How do I get word of mouth working online?
Ask any owner-operator where their best customers come from and you will get the same answer: word of mouth. Someone told someone. It is the highest-converting marketing that exists, and it has one maddening flaw: you cannot see it, steer it or scale it. Or rather, you could not. Word of mouth moved online, and online it leaves fingerprints you can actually work with.
Where recommendations happen now
The chat over the fence still happens, but its bigger cousins are digital: the suburb Facebook group asking “anyone know a good sparky?”, the group chat, and increasingly the review pages people check before acting on a tip. Most people want to see a recommendation before hiring, and when a mate names you, the very next thing they do is look you up. That look-up moment is where word of mouth is either banked or lost.
Give the recommendation somewhere to land
When the friend’s tip leads to a complete Soho’s listing, with reviews echoing exactly what the friend said, photos of your work and a booking button, the recommendation converts. When it leads to nothing, or to a bare page with no proof, doubt creeps back in and the shortlist reopens. Your listing is not competing with word of mouth; it is the second half of it.
Reviews are word of mouth in writing
A review is a recommendation from a stranger to every future stranger, permanently on display. Ten specific reviews do the work of ten friends vouching for you at once. Collect them as a habit: every happy customer, asked the same day, with a direct link. And answer them, because your reply is visible word of mouth about what you are like to deal with.
Make yourself easy to pass along
Finally, shorten the distance between “you should call my guy” and the call. A link is easier to share than a half-remembered phone number. Put your listing link where customers can grab it: the invoice, the email signature, the thank-you text after a job. When recommending you takes one forwarded link, people do it more, and the loop feeds itself.
Turn good word into steady work
Give your recommendations a page that closes the deal.
