised to discover all the different ways your local press are interested in businesses nearby -- whether it's your regional business journal or newspaper or industry relevant blogs. You'll get a better gauge on how what you are doing is news after having conversations with media on the ground.
Once you've developed the sense of why what you are doing is not only great but is also newsworthy, then it's time to think about spreading the word far and wide to a national audience.
I recognize all these activities require a big time commitment, and once you get to the national media level, it's certainly beneficial to hire professionals who have relationships with the media. That's not to say that a company can't do it on their own, you just need to be prepared for a new learning curve and dividing your schedule between operations and marketing.
