Word Of Mouth Marketing

Let’s crank it up a notch.

Today’s topic is marketing. No surprise there, but I want to talk about the hard stuff -  the things they don’t teach you in marketing school or business school. 

But first you have to accept the following idea and take a hard look at how you are building your business…

Struggle only comes from lack.

A lack of knowing what to do - and a lack of confidence to do those things.

That's it. Very simple, Not complex.

Are you struggling to build your business or your marketing campaigns?

Well, what if we took the struggle out of it? What if we could create something simple that…worked.

You’ve heard, most likely, of word of mouth marketing…that illusive form of marketing that can’t really be measured or planned but seems to just spontaneously happen. It’s very often referred to as buzz or viral marketing.

The problem with this thinking is that it’s here today and literally gone tomorrow. You launch a fabulous campaign it gets tons of play in the blogosphere and your video is all over YouTube and your traffic is off the hook…for a day, or maybe even a week. Then what?

Back to the perverbial drawing board.

Back to dreaming up a new campaign that might or might not hit it big – back to struggle and stress. It’s a vicious cycle that most marketers are completely caught up in.

So, what if we put on our rose-colored glasses and change the way we look at the marketing world for just a minute. What if, we looked at word of mouth marketing (which is the very best form of marketing there is) as something that can be built over time, cultivated, nourished and improved?

And, (gasp!) what if we don’t use incentives to get it going or maintain it?

This new form of marketing can be called “Inspired Word of Mouth.” I particularly like this name because it invokes spirit. It calls on the creative forces of inspiration to go to work for you.

Inspired Word of Mouth Marketing has all of the following characteristics:

1. The conversations are natural.
2. They are not forced.
3. Since the recommendation is genuine, you want to hear it.
4. Not only do you want to hear it, but the message is received so powerfully that it can bypass all skepticism - and almost all other parts of the sales process - and send people right to the order.

Now…here comes the big question…HOW?

When you break it down into digestible parts you get the following simple recipe by making improvements in the following areas:

1. Product
2. Message
3. Customer Experience
4. Referrals

Sound easy? It is. BUT, it takes time, dedication and willingness to follow through 100% of the time. It takes the willingness to change your thinking and move outside the realm of tangible into the realm of inspiration.

Are you ready? Let's do it! 

I'd like to introduce you to Marketing and Merchandising Diva, Mandy Mercado. 

And, no, that's not a whip in her hand.

By day, she's an average online merchandising pro but with a "click" of her mouse and implementation of the Mercado software platform she magically transforms into a sexy, sleek, superdiva - able to add cross-sell items with a single keyboard stroke, able to set up promotions with a mouse click…she's…well…she's Super Mandy!

Mandy is the creation of the Mercado marketing team led by Randi Barshack (VP of Worldwide Marketing) and she's causing quite a stir.

Not only is there a full-fledged comic book of Mandy Mercado's adventures, the campaign includes a metal lunchbox packed with all sorts of sweat treats and a mug that displays the cartoon as hot liquid is added.

Even Mercado partners, CoreMetrics, Omniture and Power Reviews got in on the action. Each with a cameo showing in the comic book of their own superhero creation.

I  caught up with the brains behind the campaign, Randi Barshack, and she shared the inside scoop with me on the why's and how's of this ultra cool campaign. The campaign, Barshack explained,  is a series of 5 comic book episodes. Each one created to go out over the early winter months culminating in the final episode timed perfectly to coordinate with a new Mercado product launch.

You can check out all the episodes by following these links: Episode 1; Episode 2; Episode 3; Episode 4; Episode 5. 

The series with the lunchbox and coffee mug really kept Mercado on the top of the minds of the prospects and current customers who received them. And the feedback, Barshack said, has been very positive. They wanted to create something that was high touch, nostalgic and fun. For example, the lunchbox was filled with all sorts of candy everyone loved as a kid - pop rocks, jaw breakers, m & m's. The mug was sent during the busiest time of the year for online retailers (Christmas) with hot chocolate and a note saying "thought you might need a break right now…"

The timing and the execution of the mailers were coordinated to raise awareness of the new product launch, speak to issues ALL online business owners face and offer up usable information in a quirky and unusual way that was memorable.

