Holly Suttmann, a former schoolteacher, started the Black & Light Candle company. Holly really understands word of mouth. She’s proof that every business can master these inexpensive techniques. There are lot of global companies that should study what she’s doing.
Lessons from Holly:
1. Cultivate key talkers. She’s sent me two personal notes and really built a relationship with me. Not sales calls, just friendliness.
2. Use samples. People can’t talk about a product they haven’t seen. Holly sent me three $40 candles. She earned it back in sales from the people who visit my house.
3. Make it easy to spread the word. Holly sent me a stack of postcards to forward to friends.
4. Make your talkers look good. She gave me a discount code to share, which makes me feel that I’m doing my friends a favor when I tell them (FOH12707 = 15% off and free shipping). She even offered to send samples to my friends.
5. Add remarkable features. Sometimes you need a reason to talk that is more than the product itself. I can say “these are great candles” … but there are lots of great candles. You need to add something else to spark the conversation. Holly created a whole system of packaging that is reusable, environmental, and buzzworthy. Watch Holly demonstrate:
And, most important …
6. Create a fantastic product.
The lesson: High-touch, high-quality word of mouth is effective and inexpensive. Are you spending more on cold sales letters and glossy flyers than it would take to get real word of mouth?
Related posts:
- Five Easy Ways to Build Sustainable Word-of-Mouth
- Word of Mouth Isn’t About Tools, It’s About You
- The Word-of-Mouth Power of Wii
- Toward Ethical Word of Mouth
- Is There a Formula for Word-of-Mouth ?
Tags: black and light, holly suttmann, sernovitz, Word of Mouth Marketing
Great formula here, Andy. What advice can you offer to service-oriented companies and nonprofits that don’t have any samples to send?
With today’s ever growing technology, it seems people are forgetting about the benefit of genuine word of mouth. It can go a long way and work wonders if done properly!
Great article.
What a brilliant story. Thanks for enlightening us, Andy.
Andy – Great post.
I really appreciate that your list of practical “spread the word” solutions didn’t include anything about social networking.
Not that I have anything against ‘em I’m just sick of reading about them being the end all…
Andy,
Excellent tips! Hats off to Holly!
Great post. I think what you touched on is the personal factor of doing business, which is much more attractive and effective in reinforcing business relationships.
Cheers,
Cindy
Andy,
I love how you included the video. Really nice stuff.
Thanks so much for sharing this with me. I’ll be sending this link to my friends!
Wow, thats a great example!
Its so simple and inexpensive, yet she obviously started out with a specific target and plan in mind.
As a small business, why buy ads and get lost in a sea of advertising when you can connect personally with individuals.
I’m gonna share this one for sure! Brillian