Marketing Words: 9 Ways to Trigger Word of Mouth Campaigns

Are you spending enough time with word of mouth marketing? The best marketing words technique in our minds, hands down. The key to its success is using ways to trigger word of mouth by getting people to talk about you and start the buzz.

The first thing you need to know about buzz marketing is this: generating consumers to talk about your business isn’t as random as you think. There’s a science to creating a marketing buzz, and it’s something you can learn to do.

Related: Guinness Marketing Campaign Shows Their Creativity

So what’s the difference between word of mouth marketing and traditional marketing?

The difference is that word of mouth marketing is to get people talking about your brand – not just to make people aware that your brand exists.

There is an interesting story about how Pablo Picasso, the famous Spanish artist, developed the ability to produce remarkable work in just minutes.

As the story goes, Picasso was walking through the market one day when a woman spotted him. She stopped the artist, pulled out a piece of paper, and said, “Mr. Picasso, I am a fan of your work. Please, could you do a little drawing for me?”

Picasso smiled and quickly drew a small, but beautiful piece of art on the paper. Then, he handed the paper back to her saying, “That will be one million dollars.”

“But Mr. Picasso,” the woman said. “It only took you thirty seconds to draw this little masterpiece.”

“My good woman,” Picasso said, “It took me thirty years to draw that masterpiece in thirty seconds.”

Picasso isn’t the only brilliant creative who worked for decades to master his craft. His journey is typical of many creative geniuses. Even people of considerable talent rarely produce incredible work before decades of practice.

To get a better idea, let’s talk more about generating marketing buzz.

Most people think it’s something that happens by chance, but that is certainly not the case in most instances.  We will discussing some material from the book Buzzmarketing by author Mark Hughes.

In his book, he talks about how buzz can be generated by following a few basic principles. Businesses that follow these principles are much more successful at getting people talking about their brand than businesses that only use traditional marketing tactics.

So how can you apply these basic principles and generate word of mouth for your business?

A fundamental principle of buzz marketing

A good starting place is learning the fundamental principle of buzz marketing. It is pretty simple.  It states if you want to generate buzz, you need to give people something special that they will remember and want to tell their friends about. Sounds simple, but just the opposite is the norm.

To do so, you need to learn the types of topics that get people talking. Yes, people talk about a lot of things, but there are particular conversation starters that get people talking more often than other topics. Let’s discuss those topics.

So how do you apply these principles, and what are some examples of businesses that have used them effectively?

 Marketing words … trigger word of mouth with taboo topics

Taboo is a big buzz topic. The basic idea here is that people have a tendency to talk about things they shouldn’t talk about. There’s just something in our nature. As an example consider the parents of toddlers who can’t resist bringing up topics like diapers and “accidents” at a dinner with other parents. It’s a terrible topic for the dinner table, but parents can’t resist talking about it.

In order to apply this principle for internet marketing, you want to do things that are edgy and controversial. You don’t want to cross the line and create enemies, but blog posts and other controversial content will get people talking more than content that’s safe and boring.

Related post: Some Great Story and Storytelling Examples to Study

Awesome customer service gets attention

Mention.com  analyzed 1 billion brand mentions in a  recent study. What they found is somewhat surprising: 76% of brand mentions on the web and social media are neither positive nor negative.

What does this mean? On social media, neutral mentions blend into the background. When 76% of brand mentions are basically ignored, the positive and negative mentions stand out.

So how can you turn a neutral into a positive? One way is to provide excellent customer service. Use your website and other platforms to let customers know they can find you on social media when they have customer service needs.

Use the unusual

When it comes to unusual or unique topics, your objective is to create content that is unique to stand out from the crowd. Using sameness won’t stand out, and you won’t get people talking about your product or service. Doing something different will often get noticed and get people talking.

Catchy marketing words … go for the remarkable

Another way to stand out and to get people talking is to do something remarkable. Like Seth Godin’s Purple Cow. Average and ordinary don’t get people talking but remarkably does.

The goal here is to do something extremely well with a very high quality. If everyone else is creating average content, you need to create something above the average. If a hotel gives decent service, no one tells their friends about it, but if a hotel goes beyond what is expected, people will talk.

The obvious online business that comes to mind here is one brand that we write a lot about Zappos.

Their insane “365-day” return policy and stellar customer service is still unmatched in their space. Zappos goes above and beyond status-quo expectations which makes their brand something easy to talk about.

The beauty of this Zappos’ technique is: its marketing built into company culture values that make it work so effectively.

Marketing words to attract customers … it’s ok to be outrageous

This technique is one of the most difficult to apply in a business context. Outside of business, it’s easy to use them to create buzz, but for businesses, it can be a little tricky.

Note that being outrageousness for the sake of being outrageous doesn’t provide much benefit if there’s no connection made with your business. We’ve all watched commercials that made us laugh, and after we told our friends about it, we couldn’t remember which company the commercial was for.

You may get people talking about you with outrageous marketing, but what benefit will there be if there’s no beneficial connection for consumers to come back to you?

A great example that we have written about is the “Will it blend?” video series by Blendtec. In the series, Blendtec shows how powerful their blenders are by attempting to turn crazy objects like an iPhone, marbles, paintballs, etc., into smoothies.

The videos are outrageous, which draws attention and gets people talking, and there’s a strong connection to the brand by showing how powerful the blenders are.

 Related post: Innovation in Marketing … the Birchbox Subscription Model

Encourage social proof

Are you more likely to go to a new restaurant because the restaurant claims it has good food or because a trusted friend says it’s worth trying? There’s an implicit level of trust in any friendship that can’t be replicated between brand and consumer—this extends to purchasing behavior.

Conversations with friends and family are the most trusted source of information for consumers—and brands know it. eMarketer reports that brands view social sharing as the most effective use of social media.

According to research firm eMarketer, 68% of U.S. social media users ages 18-34 and 53% of those ages 35-44 say they are at least somewhat likely to make a purchase based on a friend’s social media updates.

So the question is, how can you convert customers into evangelists? One sure fire way is to make it easy for them to share their positive experiences and give them public attention.

Make your content entertaining

Here’s the unfortunate truth: No one spends time on social networks for the advertising. However, 82% of consumers do enjoy content from a brand as long as it provides personal value—usually in the form of humor.

In fact, Pew Research shows that 35% of men and 43% of women are on Facebook to see entertaining or funny posts. If you’re not afraid to get creative, you have a huge opportunity right in front of you.

Play up the humor

Once again, this is one of the more difficult to apply in a business context. Hilarious videos and articles get shared like wildfire because people like to laugh and to talk about things that make them laugh. But when it comes to business, being funny isn’t the easiest thing to do.

The bottom line

Word of mouth marketing is the best marketing technique, hands down in our opinion.  But is certainly not the easiest, and it takes lots of practice and experimentation to perfect.

So much of marketing is about psychology. The simple exercise of observation has convinced me that observing human behavior is as important as reading books, attending conferences and classes when it comes to learning how to create effective marketing.

Our world is in flux.  There is no part of the consumer experience that is untouched. Digital technology is disrupting the marketplace, while changes in our understanding of the psychology of decision making have overturned centuries of conventional wisdom. Even a brief summary such as this one can make the challenges seem overwhelming.

So what to do?  First, start somewhere.  It can be one place or the other, but at least start. The change will be unfolding for years and everyone else is as confused as you are.

What do you think? Have any word of mouth marketing stories to share?

Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help with word of mouth marketing campaigns?

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Call Mike at 607-725-8240.

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Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change.  We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.

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