Word of Mouth Marketing
"Organic word of mouth is created by products that get your
customers to love you so much that they just can't shut up."
I rarely fall over myself getting the word out when I read
a new book. Moreover, marketing, as I've been understanding
it, has seemed to require some degree of deception.
Now, here is a book about marketing, about remarkable
honesty and value and real service, and I love it so much
that I just can't shut up.
Willmaster.com's business was built almost entirely on word
of mouth. Half a million page views each and every month
isn't exceptional, until one realizes word of mouth is
responsible.
Yes, search engines help. Still, our positions in the SERPS
are not what they might be if we wrote for the spiders. Our
priority has always been to write for people.
Only rarely have we actually advertised in ezines or web
sites other than our own.
Word of mouth has allowed Mari and me to live our preferred
lifestyle, full time in a motorhome, for the last full 4
years. See http://lightfocus.com/ for more about our travels.
You see now why I took to this book like I did. It validates
our business philosophy of excellent products and remarkable
service and deception-free product description pages. For
real. Actually living it.
But that's not why I'm going on and on about this.
The reason you can't shut me up is because of the many new
ideas it has provided.
I learned the motivations that drive word of mouth
conversations. And I'm comfortable with the stated rules
of word of mouth marketing — me, who has always seen
marketing with a prejudiced eye.
Word of mouth is what people say after you do what you do.
Word of mouth is the least expensive, free in many cases,
and the most effective marketing there is — when you know
how to do it.
Check these quotes from the book:
"You will get more word of mouth from making people happy
than anything else you could possibly do."
"Marketing is what you do, not what you say."
"When you are thinking about marketing a new product, what
you should really be thinking about is what people will say
after they use it — its functionality, its quality, and
how you treated them."
Word of mouth marketing, as presented in this book, can be
used by the small, one-person startup business and by large
corporations. It's a leveler of the playing field.
The book reveals things I had never considered.
For example, offering to pay people who are loudly and
enthusiastically extolling your products may in fact make
them feel cheapened. I remember several times when I
blundered in that way without realizing the effect my
actions may have.
I bet you would like to know what this great book is that
I have been going on and on about!
It is "Word of Mouth Marketing; How Smart Companies Get
People Talking" by Andy Sernovitz. (It has two ISBNs,
ISBN-13: 978-1-4195-9333-8 and ISBN-10: 1-4195-9333-1)
So far, I been going on about just the first half of this
book.
The last half of the book talks about how to proactively
initiate word of mouth marketing that can result in more
business than traditional advertising could ever accomplish
by itself. Some of the methods are real forehead slappers.
It also addresses how to measure word of mouth and how
to manage negative word of mouth.
I realize this article is shorter than my usual.
I did want to tell you about this book. And now I want to
get back to it. I've picked out some points I especially
want to employ for our web sites.
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Will Bontrager
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