Word of Mouth Basic Training -- Word of Mouth Marketing Association -- WOMMA

Posted on 10/11/06 | 0 Comments | Link

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How-To: Successfully Use WOM in BtoB Marketing

5 Tips from Beck Ag's John Finegan

Not all your customers are everyday consumers. Many, in fact, are your fellow businesses. Like consumers, they buy stuff -- and they buy a lot of it, too. Unlike consumers, however, they aren't easily sold, says John Finegan, CEO of agricultural WOM agency Beck Ag Com.

To successfully motivate business buyers, consider John's five tips for using word of mouth in the BtoB marketplace:

Tip #1. Practice integrity
Successful word of mouth marketers aren't perceived by businesses as marketers at all, according to John. They avoid making hard sells and are able to appear objective about their product. "Part of the reason word of mouth marketing has been so successful through the centuries is that it occurs between trusted sources and not because a marketer or agency is driving it as a 'new medium,'" John says.

Tip #2. Establish credibility
Credibility is key in marketing to business, according to John. That means making sure your advocates are believable and perceived as being genuine and real. "Situations where advocates are paid in cash or product generally do not work, especially in the BtoB world," John says. "If our audience feels the advocate has a vested interest in the product or service, there is low credibility. People see right through you if you're not credible."

Tip #3. Be professional
Quality and professionalism are of the utmost importance in BtoB marketing. "It's critical to offer our audience well-designed and implemented programs with fully trained and knowledgeable moderators," John says. "We cannot waste our audience's time." He adds that organization and functionality go a long way in proving reliability to business customers.

Tip #4. Add value
John encourages word of mouth marketers to remember the following acronym: WIIFM -- What's In It For Me? That's a question most business people ask, he says, especially when considering an investment of time or money. "We must bring value to our audience or the first program will be the last program," he says, adding that Beck Ag Com's mission statement includes a line about helping customers improve their business results. "If we continue to keep that goal in mind, we'll always bring value to our customers."

Tip #5. Raise the bar
Complacency is a disease, John suggests. To cure it, he recommends always striving to grow and get better at what you do. Don't settle for the types of campaigns you know will work -- be willing to get creative and to try new things as you learn more about your profession and your audience. "By always raising the bar of quality in everything we do," he says, "we increase the value that our audience gets from our programs and ultimately raise the ROI for our clients."

More about John:

Posted on 10/11/06 | 0 Comments | Link

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How-To: Synthesizing Oral Communication

5 Tips from BIGresearch's Joe Pilotta

"Word of mouth marketing is the type of marketing that most people already knew was important, but they never had a very systematic way of looking at what it means and how it works," says Joe Pilotta, VP of Research for BIGresearch.

In order to make WOM practices work together, you must have a way of synthesizing efforts. Here are Joe's five tips to make it happen:

Tip #1. Don't put WOM in isolation
Word of mouth campaigns can't be isolated from other marketing campaigns. That only puts them into a silo -- exactly what marketers should shy away from.

Tip #2. Learn where WOM works best
Word of mouth can be done in a variety of ways, but not every form of communication works as well as others. The best WOM occurs when it is similar to the way people truly speak. Face-to-face communication is obviously important, and cell phones with IM can be used successfully. Even text messaging, because of its use of a sort of encrypted language, can also be a successful WOM medium.

Tip #3. Consider the category of product
Marketing should be tailored to the type of media style for the category in which you are involved. Not all categories work well for WOM. For example, word of mouth is very useful in the electronics category, but not as useful in the area of purchasing groceries.

Tip #4. Be aware of where WOM is coming from
Companies too often look at WOM as originating from consumers' mouths. But very seldom do people "fall out of the sky" with great opinions. Generally, those opinions are taken from some form of media, whether it's from print or broadcast media or from the company itself.

Consequently, look not only at what your influencers are saying, but at what other media they are consuming that is helping shape their word of mouth.

Tip #5. Analyze and look for the real meaning
What is actually said in WOM is not always what is meant. Ask yourself: "Is it jest? Is it tongue-in-cheek? Is it serious?" Often, the people analyzing word of mouth look strictly at the transcript of what is said. Instead, look at the meaning behind the words, as well as the words themselves.

More about Joe:

Posted on 07/25/06 | 5 Comments | Link

Read 2005 Measuring Word of Mouth presentation (PDF download)

How-To: Joining the Conversation

5 Tips from Informative's Greg Clemenson

"A brand is defined not by what we tell the customer but by what customers tell each other," says Greg Clemenson, CTO of Informative. "But that doesn't mean brands are helplessly adrift, unable to control or even influence the currents of consumer empowerment."

Here, Greg shares his tips on joining and staying involved in the consumer conversation.

Tip #1. Have a valid place in the conversation
Consumers talk about brands every day. While it may not be the first place they look, eventually consumers visit a brand or manufacturer's web site to find information about a product. Be sure to offer information that answers questions.

Tip #2. Use your voice and have an opinion
Think about "voice." How does your voice tie in with your conventional advertising? What are you doing and saying on the website? Are you reflecting your brand's personality across your entire communications strategy? Listen to what people are saying about you, and have an opinion.

Tip #3. Be relevant
Understand what's important to consumers as they talk about your product. Then be relevant when responding to their needs.

For example, one of Informative's customers, Royal Mail, is rolling out an electronically available stamp aimed at small businesses. Initially, they thought that businesses would choose it as a faster, more convenient way of getting postage. But the most important aspect of the product to real people turned out to be the fact that it made them look professional. That changed Royal Mail's whole marketing message.

