Lately, I have been reading through the book Word of Mouth Marketing by Andy Sernovitz and have come to really admire how simply he lays out word of mouth marketing. If you haven’t read his book, you should. Without further adieu, here are some ideas offered in the book:

1. Find the people who will talk about you

The people with enthusiasm for your message is a great place to start, but if you don’t already have people willing to talk about you, how do you get them? First, start by doing a lot of commenting either on blogs of in forums. As you build your presence, people will repay in kind and talk about either you or your product. As long as you are open and genuine, you will build a following. After some time this, following will continue to build itself. Another way to get people to talk about you is to have a product that is remarkable. Having a remarkable product can’t be fake. It has to be real, otherwise the backlash will highly outweigh the benefit of trying. People love Macintosh because of the product, not because Macintosh paid them to go out and say good things about the company.

2. Give them a reason to talk

This is the reason that you want to find and target the edge of your market. When you market to the edge, you are offering a product or service that no one else is really doing. When you offer that product, it gives people a reason to talk about it because not many people have heard of it or used it. When a product is good or exceptional, people can’t help but talk about it. Everyone has an opinion and most people like to voice their opinion when it comes to something they think they know better on. Why do people love talking about the newest gadget every time they get one? It’s because not many other people have them yet.

3. Help the message grow

In the world of blogging, this would be the Tell a Friend button on your posts or the easy submit buttons to your favorite social network sites. This would also be the weekly newsletter people can get in their inboxes and easily forward to their friends and family. What about a free coupon for a friend as your customer is walking out the door? Talk about a great way to get either your customers or their friend to return to your store. If they don’t use it, you aren’t out anything. If they come back, you probably have gained a couple customers out of the deal. What have you got to lose?

4. Participate in the conversation

People love to feel special and important. If someone feels like they are in the know or part of a special group like a beta tester is, they will find ways to tell others about their status. So give people that option to be a part of the “in crowd” and tell them all you can about the new features or open things up to Q&A. In turn, they will relay that message and knowledge to others. As the flow of conversation happens, more trust is built and ideas are shared resulting in a better service and product while including your customers in the discussion.

5. Record what is happening

Of course I don’t think it is entirely possible to record or track everything that everyone says about you or your product, but there are a few useful tools out there. I love using Google Alerts (GOOG)to find the new happenings about my selected keywords. Every day I get an email that lists different Google news of blog posts found containing my selected keyword. Some days I don’t get anything from a specific keyword, but when Google finds something it is sure to let me know. Another option is to open up your own forum to help people with their issues or questions. As membership grows, the forum will give you a pulse of the sentiment for your product.

Word of mouth marketing usually takes a little more effort and thought to ensure it is properly executed. Even then, you can’t be sure that it will work out the way you intended. It is impossible to say how people are going to react to different products or ideas, and giving them the microphone can be a double-edged sword. With that said, always remember to be honest in your marketing and tactics. If you aren’t, it will probably bite you in the….

Have you had a successful word of mouth marketing campaign? Go ahead and share it with everyone.

*Don’t forget about the contest for the best business card design for Unconventional Marketing worth $50, you can enter more than once.

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