All in all, it worked…fabulously. And, while Barshack couldn't give me a specific return on investment, the campaign did do exactly what it was intended to do…create buzz, create a memorable presence in the minds of the 400 or so prospects that received the campaign and open the door to ultimately increase sales.

The TrulyTwistedMarketing traffic stats are off the hook. Somehow, (as a marketer, I'd dearly love to take full credit for this but can't) a little post I created got picked up by Buzzfeed. 

Check the number two article. Yep, that one right below Techcrunch. ;) 

(okay, when I first posted this the article WAS in the #2 spot. Now, it seems, we are located in the #1 spot and Techcrunch is waaaaaay down at #7) 

That wee little article that was more about random thoughts running through my head on a day I needed something to write about than anything else has quadrupled my traffic since last Thursday.

Wait. WHAT?

Yes. It's true. And, hilarious, considering the circumstances but still interesting because I just did a post on leveraging social media outlets like Digg and Furl and Del.icio.us for your marketing endeavors to generate both traffic and links. You can read it here.

There are some things I want to point out besides my post, though.

1. You never know what's going to happen in the blogosphere. (that was actually pointed out by someone else in an email to me but I thought it applied to this situation)
2. It was a lousy article. Not really an article at all. In fact, there was very little thinking that went into it which doesn't give a person any good indication of what's going to get picked up and when so you want to make it your best effort each and every time.
3. The traffic to this illustrious blog that came from the buzzfeed article was very un-targeted. Because I'm not a myspace user, don't sell myspace paraphanalia and have no myspace advice, the traffic coming into that page really didn't travel any further than that page. Bummer.
4. The links generated by the traffic were minimal. However, those links were good ones. Whoppers, in fact. Which certainly gives a little push to the TrulyTwistedMarketing SEO efforts.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. I'll take extra traffic any day of the week. Besides, the whole basis  of this blog is to share what works and what doesn't and what just happens haphazardly. 

This was a haphazard moment. 

However, it does prove a viable point. Social media is increasingly important in the online marketing arena. And marketers who can take those haphazard moments and turn them into tangible results will most definitely be ahead of the curve. 

I am literally drooling with anticipation over Joost.

"What's so special about it?" You might ask. "What the heck is it, anyway? A new energy drink?"

Even better. 

Joost is a functioning real-time social network. You can watch a show, rate it, share it and chat with friends using its IM platform. How cool is that?

The best part? It's free.

Out of the box users can participate in a community chat that will, in essence, allow  soccer fans from across the globe the opportunity to gather to watch the World Cup. It has the potential to be a truly killer application and really twist up television as we know it.

Here are a couple of screen shots of the interface.

The Joost platform was created by the same guys who created Skype and originally called the Venice Project. The premise behind Skype is the premise behind Joost - free. Did I mention, "it's free?" Free phone service with Skype via the internet and free television with Joost via the internet. 

But Joost is far from traditional television. It's a customizable interface so if you want to share the experience with only a few friends, you can. It's truly user built television.

Love it the idea? Want to test it out yourself? You can, well, sort of. You have to fill out an application. Then wait. You might have to wait quite a while because apparently they are receiving thousands of applications a day and it's still in beta. 

But my bet is it will be worth it. 

I get asked a lot about social media and what that means. Very often I find myself in the predicament of trying to explain something that a person has no frame of reference for. Social media is still a new phenomena and using it to market goods and services is a pretty new concept.

To clarify how to use social media in your marketing mix, I’ve scoured the web and come up with a list of places where you can submit your articles to generate both links coming into your site to help with search engine optimization and (keep your fingers crossed) traffic!