Tip #4. Be responsible
You can have all kinds of modes of communication with people, but they'll only appreciate it if you're up front about who you are. Be responsible about your identity.

Tip #5. Remember that it's a social phenomenon
Companies that feel they have to isolate participants in market research to keep them from talking with each other ("unaided awareness") are forgetting that WOM is a social phenomenon. Always keep in mind that when people make a decision about something, it very seldom happens in isolation.

More about Greg:

Posted on 07/25/06 | 1 Comments | Link

How-To: Putting Secret Insights into Practice

5 Tips and a Story from The Buzz Factor's Mark Hughes

Mark Hughes, host of the nationally syndicated talk radio show "The Buzz Factor" and CEO of Buzzmarketing (and author of a book by the same name), has a "secret" insight into how WOM spreads. "People want great stories to tell," he says, "And you can provide them those stories if you imagine the conversation." Here are Mark's five tips on creating a great story.

Tip #1. Don't just think about consumers
The store managers in the above story have an obvious impact on the employees. When the employees hear the fun story the manager shares, they, too will be motivated to spread the word.

Tip #2. Create a story
The more of a tale the manager has to tell, the more likely he is to tell it to others.

Tip #3. Be hilarious, taboo, unusual, outrageous
All of these attributes help fuel word of mouth.

Tip #4. Remember, they want to be the center of interest
Anyone sharing a story shares it for a reason: generally, it's to be the center of interest for a few moments. Any detail in your story that will help them maintain that focus is a good thing.

Tip #5. "Imagine the conversation"
If you can imagine a conversation taking place with your brand as the framework, you can create successful word of mouth.

A Story
Of course, Mark had a story to tell about where he put these tips into action.

"In the course of a couple days with a client, I discovered there was a national manager's meeting for the largest hardware store retailer in the U.S.. Now this retailer has our client's product in every single one of its stores.

"Every year, this retail chain has a national managers meeting, and 100 closely invited vendors are allowed special access to the store managers. A trade show of known, trusted vendors, where interaction takes place with the single-most important person with the ability to move product in that hardware store.

"But my client was planning to treat it like any other trade show."

Mark asked if he could coordinate a campaign where one of the buzz marketing components revolved around the national store managers meeting. The client said, "Sure. Would it have impact?"

Mark taught his client to "imagine a conversation": The store manager returns from the national managers' meeting. Employees ask him about it. He talks about the corporate line (point of purchase, merchandising), then searches for something with more water cooler cache, and says, "And then there was this..."

That's where the client comes in, says Mark. "If youâ€™ve created a ready-made, spoon-fed buzz story so remarkable, so hilarious ... this conversation [between the store manager and his employees] could be your story, which weaves your brand along with it."

More about Mark:

Posted on 07/25/06 | 1 Comments | Link

Buzz Factor web site

Read 2005 WOM vs. Ads presentation (PDF download)

How-To: Creating Advocate Communities

5 Tips from Brains on Fire's Geno Church

Certain initiatives just don't lend themselves to being ad campaigns, says Geno Church, Word of Mouth Inspirational Officer for Brains on Fire. For example, when the company launched an anti-smoking campaign in South Carolina, an ad campaign just wouldn't cut it. It needed to be movement, and it had to be run by the youth, he says.

Here, Geno shares his five tips on creating advocate communities:

Tip #1. Look for the obsessed and passionate
The campaign would be "driven" by kids, so Geno wanted to find teenagers that were passionate about something; they did not necessarily have to be "influencers." He traveled through communities looking for teens who were actively involved: raising awareness about teen pregnancy, cleaning up neighborhoods, etc.

Tip #2. Train thoroughly
After locating his advocates, he gathered them for a two-and-a-half day training summit on spreading the word about Rage Against the Haze (the name of the anti-smoking campaign).

Tip #3. Give them ownership
The teens were invited to name the group of advocates for the movement. Because they learned that not only emails and jokes can be viral, but that people can be viral, too, they called themselves the Viral-mentalists. The original group of 92 Viral-mentalists grew to over 1600, and when the state took away funding, enough buzz had been generated that private groups came forward to fund it.

Tip #4. Not every program is alike
Now working on a campaign for Fiskars (the orange scissors people), Geno is looking for advocates of scrapbooking to build a blogging community. While the end-result will be different, similar tactics are being used: he is traveling about, looking for passionate people who create scrapbooks. In this case, however, they will be paid advocates.

Tip #5. Don't over-control it, and don't hide affiliations
The bloggers who are ultimately chosen will be encouraged to blog about whatever makes the most sense to them. They don't have to stick to scrapbooking and scissors as topics.

That's because the scrapbooking world's bloggers tend to focus only about 30 percent of what they write on scrapbooking. The rest is just life.

"We're telling these ladies that we want this to be an authentic connection," says Geno. "They're not sales reps." However, they will be clear that they are paid employees of the Fiskars company.

More about Geno:

Posted on 07/25/06 | 0 Comments | Link

Read Geno's 2005 WOMMA Summit 1 presentation (PDF download)

How-To: Confronting Your Fear of Corporate Blogging

5 Tips from Author and Blogger Debbie Weil

It's understandable that you may be nervous about creating a blog, says Debbie Weil, blogging consultant and author of "The Corporate Blogging Book." In fact, she says, "You should be nervous about it. You're creating a series of public and searchable web pages, a digital trail. You want to be found, but you also want to put yourself in a good light."

Having recently moderated the panel on blogging at WOMMA's WOMBAT 2 conference, Debbie offered her five tips on confronting your fear -- and launching a blog in spite of it:

Tip #1. Think about blogging strategically
Ask yourself these questions: Why does it really make sense for you to add a blog to your marketing communications strategy? What is it that you really want to say? What are your customers really interested in?

