Download: Word of Mouth Marketing for Restaurants

How to Harness the Power of Word of Mouth and Brand Advocates to Boost Sales and Ratings

Word of Mouth marketing has been called the most powerful form of restaurant marketing. Forward-thinking restaurant marketers are boosting positive Word of Mouth by finding and activating their enthusiastic customers (AKA “Brand Advocates.”) Take Rubio’s Fresh Mexican Grill: In only a few months, Rubio’s has identified 52,000+ Advocates and energized them to share 60,000 offers to their social networks, plus rate and review their local Rubio’s on Yelp. Download the whitepaper to learn how you can find and activate your Brand Advocates to recommend your restaurant, driving sales and boost ratings.

Download this white paper and learn:

• How to increase customer visits and drive sales
• How to boost online ratings and reviews on Yelp
• Ways to combat negative Word of Mouth
• Real world case study featuring Rubio’s Fresh Mexican Grill

Brand Advocates – consumers and business buyers who frequently recommend brands and products without being paid – are highly trusted and influential. Their recommendations drive trillions of dollars of purchase decisions for everything from cars to computers, fish tacos to fitness memberships, software to smart phones. Now, a new study sponsored by Zuberance has revealed three surprising findings about Brand Advocates.

This study provides further evidence about the power and influence of Brand Advocates.The message in the data is clear for B2C and B2B marketers: find and activate your Advocates now to generate more recommendations, referrals, and revenues.

Download the full report here.

Don’t miss our March 21 webinar: Founder/CEO of Zuberance, Rob Fuggetta, will present the findings from “Three Surprising Facts About Brand Advocates” and share the implications for marketers. Click here to register.

(Click here to view the Infographic in your browser.)

Brands have been intensely focusing on racking up the “likes” on their Facebook page through various marketing tactics such as offering incentives, investing in Facebook ads, and more. But even with hundreds of thousands of Facebook fans, the road to kick ass Facebook engagement is a rather bumpy one.

Take a look at these stats working against you when it comes to Facebook marketing:

88% of Facebook users never return to a fan page once they “like” it (Brandglue.com.)

Due to EdgeRank, each time a brand posts to their Facebook page, only about 16-18% of fans actually see the post in their newsfeeds (source: comScore, Facebook.)

According to a recent Ehrenberg-Bass study, now you can add this stat: Only 1% of Facebook fans engage with brands.

So how do you overcome these obstacles and increase brand engagement? Focus not just on your fans, but on your fanatics (AKA your Brand Advocates) to share your content with their friends.

Why focus on your Brand Advocates?

• Brand Advocates are a different breed: They are 50% more likely to influence purchase decisions and 75% more likely to share great product experiences.
• By mobilizing your Advocates to share content on your behalf, you expand your reach beyond your current fan base to your Advocates’ networks.
• Brand Advocates will spread the love across channels (Twitter, LinkedIn, third party review sites, etc.), not just Facebook.
• Your customers don’t trust you anyway. 90% of consumers trust Word of Mouth; only 24% trust online ads (source: Nielsen.)

To learn more about leveraging your brand fanatics, download our whitepaper, Turning Fans and Followers into Brand Advocates.

Hubspot recently published a killer infographic on “How Word of Mouth, Customer Reviews are Changing the Marketing World.”

The infographic highlights the growing distrust of traditional advertising as consumers are turning to their friends, ratings, and reviews to gain insight on purchase decisions. Take a look at some of the key stats below.

Outbound is Out

• Only 8% of consumers prefer online ads as the best source of product information.
• 65% mute the TV, change the channel or skip ads.
• 75% of people don’t accept advertisements as the truth.

Inbound is In

• 63% of social media users feel consumer ratings are #1.
• 90% of consumers discuss specific bands casually 90 times per week.
• 90% of people trust brand recommendations from friends.
• 70% trust consumer opinions.
• Products that have received 50+ reviews create greater returns (which is 65% higher than products that have less than 5 reviews.)
• 61% of consumers use search engines to read about products before a purchase.
• 71% are more likely to purchase when referred by social media.

Success Story Stats

• American Eagle added the “Like” button to every product on their site, and Facebook shoppers spent 57% more money.
• Every Eventbrite link shared on Facebook generates $2.52 in ticket sales.
• Each Ticketmaster event post by customers on Facebook results in $5.30 in direct ticket sales.
• When Levi’s added the “Like” button, they saw a 40X increase in referral traffic.

Traditional marketing is so 90′s. Modern marketing is all about recommendations.

Read how companies in various industries are energizing their Brand Advocates to create online recommendations by downloading, “Turning Your Customers into a Powerful Marketing Force.”

-Cara Fuggetta, Marketing Manager, Zuberance

The following is an excerpt from Rob Fuggetta’s forthcoming book about Brand Advocates.

One negative review can cost you 30 customers, a study by Convergys found. Using the Convergys research as the baseline, you can see how much one negative review costs a small resort hotel in Orlando, Fla.

If your average revenues per customer are higher, negative reviews cost you more. One negative review costs a high-end fitness club $72,000, as the chart below shows.

Social Media Whup-Ass

This is a conservative estimate of the amount of money you can lose from negative reviews. It only focuses on lost sales. It doesn’t take into consideration the lasting financial impact of negative reviews on your company or brand’s reputation.

Also, it doesn’t take into consideration other ways Detractors spread negative Word of Mouth, like email, social channels, and offline.

In the old days, PR people would tell their clients who wanted to battle newspaper editors, “Don’t pick a fight with a man who buys ink by the barrel.”

Today that man is the social consumer, and he’s got a barrel of social media whup-ass for you.

Read more excerpts from Rob’s forthcoming book here.

