Have you ever wondered about how to be more persuasive or influential? Certainly, an important question if you are in the marketing profession, isn’t it? It is certainly a secret to WOMM. Let me explain why.
Emotional word of mouth conversations is sparked when consumers are highly aroused. Have you noticed that people choose emotionally and then justify logically?
Fleur, a florist shop in Chicago, puts a bucket full of bright balloons by the door of their shop both inside and out, with a handwritten sign that says: “Take a balloon.” That’s all. No logos, no catch. It is just a small action to make people smile. Inside the store, it makes a pretty display, and outside the store, people are likely to ask where you got the balloon.
That’s a simple, fun way to create some emotion and get a conversation started without a marketing message. A bucket full of balloons is a bucket full of the word of mouth memories waiting to happen. It doesn’t have to be branded or a part of a larger campaign — in fact, the simpler you make it, the better.
Surprise people
Surely you have seen the tear-jerker commercials for abused or abandoned puppies or kittens. Not something you’ll often share with friends, is it?
North Carolina’s Wake County SPCA tried a very different approach to this problem. They made a lip-synching music video to ABBA’s song “Take a Chance on Me”, with the entire shelter staff and most of the adoptable animals.
A success? It was watched on YouTube over 3.4 million times the last time we looked. Just because others do the standard tear-jerking videos doesn’t mean they are popular.
Surprise your audience with original things that are fun and approachable like this SPCA did. It may even surprise you.
Word of mouth marketing examples … emotional influence
The Zillow real estate company has built an entire marketing campaign on influencing home buyers with emotional influence. Have you seen any of them? We like them so much that we have searched for them on YouTube frequently.
“Homecoming” is Zillow’s sixth TV spot, one of the latest in the company’s highly successful national advertising campaign. You cannot beat these ads. There are no better means of influence or the power of persuasion than emotion. Hands down the best, in our opinion.
Experiences that trigger our emotions are saved and consolidated in lasting memory because the emotions generated by the experiences signal our brains that the experiences are important to remember.
The homecoming commercial ending message says it all:
You are not just looking for a house; you are looking for a place for your life to happen.
This commercial focuses on emotional appeal in grand fashion. It is the secret of this commercial’s success. It creates strong persuasion in our opinion. A great example of using emotion for a successful advertisement design.
Word of mouth marketing ideas … storytelling
Have you seen the remarkable branding video design from this South African business? The Bell’s TV commercial features a father whose intrepid spirit demonstrates just what it takes to be a true man of character.
The video was created to market and build the brand. It is a very simple story. It advocates learning to read no matter your age or status in society. To us, it creates pure magic with the story, the visuals, the music and the emotion. It certainly finds and puts emotional triggers to work.
If you haven’t seen it, watch it now, it is only 2 minutes, and it will inspire you. It is certainly easily in our top 5 of all time.
Likewise, have you ever wondered why movies like Toy Story are so compelling and successful? The best writers in the world speak to universal human themes—the things that drive every one of us no matter what our worldview is.
Look for word of mouth triggers.
Compelling storylines work because we see ourselves reflected in the characters. Their story is our story. A great script looks us right in the eye and says, “I see you.” Contrast that feeling with the one you get when you’re speaking to someone at a party, who is looking over his shoulder for the next most interesting person to enter the room.
That’s exactly how you don’t want your customers and clients to feel.
Great storytellers make us feel like they’re speaking directly to us. And so it goes for great brand storytelling. The best brand stories make you feel like the company understands and is speaking just to you. The goal is to be more like Pixar and nothing like that guy at the party. You achieve that by remembering ‘the rule of one.’
Speak to one person at a time. Make that person feel like she’s being looked in the eye. That’s the foundation of a winning emotional story.
The bottom line
Emotion is the secret language of the brain … works on emotion if you want to improve your persuasion or influence.
What are some of your experiences with utilizing emotion with word of mouth marketing messages?
Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
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 how reasonable we will be.
More reading on marketing strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Seth Godin once said: Products or services that are remarkable get talked about. Do you know the secrets to stimulate wom marketing? Not really secrets, but you’d be surprised how few businesses put them in action. Seth knows. It is in his quote. Be remarkable and you will be remembered and talked about. Sounds simple, right? But not that simple. What are your best ideas to stimulate word of mouth marketing?
The main goal of your business is not just to create customers. It is to create customers who then will also create customers (that is, customer advocates). This is the perfect marketing solution for 99 % of all businesses and is why we believe a word of mouth marketing is your most important marketing campaign tool.
Keep reading these ideas: Press Coverage … 9 Actionable Ways to Get Good Coverage
So how do you achieve this solution? By influencing customers in a way that they want to talk about you. Consider these ultimate ideas to inspire customers to talk about your business:
Wom marketing … create curiosity
“No rails to damage your tires.” That was the headline on one car wash’s sign that made them different from the three other car washes on the same street. Did you know that car wash guide rails could damage your tires? Probably not. But it makes you curious about what it is all about, doesn’t it? It’s that one simple sentence that tells everyone why that business is different.
