How-To: Harnessing Influentials
5 Tips from Keller Fay Group's Ed Keller
"Word of mouth is not just about blogs or other technology channels," suggests Ed Keller, CEO of The Keller Fay Group and co-author of The Influentials. "Research suggests that at least 80 percent, and maybe more, of WOM occurs face-to-face or voice-to-voice."
Here are Ed's tips on harnessing influentials to create effective word of mouth.
Tip #1. Have something worth talking about
Word of mouth marketing works only if a product is new, high-performing, unique, fun, exciting, surprising, delighting to customers, or otherwise worth talking about. It's only these remarkable elements about your product or service -- as seen from the point of view of the consumer, not just you or your management -- that work effectively with WOM.
Tip #2. Say it to the right people
Word of mouth is most effective when spread through customers who are engaged with your product or category, have large social networks, enjoy positions of trust and confidence among people in their networks, and enjoy expressing their opinions. By targeting the right people, you increase the effectiveness and efficiency of your campaign.
Tip #3. Test your WOM
Just as marketers have honed techniques over the years to test advertising and improve ad effectiveness, WOM campaigns can be tested as well. Does the story appeal to influencers? Do they believe it's worth repeating? Does it come in portable "talk bytes" that are easily remembered and communicated to others?
Tip #4. Choose the right channel strategy
Consider all forms of potential communications channels -- PR, advertising, new and traditional media, direct marketing, customer relations management, product sampling, word of mouth agents -- as triggers of effective word of mouth. Choosing the right channel strategy is dependent on targeting the right people with a message designed to motivate conversations.
Tip #5. Measurement will improve your effectiveness
As with any marketing campaign, measurement is essential to planning effectively and maximizing results (not to mention justifying budgets). It's also important for providing the feedback you need to fine tune your results. Make sure you have a measurement system in place that will permit mid-course corrections in your targeting, messaging, and channel choice.
More about Ed:
Read Ed's WOMBAT presentation (PDF download)
Comments
Dear all,
As to measurement of the efficency of any campaign (or any new idea or product), I'd like to inform you that some formal method exist and these are quite simple.
You can use what is known as "memetics". A meme (pronounce "meem")is a unit of meaning that has the property of self replicating itself (e.g. fashion, religions...).
A meme has a life cycle in 4 steps : Assimilation, Retention, Expression and Transmission.
A meme "m" also has a fitness :
F = A(m)xR(m)xE(m)xT(m) that should be greater than 1 to survive and spread.
Each life stage has its own fitness criterias that can be classified as either objective, subjective, inter-subjective or meme centered.
I can't say it all here. If you are interested you can either learn more from the Principia Cybernetica project on the Web (or directly the work of Pr. Dawkins) or e-mail me to know about practical use
Posted by Bruno Francois Roques on 02/ 1/06