The breakdown goes like this:

Digg is the biggest. Make no mistake about it. And here’s what’s cool. If you can generate 60 Diggs within the first 24 hours, your article is pretty much guaranteed to hit the Digg homepage.

Why is this a good thing?

Because Digg will reward your efforts by sending you a pretty big surge of traffic, often 5,000 to 10,000 people within the first few hours if your article makes it to the homepage. While nice when it happens, it’s good to remember that the traffic surge will very likely be short-lived. But your content will be very accessible and if it’s picked up that content you created could potentially bring 100s of links back to your site.

Having said all that, here are some other social sites that you can potentially use to create links and market yourself and your content.

Del.icio.us  is a social bookmarking site. Once you sign up with Del.icio.us, you can use their service to tag your articles with relevant keywords. Del.icio.us users often subscribe to RSS feeds of certain “tag” keywords. People who subscribed to the feeds with the same keywords you use see a link to your article in their feed.

Why is this a good thing?

Because, if another user reads your article and they like it, they might tag it themselves. And, if enough people tag your site, it will rise up to the Del.icio.us popular page where it will be seen like Digg by many people, resulting in tons of links and lots of visits.

Reddit  is a lot like Digg. However, the user base is much smaller. Users can submit links, vote on them and (again, like Digg) the most popular articles will rise to the top bringing in links and visits to your site.

Why is this a good thing?

Because Reddit is not as big as Digg or Del.icio.us, your chances of getting your content on the move quickly are pretty good.

Furl is basically the same thing as Del.icio.us just with a smaller user base. Furl can be used as an online social bookmarking service and as a way to save archived copies of web pages
The most important reason to use Furl is that, by tagging your pages there, you can get them to show up on the Technorati pages.

Why is this a good thing?

Because Technorati is the fastest growing blog network on the web right now. Pretty much everyone knows about Technorati Tag pages, so showing up there is always an excellent thing.

StumbleUpon is actually a toolbar you can  install on your browser. You select topics you are interested in from several categories. Then, click Stumble! on the toolbar, and it will take you to pages that other users (who’ve also installed the toolbar) have rated as “ I like it!.”

Why is this a good thing?

Because, you can go to your own articles and click “I like it!” This will submit your site to the database, where other users can see it. If several of people like your article and give it a positive rating, it will be shown more often. If this happens…you guessed it…more traffic and more links!

There are other social sites like Blinklist, Netscape (believe it or not) Spurl (operating at reduced functionality at the moment due to spam attacks) and Yahoo MyWeb. They are all similar to the above mentioned sites. Each of the listed sites has their own individual set of rules that you should follow when joining and when submitting articles.

So, last week I was “tagged” (or I received a “meme” as bloggers sometimes call it) and totally missed it.

Most likely, I was out holiday shopping but I can’t remember what happened yesterday, much less last week, to give you any kind of detailed explanation as to why I missed it. Just suffice it to say, I’m relatively sure I had a pretty good reason for missing the tag. So, today, I’m making up for lost time!

Anyway, if you don’t know what a meme is, it’s the blogger’s version of the game of tag you played as a kid with a grown up twist. Toby Bloomberg  over at Diva Marketing tagged me only I don’t have to freeze or anything (see freeze tag) but I am IT. And I do have to follow the rules which go something like this…

• I have to tell 5 things about me that you’d have no way of knowing.
• I have to tag a couple of other bloggers to do the same and they can be bloggers I know or bloggers I’d like to know more about. So, here goes…

5 Things you Didn’t Know About Me (and maybe never wanted to)

1. I started going grey when I was 16 years old. Not kidding. My friends thought I had some strange looking highlights. By the time I hit 25 I had a good dose of white going on and now it’s pretty much white all over…like Storm on X-Men  white. It’s some genetic anomaly me and Anderson Cooper share.
2. I was a programmer in my previous life. But I’ve overcome and worked out my karma  and now I’m in marketing. (just came up with that one so even I didn’t know that about myself till just now…lol – but it does explain my fascination with all things technological)
3. Every year I go to the beach with a group of women I call the church ladies. You know the commercials - What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas…
4. A few years ago I found Gilligan’s Island . It’s now called Kauia, Hawaii  and turns out a lot of other people found it too.
5. I love the idea of going green. I live in a very hippie-fied area of the country (Asheville, NC ), I recycle, I have an organic flower garden and I used to be vegetarian so it only makes sense.

