Andy Sernovitz’s Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking (Amazon link) is a practical, hands-on guide to building your business through word of mouth marketing.
Word of mouth marketing isn’t something is difficult to do – you just need to 1) get started, 2) do it consistently, and 3) pay attention to what is working, what isn’t, and adjust accordingly. Andy’s book give you the tools and advice you need to do those three things. Here is a quick overview of what you will find in the book.
The first part of the book outlines the “essential concepts” of word of mouth marketing. Chapter 1 defines word of mouth marketing, outlines what makes it work (and what doesn’t), and explains how word of mouth marketing is most likely already your best source of business, even if you have been calling it something else.
Chapter 2 discusses the “deep stuff” relative to marketing and the increasing importance of word of mouth in growing your business. Part 1 of the book wraps up with a Word of Mouth Marketing Manifesto – 13 key points to keep in mind when designing and operating your word of mouth marketing campaigns.
Part 2 of the book focuses on “how to do it”, namely, how to implement Sernovitz’s 5 T’s of word of mouth marketing:
- Talkers – those who will tell their friends about you
- Topics – what they will talk about
- Tools – you can use to make it easier for the message to travel
- Taking part – or joining the conversation
- Tracking – measuring and understanding what is being said about you
The book provides several examples and worksheets to help you use these 5 T’s to implement your own word of mouth marketing campaign. You can also download the worksheets from the books website – https://wordofmouthbook.com
Other Notes
I think this is my favorite take away from the book:
“… if you choose to be a better business, you will do bigger business.”
and my second favorite quote is:
“Advertising is the cost of being boring.”
Don’t be boring, it’s too expensive.
How does Word of Mouth Marketing apply to small business and independent professionals?
This probably (hopefully?) seems like a silly question because, as pointed out on page 32, word of mouth has always been your best marketing.
So pick up a copy of Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking, and choose to be a better business.
One last note
While this book isn’t about social media, per se, if you are looking for guidelines for creating a social media policy for your business, take a look at the Honesty ROI starting on page 27. In this case, ROI stands for relationship (say who you’re representing), opinion (only say what you really believe), and identity (never lie about who you are). Following these simple rules and teaching them to your employees is a great social media policy as well as for building a business people want to talk about.
