Key Takeaways from Word of Mouth Marketing

I just finished reading “Word of Mouth Marketing” by Andy Sernovitz (disclosure it was for an assignment for Joe Barnes Word of Mouth Marketing Class). As a relative newbie to the world of word of mouth marketing, I think Andy laid out a simple, very understandable groundwork for someone like me to follow. My biggest and top three takeaways were the simple framework he laid out around the 5 T’s; (1) Talkers, (2) Topics, (3) Tools, (4) Taking Part, and (5) Tracking.

Talkers could be anyone that you deal with. Jeremy Epstein, on his blog, describes these people as your raving fans—the ones who “will paint their face for you.” Andy makes a good point that these Talkers don’t always have to be your most dedicated fans, but sometimes your newest customers or previously dissatisfied but now happy customers can often be the instigators of some of the best word of mouth.

Topic. You absolutely need a stellar topic and I like how Andy puts it, “Be interesting—nobody talks about boring companies, boring products or boring advertising.” Diesel created a “Be Stupid at Work App” which disguises Facebook as an excel spreadsheet. Though this does not have much to do with the trendy clothing they sell, it does get people talking and downloading the app. Interesting approach to a topic.

Tools. There seems to be an overwhelming amount of tools with the explosion of social media and smartphones Andy makes the point to not to forget to just nicely ask people to spread the word. I received a simple, well written email from Alex Harris last week, a classmate at Seattle University who just launched a new website—IPABI.com—which stands for Its Probably A Bad Idea. It was a very nice, simple request to spread the word—and here I am spreading the word.

Taking part. I like the idea that Andy presents in that “word of mouth is as much about customer service as it is about marketing.” He talks about giving employees the power to fix problems help make customers happy. I think using social media to honestly and authentically help ensure your customers are happy is a very smart approach.

Tracking. The tracking of word of mouth marketing is interesting and it will be interesting to see how advancements in social media (for example: the new foresquare and American Express deal) will help marketers track their ROI directly back to their campaigns.