How to Get Your Customers Talking

I have spent a lot of time during my tenure at OpenView Labs researching the best new business growth strategies as a part of the operational support we offer our expansion stage portfolio companies. Recently my colleague Tien Anh Nguyen shared a video explaining how to create offline word of mouth last week that peaked my interest.

The video is from a SuperGenius Conference on word of mouth organized by Gaspedal. Marketing guru Saul Colt provides insightful presentation and discussion on the hot topic.

I highly recommend checking out his talk, but since the video lasts about 30 minutes I have provided my key takeaways on generating offline word of mouth:

• Understand that sticking 40 people in a room won’t inspire creativity. Some of the best ideas come from teams of 1-2 folks. Be fearless and let go.
• Take the saying “whatever works, works” to heart and try everything you can possibly think of. Eventually something will stick and really take off.
• Take a 1950s mentality. Do something nice when something bad happens. Wish your customers a happy birthday. Send flowers.
• Always aim to over-exceed expectations. Try to think of what people expect from you and work like crazy to go above and beyond them.
• Surround your company, brand, or product with cool activities. The point is to get people talking. Remember that your campaign or event does not have to completely make sense for your product or brand.

Here is the video in full:

How to Create Offline Word of Mouth — presented by Saul Colt from GasPedal on Vimeo.