Marketers continue to be challenged in getting through to consumers. With digital TV recorders (DVRs), do-not-send lists, pop-up blockers, and spam blockers, consumers are doing everything possible to tune out advertising. At the same time, word of mouth continues to rise. Twitter, Facebook, blogs, Linkedin, and other social media sources enable immediate broadcasting of positive and negative experiences, influencing the buying decisions of others.

The best way to influence consumers is to focus on your customer experience. What are you doing to delight customers? What are you doing that creates negative word of mouth? Invest your money in improving the experience and let your customers do your advertising for you.

One industry that has embraced this approach is the credit unions. Having the opportunity to work with them over the past couple of years, I have been quite impressed with their commitment to customers and focus on differentiating through improved “member” experience. This article, The Successful Nearly $0 External Marketing Budget tells the story of how San Francisco Fire Credit Union has achieved increased retention and new member acquisition while growing their Net Promoter Score from 65% to a world class 79%.