Marketing 520 Tool Kit

Word of Mouth
Marketing
The Old is New Again
Word of Mouth has been around since the beginning of time. But it is gaining new impetus with the
significant rise of the Internet and the new communications tools it provides consumers. With the
grow of blogs, online message boards, and customer reviews their has been a rebirth of consumer to
consumer - C to C - marketing.

Contents

Studies have shown that real consumerspeople like me - are powerful promoters. Learning how
to harness this consumer power can significantly improve your marketing ROI

What People Talk About

Note that the customer is in control, but the marketer can encourage and facilitate the communications. You cant hide bad service and products. The truth usually comes out. Companies can work
hard to make customers happy, encourage them to pass on their experience, and provide tools and
forums to aide getting the message passed along the grapevine.

The Basic Elements

Word of mouth marketing is based on the concepts of customer satisfaction, two-way dialogue, and
open communications.

Word of Mouth Marketing

The 5 Ts of WOM Marketing

Resources
References

Special points of interest

Word of Mouth has been
around a long time.

Educating prospects and customers about your product and/or service.

The Customer is in control.

Identifying and communicating with the people most likely to share t heir opinions.

People Talk About:

Listening and responding to supporters and detractors.

YOU: Products &

Service.

Providing tools and forums to facilitate the flow of word of mouth.

THEMSELVES.

Studying the flow of communications and its effects.

US: The Connections

they have.

Word of mouth marketing had evolved and worn many labelsbuzz marketing, viral marketing,,
evangelist marketing, etc. But the basic elements tend to apply across the board to each of these
different flavors of word of mouth marketing.

A Practical Guide to the Basics

Word of Mouth Marketing, by Andy Sernovitz.
A fun, practical, hands-on guide to word of
mouth (WOM) marketing. This book contains
a straightforward review of the basics by the
CEO of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. A quick readabout 4 hours. Stuffed
with examples, ideas and practical advice.
Andy likes lists. He lists the 3 Reasons People
Talk, the 4 Rules of Word of Mouth Marketing, the 5 Ts of Word of Mouth Marketing,
the 6 Big Ideas: Deep Stuff That Changes
Marketing Forever and the WOM Manifesto (it has 12 items-I wonder why it got so
long).
From the Four Rules of Word of Mouth

Rule #1: Be Interesting. People seldom talk

about boring products and services..
Rule #2: Make People Happy. Extraordinary
service excites and energizes people and
generates buzz.
Rule #3:Earn Trust & Respect. Nobody likes
someone or a company they dont trust.
Rule # 4: Make It Easy. Feed your customers
with simple, fun and memories.
Andy has also put up a web site
(www.wordofmouthbook.com) that also has
good templates and other free stuff you can
use to put together a WOM marketing plan
for your product, service or organization.

Buzz starts with a superior user experience Emanuel Rosen, The Anatomy of
Buzz

What People Talk About

People love to talk. The sharing of information is basic to survival. On the job,
at home, and in society communication is a basic skill for getting things done.
We also talk to connect. We have a basic need to relate to the people in our
lives. We use conversation to make sense of the worldto analyze what is
happening around us. We communicate to get advice and reduce risk. And,
we talk to relieve stress.
Word of mouth marketing seeks to take advantage of this basic human characteristicpeople love to talk and share opinions to promote and sale products and services. In this context, people talk because 1. They love or hate
your product/service, 2. It makes them feel good (smart, knowledgeable, important), 3. It makes them feel connected (insider, part of the family).
Research has also shown that messages that get talked about, remembered
and passed along more often have six characteristics. They are

simple,

unexpected,

concrete,

credible,

emotional,

stories.

Template available at www.wordofmouthbook.com.

The 5 Ts of WOM Marketing

Additional Resources
Www.womma.org Official site of the
Word of Mouth Marketing Association. Detailed information on the

This story can fit 150-200 words.

topic and the people and firms ac-

One benefit of using your newsletter as a promotional tool is that you can reuse content from
other marketing materials, such as press releases, market studies, and reports.

tively engaged in WOM marketing.

While your main goal of distributing a newsletter might be to sell your product or service, the key
to a successful newsletter is making it useful to your readers.

Www.wordofouthbook.com
Www.CafePress.com An online
resource for getting stuff with you

A great way to add useful content to your newsletter is to develop and write your own articles,
or include a calendar of upcoming events or a special offer that promotes a new product.
You can also research articles or find filler articles by accessing the World Wide Web. You can
write about a variety of topics but try to keep your articles short.
Much of the content you put in your newsletter can also be used for your Web site. Microsoft
Publisher offers a simple way to convert your newsletter to a Web publication. So, when youre
finished writing your newsletter, convert it to a Web site and post it.

logo on it.
Www.CreatingCustomerEvangelists.c
om The book and the website are a
great source for case studies of firms
and organizations who put C to C
marketing to work in their business.

Marketing Tool Kit

The effectiveness of your marketing
effort can be improved by the use of

References
Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force, Ben
McConnell and Jackie Huba (Chicago, Ill: Kaplan Publishing, 2003)

proven best practices. The

Marketing Tool Kit contains information about ideas, models, and
techniques I have found useful in my
practice of marketing over the past
25 years.
For more information on how to
apply these tools to your application
contact;
Joe Dodson
UW School of Business
Joe_dodson@hotmail.com

Notes:

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, Chip Heath and Dan Heath, (New York:
Random House: 2007)
Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking, Andy Sernovitz, (Chicago,
Ill: Kaplan Publishing, 2006)
The Anatomy of Buzz: How to Create Word of Mouth Marketing, Emanuel Rosen, (New York:
Random House: 2000)
The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing: How to Trigger Exponential Sales Through Runaway
Word of Mouth, George Silverman, (New York: AMACOM, 2000)
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Malcolm Gladwell, (Boston, MA:
Little Brown and Company, 2000)