Back To Basics - Word Of Mouth Marketing
Posted on January 10, 2008
Filed Under General
Even in this high tech era, word of mouth remains the most effective way to market your business.
Word of mouth, sometimes referred to as buzz marketing or viral marketing, was the fastest-growing slice of the $254 billion marketing industry last year, and is expected to account for more than $1 billion of ad spending in 2007, according to a report by PQ Media of Stamford, Conn., an alternative media researcher. That number is forecast to reach $3.7 billion by 2011, fueled in part by the eruption of blogs and the increasing popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook.
Big players like Procter & Gamble are reducing mass media budgets in favor of trackable online strategies. There is plenty to learn by watching these trends, regardless of your type of business. The Toronto Globe and Mail reports that P&G recently enlisted 450,000 moms to become online evangelists to go online and incite discussions about its new Dawn Direct Foam cleaning product.
Why is this back to basics trend so hot? Think about it. With the overwhelming barrage of impersonal marketing clutter consumers want to connect with real people. The article reports that a recent survey by A.C. Nielsen found that 78 percent of respondents viewed recommendations from other consumers as trustworthy. That compares with 63 percent for newspaper ads, the second most-trusted medium, and well above the 18 percent for text ads on mobile phones.
But marketers beware. The general public has become savvy to inauthentic campaigns designed to manipulate buzz. Marketing guru Jack Trout notes that there have been a number of high profile flops. One was Pontiac’s decision to give away its new G6 model on “Oprah,” an effort that generated significant awareness, but “didn’t sell a damn thing.”
Online video can dramatically impact your word of mouth marketing efforts. At Engaging Media we work with clients to create highly effective video email campaigns that are sent to their existing client base. The objective is to combine a personal message with a compelling offer. So compelling that recipients will forward it on to others within their sphere of influence. Remember, the key to success is authenticity.
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