Blogs, RSS, IPods, Community Sites, Profiles, Listservs, Groups, Email a Friend and so on… whatever it is called, it is all known as Word of Mouth Marketing to those who are building huge audiences and driving business online.
In this whitepaper addressing "going beyond the browser," I will attempt to give an overview of the opportunities for using Word-of-Mouth Marketing and the threat from ignoring it.
In the past couple of years, the hot topics were CRM (Customer Relationship Management) or eCRM -about making sure that you manage customer relationships and marketing. Today and tomorrow, one of the hottest topics is Word of Mouth Marketing online, as it crosses all demographics and proves to be one of the most effective ways to build brand equity online and extend reach and response.
Take Blogs (Weblogs) for example. There is a big debate over how useful blogs are as advertising vehicles. I believe they are very important and will be one of the new ways we communicate brand messages to very specific groups of people who have hundreds of online acquaintances with those same specific interests.
A recent blog survey done by Edelman and Technorati found disconnect between the amount of contact bloggers were willing to have with PR professionals and the amount they received. The online survey polled 821 bloggers and found that half wrote about a company or product at least once a week. When asked how they would like a company to contact them, only two percent said they didn't want companies to do so. A majority of respondents favored a personalized e-mail. But only 16 percent of bloggers reported that companies or their PR firms generally attempt to interact with them in a personalized manner, and only 21 percent reported at least weekly correspondence from companies or their PR representatives. They reported much of the contact as a simple press release. Results of this survey are at: https://extranet.edelman.com/bloggerstudy/Default.aspx .
While this is important information about how many PR firms or companies are contacting bloggers, what is more important information to me is that the bloggers are positioning themselves, and truly are, experts to their peers. If the value of your company or destination brand is in the hands of the bloggers, shouldn't you know what they are saying about your destination or hotel? Wouldn't you want to influence that?
In the early days online, a listserv or discussion group could literally cripple a company that launched a new technology or product without the proper testing. I remember a couple of instances where the company literally let this slide while sales went down until they realized they could not simply ignore it and keep doing business as usual. They had to go into the groups and communicate; and manage customer and consumer messaging with fact. They had to be heard and had to manage the crises. This same situation could occur today, except now we have the opportunity to build relationships with bloggers and give them the facts they want that tell the story. This is a good lesson for destinations, hotels and resorts alike.
Bloggers have the power of communication and they lead the way with Word of Mouth. They are so serious about communication that they sign up for RSS feeds that alert them when one of their favorite Blogs has been updated or modified. It is unobtrusive, but a "reminder" to go check the blog. If you remember Listservs or Bulletin Boards you know that many authorities were able to shape consumer confidence in early tech products and the online industry by posting and positioning themselves with their peers. It is communication at its purest. As marketers we need to understand that and get the facts out about our products to the blog community in a way that they want it.
Consider another new Word of Mouth technology, the iPod, which now can even play videos! Savvy marketers use this technology to provide information and downloads to consumers who want to play the material on their iPod - for example, as a "tour guide" in a destination, museum, or amusement park. Ignore, at your own risk, the power of this personal device, because it's not just echo boomers or generation x that carries an IPod. Many boomers, CEOs and upper level business people like the device and can easily spend the $300 and more to enjoy their favorite music and videos. According to a February survey from The Pew Internet & American Life Project, more than 22 million American adults own iPods or MP3 players and 29% of them have downloaded podcasts from the Web so that they could listen to audio files at a time of their choosing. That amounts to more than 6 million adults who have tried this new feature that allows internet "broadcasts" to be downloaded onto their portable listening device. IPod sales are predicted to boom this holiday season.
Another vastly popular and effective Word of Mouth marketing channel is one we call "viral marketing" in the form of "email to a friend." This is usually a link prompt found at the bottom of an eNewsletter or permission email prompting the reader to "email to a friend" this online article, invitation, or offer.
Viral marketing has always been a strong online marketing strategy because people respond when the information is relevant to them and to those they know, and people respond to recommendations they receive from friends and family.
In fact, a good first rule of online marketing is: always make sure your message is relevant to the audience and that the audience wants to receive it. The "viral effect" is at the heart of this rule -- whether it results in passing along a joke, information on a great event, or a great travel offer. Viral marketing, or passing it along to a friend, is a great way to make sure you are hitting a relevant target audience.
While in its infancy today, word of mouth marketing is effective and here to stay, as is evidenced by the creation the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (www.womma.org) and the first ever conference on measurement, metrics, and standards in word of mouth marketing held this July in Chicago (see agenda at: http://www.womma.org/metrics/agenda.htm). I believe it will prove to be one of the most effective online marketing and communications tools we can use and that it's time to get your plan in place.
If you don't know what is being said about your product you need to know. If you don't know that your product fits a segment of the online market that you are not reaching, you need to find out, so you can educate them online, and they in turn, can education others for you.