-Rob Fuggetta, Founder/CEO, Zuberance

3 Case Studies in 30 Minutes: How Three Hotels are Increasing Sales and Ratings by Leveraging Their Brand Advocates

Date: Thursday, December 15, 2011

Time: 11:00 AM PST/2:00 PM EST

Join the conversation on Twitter: #zuberance

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW

Hotels and resorts spend billions on marketing and sales promotions trying to lure travelers to their properties and keep them coming back through loyalty reward programs. However, an influential and powerful segment that is often overlooked is Brand Advocates. The value of energizing Brand Advocates goes beyond loyalty. Brand Advocates are highly satisfied customers that pro-actively recommend your properties to their social networks online and offline. Mobilizing Brand Advocates turns your enthusiastic guests into a cost-effective marketing force, boosting ratings and reviews and driving sales.

Register now to attend this free webinar featuring real-world success stories from:

• Motel 6
• Tryp by Wyndham
• Atlantis

Participants will learn how to:

• Identify and energize your best customers (AKA Brand Advocates)
• Boost ratings and increase positive reviews on TripAdvisor and other review sites
• Generate leads and drive sales via social media
• Measure the impact of mobilizing Brand Advocates

All participants will receive a free whitepaper, “How Hotels Can Turn Word of Mouth and Social Media into Sales.”

Expert Speaker: Rob Fuggetta, Founder/CEO, Zuberance (@robfuggetta)

Rob Fuggetta, the founder and CEO of Zuberance, has more than 20 years of experience in Word of Mouth marketing, His WOM strategies have created marketing success for Apple, Intuit, Norton, and many others. Fuggetta is a frequent speaker and author of an upcoming book, “Energize! How to Turn Social Media & Word of Mouth into Sales by Energizing Brand Advocates.”

REGISTER NOW

5 Case Studies in 30 Minutes: How Five Software Companies are Increasing Sales and positive Word of Mouth by Mobilizing their Brand Advocates

Date: Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Time: 11:00 AM PST/2:00 PM EST

Join the conversation on Twitter: #zuberance

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW

Word of Mouth is the “world’s most powerful sales tool,” according to Nielsen. In fact, many software companies get more than half their business from Word of Mouth. In today’s social-media-connected world, the voice of your customers on blogs, social networks, and third party review sites such as Amazon is more influential than ever. But how do software marketers harness the power of social media and Word of Mouth to drive sales and positive reviews?

Register now to attend this free webinar featuring real-world success stories from:

• Intuit
• Microsoft
• Webroot
• NetApp
• Corel

Participants will learn how to:

• Identify and energize your best customers (AKA Brand Advocates)
• Boost ratings and increase positive reviews on Amazon and other review sites
• Generate leads and drive sales via social media
• Measure the impact of mobilizing Brand Advocates

All participants will receive a free whitepaper, “The ROI of Energizing Brand Advocates.”

Expert Speaker: Rob Fuggetta, Founder/CEO, Zuberance (@robfuggetta)

Rob Fuggetta, the founder and CEO of Zuberance, has more than 20 years of experience in Word of Mouth marketing, His WOM strategies have created marketing success for Apple, Intuit, Norton, and many others. Fuggetta is a frequent speaker and author of an upcoming book, “Energize! How to Turn Social Media & Word of Mouth into Sales by Energizing Brand Advocates.”

REGISTER NOW

3 Case Studies in 30 Minutes: How Three Health and Fitness Companies are Increasing Sales and Positive Word of Mouth by Leveraging Their Brand Advocates

Date: Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Time: 11:00 AM PST/2:00 PM EST

Join the conversation on Twitter: #zuberance

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW

Word of Mouth is the “world’s most powerful sales tool,” according to Nielsen. In fact, most health and fitness companies get more than half their business from Word of Mouth referrals. In today’s social-media-connected world, the voice of your members on blogs, social networks, and third party review sites such as Yelp is more influential than ever. But how do health and fitness marketers harness the power of social media and Word of Mouth to drive sales and positive reviews?

Register now to attend this free webinar featuring real-world success stories from:

• 24 Hour Fitness
• Club One
• Anytime Fitness

Participants will learn how to:

• Identify and energize your best customers (AKA Brand Advocates)
• Boost ratings and increase positive reviews on Yelp and other review sites
• Generate referral leads and drive sales via social media
• Measure the impact of mobilizing Brand Advocates

All participants will receive a free whitepaper, “Club One Gets 9X ROI by Energizing Brand Advocates.”

Expert Speaker: Rob Fuggetta, Founder/CEO, Zuberance (@robfuggetta)

Rob Fuggetta, the founder and CEO of Zuberance, has more than 20 years of experience in Word of Mouth marketing, His WOM strategies have created marketing success for Apple, Intuit, Norton, and many others. Fuggetta is a frequent speaker and author of an upcoming book, “Energize! How to Turn Social Media & Word of Mouth into Sales by Energizing Brand Advocates.”

REGISTER NOW

Ooma has the #1 rated VoIP service according to Consumer Reports. Now, Ooma is turning thousands of its highly-satisfied customers (AKA “Brand Advocates”) into a powerful Word of Mouth marketing force. Jim Gustke, VP of Marketing for Ooma, discusses the benefits of energizing their Brand Advocates.

Some of the highlights from Ooma’s advocacy program:

• Built a Brand Army of 20,000+ Ooma Advocates (Ooma envisions a Brand Army of hundreds of thousands of Ooma Advocates)
• 63% of Ooma customers identified themselves as Advocates
• Advocates gave the Ooma device an average star rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars
• 34% of Ooma Advocates who have created reviews have published them on Amazon.com, Sears.com, Facebook, and Twitter
• For a recent Advocate campaign, Ooma got a 6.25% sales conversion rate for offers shared by Advocates