Tip #2. Consider starting an event-specific blog
If taking on a project with no end to it feels overwhelming, begin a blog surrounding a certain event. You may find that there's a long-term tie-in, and you can continue the blog. Or, you may find that you've had enough, but now you have some experience under your belt and may not feel as apprehensive.

Tip #3. Get familiar with the convention of blogging
Give it a try. If you don't tell anyone, the blog will stay private and you can practice for as long as you like until you feel comfortable. Show colleagues and ask for their input before making it public.

Tip #4. Don't worry about running out of things to say
It doesn't matter what your widgets are, because you're not going to blog about your widgets. You're going to blog about things related to your widgets.

For example, a blog from an all-natural yogurt company wouldn't be very interesting if it focused solely on yogurt. A blog about organic farming would have a much wider appeal.

Tip #5. Just do it
You've got some experience. The blog is up and running (if only for your own purposes). You've figured out what you're willing to say, and what your customers are interested in that is related to your products and services.

Now, simply keep it up.

More about Debbie:

Posted on 07/25/06 | 0 Comments | Link

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Note: If you pre-order Debbie's book from Amazon, email her your receipt to receive a bonus chapter.

How-To: Achieving Clique-Through With Small Groups

5 Tips from Ammo Marketing's Gary Stein

Some messages work best when they are spread through to small, highly connected groups of people. Business-to-business products, deep-techie systems or high-end sports equipment are all examples of this. Because these "cliques" have defined themselves to you in a very specific way, "You need to understand and respect that definition," says Gary Stein, Director of Strategy for Ammo Marketing. He calls this WOM technique clique-through.

Here are Gary's five tips on achieving clique-through:

Tip #1. Tightly define your "clique"
There are critical differences between track runners and trail runners, M&A attorneys and tax attorneys. If your customer has classified him or herself in a specific way, respect that.

Tip #2. Don't fear your features
Every copywriter knows: focus on benefits, not features. However, some groups understand details, and can find their own way to the benefits. Bike racers read "monocoque carbon" and immediately know what that is and why it's cool. A clique that discovers benefits on its own is more likely to talk about it.

Tip #3. The influencer ratio is higher
Traditional thinking is that one in ten is an influencer. But cliques are gatherings of influencers.

Imagine a discussion group focused on high-end cell phones. Each person gathers information, forms opinions, then returns to their community and tells everyone what plan to use. This realization may have an effect on things like budgeting and measuring.

Tip #4. Support the community
Cliques tend to have grassroots; often you'll find that a community has been formed by a small group of model airplane enthusiasts or Civil War historians. As such, they tend to lack resources. You can go far simply by giving these groups meeting rooms or administrative support. Send pizzas to their meetings. Offer to manage their newsletter. Find a way to make it easier for them to simply be.

Tip #5. Clone the tactic
The good thing about the clique-through approach is that it's usually clone-able. That is, maybe you can identify a dozen cliques that are relevant to your product. Figure it out once, then use the same tactics on multiple groups. Suddenly, rather than one big campaign, you have several, all adding up to one mass, high-relevant marketing program.

More about Gary:

Posted on 07/25/06 | 1 Comments | Link

Read a summary of Gary's WOMBAT 2 presentation

How-To: Creating a Web Site that Encourages WOM

5 Tips from Zondervan's Jonathan Petersen

Zondervan's web site is "circular" in nature, with emails feeding traffic to the site, and the site, in turn, feeding email sign-ups. "The whole idea is to motivate people to talk about Zondervan," says Jonathan Petersen, Director of Internet Marketing for the publisher. "We're overtly encouraging people to tell each other about us."

Here are Jonathan's five tips for creating a site that encourages word of mouth:

Tip #1. Begin with consumer needs
A site won't work unless consumer needs are first met. Only then have you earned permission to ask if you can market to them. Zondervan made sure search and browse functionalities worked first so consumers could find what they were after.

Tip #2. Incorporate WOM into your mission
Zondervan's Internet marketing team established a new mission statement to "identify, understand, engage, and motivate the consumer." In other words, the WOM factor is built right into the core mission of the company.

Tip #3. Invite consumers into an experience
The Zondervan includes an "engagement column," which offers visitors ways to become more connected with the authors and the products. For example, the column offers a Bible verse of the day, an Author Tracker, and a Breakfast Club.

Tip #4. Include a value proposition
In order to get people to forward emails to friends, they must get something out of it, and must believe their friends will, too. Zondervan's verse of the day includes an interpretation of the verse through an image. The image, like the verse, changes daily.

Most people expect just the verse, and are "surprised and delighted" with the images. Since the images have been added, the forwards have spiked.

Zondervan also delights customers through feedback response: any time someone writes to the company with site feedback, they are sent a free book.

Tip #5. Create relationships
The Zondervan Breakfast Club is a daily email excerpt from a Zondervan book. The email also includes a few paragraphs penned by a woman who writes a personal note about her life each day. The same book is excerpted every day for a week.

By the end of the week, the reader has gotten to read more than a chapter of the book, and has formed a relationship with the email author.

"It's about those relationships," says Jonathan, "which makes people more likely to talk about it."

More about Jonathan:

Posted on 07/18/06 | 1 Comments | Link

How-To: Launching Blogs to Increase Sales

5 Tips from Ice.com's Pinny Gniwisch

Blogs can be a powerful tool for online companies to form relationships with customers. Pinny Gniwisch, founder and EVP of marketing for online jewelry retailer Ice.com, knew his customers sometimes had questions they couldn't get answered on the site, such as, "My daughter's going to prom. What should she wear with her dress?"

