Cidnee Stephen is a high energy and accomplished marketing professional. Born to market, she showed her creative side at a very young ago when she started marketing greeting cards and good ol’ lemonade in elementary school. To anyone that knew her, it was no surprise then that she chose marketing as her focus at University over 20 years ago. Of course most of the marketing principles she learned way back then suited large corporations. So when she was thrown into small business marketing years later, she found she needed to come up with some new approaches. Her techniques served her well and she continuously has been a top producer for the companies she has worked with. Having worked in Canada and Europe, Cidnee has called Calgary her home since the late 1990’s. She started Strategies for Success in 1999 www.strategiesforsuccess.ca. Since then she has worked with over 100 entrepreneurs and small businesses to build sound marketing systems that get results! Cidnee is a sought after speaker on the elements of small business marketing. She speaks regularly in Calgary, as well as at national conferences and corporate functions. She also has written articles for magazines and corporate newsletters sharing her savvy marketing tips. She publishes the Marketing Excel-erator and will be launching her new book in 2008 "If You Aren't Getting the Business, You Don't Deserve It"
Like this article?
Subscribe to Cidnee's FREE bi-weekly marketing tips at http://www.
Feel free to use this article as long as you include the following:
by Cidnee Stephen of Strategies for Success www.strategiesforsuccess.ca
If there is one area of their marketing that every business big or small strives to improve, it is word of mouth marketing. How do we get "the buzz?" In other words how we do we get mass amounts of our target audience spreading the great news about us and our business?
Well first let's make some assumptions. Are you referrable? You have heard me say this before, and it is even more true in today's economy. We must be constantly aiming for EXCEPTIONAL! How do you know you are referrable? Quite simply you should ALREADY be receiving a healthy amount of new business from word of mouth referrals.
But beyond the normal strategies to enhance your word of mouth, like asking for referrals, working with strategic partners and possibly even setting up affiliation programs (psst - if you want to learn ways to do these activities better, check out our Referral Marketing Workshops), there is one activity that you can and should be doing everyday to have the biggest impact and control over your word of mouth marketing.
It's a simple yet effective activity. Quite simply:
GIVE
Call it Karma or call it the RECIPROCITY PRINCIPLE, but nothing can do more for your reputation and your company than giving to others. There is a human need and tendency to give something back when something is received.
One of my clients - Dexteritiy Consulting (http://www.dexterityconsulting.ca) works in the area of charitable giving and wrote a great article on Recession Proofing Your Business Through Community Investment (http://dexterityconsulting.ca/Recession_Proofing_Business)
But you can also give to your clients, peers and network on a regular basis. While it sounds simple, there is one little caveat to doing this correctly:
You need to give without expecting to receive.
When I was a little girl I remember lending money to a friend and never being repaid. When I told my father my plight, he said, you are never LENDING to a friend. You are simply GIVING. Repayment is an option and should not be expected. It saved a very good friendship that gave me so much more than that initial monetary investment. The same goes in your business.
You need to genuinely want to help others.
ACTION STEP
Make a list of your customers, peers and connections and keep in on your desk or on a nearby wall. Everyday, look at that list and see if there is two - five people you can:
• Connect with someone else in your network
• Forward a helpful article to
• Refer business to
• Pay a compliment to
• Congratulate for something they have done