If you want to build a business that grows year in year out it's a good idea to think seriously about word-of-mouth marketing.

Everyone believes word-of-mouth marketing is an excellent way to promote your product, but most businesspeople believe there's nothing you can do to influence it. Others think that it's just about customer service. Now, this is important but do you really think people will talk about you just for the fun of it. It is much more likely that they will talk about you when they're unhappy rather than happy. So unless you actively provoke it, word-of-mouth will probably hurt your business rather than help it grow.

So here are a few tips to make word-of-mouth work:

1. Quality. This means to give the customer what he wants, so you have satisfied customers. I said, "…what he wants." Not the best thing going. We'll talk about what quality really means another day.

2. Actively seek feedback, so as to be able to answer the following: Are they satisfied? Can you improve?

3. Never break your promise. It's better to under-promise than to promise things you can't keep. If for some reason you can't keep your promise, let your customer know in advance and do all you that you can to correct this.

4. Excellent customer service. As we mentioned before, this is important but don't forget it's not the only thing.

5. Find your unhappy customers and try to do all you can to reverse this situation.

6. Actively participate in your community through networking groups.

7. Look for non-competitors that are complementary to your business and create a referral network. A good example is that provided by Ivan Misner in his article in www.entrepreneur.com to which he refers to as the wedding mafia: a florist, a photographer, a travel agent and a jeweler; each of them referring to each other to improve their business.

8. Don't hunt for customers, create relationships. Remember, make a friend and you'll have a customer forever. A good example of this is to imagine your best friend is a secondhand car dealer, if you were to buy a secondhand car where would you go.

On this note, I would just like to end by saying that I hope I'm making many friends with this newsletter-course.

Build a business - Montar un negocio
Year in year out - Año tras año
Word-of-mouth marketing - Marketing boca-oído
Customer service - Atención al cliente
Just for the fun of it - Solo por pasarlo bien
Customers - Cliente.
También se puede decir "client" por lo general, se utiliza "client" cuando la empresa tiene pocos, grandes y identificables ej. Un auditor y customer cuando son muchos ej. Tienda de ropa.
Break your promise - No cumplir con tu promesa
Keep your promise - Cumplir tu promesa
Referral - Recomendación
Entrepreneur - Emprendedor
Secondhand car dealer - Vendedor de coches de segundamano