As a Milwaukee marketing agency, it’s our business to know what works – and what doesn’t – when it comes to marketing strategy and execution. The hard-working business owners of southeastern Wisconsin can’t afford to devote resources to ineffective campaigns.
The feedback of our valuable clients and our experience have taught us a few important lessons. One of the most common things we hear and also know to be true: word-of-mouth (or referral) advertising works. Period. While this is an undeniable truth, there are some very real misconceptions about how it actually happens.
For example, many people know that word-of-mouth Milwaukee advertising is very valuable, but they incorrectly assume there is nothing they can do to boost their efforts. The thinking goes: provide top notch customer service, offer high quality products at a good value, and the rest has to happen organically—there’s nothing else anyone can do at that point. Just wait and hope the good word gets out.
But stop and think for a minute about how you communicate in your own life. Do you send text messages? Do you e-mail? Do you use messaging applications? Do you post and chat on Facebook? The answer, for many of us, is “absolutely!”
So it makes sense that, if you are communicating online or via social application channels, your prospective clients and customers are too. Social media advertising isn’t only a powerful tool in and of itself; a strong social media presence gives your customers—both current and potential—a place to communicate. Twenty years ago, word-of-mouth advertising was happening over a table at a café. In 2017, it might be happening in the comment section of a Facebook or Instagram post.
The next time your tempted to think, “people don’t talk anymore—they just bury their heads in their phones,” take a minute to re-examine your position. People are talking today just as much as they ever did, but the methods have changed. A strong social media presence facilitates all these conversations so that the ever-valuable word-of-mouth advertising can keep happening in the digital age.