Article contributed by Jessica Hill.
What makes you want to visit our capital more – viewing Positively Wellington Tourism’s whimsical advertising campaign or hearing about the it-could-only-have-happened-in-Wellington weekend your best mate just had?
I’m more influenced by hearing first-hand stories and the primacy of world of mouth marketing is supported by business gurus, academics and feedback from my own clients.
So why do I use other marketing tactics? Am I seduced by their massive reach – being profiled on a website that is visited by a quarter of all NZ businesses? Their visual and tactile appeal – the polished brochures our graphic designer creates? Or is it their speed – sending out an email to a targeted group of clients and getting replies within minutes? Whatever the reason, I shouldn’t neglect word of mouth tactics. They always work.
In my role at the Canterbury Development Corporation (CDC) I promote business training workshops. These workshops are fully-funded through NZTE’s Enterprise Training Programme and are tailored for an ever increasing number of growth sectors. Working with new industries means we don’t always know the small businesses involved. Case in point, we’ve recently developed a programme for wine growers. Theoretically one email to our clients should fill this programme. It’s an attractive programme because it addresses hot topics like organic alternatives, features high profile speaker Mark Inglis and demonstrates how to increase profits.
The problem is we don’t know many small wine growers and they don’t know us. But we do know those who are servicing the wine industry – consultants, accountants and speakers. So I’ve asked them to introduce the programme to wine growers. Among those who are willing to spread the word is a BNI member who develops financial software for wine growers. Generating word of mouth rather than directly marketing has proven successful. Wine growers who have never dealt with us before are signing up for 3 full-days of training based on the strength of recommendations.
The bottom line for your business is “if it’s not worth talking about, it’s not worth doing” and you shouldn’t be talking about it, others should.
2 comments
Wise words! Thanks for contributing to our blog and lets see if there are any wine growers out there we can pass the word to regarding your programme 🙂
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It’s great to hear how word of mouth marketing is making more people aware of the programmes available in Christchurch.
Co-incidentally the Enterprise Training Programme in the Greater Auckland Region is attracting 90% of new clients through word of mouth referrals.
The courses are fully funded through New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) and raising awareness in the business community is fundamental, as well as demonstrating the quality of the training and coaching available for a “free” service.
WHK Business Growth deliver the service on behalf of NZTE in Auckland. BNI have offered each Auckland chapter the opportunity to have a presentation, so that members can understand how the Programme can help them improve their businesses.
Many Auckland chapters have already accepted this offer and the word of mouth referrals from those attending has motivated more BNI members and other business owners to register, so the word of mouth marketing really works. More information is available at http://www.whkbusinessgrowth.com
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