The Final Word on Word of Mouth Marketing

A while back, I was blogging about word of mouth marketing, and I mentioned Andy Sernovitz.  Andy is CEO of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association.  He was kind enough to send me a copy of his book Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking. 

Word of mouth marketing is an important part of building strong customer relationships.  And, as I point out in my book 4 Secrets of High Performing Organizations, strong customer relationships are critically important to the success of any business.

Back to Mr. Sernovitz’ book.  I love this book.  It is filled with incredibly useful information.  For example, before you even finish chapter one, you’ll find The Four Rules of Word of Mouth Marketing: 

1. Be Interesting
2. Make People Happy
3. Earn Trust and Respect
4. Make It Easy

Mr. Sernovitz does a great job of explaining each of these four rules – and illustrating them with personal examples. 

You’ll also find the Three Reasons People Talk About You in chapter one

1. They like you and your stuff
2. Talking makes them feel good
3. They feel connected to the group

As he discusses, each of these three reasons, Mr. Sernovitz does a great job of explaining, in layman’s terms, the psychological ideas behind them.

This is great stuff, but Mr. Sernovitz isn’t finished yet.  In the middle of chapter one he discusses The Five T’s of Word of Mouth Marketing:

1. Talkers – Find people who will talk about you
2. Topics – Give people a reason to talk
3. Tools – Help the message spread faster and farther
4. Taking part – Join the conversation
5. Tracking – Measure and understand what people are saying.

Toward the end of chapter one, Mr. Sernovitz provides some great advice on the importance of honesty in word of mouth marketing.

1. Word of mouth isn’t stealth.  It’s open, honest communication with customers and the community.
2. Fake word of mouth doesn’t work.  You will get busted.  When you get busted, the backlash will destroy your reputation.
3. Oppose all deception.  Protect the trust in genuine word of mouth – for yourself as a marketer and for your family as consumers.
4. Follow the Honesty ROI.

The rest of the book expands on these concepts and will help you learn how to put word of mouth marketing to work for your business. 

I particularly like The Word of Mouth Marketing Manifesto – a great summary of what this is all about.

1. Happy customers are your best advertising.  Make people happy.
2. Marketing is easy.  Earn the respect and recommendation of your customers.  They will do your marketing for you for free.
3. Ethics and good service come first.
4. UR the UE: You are the user experience (not what your ads say you are).
5. Negative word of mouth is an opportunity.  Listen and learn.
6. People are already talking.  Your only option is to join the conversation.
7. Be interesting or be invisible.
8. If it’s not worth talking about, it’s not worth doing.
9. Make the story of your company a good one.
10. It is more fun to work at a company that people want to talk about.
11. Use the power of word of mouth to make business treat people better.
12. Honest marketing makes more money.

Word of Mouth Marketing is an important, easy to read and use book.  I urge anybody who runs a business to pick it up, study it and use the ideas in it.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for reading.  Log on to my website www.BudBilanich.com for more common sense.  Check out my other blog: www.CareerSuperStar.com for common sense advice on becoming a success in your life and career.

I’ll see you around the web, and at Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

Bud

PS: Speaking of Alex’s Lemonade Stand – my fundraising page is still open.  Please go to www.FirstGiving.com/TheCommonSenseGuy to read Alex’s inspiring story and to donate if you can.