Photo (CC 2.0) blullana_miranda, on Flickr

Some marketing tools are good. Others are great.

Typically a great marketing tool is having others talking about your business. Not paid ads but your own brand ambassadors telling your story.

What makes it effective?

It is part of our nature to trust other people. That is why reviews on your home page or posted on the wall or review sites such as Trip Advisor or Yelp are so popular.

And if we know the person who gave the review, or even know a person who knows the person, the trust factor increases exponentially.

So, do you get people to talk about their experiences with your business.

The easiest and most effective way: Ask! Ask them to comments on their experience with your business.

To increase the response rate, make it easy. You can: hand them a comment card; tell them the online sites on which your store has ratings; and/or send them an email asking for their comments and providing a link where to go.

My wife and I, when visiting a favorite restaurant, were asked to send a postcard to a friend telling them about our experience and offering them a discount to come in and try it out.

Also make comments visible in the store (some stores have big bulletin boards) and online. Customers like knowing you listened. Remember, though, to offer them the opportunity to keep their comments anonymous. Maybe a guest book would work in your situation.

Some business owners ask if internal sites as opposed to third-party review sites are better. Each way has positives and negatives. People who have a negative experience may not share that on your bulletin board and, once they leave, you probably won’t get a comment.

Third-party sites, however, have had fake review issues. Plus, people are more likely to offer strong negative comments online. As the owner, you need to respond to all comments, especially negative ones.  Try to solve the problem, but if that doesn’t work, at least tell people what you tried to do.

Other steps to get more comments include:

• Set goals for yourself. This will encourage you to ask your customers to give a comment.
• Use email. It helps build your email list, but it also gives you another chance to engage with the customer.
• Be active in your local community. Having comments that include your work outside of the business is great. And just getting your name out there helps increase your search engine ranking.
• Give a discount or freebie for a comment. Be careful, though, because some people will view this as buying the vote.

Word-of-mouth advertising always will be a great marketing tool. Customer reviews, either online or in writing, are a great way to make that happen. Get your system in place today.

Photo provided by Kupper Subaru

Last weekend I took our car in for a routine oil change. As expected the staff were friendly, the service quick, and everything was done right. They provided a comfortable lounge area while I waited with a big screen TV, coffee and water. Those were my expectations and they were all met.

However, there is one more part to the story.  As I was doing the initial paperwork, I noticed some bicycles. They had helmets and backpacks so I asked if staff rode their bikes to work. This is where the routine experience became something amazing.

The response to my question was, “no, those are for our customers to borrow. Do you want to take one out?”  The auto dealership is close to downtown and not far from a bike trail leading to one of our state parks. There was apparently no limitation on where you could with them or how long you could take them out. Check out their program here.

I didn’t take them up on the offer but, as someone interested in helping businesses market and stand out from their competitors, I thought this was great marketing.

Here are just some of the reasons why:

• It was relatively low cost. Bikes, backpacks, locks, and helmets is it. Plus some signs.
• Bike riding engages and offers the customer an experience. Even if you don’t take a ride, I didn’t, the idea gets attention and interest.
• It connects with their brand and many of their customers.  Subaru ads often focus on outdoor activities, experiencing nature, etc. The ideas of loaner bikes fits well with the message they sell.
• May is National Bicycle Month. They connected with that by running YouTube contest showing the bikes ridden on various local trails. If you could name the trail, you won a prize.
• They took advantage of social media for marketing and shot their own video, all low-cost marketing.  See: http://bit.ly/1Jv2CtQ
• When speaking to Jerry Coutts, Service Manager and person responsible for the idea, he noted the idea came from seeing it at another dealership. Good marketing often comes from watching what others are doing. You need, though, to modify them for your situation and to set yourself apart.
• They found a catchy name, #KupperKruiser.

The list goes on but I will end with one final thought.  The most effective marketing comes when others tell your story. This idea is a good one for encouraging this to happen, it takes the routine and makes it something to tell your friends.

As far as growing the campaign, they have opportunities with increased signage and posting pictures and/or videos of customers using the bikes and talking about the experience. This would enhance the visibility, expands customer endorsements, grow social media activity and keep costs low. They can also think about what could be done over winter and again next year.

As a disclaimer, this is not a paid endorsement. I saw a clever marketing idea and appreciated how the idea was developed and implemented. Ideas like this are something any small business owner can do. Small business owners should always have their eyes and mind open for such ideas, ways to get people talking and set your business apart. That’s effective marketing.

Good job Jerry and Kupper Subaru.