TAG, YOU’RE IT!

Holly Buchanan because I really like her blog and she knows how to keep it real!

Todd Tweedy over at BoldMouth because he has a lot to say about word of mouth marketing and socialization on the web.

Jim Boykin because I love SEO and he’s pretty darn good at it (although he might have been tagged, already)

Debbie Weil because her book is really good, she knows her stuff and I want to get to know her better.

Alex Harris because he's an excellent designer and really understands what eCommerce is all about.

You might need a Bahamavention. I sure as heck do.

If you exhibit any of the following characteristics then you are a prime candidate for a Bahamavention.

• Overworked
• Stressed
• In dire need of a mind altering escape from everyday life

Click here - Just launched, this national campaign is causing quite a stir.

When you pick yourself back up off the floor, let me know what you think! 

I literally stumbled across this idea a while back and I’m curious about the buzz effect it actually has for advertisers and if, when incorporated into a word of mouth marketing campaign, it really works.

The idea is to connect customers to advertisers and build traffic to the advertiser’s site. So, in effect, if you wanted to drive customers to your storefront you would select from a pool of well-respected bloggers who post regularly on topics of interest to your customers from one of the following resources:

• PayPerPost.com
• ReviewMe.com
• And the (not quite ready yet) LoudLaunch.com 

Then you pay them – anywhere from $60 - $250 per post based on the popularity of the blogger, blog ranking in the blogsphere/search engines and traffic coming into the blog. Pricing, of course, varies depending on the promotional vehicle you are using. PayPerPost begins at $10 per post. ReviewMe begins at $60 per post. And LoudLaunch, well, we are still waiting…

This is a relatively new phenomenon with PayPerPost (the first of its kind) launching just this past summer. The kicker is that it runs contrary to what hard-core bloggers hold near and dear to their hearts – truth, honesty and transparency.

In essence, by opting to participate and be listed among the pool of bloggers, they are selling their readership. This is a big can of worms. However, when looked at from a marketing perspective, it could be effective…notice I said “could.” I’m not totally convinced.

So, I decided to take this concept for a little spin.

I signed up as an advertiser and began to peruse the list of bloggers in ReviewMe.com to see if any were a fit for the marketing of a particular product I had in mind – an eBook (you can check it out here). I was pleased to see that there is a scoring/rating system and it made sense that the better, more respected, higher trafficked blogs had higher fees than say the new blog on the block.

Since the book offers an affiliate program, and I want to reach affiliate sellers, I chose to focus on marketing that aspect for my trial. I did a search for blogs with the term "affiliate marketing." Most of the blogs that came up were marketing blogs where a post or two had been made about affiliate marketing.

Then I came across one of my favorites…Dave Taylor’s blog. Now, he doesn’t hide the fact that he makes a decent living off blogging and adsense and I’m definitely not finding fault with him or anyone else who does this. Might even do it myself one day. However, I have to say I was a bit bummed. I felt betrayed, sold out and disheartened.

While I know he is most likely hit up regularly to blog about products and services and I don’t fault anyone trying to make a living…still, there was something just not right about it. I wondered if I could trust him to offer up “real” information. How would I know his words weren’t purchased by some advertising guy wanting to sell a product to me? His credibility took a bit of a nosedive.

But then the marketing wonk inside me took over…I mean, let’s think about this for a minute…if I want him or any other blogger in the network to give me a positive review about this eBook, I can just PAY him to do it? And, all those lovely people looking for information served up from Dave Taylor who hang on his very last word will think it’s grand and (hopefully) be compelled to purchase the book?

As any good blogger would, Dave wrote a post about it here detailing some of the pros and cons.

