What Is Word Of Mouth Marketing?

Isn't Word Of Mouth marketing just another name for seeking patient referrals?

Patient referrals represent only one aspect of word-of-mouth marketing. It involves strategy and tactics designed specifically to facilitate and encourage the media, local community people (whether they're patients or not) and influential people in your community to talk positively about you to others.

One example would be providing appropriately valuable information to local professionals via letters, newsletters, recordings, dvds, etc. What would be an example of appropriate info? Keeping local physicians abreast of the most recent mouth/body connection research would fit that "appropriate" definition.

Another example would be setting up speaking engagements with local groups ... and providing media with press releases to announce it.

Sponsoring high profile events and popular local social causes is another, as is developing unique advertising or incorporating a practice feature that causes people to talk to their friends about it ... and, thus, you.

I'll be covering a number of word-of-mouth topics in in the future. If you'd like to read more about it now, a good place to start would be a visit to the WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association) web site and read Word of Mouth 101. You can also check it out in Wikipedia.

Copyright 2007 by Galen Stilson