Pinny created a blog called JustAskLeslie.com that would answer customer questions and offer other jewelry advice. Now, with a total of four blogs related to Ice.com, he offers his five tips on making blogs work.

Tip #1. When enthusiasm wanes, hire it out
At first, Pinny's staff was excited about doing the blogs, but after awhile, interest waned. Rather than risk having fewer posts, and posts that were less than stellar, Pinny hired a freelancer to write and manage all of the blogs.

Tip #2. Useful content
The blogs are not sales tools for Ice.com, and they never offer overt sales pitches. Rather, they are fashion blogs that talk about jewelry. If a particular piece of jewelry is mentioned, it is hotlinked to the product page on Ice.com, but the company is not mentioned. However, Ice.com does have a link in a list of links on each blog.

Tip #3. Tagging
Blogs are a good way to get listed organically on search engines. Pinny makes sure that all pertinent words for each post are tagged, which helps the search engines pick up the individual postings and list them in organic results.

Tip #4. When appropriate, conduct PR
By announcing your blog to the appropriate press, it may be possible to generate coverage, which helps spread the word and drive traffic to the blog. Ice.com, because they were one of the first companies to use a blog as a marketing strategy, researched the people who wrote about technology for top publications and sent a short email announcing the blog.

They managed to get coverage in the New York Times, Business Week, and the Washington Post, among other places.

Tip #5. Post often
To keep interest high, Pinny makes sure his blogger posts at least two to three new entries per week, per blog.

Finally, says Pinny, seek out other blogs and ask for mutual links. "That's a win-win situation for everybody," he says.

More about Pinny:

Posted on 07/18/06 | 1 Comments | Link

How-To: Avoiding Being Irrelevant and Irritating

5 Tips from Informative's Ed Sarraille

"There is an amazingly simple and effective way to get customers' ideas and opinions. Ask them," says Ed Sarraille, CEO of Informative. "When you demonstrate that their opinions are heard, it builds affinity between them and your brand."

Here's Ed tips on how to use WOM to avoid becoming irrelevant and irritating.

Tip #1. Realize that customers want to talk to you
Customers want to tell you what they think. It works because it helps you understand them and they feel better about your brand just because you asked (and paid attention).

Tip #2. Get a tool to listen
There are so many conversations in so many places online; you may pull hundreds or thousands of conversations, and trying to read through them manually -- and distill them in a practical way -- is impossible, and you may not know the context in which these conversations occurred.

Find or create a tool that enables you to talk directly to customers. It should be able to target, segment and report back, so you can find actionable insights.

Tip #3. Involve customers in everything
You cannot market if you do not recognize the true position of your product in the minds of consumers. Instead, you end up becoming irrelevant, irritating, and ignorable. Involve your customers and invite them to share some truth.

Facing truth can be tough. Most corporations have taboo topics, sore spots and controversies. Corporations tend to put their heads in the sand, banishing these issues from corporate thought, speech and action. Nonetheless, these issues are very alive in the minds of the consumer, affecting the brand.

Tip #4. Respond to customers
It's not enough to just talk with customers. Take action and be sure to communicate back with your customers to tell them what you did. When consumers believe you listen to them and act on their desires, they notice.

Tip #5. Create a customer community
By now, you see customers as a long-term asset and they feel a part of your team. But customers, markets and companies change. Create a customer community to maintain a perpetual effort to engage customers, delight them, and act on their input.

"Creating a customer community for feedback is creating a long-term strategic asset," Ed says. "And you have an asset that you can go back to time and again to keep your finger on the pulse of the market and customer opinion."

More about Ed:

Posted on 07/11/06 | 2 Comments | Link

How-To: Winning at WOM Internally

5 Tips from Intuit's Kira Wampler

As a senior marketing manager for Intuit, Kira Wampler has a simple job description: focus on word of mouth. "I knew pretty quickly that it was important for me to build internal support," she says. "Even though we're cutting-edge, this whole area of amplified word of mouth is quite new to us."

Here, Kira shares her tips on how she garnered support for word of mouth from the inside out:

Tip #1. Identify mavens, connectors and sales people
Network like crazy. Invite to lunch anyone who has even remotely had anything to do with WOM.

Kira identified a crew she called Intuit WOMmers who ended up being a sort of internal support group for the company's WOM initiatives.

Tip #2. Give them a home
Initial meetings were one-to-one, but of course, WOM is about many-to-many conversations. If your goal is to rapidly expand and gain traction for WOM throughout the company, the word must spread.

Kira organized optional monthly sessions, a WOM wiki, and a WOM distribution list.

Tip #3. Offer relevant and desirable information
People need information in order to spread the word. After learning that the hottest internal WOM topics were measurement, internal support, and best practices, Kira pre-populated a wiki on those topics.

She also built a special "evangelist presentation" and asked WOMmers if they'd be interested in seeing the presentation first so they could provide feedback and feel engaged.

Tip #4. Evangelize like crazy
While Kira started with highly engaged groups, she also wanted to influence the larger Intuit population. She created another presentation that focused on key trends in society that are making WOM critical, plus a series of best practices examples which she customized depending on the audience.

Tip #5. Dive in and participate
Be willing and available to serve as a consultant or as part of the conversation between other teams and within other teams. She helps teams see "low-hanging fruit" that they can begin testing without investing large amounts of money and time.

