What does a Word-of-Mouth Campaign look like?

A Word-of-Mouth Campaign is an integrated combination of documents, materials and events that are designed to facilitate the best possible recommendations about a client's product from people most likely to influence a positive outcome — well beyond what would be communicated by "natural" means.

Why do you need a deliberate campaign, if your product is superior and people are talking about it positively already?

Because you can multiply the effects of word of mouth if you encourage people, help them articulate what they are feeling, and provide the means and opportunities for them to express their evangelism. What happens naturally is only a small fraction of what could happen with a few simple steps on your part.

Each of these elements may look quite different for different types of products, services and ideas. But they all give people the motivation, means and/or message to talk about the product. Many of these are closely related and blend seamlessly into each other. The specifics are a matter of considerable creativity.

When you look at the following list of unconnected elements, you will probably realise that you are already doing many of these things. Please keep in mind that we are talking here about a campaign: an organized set of coordinated activities. Companies typically don’t do the following things enough, and they don't coordinate them into an integrated whole, with each element reinforcing each other, as the core of their marketing program.

Since word of mouth is 1000X as powerful as the rest of marketing put together, why shouldn’t it be the core, now that we have the communications tools to influence it?

This is a partial list of elements to give you a sense of what we mean when we talk about word-of-mouth campaigns. Yours will be different.

Designing the product for a word-of-mouth campaign.

Figuring out both the product attributes and the message that describes the product in a way that is easily repeatable, compelling and persuasive. It must encapsulate the unique value proposition in a way that people will want to — and be able to — tell each other.

Stimulating and collecting the right testimonials/endorsements at all levels: customer, influencers, experts.

Teaching employees how to get testimonials and working them into existing materials.

Tuning every conventional marketing program (advertising, direct mail, sales materials, etc.) to convey and stimulate word of mouth.

Incorporating word of mouth into conventional marketing media. Quotes, testimonials, endorsements, ratings, etc. Using that media to stimulate further word of mouth.

Asking for word of mouth

At all points of communication, finding ways to ask for — and motivate — recommendations.

“Tell a friend” programs
Motivating people to bring in new customers through reward programs. Customer referral programs.

Supporting present customers in spreading the word.
Providing support (materials, events, phone lines, fax back services, web pages) for customers who want to get their friends to try the product.

Market seeding programs
Placing product with key influencers in the marketplace and getting them to recommend the product/service to their sphere of influence.

Canned word of mouth — videos, audio, etc.
Delivering your customer recommendations through brochures, audio, video, the Web, etc.

Customer networking programs
Bringing your customers and prospects into a formal or informal network to spread the word.

Affiliation programs.
Formally joining your customers and your company together in a mutually beneficial way, giving you an opportunity to influence word of mouth, and customers an opportunity to spread it among themselves.

Discussion groups
Designing discussion groups via the web, teleconferences, etc.

Preferred customer programs
Rewarding present customers to make them feel like “insiders.”

Advisory groups, user groups, etc.
Bringing customers into advisory groups and user groups to stimulate each others’ enthusiasm.

Internet programs to amplify word of mouth.
Using the internet, particularly e-mail and list groups to regularly communicate with customers and get them to circulate information to their sphere of influence.

Outrageous story program
If you want them to talk, give them something to talk about — every day. Create stories that support the main value proposition and will be repeated. Use public relations (and other means) to spread the stories

Articles, third party endorsements.
An organized program to place favorable articles and get actual or implied endorsements.

Usage in places that will imply word of mouth endorsement.
Placing the product in places and used by people that will imply endorsement.

Creating and implementing events that will foster word of mouth.
Seminars parties, conferences, swap meets. Anything that will bring customers together.

Training programs
Using training programs to spread word of mouth.

Service programs
Organized program to use service calls to stimulate word of mouth.

Employee word-of-mouth programs
Organized program to get your employees to engage in word of mouth.

Networking
Actively using existing networks (including your own ad hoc networks) to stimulate referrals.

Customer satisfaction programs
Using customer satisfaction programs to stimulate word of mouth. Then, using the results to further stimulate word of mouth.

Rating services programs
Actively (and ethically) influencing outside rating services to rate your product higher.