Word Of Mouth Marketing (WOMM)

What Is Word Of Mouth?Positive or negative communication of products, services and ideas via personal communication of people who have no commercial vested interest in making that recommendation- SilvermanIn Simpler terms:Word of mouth is what everybody is taking about.Word of Mouth is the act of consumers providing honest information to other consumers

Giving people a reason to talk about your stuff, and making it easier for that conversation to take place.Andy Sernovitz

Art and science of building active, mutually beneficial customer-to-customer and customer-to-marketer communication.

What Is Word Of Mouth Marketing?

The trick of getting your customers to talk about you. One of the most inexpensive and effective ways of marketing.

C2C communication happening online/offline by phone conversations, gossips, blogs, social media tools, emails, etc.

So.. What Is Not? Stealth Marketing Shilling

Infiltration

Comment Spam

Falsification

Word Of Mouth Communication Pattern

Traditional Marketing VS WOMMWord Of Mouth Marketing Traditional Marketing

Where Does WOMM Fit?When a product, service or concept is (or perceived as):

Expensive or a significant investmentComplicated or complexNew or innovativeMature with new ideas

Or when a product, service or concept requires repositioning

Organic VS Amplified WOMMWord of mouth is not created, it is co-created. People will only spread your virus if there is something in it for them.-Hugh MacLeod

Organic WOM occurs naturally as a result of the product/service on its ownAmplified WOM is generated by marketers from a special marketing effort.Practices that enhance Organic WOM:

Focusing on customer satisfaction.Improving product/service quality.Responding well to concerns and criticisms.Earning customer loyalty.Practices amplifying WOM activity:

Developing tools that enable people to share their opinions.Identifying & reaching out to influential individuals/communitiesResearching & tracking online conversationsMotivating the talkers to promote

How Does WOMM Work?WOMM is based on the principle that uses influencers to spread a message- online and offline. Activating online word-of-mouth is not free any more than activating word-of-mouth in the offline media. Key to WOMM is how many important influencers the company reaches not how many people/customers.

5 Ts Of WOMMWOMM campaign is built on top of theFIVE Tsbecause marketing guys like to make things formal!

5 Ts of WOMMTalkers: Who will tell their friends about you?

Topics: What will they talk about?

Tools: How can you help the message travel?

TopicsBe remarkable or be invisible.ToolsMake is easy to talk.Taking Part: When and how should you join the conversation?Tracking: What are people saying about you?

Positive word of mouth: 1 happy customer might tell max 5 others

Negative word of mouth: 1 unsatisfied customer may tell 10 othersPositive & Negative WOM

Impact Of WOMM

Case Study: Obama CampaignRepeatable messages

Multiple occasions

332 electoral votes

An attempt to spread marketing message that spreads quickly and exponentially among consumers to increase brand awareness.Video clips, Flash Games, Images, E-booksViral marketing is a strategy that allows to spread marketing messages and ads, over many different types of social media sites.These messages or ads multiply rapidly and are sent to thousands of people, just like viruses.

What is Viral Marketing?

What is Viral Marketing?A promotional method that is of the customers, by customers, and for customersLike viruses, take advantage of the rapid multiplication to explode the message to thousands or even to millions

Differences

Advantages Accessed by millions of people per day Quicker way of reaching the customer Saves on advertising costs within companies Customize the message to your preference Can easily be directed to your exact target market Sometimes gives the company a good reputation

DisadvantagesCan be annoying and be considered as spamOnly benefits the company if an actual sale is made from the adFocuses more on short term successMany competitors can easily imitate the viral marketing techniques and steal the market from other companiesCan put out a negative impact on the company, in the same timing that it puts a positive impact on the company

Hotmail - When Hotmail launched, much of its early success was due to the virality of the sigline that it attached to every outgoing email inviting the recipient to join. One of the earliest examples of viral marketing on the internet.

Will it Blend - One of the most recent best viral marketing campaign examples, Blendtecs will it blend video series shows scientists testing if various household items will blend in their super-powerful blender. This campaign leveraged the popularity of online video sharing sites.

Examples

Simpsonsize Yourself - Created for the Simpsons movie, this site allowed visitors to create an avatar of themselves as a character from the cartoon.

Mentos/Diet Coke - Another wacky scientist schtick, these guys got famous by making art out of the explosions caused by mixing diet coke and mentos. Examples

Failing to make it interesting enough to pass alongFailing to provide incentives to encourage people to pass your message alongFocusing on a single viral piece rather than a viral processFailing to test and track the resultsNot recognizing it is different from word-of-mouth marketing

Viral Marketing Mistakes

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