Welcome to Michael E. Cafferky's Free Word-of-Mouth Marketing Tips Home Page
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April 16, 1999
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miccaf@bmi.net
Each year in the United States every person on the average spends about $800 to cover the costs of the huge amount that businesses spend on advertising. A family of four spends about $3200 each year. Whether or not we want to spend this much is irrelevant. $200,000,000,000 is what it costs businesses in the USA each year to advertse in the media. And, this does not include the additional billions of dollars spent each year on point of purchase displays, other merchandising, packaging and product placement fees. What do we get for our $200,000,000,000 each year? Millions of radio and TV commercials, billboards, and advertisements in newspapers and magazines - we are bombarded with thousands of advertising messages (some of them wasteful) every day. So many advertising messages rush at us daily, we cut through all that hype (which often we don't trust) to get to the essence of the messages we need. Word-of-mouth (which usually we trust) allows us to sort it all out. By using the principles of word-of-mouth marketing, these businesses and, in turn, you and I, could be spending a whole lot less cash each year.
Advertising is important. Most companies spend some on advertising. Some companies have learned how to spend a whole lot less to obtain the same gains in market share and reputation for what they used to spend in paid advertising. Start your advertising plans with a healthy dose of word-of-mouth marketing planning and your paid advertising will be that much more effective.
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The main reason the advertising industry has not embraced word-of-mouth is because there are no commissions available. This is not a slap at the advertising industry - they have to make money, too. Advertising is a useful and necessary part of effective marketing. However, some businesses have found the secrets to the best advertising in the world - your customers bragging about you to others. You, too, can share in these proven approaches and make your organization more profitable. Let Your Customers Do The Talking!
Word-of-mouth marketing is low-cost. It is the most natural method of communicating with consumers. Most marketing professionals, even those who understand the power of electronic broadcast and narrow-cast media, believe that word-of-mouth is the most compelling way to bring in new customers. You can tap into this powerful form of marketing by browsing through this web site, reading some of the materials referenced here including Michael Cafferky's book Let Your Customers Do The Talking (Upstart, 1996), and then applying what you learn on a consistent basis.
This site is for serious students of word-of-mouth communication who want both the practical "how to" information and also the principles of "why it works so well". If you are one of the 2% to 3% of entrepreneurs and businesses that want to:
- spend less than 10% of what your competition spends on paid advertising,
- create a company/organization reputation that is both the best offensive and defensive strategy in your market place,
Michael E. Cafferky
Web Site Designed by Nolan Cafferky
