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Topics are the ideas, features, and attention-grabbers you use to give your talkers something to talk about. You should be creating and testing as many as you can, as often as you can, until you find a few that really take off.
What to remember when developing yours:
1. Keep it simple
2. Make it organic
3. Look for the unexpected
1. Keep it simple
Simple topics are easy to share and are much more likely to get repeated than long, jargon-filled ones. Recent favorites to inspire you are IKEA’s “Manland,” JetBlue’s auctioning of seats on eBay, and the library where you can check out a human being. All these topics are great because they’re simple, they’re fun, and they’re easy to tell a friend about.
2. Make it organic
Organic topics are built in to your products. They’re key features, perks, and bonuses that inspire conversations. The best all-time example of this is the flower vase built in to VW Bugs. This simple feature continues to start conversations every day, even though it originally came out in the 1950’s. (Note: VW removed this feature for the 2012 model, which is a topic for a future issue on how to kill a great conversation.)
3. Look for the unexpected
Some of your best topics will come not from you, but from your fans. Watch how people use and talk about your stuff and if you see a great topic emerge (even if it’s not perfectly aligned with your brand message), go with it. Think like Duck brand duct tape when they saw kids creating prom outfits with their tape. They saw a great topic and created a scholarship to encourage other kids to do it, and have since created a whole bunch of new conversations.
[Welcome back to the You Can Be a Word of Mouth Marketing Supergenius! newsletter. This is text from the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.]
All those customers that come in and out of your store or visit your website every day represent a huge word of mouth opportunity. It’s all about turning these passing shoppers into active talkers. A few ideas to get you started:
1. Get their contact information
2. Give them a reason to come back
3. Make it all worth talking about
1. Get their contact information
It’s a lot easier to build a relationship with a one-time customer if you have their permission to contact them again. Email is still the best way to do this, and a great newsletter can keep them thinking about (and talking about) you long after the original sale. Some brands are figuring out how to do this with Facebook and Twitter, and that’s fine too. Whatever tool you use, find a great way to ask everyone who comes in the door.
2. Give them a reason to come back
A customer you can get back into your store is exponentially more likely to talk than a one-time shopper. Try inviting your customers back with an invite to a private sale, a training class, or a special event. Whenever you meet a new customer, always have a reason ready for them to come again — and to bring a friend when they do.
3. Make it all worth talking about
All the tools and tactics you use to get people talking should be in addition to a fundamentally remarkable shopping experience. Think about everything the customer experiences from the moment they meet you and ask yourself, “Would anyone tell a friend about this?” If not, it needs more work. New customers are more than a potential transaction, they’re an audition.
[Welcome back to the You Can Be a Word of Mouth Marketing Supergenius! newsletter. This is text from the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.]
When you multiply your word of mouth, you can get more people talking for the same effort. A few ways you could do it:
1. Make it easier to tell more people
2. Get existing groups talking
3. Create network effects
1. Make it easier to tell more people
Get more sharing by helping your talkers tell more friends about you. Add more lines to your tell-a-friend forms, give extra samples for customers to share, and give out multiple coupons instead of just one. For every word of mouth tactic you try, ask yourself what you could add to help them tell more people.
2. Get existing groups talking
Quickly multiply your word of mouth by getting a community talking instead of just one person. Do it by targeting an existing group — think local clubs, PTA members, tech bloggers, etc. If you can get just a few members excited, you could earn a whole bunch of new talkers.
3. Create network effects
For the network effect, imagine buying an early fax machine. The more people that have one, the more useful yours is — so you talk about how great it is and encourage others to get one. Try building the network effect into your stuff. Think calling circles, buddy lists, team discounts, and other incentives for a customer to get friends using your stuff.
[Welcome back to the You Can Be a Word of Mouth Marketing Supergenius! newsletter. This is text from the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.]
Word of mouth isn’t another tactic for the marketing team — it’s a fundamental way of doing business that works best when everyone is involved. Three teams you should be earning buy-in from:
1. Customer service
2. Product development
3. Leadership
1. Customer service
Get your front-line employees dedicated to earning the respect and recommendation of your customers. Give them the tools and the authority to thrill them, and the incentive to do it. No department has as much opportunity to earn the company tons of buzz and new, raving fans.
2. Product development
Word of mouth is as much about product features as it is about marketing. You’ll find some of the most sustainable word of mouth topics will come from your product development teams. For inspiration, point them to the flower vase in VW Bugs, Apple’s pink and purple computers, and White Castle’s miniature burgers.
3. Leadership
Getting your leadership involved in word of mouth is how you take it from side projects and skunkworks to a fundamental part of your company. You can help this happen by teaching them that word of mouth is more than goofy stunts and viral videos. Show them the numbers, the case studies, and the potential of what word of mouth can do for your company.
