Ad Tech NY: Create a Word of Mouth Campaign in Five Easy Steps

Five word of mouth heavy hitters explained how to create and measure the impact of a word of mouth campaign. They agreed that WOM can be unpredictable, but that it is an inexpensive and remarkably effective way to create customer evangelists.

The five steps to creating an effective WOM campaign:
* Finding the right people to talk about you (influencers & evangelists)
* Giving them something to talk about (viral email, samples, buzz, and more)
* Creating tools to make it easier for them to talk to each other (blogs, discussions, tell-a-friend forms)
* Participating in the conversation
* Tracking and measuring results

Key quotes:
Greg Stielestra: "Personal influence is the ONLY way to reach the apathetic."

Jim Elliot: "No word of mouth campaign ever works exactly the way you think it will. You need to nurture WOM, you can't control it. Let it go, let it find a life of its own."

"Be worth talking about."

"People don't spread the word because they are paid to."

Word of mouth, the panelists agreed, scares big companies."

Moderator, Andy Sernowitz, CEO, WOMMA
Panelists: Greg Stielestra, Sr Marketing Director, Zonfervan, David Neupert, CEO, M80, Jim Elliot, Cole & Weber.

The action at this conference is definitely in the hallways and on the hyper-kinetic and mind-bogglingly crowded and loud exhibit floor. Like this one, many sessions have been sparsely attended, despite good content.

Full conference coverage: Ad Tech Blog

BL,

Nice coverage of ad:Tech. I've selected this piece as a featured piece for tomorrow's (11/10) "Much Ado About Marketing" blog.

Please keep up the great insights!

Best,

Mike Bawden
Brand Central Station

I'd wanted to attend this session (I was blogging for ad:tech about an email marketing session running at the same time), but I hope the point was made somewhere along the way that WOM is a result, not a tactic. As Erik Hauser has correctly pointed out on the AdRants forums at Soflow, WOM is something that lives to the right side of the equals sign in the marketing equation, the result of delivering excellence (in product, service, advertising, etc.) on the left side of the equation. It's a great point, and one worth remembering whenever a discussion of WOM is happening.