Whenever one of their clients recommends a real estate agent to other people with a need for real estate services, that is an example of word-of-mouth in action. On its own, word-of-mouth is useful. However, it does not realize its true potential as word-of-mouth marketing until the real estate agent starts putting serious time and effort into encouraging its spread.
First, word-of-mouth marketing possesses such enormous potential because it tends to be much more persuasive than other forms of marketing. This is because most of the people making such recommendations are trusted by the prospective customers, meaning that they pass through the barriers that most people throw up when they encounter marketing. Second, word-of-mouth marketing costs much less than most marketing methods, making it an efficient as well as an effective choice when it comes to promoting a business.
Why is Word-of-Mouth Marketing So Useful in the Digital Age?
Finally, word-of-mouth marketing has become particularly useful in the Digital Age because of social media. In the past, word-of-mouth had a hard time spreading beyond a small number of people because it had to be passed from person-to-person in face-to-face conversations. Now, the popularization of social media has made it possible for word-of-mouth to spread like wildfire so long as it strikes the right chord in prospective customers. As a result, word-of-mouth marketing is not just an efficient and effective marketing method, but also one that can make excellent use of the Internet’s unprecedented reach.
How Can You Succeed with Word-of-Mouth Marketing?
Of course, successful word-of-mouth marketing is much easier said than done. Those interested in promoting their real estate businesses through such marketing methods should keep these suggestions in mind:
- The most important step in successful word-of-mouth marketing is ensuring 100 percent customer satisfaction. This is because clients will not recommend their real estate agents unless they feel that they are worth recommending to their friends and family members. More importantly, dissatisfied clients can be dangerous to a real estate agent’s reputation for the same reasons that word-of-mouth marketing can be so powerful, particularly because people are more likely to voice their negative opinions than their positive opinions.
- Real estate agents should not hesitate to ask their clients to refer them to their friends and family members. After all, a little push can be exactly what is needed to convince a client to voice their positive opinions rather than remain silent, which is particularly true if real estate agents also make it as convenient as possible for them to do so. For example, putting one-click buttons and links close to the header of a website is a tried-and-true solution for soliciting recommendations. Be warned that while making such requests and following up on them can be useful, real estate agents should never overdo them to the point where it becomes obnoxious.
- Finally, real estate agents may want to consider using incentives to convince their clients when the excellence of their customer service is insufficient. Such incentives do not have to be expensive. For example, something as simple as the chance to enter a contest can persuade some people, while others might respond to gift certificates, promtional items, and even exclusive content.
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