Why You Don’t Have to Rely on Word of Mouth for Your Business Any More

Why You Don’t Have to Rely on Word of Mouth for Your Business Any More

For generations, word of mouth has been one of the most valuable forms of marketing for local businesses. Do a great job for one customer, they tell a friend, that friend becomes a customer and, hopefully, the cycle continues.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with word-of-mouth recommendations. In fact, a recommendation from someone we know and trust can still be incredibly influential. The problem arises when a business relies on word of mouth alone to generate its next customer.

You cannot control when somebody recommends you. You cannot guarantee that your customers will remember your name when a friend asks for a recommendation. Most importantly, you cannot build a predictable marketing strategy around simply hoping that people will talk about your business.

Today’s local businesses have far more opportunities to take control of their visibility.

Through targeted local magazine advertising, an online Business Directory and a wider combination of print and digital marketing, you can actively put your company in front of potential customers rather than waiting for existing customers to do your marketing for you.

At CommunityAd, that’s exactly what we help businesses achieve. Our community magazines connect advertisers with local audiences, while the CommunityAd Business Directory provides another way for people to find businesses online by location and keywords. CommunityAd also currently offers businesses the opportunity to claim a free online business listing.

Word of Mouth Is Powerful, but It Isn’t a Marketing Strategy

Imagine you run a local plumbing company.

You complete a job for a customer and they are delighted with your work. A few months later, their neighbour needs a plumber. If your customer remembers your company name, still has your telephone number and happens to speak to their neighbour at the right time, you might receive a recommendation.

That’s fantastic when it happens.

But there are a lot of “ifs” involved.

This is the fundamental weakness of relying entirely on word of mouth. You have very little control over when recommendations happen, who receives them or how frequently they generate enquiries.

A sustainable marketing strategy needs to create opportunities rather than simply wait for them.

Advertising allows you to actively remind people that your business exists, explain what you offer and make it easier for potential customers to contact you when they’re ready.

Word of mouth can then become something that supports your marketing, rather than being responsible for all of it.

Your Customers Aren’t Your Marketing Department

Happy customers can be fantastic advocates for your business, but promoting your company isn’t their responsibility.

People lead busy lives. Even customers who genuinely love your products or services aren’t necessarily thinking about your business once their purchase or project is complete.

They may happily recommend you if somebody specifically asks, but they’re unlikely to spend their time actively promoting your company to everyone they meet.

That’s your job.

Regular local advertising keeps your business visible without depending on customers to spread the message on your behalf.

Instead of waiting for somebody to say, “I know a company that does that”, you’re making sure potential customers can discover your company for themselves.

Word-of-Mouth Recommendations Can Be Unpredictable

One month, you might receive several recommendations from previous customers. The following month, you might receive none.

That unpredictability can make it difficult to plan.

Businesses need a healthy pipeline of future enquiries, particularly if they have staff, vehicles, premises and other overheads to support.

If all your enquiries come through recommendations, you have limited ability to influence when the next opportunity arrives.

Marketing gives you a greater degree of control.

You can decide which services you want to promote, where you want to advertise and when you want your campaigns to run.

CommunityAd’s magazine advertising is designed around this principle, allowing advertisers to choose where and when they want to promote their businesses.

What Happens When Nobody Knows Your Customers?

Word of mouth is naturally limited by the size of your customers’ networks.

Your existing customers can recommend you to friends, relatives, colleagues and neighbours, but what about everyone else?

There could be thousands of potential customers within your local area who have never met anybody who has used your business.

If you rely exclusively on recommendations, those people may never hear about you.

Local advertising helps bridge that gap.

Instead of restricting your visibility to people connected to previous customers, you can introduce your company directly to a much broader local audience.

For growing businesses, that distinction is particularly important.

Recommendations can help you maintain an existing customer base. Advertising can help you expand beyond it.

Take Control of Who Sees Your Business

One of the greatest advantages of advertising is the ability to be more deliberate about your audience.

Suppose you’re a tradesperson who wants more work in a particular town. Or perhaps you’re an established business looking to expand into neighbouring communities.

Waiting for word of mouth doesn’t give you much control over where your next recommendation comes from.

Targeted local advertising does.

CommunityAd’s magazine network enables businesses to advertise within selected communities, giving them an opportunity to concentrate their marketing on areas that matter to them. The company’s own magazine advertising promotes the ability to choose where and when advertising appears.

For a local company, that can be considerably more useful than simply trying to reach the largest possible audience.

You don’t necessarily need everybody to know about your business.

You need the right local people to know about it.

Build Brand Awareness Before Customers Need You

One of the limitations of word of mouth is that recommendations often happen at the point somebody already needs a particular product or service.

Advertising allows you to start the relationship much earlier.

Someone might see your advert today without needing what you provide.

They see your company again later.

Your name becomes familiar.

Months afterwards, they suddenly need your service.

At that point, your company isn’t completely unknown. They’ve already encountered your name and may remember what you do.

This is one of the reasons consistent advertising matters.

Not every advert needs to generate an immediate telephone call to have value. Marketing also builds awareness so that your business is easier to remember when the customer’s circumstances eventually change.

Familiarity Can Strengthen Recommendations

Advertising doesn’t replace word of mouth. In many cases, it can actually make a recommendation more powerful.

Imagine a friend recommends a local business you’ve never heard of.

You might search for the company online before making contact.

Now imagine they recommend a company whose name you’ve already seen several times in your local community magazine.

Your reaction may be different.

“Oh yes, I’ve seen them advertised.”

Suddenly, two separate forms of marketing are reinforcing one another.

The recommendation provides personal reassurance, while your existing advertising creates familiarity.

Rather than choosing between word of mouth and advertising, businesses can use both together.

