When the cab driver taking you to your hotel starts chatting, and you end up getting a recommendation for a great place to eat… that’s tipster marketing.

When your chat with your hairdresser ends up as a discussion about the latest ‘fab’ movie they have seen… that’s tipster marketing.

When a travel agent has been to the place you are travelling to and suggests a spot you have to check out while you’re there, that too is tipster marketing.

Ever thought how amazing a piece of word of mouth this is?

Each of those tip-offs will be more powerful than any advertising could ever be.

It’s brilliant!

It’s from a (supposedly) unbiased / unrelated source. It’s immediately got influence because it’s delivered by a local expert. Even better it happens exactly when the person has the need for the information.

Powerful, powerful word of mouth marketing.

Yet I have never seen anyone talk specifically about this form of word of mouth for small business.

More to the point I had a past customer of “Word of Mouth Magic” – someone who was so pleased about it she gave me a testimonial – specifically say that she wished I had a ‘how-to’ on this type of marketing.

She was in Las Vegas, where most of the business is from tourists who are always asking the local hotel staff, cabbies, waitresses etc for tips. To really succeed she needed to break into that word of mouth circle.

But my bag of tricks had nothing specific at that time.

Three weeks ago I came across retail marketer John Stanley – for the second time.

The first time I came across John was in my local library. I saw a book titled “Just About Everything a Retail Manager Needs to Know“.

That’s a pretty arrogant title for a book, so I took a look.

Now I’m no retail expert, but I was actually impressed, and ever since, this book has been in my mind for the times when have a retail business needing a make-over.

Anyway, while researching a bakery marketer (don’t ask) I found myself clicking across to www.JohnStanley.cc and rediscovering John.

When I searched for “word of mouth” I found John’s info on what he calls ‘tipster marketing’.

[John thinks he read the term in a book many years ago, but neither he nor I can find the source. If you know the name or know this technique under a different name, then I'd love to hear it.]

Anyway think about this for your business…

1. When are customers naturally asking for recommendations about your product or service? [Hint: it's often BEFORE they get to the point of looking at ads or the yellow pages.]

2. Who are they getting their answers from – aka who are the tipsters?

3. How can you get those tipsters to know your points of difference so they can appropriately recommend you?

Remember, even though Las Vegas might be awash with tipsters who are paid referral fees (disclosed or otherwise), in most other places people won’t need payment because giving out information is all part of the process.

If  you simply make an effort to build a relationship with a potential tipster, then they may well talk about you for free!

Got your own ‘tipster marketing’ experiences?

Visit John’s newest blog www.TipsterMarketing.com where he has some stories of his own, and add your story as a comment there.

Just to up the ante, I’m offering a small prize to the person who leaves the best comment there. [Oh, and best means most helpful to other readers - at my sole discretion.]

www.TipsterMarketing.com

-Martin Russell

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