The Power of ' word of mouth' advertising

[Handstitched]

Just recently, I had a customer who needed a replacement halter. So, she went a  local hardware shop in another town.  That hardware doesn't  sell them ( some hardware shops don't just sell hardware  )  , but,  that hardware  then contacted our local hardware , our local hardware then said...." O'h theres a bloke here that does leather & horse gear..." etc. 

Customer contacts me.

Me: " Yep, I have two of those left" 

All good  ( she bought both)  , One  Happy customer   

HS 

[chuck123wapati]

1 minute ago, Handstitched said:

Just recently, I had a customer who needed a replacement halter. So, she went a  local hardware shop in another town.  That hardware doesn't  sell them ( some hardware shops don't just sell hardware  )  , but,  that hardware  then contacted our local hardware , our local hardware then said...." O'h theres a bloke here that does leather & horse gear..." etc. 

Customer contacts me.

Me: " Yep, I have two of those left" 

All good  ( she bought both)  , One  Happy customer   

HS 

the best advertising there is and its worked for centuries.

[Handstitched]

8 minutes ago, chuck123wapati said:

the best advertising there is and its worked for centuries.

100% agree   I've tried other forms of advertising with very limited success , some of my customers have even put my name  & trade about on social media ( something that I don't use myself ) and, to date I have not had one single customer come to me  as a result of  social media , goes to show how well that works,  .... but WOM  is the best 

HS

[Doc Reaper]

I have been in business for over 13 years and we only advertised our new building (but on the same grounds) to let our customers know where we are,  I actually even have some customers come to the house, which they have told others.

Yelp is a waste of effort, at the moment (the last three years) and tells the world you are there. But word of mouth is absolutely the best!

[Handstitched]

On 7/28/2022 at 7:28 PM, Doc Reaper said:

But word of mouth is absolutely the best!

I have also tried free ads on the interweb on various free ad sites , newspaper ads etc.  Zilch !!!!  Even had a quick interview on a local radio station a while back ........... Nothing !! 

I have flyers & business cards  on my stall, at my workshop . I go through those pretty quick. 

HS

[HandyDave]

Love the word of mouth advertising. And its where allmost all my new customers come from. Ive handed out 1000 cards in the last 8 monthes or so and ive got maybe a dozen or so calls and maybe half of those calls turned into paying jobs. But i build a holster or whatever for one guy or gal and 2 or 3 of there friends call wanting custom leather. 

[TomE]

A Google business page is free and shows up in the side bar on relevant Google searches.  Displays your address, hours of operation, contact info, summary of your business goods and services, etc.  It is also a way to accurately pinpoint your location for customers using the Google search engine or Google Maps app.   If you really want to play the game, Google offers Webmaster tools to help increase traffic to your website and improve your search ranking.  It's free, doesn't require a lot of effort, and connects you to folks that shop by Google and are perhaps outside your local sphere of influence.

[chuck123wapati]

38 minutes ago, TomE said:

A Google business page is free and shows up in the side bar on relevant Google searches.  Displays your address, hours of operation, contact info, summary of your business goods and services, etc.  It is also a way to accurately pinpoint your location for customers using the Google search engine or Google Maps app.   If you really want to play the game, Google offers Webmaster tools to help increase traffic to your website and improve your search ranking.  It's free, doesn't require a lot of effort, and connects you to folks that shop by Google and are perhaps outside your local sphere of influence.

have you gotten any business from it?

[TomE]

5 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

have you gotten any business from it?

We use it for our horse breeding farm and I'm confident it acts as a feeder to our website and a commercial sales site where we post the particulars of each horse for sale.  Google reports the number of clicks per week on our website URL so I see how much traffic comes from Google.  When we ask customers how they found us, they usually mention our website or the commercial sales site.  Our clients are mainly from other states, so we depend on the internet to connect with them.  Leatherwork is a hobby, and most of my work has been given to horse clients and friends.

[Handstitched]

W.O.M.  wins out again, ( well.......sort of) .  A new customer,  simple nose band repair , urgent. 

" how did you find me?" 

" on FB , I just did a search in the local area, and your name  & recommendations came up quite a few times    . 

I didn't even know I was on there, I don't do social media . One of my previous customers  must have put me on there. Not complaining , free advertising   

HS

[Sheilajeanne]

I sold my kennel in 2015.  Took down the website, and all relevant advertising I could find. 

I STILL sometimes get calls from people wanting to board their dogs!   I've been tempted to take a dog or two into my home, just to make a few extra bucks, but my cat might have a problem with that, if the dogs weren't cat-friendly.

The net is a powerful tool!

[Handstitched]

On 10/7/2022 at 11:00 PM, Sheilajeanne said:

The net is a powerful tool!

hear hear !! I don't even lift a finger....or type a single word . . My customers seem to do that for me.  I have a lil'   'A' frame sign out front on the verge, and thats it .  People find me.  God bless em'   

HS

[GrampaJoel]

All my business is by word of mouth. Back when I was doing cowboy gear, I made a pair of hay chaps for my hay guy.

he spread the word like wild fire. All the hay guys started coming to me for hay chaps or repairs.

I repaired my friends saddle. He told everyone that ask , that I am here.

I soon had so much repair work, that  I never actually got to building saddles from scratch.

although I did build a lot of other horse gear from scratch.

Joel

[NerdyLeather]

Just last month, a friend of mine casually mentioned to his co-worker that I do custom artwork. That co-worker turned out to be organizing an art event and ended up commissioning several pieces from me. So yeah, word of mouth can be gold.

While word of mouth is timeless and powerful, I've found that in today's digital age, the reach and speed of social media is unparalleled. It's like word of mouth on steroids. Around 70% of my customers come from Instagram and Facebook. 

I use the adspy library, which shows the ad campaigns my rivals run. Instead of shooting in the dark, I see their strategies and adapt them for my campaigns. It’s like a window into their playbook.