More about Kira:

Women's Small Business Center

Posted on 07/11/06 | 1 Comments | Link

How-To: Building Microsites to Encourage Word of Mouth

5 Tips from The Well's Bill Hanekamp

A microsite is an online destination separate from an organization's main web site designed to deliver more focused, relevant content about a specific product or service, explains Bill Hanekamp, CEO of The Well. "Traditional advertising is perishable," Bill says. "The day it runs, it's done. Value decreases from that day on. A microsite's lowest value is the day it's launched. Every day after that it gains value."

Here are Bill's five tips for creating successful microsites to encourage word of mouth:

Tip #1. Pinpoint clear, measurable objectives
Objectives shouldn't be subjective but rather clear cut: "I want to generate a million eyeballs," "I want to have 50,000 engagements," or even, "I want to make people laugh."

Tip #2. Stay focused
With a print marketing vehicle such as a brochure, marketers know they have finite space. But web sites have the potential to be huge. Sites get too big when trying to be all things to all people. If you sell dozens of widgets, but the microsite is promoting just one of them, stick to that single widget on the site.

Tip #3. Optimize for search engines
You don't exist unless you exist on Google. With your corporate site, you have eight or nine keyword concepts that you're optimizing for. With a microsite, the focus is narrower. A bakery may sell all kinds of cakes and pastries, but the metatags for the microsite should simply be "chocolate cakes."

Tip #4. Write the right content
People don't like to read. They want to be entertained. Make sure content is timely and exclusive. Then, make sure a visitor can engage. Encourage them to raise their hand and become involved with the site, whether that means a community, a blog or another way of sharing information. This involvement facilitates WOM.

Tip #5. Constant improvement
Unlike a print ad, a microsite can and should get better over time. Track results and tweak it, so that you're constantly improving.

More about Bill:

Posted on 06/27/06 | 3 Comments | Link

How-To: Using Top-Level Influencers in WOM Campaigns

5 Tips from Euro RSCG's Ryan Berger

Allowing consumers to interact with and touch a brand in an unusual way is what Ryan Berger, Creative Director of Buzz Marketing for Euro RSCG, seeks when implementing a word of mouth campaign. Here, he shares five tips on how to do that:

Tip #1. Find the global influencers
Ryan has focused on building his own network of top-level influencers such as celebrities in a variety of different areas. "I go after the influencers of the influencers," he says. In other words, there are influential people in every peer group, but they themselves are influenced by the media, by celebrities, etc. "I try to spot influentials on a global level," he explains.

Tip #2. Use the three C's: celebrity, content or controversy
Buzz is most often successful when one of those three come into play. Buzz is often picked up through influencers or the media when celebrity is involved. Content such as a film, an article or a song can spark and hold the interest of these influencers, while controversy, of course, always gets people talking.

Tip #3. Don't let the event manage the brand
When brands get involved in sponsorships, it's important that the brand manage itself. In other words, don't allow an event to take over what happens to and with the brand. Maintain control of how, when and where the brand appears.

Say, for example, Jaguar agrees to sponsor an event. Then, when the event takes place, it is called: "Jaguar, Nike, Lean Cuisine and Absolut Vodka present the Red Hot Chili Peppers." That's letting your brand be managed.

Tip #4. Be authentic
A carpet installer doing an event with Puff Daddy just doesn't make sense. Buzz won't work if it doesn't feel right.

Tip #5. Trendspotting is key
If there's a new restaurant opening in Palm Springs, and you think it's going to become the hottest restaurant around, and you give a Jaguar to the top chef who becomes famous on a local level, and he parks the car in all the right spots, and everyone recognizes his car, that's good word of mouth.

More about Ryan:

Posted on 06/27/06 | 0 Comments | Link

Codeword: Infusion - Advertising Agencies and WOM:

Jamie Tedford of Arnold Worldwide, Ryan Berger of Euro RSCG, and of John Bell, of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide spoke about making WOMM work for advertising agencies and PR firms:

Per Jamie:

"Discovery and experience are the main two drivers of word of mouth."

Media planners have two choices: They can either broadcast a message on a variety of media (TV, radio, print, etc.), or they can enable interested consumers to discover and then spread the word. By infusing WOM strategies into marketing and advertising campaigns, you can have the best of both worlds: Traditional advertising and word of mouth working in concert with each other.

Per John -

"Public Relations is the business of generating conversations. Up until now, it has relied more on delivering its message via trusted third parties than through first-person word-of-mouth. The rise of peer-to-peer trust, the explosion of personal media and the growth of citizen influencers who have both a voice and an audience are starting to change that."

These changes are shifting the focus of the PR industry to conversations (online and offline), letting go of the illusion of control, premium of openness and transparency, engaging consumers in co-creation, identifying and empowering brand ambassadors inside client companies, and even to new measurement models (engagement, net promoter scores, and net metrics, for starters).

Quick Tip: Giving brand ambassadors a platform from which to tell the human story behind their passion and how it relates to the companies they work for (and represent) via blogs if they are great writers, or a simple microsite that hosts short, honest self-made videos are pretty effective examples of how PR can become more human and more in-tune with the spirit of WOMM.

And here are some buzz-related soundbites from Ryan:

"Buzz is harnessing the energy between consumer life and pop life."

"The power of an idea is now as much about how it is delivered as it is about the idea itself."

"PR is about activating media."

"Buzz is about activating people.Trendspotting is a big part of what I do."

posted by olivier blanchard

Thoughts on Offline WOM

Liz Bingham, VP/Director of Market Development for Jack Morton Worldwide, Trip Hunter, of the Renegade Marketing Group, and Dave Clark, of Talk Marketing spoke today about experiential marketing and offline WOM. Here are some of the highlights from their session:

Per Liz:

"How do you get your audience from brand or product awareness to consideration, to commitment to advocacy? The best place to start is with live experiences. Live marketing experiences are those in which audiences interact with a product, brand or brand ambassador face to face."