Hmmmmm…I’m going to try it, just to see what happens. After all, this is all about running a test, looking at word of mouth, measuring how it spreads across social areas on the web…

A brief note from one of our affiliates…

The 642-432 exam tests the knowledge required for voice integration solutions at the network access level. The 642-552 exam deals with information required for securing Cisco network and devices. The 642-845 exams include topics such as Cisco VoIP implementation, QoS considerations, and implementation of Auto QoS. The 70-431 exam tests the knowledge about Microsoft SQL Server 2005, its high availability and disaster recovery. The 70-292 exam tests skills in managing users, computers and groups, server environment and access to resources. The 70-284 exam deals with installing, configuring, and troubleshooting exchange server, exchange organization and exchange environment. 70-270 exam tests the knowledge of Microsoft Widows XP Professional.

1. Community of Customers

Socialization is big. Looking at your customers as a community of individuals with whom you are having a conversation is what today’s personalized marketing is all about. Taking this trend to the next level are technologies like Bazaarvoice and PowerReviews who are actually seeking to exponentially increase the conversation in your community of customers through reviews and honest information exchanged about products on eCommerce web sites.

2. Green Living (what I like to call the Green Revolution!)

The demand for eco-friendly, environmentally sustainable products and services will only grow over time. This market area tends to span demographics and really can’t be pinpointed to one specific area. While there is growing interest in these products across the board from a consumer standpoint, there is also growing interest by savvy marketers on how best to capitalize on this trend. My bet is you’ll be seeing more and more about “green” living in marketing campaigns in the very near future.

If terms like photovoltaic, hydroelectric and carbon neutral are foreign concepts, check out treehugger where a pretty cool group of individuals are on a mission to make the whole concept of “green living” mainstream.

3. Affluent Women

According to The Media Audit, affluent working women with family incomes of $75,000 or more are growing in number, and 94.3 percent access the internet during an average month. Not only are they growing in numbers but they are web savvy and actively look for information, resources and products on the web. Gearing marketing efforts to capture this market is a must for 2007. Reaching these women takes skill and credibility. They are well-educated, enjoy quite a bit of purchasing power, are comfortable making decisions and are looking for experiences that are real.

Here are some of the best places I've found to get very pertinent and targeted information about affluent women and marketing to women in general. These women really know their stuff!

• Marketing to Women Online
• Wonder Branding
• How to Reach Women
• Diva Marketing
• Learned on Women
• Lip Sticking

4. Word of Mouth Marketing

Everyone wants to create buzz! A Lucid Marketing study, "U.S. Adults: Word of Mouth Communications" concluded the following…

• women are more likely than men to share a positive experience with a business
• full-time employees made substantially more daily contacts than those not in the workforce
• people with household earnings of more than $100,000 were more likely to make recommendations than those earning less.

The biggest dilemma in word of mouth marketing is how to accurately track word of mouth marketing (WOMM) campaigns. There’s a new on demand service called buzzlogic that tracks and measures where your campaign is being talked about (web sites and blogs) and who is doing the talking (bloggers).

Just a note… There IS a bit of a debate about the difference between “buzz” and “viral” marketing among word of mouth marketers.

I want to take just a minute and point out a brand spankin' new shiny social spot on the web - Zemble.

If you are into text messaging and have a group of, say, 3 or more friends you text regularly then Zemble might be your dream come true.

It's a new social site due to launch sometime next week where members can send out a single text message via their cell phones to everyone in their zemble group. The creators of Zemble call it "an incredibly sophisticated yet ridiculously easy to use tool…" and based on what is out there so far it IS pretty interesting.

The interesting part, though, isn't so much about creating or joining a group of avid text messagers. The really cool angle in all this is what they are selling - teeny, tiny ad spaces that will appear on the mobile devices and cell phones of Zemble users.

Who knows if it will truly be successful or not. But it is, for sure, the first place on the web of its kind. Can't beat those bragging rights!