The following post includes takeaways from the WOM: Learn It, Do It Series.

Everyone is a fan of something. There are fans of your products and services, and of the experience you are providing. With word of mouth marketing, we can give people a reason to talk, and make it easier for the conversation to take place. Consumers already have a natural desire to share their experience with both marketers and other consumers.

Word of mouth marketing is growing conversations organically and amplifying other conversations. The goal is not to manipulate or control, but to listen, understand, and engage both fans and detractors. You can take advantage of the polarity between your fans and your detractors because each has different desires and ideas on how you might improve. If you help consumers tell a story or create an experience for them, they are capable of spreading your idea virally to their friends, family, and colleagues.

By making your marketing interesting, relevant, and authentic, you can invite people to sample your products, sample the experience, and create influencers out of regular people. Alternatively, influencers in your target demographic are already looking to be engaged and might already be your consumers. By finding people in your target demographic, you can discover what got them interested and how they feel about you and the experience you have provided.

When it comes to moving forward with your word of mouth campaign, it isn’t necessarily the case that measurement is difficult, simply that it may not be instantaneous and immediately add to bottom line sales. Through reach and reaction, insights, volume and sentiment of conversations, co-innovation with consumers, and yes, even sales, there is a wealth of both qualitative and quantitative data that is available and can be gathered.

For more on word of mouth marketing, I recommend Nan’s post on Authentic Engagement in a Web 2.0 World.

Filed under: Non-Profits, Reputation Management, Social Marketing on Wednesday, July 25th, 2007 by Jacob Wolfsheimer |
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