Marketing experts can overwhelm us with must-do lists for growing our businesses.  Social media, websites, content marketing, SEO, advertising, Google AdWords, email marketing....the list goes on. 

Who has time to tend to all of these tools and resources? We all know by now that these are important weapons in our marketing arsenal but nothing is more powerful than word-of-mouth marketing.  

If word of mouth is so important how come most studios lack referral systems? We all do the "refer a friend and receive $$ off next month's tuition", or some variation of that.  Everyone likes prizes. Especially cash prizes.  

What is your customer supposed to do with this offer? Do you expect them to start compiling a spreadsheet of all their friends with kids, calling and emailing them about your music studio? Of course not.

They certainly aren't going to casually say in a conversation "I don't know if you've ever considered music lessons for Sally but if you sign up at Geno's Guitar Shack I'll get a $50 kickback"

So how do you get this whole word-of-mouth thing moving?

The secret is stories. 

Stories create social currency for people. People rely on stories as a way of connecting and relating to each other. People with interesting stories are perceived as interesting people. "Did I tell you about that time I shared a cab ride with Mick Jagger".  Now that would be an interesting story. The person telling the story becomes a little more intriguing a little more interesting. 

If you can create interesting stories for your customers you will provide them with social currency. They will be inclined to tell people all about you since you gave them something interesting to talk about. They will be perceived as intriguing person and your music studio will also be of greater interest. "Did I tell you what my son's music studio did for his birthday? You'll never believe this...." Boom. Social currency. Word-of-mouth marketing in real-time. 

"Refer a friend and get ___" is important. But that's not getting to get anyone talking. Stories are the real secret to effective word-of-mouth marketing. 

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www.davesimonsmusic.com