3 Ways to Get Employees and Clients to Spread the Word About Your Startup

3 Ways to Get Employees and Clients to Spread the Word About Your Startup Its easy to besucked in by the allure of cutting-edge online marketing methods, especially given the factthat 59 percent of small businessesget their clients via SEO activityand 33 percent get them through social media.However, whileonline marketing is an important way to market your business, its not the only way. Actually, its not even the best way.In fact, word-of-mouth marketing seems to be the most effective method of marketing for departureups, as the saatkorn research cited above found that 85 percent of small businesses find new customers through the grapevine, so to speak.If you want to maximize sales, then, youll want to encourage your staff members and customers to spread the word and refer your products and services to their friends and acquaintances.By the same token, if you want to attract the necessary talent to staff your organization, word of mouth can help you there as well. Employee referral programs are a key source of quality hires.On that note, here are a few tips to help you get your employeesand customers to act as ambassadors for your brand1. Build a Workplace That People Love One of the main reasons whystaff members refer their friends to a business is because they like working at the company not because they want to be awarded referral bonuses. So, if you want to encourage your staff to refer new employees to you, concentrate on building a great workplacethey will be keen to sharewith the people they care about.Then, once you have built a working environment that employees are proud of, your next step is to set up a formalemployee referral program. You dont have to reinvent the wheel hereThere are plenty of readily available employee referral applications that you can use to set up an effectiveprogram in no time.2. Make Products and Services That Your Clients Can Be Proud OfLets face it Your customers are not going to refer thei r friends to you if you offer asubstandard product or service. Worse still, if your products and services are bad enough to angerpeople, they may spend time actively bad-mouthing your offerings.These days, the overwhelming majority of consumersare heavily influenced by the reviews and opinions of other buyers. So, if you want to encourage customers to market your services, you need to start by building an offering that wows people. Your goal is to move your customers so much that they cant wait to share their positive experiences with other consumers online.Another way to motivate customers to share their experiences is to offer a customer incentive scheme. Consider givingexisting customers bonuses, discounts, or free services in return for their referrals. This wont be enough to getdissatisfied customers to refer, but it shouldencourage happy customers to recommend you over a competitor.Whatever you do, make it ridiculously easy for your customers to refer. The slightest barrier wi ll likely stop what little momentum they have in this department.3. Give Your Staff Some Time to Blog and Post on Social MediaGone are the days when the marketing department owned every step of the marketing process. Heck, chances are that your startup doesnt even have a dedicated marketing department yet.Your employees are experts in their respective fields, so encourage them to blog regularly about your company. Let them publish posts on the company website and encourage them to share company information and updates on their social media profiles.And, of course, if theres a job opportunity open,they might want to market that, too.Using your employeesand customers to market your business is just too good an opportunity to miss. Todays consumers and your potential employees are mora trusting of peer-generated reviews and recommendations than of the content produced by marketing departments. Your employees and existing customers, then, have far more influence over potential clients and hires than you may have ever imagined.