Make Word of Mouth Work Harder

By Jyl Safier

Published: March 16, 2010

Many small-business owners report that a large proportion of customer inquiries come through word of mouth. Happy customers can be your best assets. On its own however, this is a passive approach to generating new business.

“Passive!” you scoff. “Providing excellent service, responsiveness and competitive pricing to win the trust and admiration of my customers is hard work.”

Well, those are critical requirements to any successfully run business, but they’re not a marketing strategy. Here are six ideas that can help you activate word-of-mouth marketing and take your business to the next level.

Think outside your website. Have you ever seen that bumper sticker that reads, “What if they started a war and nobody came?” Well, it’s the same thing with websites. As the internet evolves, the value of your website depends more on how networked it is to other relevant sites, not just on its design, bells and whistles. For example, customer reviews posted on nationally promoted sites may produce more queries than those posted on your own site. An easy way to start networking your site is to list your business on online directories and review sites, like Google Maps, FindSolar.com, Yelp.com and Angie’s List. Whenever possible, be sure to include a concise well-written company description along with your contact information. You can also connect through social media like LinkedIn and Facebook, by building business pages, where you can post project photos and video footage and link them back to your corporate website. To maximize the bang for your marketing budget buck, learn the fundamentals of social media for business marketing and the basics of search engine optimization.

Don’t work incognito. People inherently trust the companies hired by their neighbors, and that translates into instant credibility for you. It’s essential that your truck prominently display your phone number and website. To showcase your project, invest in yard signs. Print custom door hangers to distribute in the neighborhood of any new installation; make sure they indicate the system size, annual utility savings and project address. Place advertisements with homeowner’s associations in the neighborhoods where you have upcoming or completed projects. Micro targeted direct mail can highlight a neighborhood project in a way that will really resonate with the recipient. When you’re on the job, take off your hardhat for a while and put on your marketing hat. You have the opportunity to analyze the neighborhood’s solar suitability and sketch out a plan to sell the neighbors.

Participate in the American Solar Energy Society’s (ASES) National Solar Tour. People who spend a day visiting solar energy installations are among the most qualified sales leads you can find. Most local tours are run by nonprofits and community organizers who invest time, money and expertise to make these events a success. Your involvement will give you hands-on experience planning and executing a marketing and public relations campaign. Your own projects will be listed in the tour and provide the opportunity to meet many potential customers. As a tour volunteer, you’ll build relationships with important social influencers who will remember you when it’s referral time. Remember: A solar tour is primarily an educational community event, not a marketing event for your business. Be respectful of the boundaries. Visit the ASES National Solar Tour site to find tours in your area and learn how to organize one of your own.

Activate your customer. You have the customer profile marketers drool over. Your demographic is a motivated, highly educated, successful, socially-conscious consumer who is a tech-savvy early adopter and social influencer. In the euphoria of the solar purchase, your customer actually wants people to know about and admire the project. It’s not like buying foot fungus cream, or even an efficient refrigerator. Influencing others is the way your customer self-validates the solar purchase decision, so you are actually helping to fulfill strong psychological urges. Put in place a set of tools to make it easy for new customers to educate and influence their own networks. Offer relevant incentives and gifts, such as a solar-powered backpack, wine from a solar-powered vineyard, CFLs, t-shirts. ASES has a program that allows you to give your customer a membership (which includes a SOLAR TODAY subscription), at a discount to you. Invite your customer to host a solar house party or participate in the ASES National Solar Tour, with you acting as tour guide. Give the homeowner a branded thumb drive containing educational info, resources, media releases and pictures of their installation to post on social media sites. Give a one-year subscription to Angie’s List if the customer agrees to post a review on your behalf. When you close a sale that was referred by a previous customer, make sure both parties receive a gift. Nurture customer action, without being aggressive, insincere or controlling.

Look at all the angles and be a “SME.” That’s marketing lingo for Subject Matter Expert. Supercharge your expertise, reputation and credibility as a solar professional by taking advantage of media interest in solar energy. Establish yourself and your company as local experts on all renewable energy issues. Develop news stories about your projects. Consider what makes your company or solar project unique. Are you using a product that is being introduced or installed in a novel way? Work with manufacturers to develop a customer experience story and press release. Is your project unique or interesting because of the location, size, financing or customer? Can you tie your story to current events or trends? Renewable energy and green jobs are hot topics. You can pitch ideas to journalists or work with a public relations specialist or freelance writer to develop them on your own. Services such as PRWeb.com will distribute your news for a few hundred dollars. Generally, a multi-media release with news-quality photography or online video will have more traction than text only.

Have fun! You’re changing the world for the better every day you go to work, and so are your customers. Don’t just count the watts installed! Your sales and marketing efforts should educate consumers, changing habits and building market acceptance. As you build your business and create elegant solar energy installations in your community, your excitement and passion are your most valuable assets as you make word of mouth work harder.

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Jyl Safier is director of marketing at Conergy, and co-founder and director of the Solar Success! Training Event co-located at the American Solar Energy Society’s National Solar Conference. Previous to this, she was the co-founder of a social venture capital development fund where she worked as director of operations and communications. She received her MBA in sustainable management and public policy from George Washington University and a bachelor’s in sustainable development from the University of California at Berkeley. When she’s not at work, she reads Harry Potter books with her 7-year-old son. Connect with Jyl on Linked In.

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Comments (1)

Great article.

Jyl,
I find that you have done your homework. This is a great article and has solid advise. But with that said, it is so hard to get a company off the ground. I put in 12-16 hours a day 7 days a week.If I had the working capital of the larger companies I could hire enough staff to do the research, the AR/AP and the sales calls. Then the mailers and other marketing. That would leave the time that I take to do my job as owner, politics. By the way, I watched all the Harry Potter Movies. And nice picture of you.

Jess Greenwood , March 16, 2010

Make Word of Mouth Work Harder

Comments (1)

Great article.

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