- Image via CrunchBase
I was thinking today about how word of mouth spreads and people share positive experiences about companies. I don’t mean simply recalling a job done properly but a tale of exceptional customer service, a proper fan boy moment. And it struck me that when you’re in that position you don’t need or demand any kind of bounty for sharing this news, you’re happy to do so because of the benefit it will bring your friend.
Twitter for instance has spread via word of mouth because of the value inherent in its service. It didn’t need to pay people to talk about them, they were happy to do so because of the value it gave them and the value it could give their friends. I could say exactly the same about Facebook or YouTube or Google. Even Amazon now pay significantly less than other retailers in affiliate bounty yet still demand loyalty because of the service they provide.
So are affiliate schemes merely the attempts by the mediocre to buy into some of this word of mouth marketing? Would their money not be better spent on creating a service that truly excited people to the extent that they will actively promote them without recourse to financial incentives?
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Hi Adi
I don’t agree that affiliate schemes are only for the mediocre. With at least 100s of millions (anyone know the latest estimate?) of websites now on the ‘Net, it’s a vast quagmire and some smaller or niche companies may find it difficult to be found in search results. They may be perfectly good companies, and not mediocre at all, but they find it’s worth their while to run affiliate schemes because those affiliates get their merchants additional traffic and bring in business for them.
I regularly earn in excess of £100 p/m on one scheme I’m on (not on the Not Delia website) as an affiliate of a niche insurance company. They must be a good enough company because I’m getting commissions on repeat business year after year, which I think is great!
Presumably their customers are happy because there’s plenty of repeat business. The company is happy with the extra business they might otherwise not have got. And I’m happy earning commissions while I sleep. I don’t see that mediocrity comes into it.
What about looking at the products or services themselves? I am hardly likely to go telling all my friends about a fantastic new padded bra I just bought 😉 or bore them with tales about my latest insurance purchase. Perhaps some things don’t lend themselves well to word of mouth marketing.
Not Delia’s last blog post..A bouquet of rosés
I could say that wonderbra is a fine example of a company with momentum of course 🙂 I guess it depends how you define mediocre. For me the term defines a company that isn’t really going places. One that isn’t achieving considerable growth year on year. Of course many profitable companies still exist without momentum, to use the Boston matrix, they’re the cash cows to the fast growing stars.