How to create a B2B word of mouth marketing strategy in 6 steps

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How to Create a B2B Word Of Mouth Strategy in 6 Steps

Word of mouth Influence more than 90% of B2B Purchases . However, almost every B2B company takes it for granted. They just assume that customers will talk about the business. But that's not how people really behave, is it?

Word of mouth influences more than 90% of #B2B purchases. Click to Tweet

We discuss the things we don't expect and ignore the things we do expect.

From a word-of-mouth standpoint, B2B companies mostly make the same mistake: thinking competence creates conversation. Being a “good” company can make your customers happy, but it doesn't give those customers the raw materials to tell your story.

This is why B2B companies need a defined word-of-mouth strategy: a remarkable, operational differentiator to drive conversation.

The Case for B2B Word of Mouth Marketing Strategy

My colleagues Daniel Lemin and I detail how to create and implement a word-of-mouth strategy in our book, Chat trigger .

But in case you don't want to read the entire book (but you should, we have a money-back guarantee on the book), here's a summary of the six-step process for creating a word-of-mouth strategy.

Note that this is essentially the same strategy we use here at Convince & Convert when we create word of mouth strategic plans for our clients. If you're interested in that kind of service, check out word of mouth consulting ours program.

But first, let me tell you the most EFFECTIVE way to create a B2B word of mouth strategy: sit in a meeting room and brainstorm ideas. If it was that easy, you've already done it.

The worst way to create a #B2B word of mouth strategy is to sit in a conference room and brainstorm ideas. Click to post a Tweet

I'm working on word of mouth strategy and chat trigger concept for eight years and I can tell you that this strategic planning process is not only worth the time and effort, it greatly reduces the chances that your word of mouth program will fail.

Here is our 6-step process for creating a B2B word of mouth marketing strategy:

Step 1: Map your Customer Journey(s)

Record every touchpoint you have with your customers, transparently sales cycle and more (after sales). If you have different types of customers whose journey with you varies by region, product/service purchased, or some other factor, document that.

Step 2: Interview your customer

This is possibly the most important step in the word-of-mouth strategy process. You just MUST have customer opinions, because you probably think you know what be able to say but you are NOT your customer.

I want you to interview 15 clients. Phone is the best. Surveys are available via email. The 15 Customers should be divided into three groups: new customers, longtime customers and lost customers. The groups of customers that are lost can be defectors or just those who got deep into the sales funnel and then didn't convert.

During each interview, you want to look at the key components of the customer journey and ask each interviewee, “During this stage of the process with our company, what do you DEPEND to happen?” What you are looking for in step 2 is to put customer expectations on top of the customer journey map your .

This is important because people can talk about what they don't expect. Therefore, your ultimate word-of-mouth strategy should be of that sort

B2B customer interviews

Step 3: Create a Candidate Conversation Trigger

Now that you know what your customers expect, generate five to eight ideas to spark a conversation.

A conversation trigger is a strategic differentiator that works to drive conversation. It should be repeatable, meaning every client has access to it. Funny waiting music Uberconference use is a good B2B chat trigger.

There are five types of talkative triggers: talkative generosity, talkative helpfulness, talking speed, talkative empathy, and talkative attitude. Your talk-triggering ideas should fit into one of these five things. Ideally, your candidate triggers should come from 2-3 of these groups.

Step 4: Test your triggers Get a piece of your customer base that you can segment and partition (a specific product, region, etc.) yours for that segment. Do this until you have about 100 customers who have fully experienced your candidate activation.

Step 5: Measure Activation

In some cases, if a customer notices and talks about a difference in your performance, you'll see immediate proof. It will show up on social media (although that is often more true for B2C companies). Or they will raise the issue with your sales team or successful customer.

The best way to gauge the impact of your chat activation is to survey ~100 customers who have experienced it. Create a three-question survey (this email is good for this) and ask the following questions:

Last 30 days, have you told anyone about our company?

What do you say?

Did you mention any of these? (presents a list of six properties, one of which is your Chat Trigger)

If your three-question survey shows that 15%+ of your customers mention the conversation trigger in question 2 and/or 25%+ of your customers choose the Chat Trigger in question Question 3, your discriminator is scalable enough.

Step 6: Operate your Chat Trigger

If your chat trigger meets the talkability threshold in step 5, roll it out to all clients, in all cases. If step 5 fails, go back to your list of candidate triggers and select a new one to test, repeating steps 4 and 5, if necessary.

You have it. The 6-step shorthand process for creating a successful B2B word of mouth strategy. The key, of course, is to come up with interesting conversation-triggering ideas that customers won't really expect and then talk about it. If you can do that, you turn your customers into volunteer marketers, which is the best way to grow any B2B company.

More information (including dozens of examples and case studies) in the book.