Get Your Business into Local Homes with CommunityAd Magazine Advertising

For businesses that depend on local customers, community magazine advertising provides an opportunity to place their brand directly within the areas they serve.

CommunityAd publications combine local advertising with community-focused material, including local news, events, charities, groups and other information relevant to readers.

That context matters.

Your advert isn’t simply appearing in a random publication. It’s appearing within content specifically connected to the reader’s local area.

Print also offers a different experience from many fast-moving digital platforms.

People can browse a magazine when it suits them, put it down and return to it later. Your advertisement remains part of the publication rather than disappearing when someone refreshes a feed or closes a browser window.

For businesses trying to establish themselves as a recognisable part of the local community, that continued physical presence can be extremely valuable.

Let Your Advertising Explain What You Actually Do

Word-of-mouth recommendations can sometimes lose information along the way.

A customer might tell somebody you’re a great electrician, without mentioning that you also install EV chargers.

Someone might recommend your plumbing business but forget that you also install bathrooms.

A customer may know you for one service even though your company offers ten others.

Advertising gives you control over the message.

You can decide which products or services you want to highlight, introduce seasonal promotions, announce new services or explain exactly which areas you cover.

Instead of relying on somebody else to describe your company accurately, you can communicate your own message directly to potential customers.

Promote the Services You Want More Work For

Most businesses don’t simply want “more work”. They want more of the right work.

Perhaps one particular service is more profitable.

Maybe you’ve invested in new equipment and want to promote a new service.

You could have additional capacity within one department or want to increase sales of a particular product.

Word of mouth doesn’t necessarily provide that level of control.

People recommend you for whatever they know you for.

Advertising allows you to actively shape demand.

If you want more boiler installations, advertise boiler installations. If you want more conveyancing enquiries, promote conveyancing. If you’ve launched a new restaurant menu, tell people about it.

Your marketing can support your current business objectives rather than leaving future enquiries entirely to chance.

Reach People Who Are New to the Area

Local communities are constantly changing.

People move home, new developments are built and new residents arrive who may have no established relationships with local businesses.

They don’t necessarily have a neighbour they trust to recommend a decorator, accountant, solicitor, gardener, plumber, restaurant or garage.

These people need to discover local businesses for themselves.

That’s another reason local advertising and directories are so useful.

A community magazine can introduce businesses to people living in the area, while an online directory gives customers somewhere to actively search when they need a particular service.

CommunityAd’s directory allows searches based on postcode or address, distance and keywords, providing a route for consumers looking for businesses relevant to their location and needs.

Be There When Customers Search Online

Word of mouth has changed.

Years ago, somebody might have asked a friend for a telephone number and immediately called the recommended company.

Today, receiving a recommendation is often just the beginning.

People may search for the business online, look at its website, check reviews and compare it with alternatives before deciding what to do next.

That means your online visibility needs to support your offline reputation.

If somebody recommends your business but a potential customer struggles to find information about you online, you’ve created an unnecessary barrier between recommendation and enquiry.

Being present within relevant online directories gives customers another route to find information about your company.

Get Found Through the CommunityAd Business Directory

CommunityAd’s online Business Directory gives businesses another way to increase their local visibility.

Potential customers can search by location and keywords, helping them discover businesses relevant to the product or service they’re looking for. CommunityAd currently promotes free business listings as a way to help direct more local people towards businesses.

For advertisers, the directory can complement magazine advertising particularly well.

Someone may initially recognise your company from a printed CommunityAd magazine before searching online later.

Alternatively, they could discover you through the Business Directory and subsequently recognise your name when they encounter your magazine advertisement.

Both channels reinforce one another.

That repeated visibility helps move your business beyond simply waiting for somebody to recommend you.

Print and Online Advertising Can Work Together

Modern customer journeys aren’t always straightforward.

A potential customer might notice your business in print, search for you online, visit your website, ask a friend whether they’ve heard of you and then return to your website before finally making contact.

Another person might receive a recommendation first and subsequently recognise your company from a CommunityAd magazine.

There isn’t necessarily one single moment that creates the enquiry.

Instead, several interactions can contribute to the final decision.

That’s why combining print advertising with an online Business Directory presence makes sense for local businesses.

Print creates another opportunity to introduce and remind people about your brand, while the online directory provides a route for people actively searching for local businesses.

Word of mouth can sit alongside both.

Together, they create multiple opportunities for customers to discover and gain familiarity with your company.

Don’t Leave Your Next Customer to Chance

Word of mouth will always have an important place in business.

If customers are recommending you, that’s something to be proud of. It means you’ve provided a product or service that people believe is worth talking about.

But recommendations shouldn’t have to carry the entire responsibility for generating your next enquiry.

Your business can be proactive.

You can choose where you want to increase awareness. You can decide which products and services to promote. You can introduce your company to people outside your existing customer network and make it easier for local customers to find you when they’re actively searching.

Most importantly, you can continue building recognition even when nobody happens to be talking about your company.

Turn Word of Mouth into One Part of Your Marketing with CommunityAd

The strongest approach isn’t necessarily word of mouth versus advertising.

It’s word of mouth plus advertising.

Continue providing the level of service that makes customers want to recommend you, but support those recommendations with consistent visibility.

Let existing customers talk about you.

Let your magazine advertising introduce you.

Let your online presence help people find you.

CommunityAd provides businesses with both local community magazine advertising and an online Business Directory, helping companies increase their visibility in print and online rather than depending entirely on referrals. Its current publications actively encourage businesses to advertise locally and claim online directory listings.

Your next customer doesn’t have to know somebody who already knows you.

They just need an opportunity to discover you, recognise you and find you when they need you.

Don’t leave the growth of your business entirely to word of mouth. Get your business seen locally in print and online with CommunityAd and give more potential customers the opportunity to find out what you can do for them.

Contact us today to find out more

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