WOMBAT stands for Word Of Mouth Buy And Tell. Photo / 123RF
One of my favourite books on marketing is "WOMBAT Selling- How to sell by word of mouth."
The book is now out of print however you can request a free copy in Ebook Format at this link.
WOMBAT Selling is written by sales and creative thinking expert Michael Hewitt Gleeson.
So a WOMBAT is a satisfied customer who replicates another satisfied customer.
A WOMBAT is also customer who is so satisfied about your offer or your business communication that they pass it on to those in their business or social network.
How valuable are WOMBATS to a business?
Michael and his team have done a lot of research in this area and they have uncovered some startling figures about the value of WOMBATS.
First of all WOMBATs are 45% less costly for you to acquire. (So this makes sales to WOMBATS a lot more profitable.)
WOMBATS are also 28% less price-sensitive. (So you are less likely to need to offer costly discounts to get them to spend money with you.)
WOMBATS buy 47% more than your existing customers.
(WOMBATs also buy 2-3 times more often.)
WOMBATS are 37% more interested in your new products.
WOMBATs are twice as likely to give you repeat business.
WOMBATS are also 49% more likely to replicate new WOMBATs.
WOMBATs have a 72% higher lifetime value to your business.
And because WOMBATs trust you they don't defect to your competitors.
In other words WOMBATS are incredibly value and important to any business.
So how to you get WOMBATS for your business?
First of all make both your business and your marketing communications memorable in a positive way.
This makes it easy for your clients to tell other people they know about what you do.
Here is a simple example to get you thinking…
An entrepreneur named Derek Sivers started a business called CD Baby to help independent musicians sell their music online a few years ago. Derek then sold his business for $22 million ten years later.
One of the reasons his business did so well was that Derek was always trying new things to make his customers talk positively about CD Baby.
One day, Derek looked at his purchase confirmation email and found it said something like 'thank you for your CD purchase it will be sent shortly...'
Derek thought this was a bit boring, so, he sat down and pumped out an email in twenty minutes that he found a bit more fun.
Here is the new email he sent out to confirm a CD purchase to his customers:
Thank you for your order with CD Baby. Your CDs have been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow. A team of 50 employees inspected your CDs and polished them to make sure they were in the best possible condition before mailing. Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CDs into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy. We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved 'Bon Voyage!' to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Sunday, December 11th. I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as "Customer of the Year". We're all exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!! Thank you once again, Derek Sivers, president, CD Baby
This email, became so loved by CD Baby's customers that it attracted over 10,000 positive mentions online.
Imagine that! Derek spent 20 minutes creating a fun email and over 10,000 customers commented positively about it on the internet.
This is a great example of how to create WOMBATS for your business by making your business communications positively memorable.
Michael has recently developed a new brand new service he calls The WOMBAT Algorithym SAAS.
The WOMBAT Algorithym SAAS is designed to help a wide range of businesses automatically create large numbers of WOMBATS for their business.
Plus it has the nice side benefit of increasing repeat and referral sales at the same time. You can see further details at this link.
"Word of mouth is the best medium of all." - Bill Bernbach
Action Exercise:
What can you do this month to start creating WOMBATS for your business?
- Graham McGregor is a Marketing Advisor and helps businesses who offer an expensive service to quickly attract ideal new clients. You can download his brand new 106 page marketing guide 'The Expensive Service Marketing Solution' at no charge from www.TheExpensiveServiceMarketingSolution.com
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