The Top 3 Reasons People Spread Word of Mouth

By Andy Sernovitz

To be a great word-of-mouth marketer, it's important to understand the fundamentals of why we share. It's about so much more than marketing gimmicks, incentives or flashy campaigns.

Here are the three key reasons people love to offer word-of-mouth referrals:

• It makes them look smart: Your customers will love to talk about your business if you make them look great in front of their friends. Some ways to do it: send them information about new stuff before anyone else or give them behind-the-scenes content. The idea is to supply them with tons of insider knowledge about your business that will help them look smart and knowledgeable to their friends.

• It makes them a part of something bigger: Everyone loves feeling like they're included in a group. Give your fans something to be a part of and they'll love telling their friends about it (and recruiting other people to join). Maker's Mark does it with their famous ambassador program, and Fiskar's does it with their active Fiskateers community. How can you bring your fans together?

• It makes them feel important: Everyone likes to feel special, and exclusive status is a huge motivator for your customers to start conversations about your business. Credit card companies do it with fancy membership programs, but giving your customers something to brag about doesn't have to be complicated. For example, Mosaic Hair Studio in Orlando gives their regulars personal monogrammed robes to wear at their appointments. It's a great way to not only say thank you, but to give these fans something to talk about.

Andy Sernovitz is The New York Times bestselling author of Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking and the fantastic blog “Damn, I Wish I’d Thought of That!” He runs WordofMouth.org, where marketers and entrepreneurs learn to be great at word of mouth marketing, and SocialMedia.org, the community for social media leaders at the world’s greatest brands.