Creating experiences (especially unique and engaging ones) that consumers can enjoy in person tend to be more genuine, authentic and differentiated. Unlike many marketing messages conveyed through other media, they are not perceived as noise.

Quick Tip: In order to make sure that offline experiences between your organization and your customers are positive, you need to make sure that you are putting the right types of employees out there to represent your brand. A good place to start the selection process is via employee segmentation. (All in all, most companies can divide their employees into four groups: Residents, drivers, cynics, and critics.) Obviously, you want to focus on the drivers first: They are already living the desired behavior, are easy to get on board, and are most likely to positively influence others.

Per Trip -

"People with great experiences with products and brands love to share them with others."

To get people to talk about a product, it must live on the edges, not in the middle. The edges are extremes: Either extraordinary, or terrible. The middle (the world of average ) doesn't get anyone to talk about anything. The caveat is that living on the edges requires taking calculated risks. Sometimes, big ones. (So don't be afraid to be bold.)

Getting people to talk about your product is simple: Give them something incredible or remarkable to talk about. Donâ€™t be afraid to pair remarkable products with remarkable campaigns.

Per Dave -

Sampling is a great way to bring a product experience to people, especially when introduced to peer groups by group leaders (influencers). Group leaders enjoy being the first to know about relevant products and introduce them to their peer groups. Awareness programs are more memorable when samples are involved, and more effective when the source is trusted and respected.

posted by olivier blanchard

Bazaarvoice's Sam Decker on fueling WOM implementation

How do you get others excited about your WOM program? How do you get buy-in? How do you sustain momentum? Here are the three main steps, courtesy of Bazaarvoice's Sam Decker:

1) Understand your audience - and the fact that your colleagues may not know what WOM is, and the role it plays in your company's well-being:

Bridge that knowledge gap by:

a) providing simple example - competitive examples, analogies & personal experiences. b) showing how WOM programs impact THEIR objectives and careers.

Match the message to the audience. Don't sell an analytical person on creative, for example.

2) How to get buy-in:

How do you get CEO buy-in?

a) Present them with a real problem from the point of view of the customers. b) Show them the emotions of large numbers of people (and not just the bosses). c) Present them with information that triggers emotions. ("What? Wow!") d) Talk about the competition and what they are doing (and not doing).

Also, it's always smart to recruit influential people in your organization, work your core group of allies from the bottom up and the top down, align your program with their objectives, tell interesting or amazing stories in 61 seconds (they help galvanize your point), and get people excited about your campaign and what its results should be.

3) Sustaining momentum:

Woodpeck - Engage the organization's core repetitively. Be persistent. Don't stop. (Create a weekly dashboard and peer 1-on-1's. Participate in functional meetings. Hand out regular awards to partner teams. Communicate proactively.)

Peacock - Launch infrequent events that the organization can't miss. Make people stop and look, at every level. (Launch a major campaign. Present results 3 months post-launch. Launch an infrastructure that supports WOM. Perform A/B split test to show impact to executive objective.)

It takes time, but if you follow these pointers, implementing a WOM program and keeping it alive will be a whole lot easier than trying to do it all by yourself.

Tags: WOMMA, WOMBAT2, Sam Decker, Bazaarvoice,

posted by olivier blanchard

The Peacock and the Woodpecker: a WOM Strategy

Sam Decker of Bazaarvoice presented a plan for generating internal buy-in for word of mouth campaigns:

When you go back to the office, you're going to hear, "Snap out of it!" The boss might say, that's great, but Lisa needs a brief by 3:00, we've got this to do, that to do...

So how can you fuel the implementation plan you're going to write on the plane? How do you get senior management buy-in, buy-in from peers? There's a major gap between the plan and the implementation. And you can't do it alone. (And even if you can do it alone - don't.)

There are three steps:
-Understanding the audience
-Getting buy in
-Sustaining momentum

Here's how it works:

1. Understanding the audience: trying to get people to come behind you. Back in the office, people in day-to-day jobs lack the awareness, the understanding and the interest. Bridge the gap with simple explanations, competitive examples, analogies, etc. Show how program impacts their obectives and career. It's about their incentives.

Then, match the message to the audience.

2. Getting buy-in. They're working hard, they're overloaded, they can't get their feet under them, and all they can see is, I can't handle that next thing. So first, senior management buy-in.

What motivates upper management? A real problem from the point of view of customers. The emotions of large numbers of people. Information that hits the emotion (what? wow!). And, competition - can you find examples of competitive companies doing what you're trying to do?

Consider generating internal word of mouth about WOM by:
-choosing influentials in the organization
-telling interesting, amazing sound bytes in 1:1s
-telling interesting stories
-enforcing memorability and authority with visuals

3. Sustaining momentum. Pattern in websites is you see a spike, plateau, another spike. That's a lot like the pattern in sustaining WOM within a company. You get interest, bring everyone together, show big exciting things. That's the peacock method.

But then you need to continue keeping interest up. That's woodpecking. It may consist of weekly dashboards, weekly peer 1x1s, participating in functional meetings, regular awards to partner teams, or simply proactive, widely distributed communications.

You'll also want to continue peacocking by launching a major campaign, presenting super results every three months, performing A/B split tests to show impacts to executive objectives.

Posted by Jennifer Nastu, Fast Trike

posted by olivier blanchard

"But.... we'll lose control over the message!"

If surrendering your brand message to your customers scares you, don't worry. That's a perfectly normal reaction. (I would be worried if you weren't at least a little scared.) Marketing has been about command & control, top-down message crafting and delivery for as long as you've been earning a paycheck. Maybe even longer. You've just never really had a reason to question any of it until now.

