5 Tips from Intuit's Maggie Colby

"People say that for business-to-business, it's so hard to do word of mouth," says Maggie Colby, Acting Director of Intuit Marketing Excellence. "Ultimately, our customers are people just like everyone else, so you have to figure out a way to have your brand communicate with them beyond just the service you're offering."

In order for word of mouth to be effective, it should fit into an overall marketing strategy, Maggie believes. Here are her five tips on creating word of mouth campaign for the BtoB marketplace.

Tip #1. Connect with customers on emotional basis
One year around Valentine's Day, Intuit wanted to put together a promotion to drive people to the new QuickBooks online community and to convince them to register and use the site. As she looked for a way to connect with these customers emotionally, Maggie narrowed in on the company's contracting and construction community. She realized that many contractors run their businesses as husband-and-wife teams, so she put together a promotion asking those teams to "honor their Valentine" and enter their three tips on working with a "significant other."

Tip #2. Suggest a specific action
Maggie sent an email to inform all contractor customers that they could win $1,000 by entering their tips. In order to enter, they had to register and use the new community site. Thus, they gained experience in using the community -- the ultimate goal of the campaign -- as part of the campaign itself.

Tip #3. Include the press
Maggie contacted key people in the press who cover the contractor segment to let them know about the contest. In that way, they became involved and helped promote the campaign.

Tip #4. Let your customers do the talking
All entries were posted on the community with no editing. By allowing customers complete control over their input, it got them involved. By the end of the promotion, 716 people had written in their tips.

Tip #5. Leverage the promotion after the promotion ends
After the promotion had closed, Maggie's team looked for trends among the tips that had been sent. They pulled them together as a promotional piece, which they again sent to key influencers in the press. The winners of the $1,000 were interviewed, and were asked to talk to the press when the writers needed more information.

More about Maggie:

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