Word of Mouth Marketing Part II.

The second half of Sernovitz' book, (like the first half,) was both fascinating and amusing. During the course of my reading, I encountered many helpful tips and new insights on the power of word of mouth marketing. The following are three points that really stood out to me, for one reason or another.

1. "Put everything in an email."

I thought it was pretty interesting that Sernovitz really emphasized email as one of the primary word of mouth marketing tools. Though email can be an effective way of distributing newsletters or coupons, I would argue that it might not be the most portable word of mouth tool available in our technology-obsessed environment. Text messaging, Facebook, and Twitter are becoming dominant forces in the communication world and could potentially overrun email one day. {Studies by Pew Internet & American Life Project reveal that email usage in teenagers is decreasing.} Furthermore, I was surprised that there wasn't more attention focused on social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

2. "Big Idea: Fixing problems is the most powerful marketing you can do."

I could not agree more. This seemingly-simple notion is apparently too difficult for most companies to grasp. For example, after experiencing non-stop issues with the internet, {obviously service-related and not on my end,} a certain cable company tried to convince me that I was doing something wrong and causing connectivity problems. It took months of phone calls before the company finally admitted that they were working on expanding bandwith in my area, hence the random disconnects, etc. My current {very negative opinion of this company,} might be different, had my internet hiccups been promptly fixed, or had I at least received a timely notification that work was being done in my area. Instead, I've single-handedly spread more than my fair share of negative word of mouth about the company. Proactively joining the conversation is a fantastic way for a company to reinforce the beliefs of its current supporters and change the minds of its dissenters.

3. "Big Idea: Word of mouth is more than marketing. It's also your best market research tool."

Understanding who is talking about your company and what they may be saying about you is priceless. Not only does this knowledge offer the opportunity to receive invaluable feedback, but it also sheds light on the demographics and characteristics of your company's consumers. Andy Sernovitz states that the science of word of mouth measurement allows market research firms to "examine your customer database and determine which of your existing customers are likely to be your biggest talkers, or they can go out and find new talkers for you."

Until next time...