Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking

The Four Rules of Word of Mouth Marketing
Word of mouth marketing means giving people a reason to talk about your stuff and making it easier for that conversation to take place.

Be Interesting
Nobody talks about boring companies, boring products, or boring ads. If you want people to talk about you, you’ve got to do something special.

Make People Happy
Happy customers are your greatest advertisers. Thrill them. Create amazing products. Provide excellent service. Go the extra mile. Make the experience remarkable. Fix problems. Make sure the work you do get people energized, excited, and eager to tell a friend.

Earn Trust and Respect
If you don’t have respect, you don’t get good word of mouth. Nobody talks positively about a company that they don’t trust or like. Nobody puts their name on the line for a company that will embarrass them in front of their friends. Make people proud to tell your story to everyone they know.

Make It Easy
Word of mouth is lazy. You’ve got to help it along if you expect it to go anywhere. You need to do two things: Find a super-simple message, and help people share it.

The Three Reasons People Talk about You
It’s about you, the marketer and the products. People talk because you’re doing or selling something that they want to talk about. They love your products. They like how you treat them. You’ve done something interesting. It’s about giving them a reason to talk about you. You’ve got to arouse some passion before your advocates will begin talking about your company.
Talking makes them feel good. We want to look smart. We want to help other people. We want to feel important. We want to express ourselves.

It’s about us, the group of enthusiasts. The desire to be part of a group is one of the most powerful human emotions. We want to be connected, very badly. We are emotionally rewarded when we share excitement with a group that has a common interest.

The Five T’s of Word of Mouth Marketing
Talkers: Who will tell their friends about you? Find people who will talk about you. Fans, volunteers, customers, bloggers, influencers.
Topics: What will they talk about? Give people a reason to talk. Special offer, great service, cool product, silliness, neat ad, new feature.
Tools: How can you help the message travel? Help the message spread faster and farther. Tell-a-friend form, viral email, blogs, handouts, samples, message boards, online communities.
Taking Part: When should you join the conversation? Join the conversation. Let staff surf and reply to comments, post on blogs, join discussions, answer email, offer personal service.
Tracking: What are people saying about you? Measure and undertand what people are saying. Search blogs, read message boards, listen to feedback, use advanced measurement tools.

Big Ideas
Customers are in control
We are reviewing like crazy
People like me.
What we say goes everywhere
Traditional media and word of mouth are forever intertwined.
You are the user experience.
Success comes not from what you advertise, but from what you deliver.
Word of mouth makes all marketing more honest.

The Word of Marketing Manifesto
Happy customers are your best advertising. Make people happy.
Marketing is easy. Earn the respect and recommendation of your customers. They will do your marketing for you, for free.
Ethics and good service come first.
You are the user experience.
Negative word of mouth is an opportunity. Listen and learn.
People are already talking. Your only option is to join the conversation.
Be interesting, or be invisible.
If it’s not worth talking about, it’s not worth doing.
Make the story of your company a good one.
It’s more fun to work at a company that people want to talk about.
Use the power of word of mouth to make business treat people better.
Honest marketing makes more money.

Talkers: Who Will Tell Their Friends About You?
You job is to find the right people who like to talk about you.
* Happy customers
* Online talkers
* Logo lovers
* Eager employees
* Listeners
* Fan and hobbyists
* Professionals

Great talkers have passion, credibility, and connections.
Build a talking profile: Who are they? What are their characteristics? What are they already talking about? Whom are they talking to? How do you contact them?
Talkers want to see: detailed date, progress reports, and company news.
To motivate talkers: always say yes to a volunteer, make them feel important, make it fun, and throw good parties.
Thank them personally and publicly. Make recognition part of the program.
Create a talker program: fan clubs, ambassador programs, and customers advisory boards.

Topics: What Will They Talk About?
Your job is to give people something to talk about.
Good topics are organic, based on the exceptional qualities that make your stuff stand out. Word of mouth marketing is as much about product features as it is about marketing.
Good topics are portable, easy to move along.
Amazing topics are unexpected. Whatever gets your customers excited is a great topic.
Find a topic you can use today: special sale, extraordinary, viral campaigns, free information, or wacky stunts.
Become buzzworthy company. Extraordinary products create sustainable, long-term, company-change word of mouth. Be unique, do things that are, by their nature, an interesting of conversation.

Tools: How Can You Help the Message Travel?
Your job is to make it easier for the message to spread.
Three must-use word of mouth marketing tools:
* Ask people to spread the word.
* Put everything in an email.
* Put a tell-a-friend link on every page of your website.
Make your pages super-viral.
Build word of mouth into your product.
Look for network effects.
Give your customers stuff to share.
Create blogs and message boards.
Make it exclusive, keep it secret, give sneak previews.
Let your talkers build the product.
Promote positive testimonials.
Capture passive word of mouth.

Taking Part: How Can You Join the Conversation?
Your job is to participate in the conversation.
Word of mouth is as much about customer service as it is about marketing.
Thank people who say nice things about you.
Fix problems and make people happy.
Keep good manners: never sell, follow the rules, say who you are.
Fixing problems is the most powerful marketing you can do.
To manage negative word of mouth:
* Know what you are saying.
* Build credibility before you need it.
* Show that you are listening.
* Enable your hidden supporters.
* Convert critics when you can.
* Don’t try to win.

Tracking: What Are People Saying About You?
Your job is to listen to the word of mouth and learn from it.

Things to do
Look on the web for people talking about you.
Decide who will join those conversation. Start today.
Create a blog.
Make a new rule: Ask “Is this buzzworthy?” in every meeting.
Come up with on buzzworthy topic. Keep it simple.
Put something by your front door that will remind people to talk to a friend.
Let your talkers sign up for a private newsletter.
Pick on easy way to track word of mouth.
Put a tell-a-friend form on every page of your website.
Put a special offer in an easily forwardable email.
Add a small gift and a word of mouth tool to every package you sell.
Have a private sale for your talkers.
Apologize for mistake and solve problems first.
Partner with a charity.
Do something unexpected.
Be nice.