The thing is... it's all been an illusion. Sure, you can tell people great stuff about the products you're selling. You can tell them how five blades will shave better than four, since four blades shave better than three, and three blades shave better than two, and so on. If the features aren't enough, you can bring a really cool looking guy into the mix and show him using the razor. You can make him look happy. Content. Perfectly satisfied with his perfect five-blade shave. You can make him look at his razor once his chin has been weaned of any semblance of hair in confident amazement, as if to say "dang, this thing really does work!" If you're clever, you can even bring in a really pretty girl into the frame so she can run the back of her hands against the guy's jaw and be even more impressed by how clean shaven he is. By how handsome he looks, what, with his five-blade-shave and all. That shave made him so desirable, she can't keep her hands off him.

Wow, aren't those five-bladed razors cool and sexy and indispensable? Can you believe how much you've been missing all this time, shaving with a mere four-bladed razor? How did you ever live without them? Tsss...

You can convince people that torque and horsepower is what they need in a pickup truck. You can convince people that your new rust-colored Tibetan goat wool sweaters are their wardrobe's final missing puzzle piece. You can convince people that they're hungry and that they need a triple-decker bacon cheeseburger right now. (Hey, it's only $1.99 too! What are they waiting for?!) You can talk and talk and talk, and you can sell and sell and sell, but you'd better get ready because that's all you'll be doing for the rest of your lives, and it's only going to get harder.

Your customers, they're being bombarded by hundreds of pitches a day. No, thousands. Billboards. Storefronts. Street signs. Radio and TV commercials. Print ads. Articles. News features. Product placement in their favorite shows and movies. Direct mail pieces. Their neighbors' T-shirts. Their neighbors' trash. The packaging in their own cupboards. Your customers, they can't go an hour without getting a faceful of brands. How do you expect to compete against everyone else? By creating better ads? By being in their faces more than the other guys?

By being the loudest advertiser in the room?

By spending more dollars on advertising and awareness campaigns?

Do you really think that consumers, people, with their busy schedules and their tolerance for the brand carpet-bombing they fall victim to every single day, do you really think they care about your message? About what you have to say?

Do you really think that the control you have over your precious "message" and its delivery has anything to do with how they truly perceive your brand? Your products? Your customer service?

Do you think any of them would like you more if they were gently massaged with your mission statement and then body-wrapped in your growth doctrine haiku?

Do you really think that you have even an iota of control over what they say about you, how they say it, and who they say it to?

Do you really believe you ever did?

Since the dawn of time, since people started communicating, they have been sharing their experiences with one another: These blue berries are good. These red berries taste like cow dung and will give you terrible bellyaches (among other things). Hey, if you let the deer meat sit over the fire until it turns brown, it tastes pretty good and it's easier to chew. The water's cool, but once you're in, it feels great. Don't stand out in the rain like that; you'll catch a cold.

Fast forward to 1239 BC. Fast forward to 501 AD. Fast forward to 2006 AD. We're still talking about our experiences. In fact, that's almost all we talk about. All day. Face to face. On the phone. On the internet. We talk about what we like. What we don't like. What our favorite TV show is, or our favorite band, or our favorite restaurant.

What the worst customer service we've ever experienced. The worst tasting cola. The worst hotel in Paris. The leakiest faucet. The mp3 with the shortest battery life.

Not only do we share these experiences, but when we find people who have similar stories to tell, we instantly form a bond with them. Meet more than one, and you have a community. What we now call social networks. And now we use these social networks to share our feelings, our experiences with each other. On our terms. Whenever and however we want.

We talk about music. Politics. Religion. Brands. What we love and what we hate. What we wish companies would do to make our experiences better.

Now... again, I ask this: Do you think that your message has any bearing over how we experience your products? Over what we talk about when your brand comes up?

Do you really think that you ever had any control over any of it?

If so, think again.

Accept that your customers are in control of your brand's reputation. Accept that the message is nothing compared to the conversation that is already taking place out here in the real world. There's nothing to be scared about. There's nothing to let go of. Nothing to risk losing. You have been holding on to an illusion.

The truth is that your customers have been talking about their experience, not your message, and there has never been a time in human history when this wasn't the case.

So let go. It's okay. What you need to focus on is right over here, and it's this: Your product. The delivery on your promise. The thing that your customers actually get in their hands and/or interact with. Focus on the experience that your customer is going to have whenever he or she interacts with any part of what you make available (whether it's your customer's interactions with a website, a human touchpoint, or even something as simple as your product's user guide). Focus on turning your customers into empowered and passionate users.

It isn't to say that the message isn't important. There's context to define. There's information to share, There's positioning to establish. These things are important. Let people know you're there. Tell them what you'll do for them. Do so with style and panache and class. Entertain. Engage. Seduce. Win over. But above all, deliver.

Listen to what your customers want, and then give it to them. If they complain, fix the problem. If they don't, find ways to make their experience even better than it already is. Ask them what else they want, and then deliver that too. Listen. Learn. Create. Deliver. Become part of their dialogue. Part of their culture. Part of their everyday lives.

Word-of-mouth can't be bought. It has to be earned. If you want to be WOM-worthy, you have to create experiences that are worth talking about. The best shave in the world. The yummiest ice cream. The coolest customer service reps on the planet. The most hassle-free wireless plan ever put into action. At long last, the one laptop that will always interface perfectly with any projector, anywhere in the world, the first time you plug them together. The most engaging consumer-generated-content campaign you've ever seen. Whatever. Something. Anything. Whatever defines you, your product and your brand. Whatever sets you clearly apart from the rest of the guys spending millions of dollars trying to get your customers' attention for just thirty seconds. Twenty. Ten. Maybe five. Whatever they can get.