So what is the lesson you say? Before this car wash put their sellingpoint on their sign, they probably got a lot of questions like “Where are the guide rails?” Are you listening for these opportunities to explain what small details make you better?
Word of mouth marketing examples … build social relationships
Marketers don’t need to tap into mysterious powers of influence to make an idea spread. In reality, what’s essential is a good story and a density of social relationships.
In his bestselling book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell provided an explanation for viral hits like the Reese’s Pieces meme. A special class of rare people, he reasoned, can give a spark to an idea due to the influence they have on the rest of us. He called his “Law of the Few,” which he formulated as:
The success of any social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts.
These gifts, Gladwell explained, came in three distinct flavors: “Connectors” are social butterflies, traveling between diverse groups of people and seeding ideas. “Mavens” become a trusted resource for collecting knowledge and sharing it freely and “salesmen” have almost magical powers of persuasion.
Unique products and services
Being different in your products and services is one of the best ways to get talked about. This is especially true if your differences match up with your target customers wants and needs. Do you know what your target customers put a high priority on?
It seems like another cliché doesn’t it? But as customers, we see companies breaking this rule every day. This happens when we focus on selling rather than helping. It happens when we make suggestions before knowing something about our customers. It happens when we don’t listen well. It happens when we push products or services on customers because of our quotas or commissions. Keep it simple by knowing what your customers consider valuing.
Surprise customers
Want to know one of the most effective examples that some businesses use to build its marketing and create reciprocity with its customers?
Word of mouth marketing strategy … employ emotion
Effective word of mouth conversations is sparked when consumers are highly aroused. People choose emotionally and then justify logically.
Then it stands a far better chance of being talked about by more people.
The higher degree of emotion creates the more differentiation and makes it easier for your brand to project uniqueness and its word of mouth messages.
Emotion is the secret language of the brain … work on emotion if you want to improve your persuasion or influence.
By surprising them!
People like getting things for free and like them, even more, when they are viewed as ‘favors’. But even more, they love receiving these favors as surprises.
Customers appreciate saving time.
Be best at convenience and saving time
It is simple … customers put a high priority of being simple and convenient. Do what you can to help them on this.
More to learn: 19 Top Marketing Initiatives We Should Be Discussing
Customer service that goes above and beyond
Do you go the extra mile with your best customers? That extra mile is very often lonely but does get easily remembered and talked about.
Give customers reasons
You can have all of the fantastic features you want, but if your customers don’t know why they’re fantastic, those features mean nothing. You have to give them the “why.” You have to say “because…”
For example, Maker’s Mark claims to be “purposefully inefficient” with how they make bourbon. They use a roller mill to break up their grains instead of the modern hammer mill most distilleries use. It’s slower, but it doesn’t scorch the grains like the hammer mill. That’s a tiny detail that would probably go unnoticed if Maker’s Mark didn’t point it out in their newsletter to their customers.
To most people, the difference between hammer-milled and roller-milled grains means nothing. But Maker’s Mark helped their potential customers make better decisions by telling them why they make their bourbon the way they do.
Focus on what customers do with the product
A beer glass is a beer glass is a beer glass. Even if it’s a fancy beer glass. So how do you get people to talk about something like a beer glass? You focus on what people talk about over the beer glass instead of the product.
Give it away
Stop clinging so tightly to your stuff. Some of the best word of mouth marketing happens when you let people have it — whether that’s by giving away some content, donating something important, or letting people take some ownership of your brand.
Make it remarkable
Remarkable always gets talked about. Marketing starts with having products and services that are better than the competition, making them remarkable and worthy of being discussed by your customers.
For example, can you imagine how hard it is to make packing tape remarkable? There’s a lot of tape in the world — lots of different colors, sizes, and tools to go with it. But to make tape worth talking about, The Rip Cord looked at the problem differently.
Keep focus here: 19 Top Marketing Initiatives We Should Be Discussing
They focused on the most frustrating part of packing tape: getting it off the box. They created a packing tape with a cord down the middle to help you remove it without any hassle. It makes moving a little less painful, and it even means that more cardboard gets recycled because customers can cleanly and easily pull the tape off. Sheer genius, isn’t it?
So while other companies are figuring out ways to make tape stickier, stronger, or clearer, The Rip Cord focused on the remarkable way of pulling the tape off.
Customers buy what they need
Customers not only buy what they need, but they also buy what they want. Gather as many insights as possible by observing what they do. Asking them is not as valuable as observing them.
Tell awesome stories
Good marketers’ best way of conveying their messages. By far the best are by telling stories.
In summary, the game of marketing has changed significantly over the past decade. It’s not price … it is relevancy, difference, and value.
Now it’s your turn. What are the creative word of mouth marketing ideas from your business?
Have you ever wondered about how to be more persuasive or influential? Certainly, an important question if you are in the marketing profession.
It is not what advertising does with the consumer; it is what the consumer does after reading the advertisement. After looking over these ideas … how many can you put to work for your marketing?
Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improve your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
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 how reasonable we will be.
More reading on social media marketing and advertising from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
In the United States, there is simply nothing quite like the Super Bowl as a placement for word of mouth advertising and to generate buzz in the world of marketing.
Word of mouth advertising.
You just can’t say it. You have to get people to say it to each other.
James Farley
Word of mouth advertising examples
A report from Zeta Interactive highlights exactly why this is the case.
The New York Times ran a story about Zeta Interactive’s report. Each year Zeta studies which ad campaigns created the most online buzz. In 2011, eight of the top ten campaigns were launched during the Super Bowl.
The list included notable Super Bowl advertisers such as E*Trade, Snickers, Chrysler, Bud Light, Cars.com, and Volkswagen.
Word of mouth advertising examples.
However, with the advent of the Internet, the number of marketing options available to both budding and experienced entrepreneurs has become staggering.
Thankfully, with a little bit of know-how, you can achievemore marketing success than you ever imagined, even on the tightest budget.
Eight of the top ten campaigns launched during the Super Bowl … pretty impressive results.
So in just a few hours, marketers sparked a massive amount of interest and discussion, capturing the attention and interest of millions of people.
The rest of the year, eleven months and thirty days, there were just two campaigns that achieved a similar spike.
Any effective marketing campaign whether it’s a series of Web videos, direct emails, magazine display ads, banner ads, outdoor billboards, television and radio spots, or any combination thereof, will only work if it focuses on a single message.
Word of mouth communication.
At the heart of all advertising is the promise you commit to delivering to your clients.
No matter how clever or memorable your marketing, if you fail to deliver on that promise, you will fail.
Word of mouth advertising examples
Learn a lesson from the politicians. The general publics’ opinion of politicians is about on a par with having a prostate exam.
Politicians can’t help themselves; they promise the electorate what the electorate wants to hear, and then fail to deliver on promises that can never be kept. Consequently, people become cynical and distrust everything politicians say.
Failure to deliver on your promise to be the cheapest, the best, or the guy with the most features, is like a politician promising no new taxes. Read my lips!
Those kinds of promises are a prescription for a marketing disaster.
Taking the conceptual approach requires a certain degree of confidence and an understanding that you are going to have to give something up to get something in return.
If you present your identity as the Timex of widgets, inexpensive and ubiquitous, then you are giving up the audience looking for the Rolex of widgets, expensive and exclusive.
Here is another example:
Jack Daniels wants your stories
Stories of intrigue…passion…and maybe a few chairs and tables flying. That’s what great bar tales are made of.
Sensing that everyone loves a good story, whiskey manufacturer Jack Daniels invited users to share their wackiest, most unbelievable bar story, and bundled them into a campaign it called “The Few & Far Between”
Word of mouth advertising effectiveness
Some of the stories involve Jack Daniels – like the “200 Shot Salute”, wherein a well-liked bartender’s remains were cremated and added to shots which were then consumed (knowingly) by patrons at his bar.
Others don’t involve Jack at all but are still funny and worth sharing. The brand doesn’t place itself at the center, but rather hovering in the background, but still noticeable and still in the back of consumers’ minds.
Key takeaway
You don’t have to put your product or service in the spotlight. With interactive content, simply inviting users to share a story from your particular industry can be enough to reinforce your own brand. What stories are your users waiting to tell?
For grabbing attention, the Super Bowl is a great place to launch a marketing campaign!
This list could go on, but I’ll end with one last powerful principle that is useful in reshaping opinions and getting people to rethink brands or categories — one of the best reasons to invest $5 million in a Super Bowl ad in the first place.
In early 2011, selling an American car was a tough ask. Most people still associated Detroit and American automakers with failure and bailouts.
More to study: Press Coverage … 9 Actionable Ways to Get Good Coverage
The principle of “two-sided messaging” was brilliantly used in Chrysler’s “Imported from Detroit”(No. 13).
We are more likely to engage with a message that fits with what we already believe. If someone feels negatively toward a brand, they’ll be resistant to hearing a direct, positive message.
By first acknowledging a few of its flaws, they’ll be more open to changing how they feel and what they believe.
The Chrysler spot tells us that, yes, Detroit has been through some tough times, but it’s also strong, resilient and knows a thing or two about art and culture and luxury.
By validating the viewers’ impressions of Detroit and, by reflection, Chrysler, the brand was able to turn “Imported from Detroit” into a “hell yes!” rally cry for the Motor City everyone felt proud to get behind.
Whether or not any of these ads were developed with the conscious use of behavioral science, it’s clear to see that when ads work the way our brains work, they capture our attention and make a lasting impact.
Think how much further ahead you can be if you start your ideation with behavioral science in mind.
Do you have an advertising experience or story to share with this community?
Need some help in capturing more customers from your advertising? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with your customers?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improve your advertising design?
Do you have a lesson about making your innovation better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
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.
More reading on social media marketing and advertising from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
19 Top Marketing Initiatives We Should Be Discussing
My Top SEO Strategies for Content Marketing Success
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
