Attaining Advertising Zen: How Word-of-Mouth Success is Savored through Good Karma
“Word-of-mouth” (WOM) and “viral” marketing are all the rage these days. The objective is simple: secure new customers through low-cost “buzz” about your product or service. The good news is that you don’t need to be selling the latest Web 2.0 AJAX-powered Software-as-A-Service add-on for Zero-to-Billions-in-No-Time.com. At its core, every successful WOM campaign is built on two basic business principles: (1) provide real value to people who recognize they have an unmet need and (2) make sure you always treat them respectfully.
It’s really all about karma. The Buddhist’s Law of Karma says “for every event that occurs, there will follow another event whose existence was caused by the first, and this second event will be pleasant or unpleasant according to the first.” WOM is all about converting prospects and customers into sales people for your products.
Karma infuses every nook and cranny of a business. We believe it ultimately determines whether a company’s culture can drive positive WOM and, with it, low cost sales. A one-time marketing campaign cannot catapult a company into WOM nirvana. WOM has to emerge from its culture, from how it does business each and every day.
Here are five principles we’ve learned about karma and WOM as we’ve bootstrapped our Web conferencing business, Glance Networks, to service over 2,000 companies worldwide today. More than 80 percent of those customers came to us “for free” by WOM. We think the same principles we apply can help just about any company build a positive WOM culture.
1. Is Your Product or Service Inherently Viral?
The most successful viral campaigns have a product that is (1) exciting, useful or fun and (2) has a simple-to-use viral element built into its design or delivery mechanism, so customers can spread the word.
Some standalone products, like an iPod or the Prius, have a coolness factor that makes them exciting to share with friends. In our case, whenever someone uses our online screen sharing service, there must be another party present, so every session is inherently a sales demo of our service. That gives us excellent pass-along value.
Even if your product or service doesn’t inherently lend itself to a word-of-mouth effort, incorporate into its design simple ways for people to tell others about it. Anyone who’s seen the proliferation of Digg.com and YouTube.com understands the power of sharing interesting news stories and videos with others. After all, Lonelygirl15 didn’t get her own fan sites all by herself. People passed along her videos until she became the darling of Internet video (until, of course, she was exposed as an actress!). This is WOM marketing at its most viral.
Reader Comments.
Amen and amen (if that’s the most appropriate way to phrase). Thank you for these excellent tips on how to connect/delight your customers and how that philosophy will naturally/organically grow your business and viral message. Wonderful and must-heed advice.
John C. Havens
About.com Guide to Podcasting (http://podcasting.about.com)
Podcast Vision and Voice (www.pvandv.com)
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