You want to be authentic? You want to be transparent? You want to be part of the WOMM game? You want your customers to love you and give you the kind of publicity money can't buy? Don't outspend or out-yell. Instead, outshine.

Yeah. It really is that simple.

Tags: word of mouth, WOMMA, WOMBAT2,

Posted on 06/21/06 | 1 Comments | Link

Paul Rand - The Essential WOM Toolbox: Part 2

Part 2: Good vs. Evil.

Per Paul: "Organic WOM occurs naturally when people become advocates because they are happy with a product and have a natural desire to share their support and enthusiasm. Amplified WOM occurs when marketers launch campaigns designed to encourage or accelerate WOM in existing or new communities."

The first is easy. The second gets tricky because it involves tools which can be... well, abused:

The Toolbox

Buzz Marketing: Using high profile entertainment or news to get people to talk about your brand.
Viral marketing: Creating entertainment or informative messages to be passed along, usually by email.
Community Marketing: Forming or supporting niche communities that are likely to share interests about the brand.
Grassroots marketing: Organizing and motivating volunteers to engage in personal or local outreach.
Evangelist Marketing: Cultivating evangelists, advocates, or volunteers who are encouraged to spread the world.
Product Seeding: Placing the right product into the right hands at the right time, providing information and samples.
Influencer Marketing: Identifying and connecting with key communities and opinion leaders.
Cause Marketing: Supporting social causes to earn support from people who feel strongly about the causes.
Referral Programs: Creating tools that enable satisfied customers to refer their friends.
Brand Blogging: Creating blogs and participating in the blogosphere.

So... how does a company stay out of trouble? Here are some tips:

The essence of the WOMMA code, which seeks to drive word-of-mouth marketing best practices, comes down to honesty ROI:

1. Honesty of relationship: Say who you are speaking for.
2. Honesty of opinion: You say what you believe.
3. Honesty of Identity: You never, ever, ever obscure your identity.

If you make this your operational foundation, if you stop before making any marketing or business decision to answer these three simple questions, you will stay out of trouble. If you choose not to do the right thing, you will soon find yourself traveling one or more of thes dark paths of deception:

Infiltration: Using a fake identity in an online discussion to promote a product.
Shill marketing: Paying people to talk about (or promote) a product without disclosing that they are working for the company.
Stealth marketing: Deceiving people about the involvement of marketers in a communication.
Comment spam: Using automated software ("bots") to post unrelated or inappropriate comments to blogs or other online communities.
Defacement: Vandalizing or damaging property to promote a product.
Spam: Sending bulk or unsolicited email or other messages without clear, voluntary permission.
Falsification: Knowingly disseminating false or misleading information.

These deceptive practices are the most virulent challenges to the WOMM industry's growth, and only serve to turn off customers (both in the short term and the long term).

Look. You catch more flies with honey. Do the right thing. (It's easy, and the payoff is HUGE.) Even if your product isn't so great that it will sell itself, there are ways to engage your customers, turn them into evangelists, and turn an average product into an extraordinary experience. (And that's key.) There is more to a product than the product itself. There is the friendliness of your human touchpoints. There's packaging. Perks. There's the way that you go to market. The way that you interact with your customers. There's what your company stands for. There are hundreds of things that can make the experience supercede the product's features (or lack thereof) out in the marketplace.

Have fun with it. Be creative. Listen more than you speak. Invite your customers to the table and partner with them. And whatever you do, don't go down the path of deception. As marketers, all you have is your word. Don't throw it away needlessly. There's a better way.

Tags: WOMMA, WOMMA WOMBAT2, Marianne Richmond, Olivier Blanchard, Jennifer Nastu

posted by olivier blanchard

Posted on 06/20/06 | 0 Comments | Link

How-To: Implementing Successful Corporate Blogs

5 Tips from Electric Artists' Marc Schiller

"Blog value increases over time. If you don't have enough content in the well, there's no value there," says Marc Schiller, CEO and Founder of Electric Artists. That's why he recommends corporate blogs publish each weekday, with at least three new articles a day. Here, Marc shars five more tips on launching a successful corporate blog:

Tip #1. Don't force someone to blog
A person is either a blogger or is not. Do not try to force someone who isn't willing to throw themselves into it.

Tip #2. Don't focus on results
People are much more interested in the process of how something is being created than the attributes of the final results. The most successful corporate blogs are the ones that are actually documenting the process of creating a product or service, rather than those that focus on the product or service itself.

Tip #3. Get lawyers and publicists involved early
Lawyers need to create new terms and conditions for the new form of publishing called blogging. They can be great partners when brought in early; when they come in late, the project can be derailed. Same with publicists: they need to begin to understand a whole new language. Get them involved early so they can begin to learn it.

Tip #4. It's okay to enter a crowded field
In fact, it's good to be in a crowded field. Blogs work best when they're part of an existing ecosystem. The ecosystem helps build legitimacy and drive traffic to your blog. But you must be best in class in order for it to work. If there are 15 health and wellness blogs, you can't go into the space as the worst of the 15. But if your blog is one of the best, the other blogs will look to you (and link to you) when creating their own information and content.

Tip #5. Copywriters can't be bloggers
A blogger must be a journalist or a person with a journalist's sensibility -- someone who can look for the great, untold little stories within the company the blog is supported by. "The more you try for perfect positioning in blog posts, the more people will reject it as advertorial that has very little value," says Marc.

More about Marc:

Electric Artists