The term ‘Word of Mouth Marketing‘ often refers to the word of mouth of big companies with big marketing budgets trying to reach a huge audience.

Most of this information is simply a distraction to small business.

If you want an introduction to the basics of big business word of mouth aka viral marketing, buzz marketing and a bunch of other names, then I still recommend the original IdeaVirus by Seth Godin.

For the most part I don’t look into much more of big business styles.

But when Seth Godin himself announced a word of mouth publication I thought it was worth a look.

It is “The Word of Mouth Manual - Volume II” by Dave Balter, Founder and CEO of BzzAgent, and co-founder of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), the peak body for big business WoM.

Here are the most relevant excerpts for small businesses…

“[The period immediately after buying something]… is a unique and incredible moment in a product’s life cycle. One in which consumers feel absolutely compelled to make believers of the people around them. Word of mouth skills go into overdrive. We practice our most persuasive techniques. We extol our knowledge to accelerate the decisions of others.”

And this one gets to the heart of a topic I have covered before on this blog…

“.In an experiment described in a scientific paper, “Effort of Payment”, researchers explored how people’s behavior is affected by various forms of payment. A research subject asked a series of friends to help him load a sofa into a van and promised each one a different kind of reward. The researchers found that people were much more likely to help if they were offered a simple, non-cash reward like a bag of jellybeans or a pizza. The offer of cash immediately caused people to evaluate the task differently - not as a favor for a friend but as a work for hire. (Likely, they’ll want more moolah ’cause your couch is so heavy, dammit.) A pizza is seen as a thank you among equals. A cash payment completely changes your relationship.

What does this have to do with word of mouth? The research shows that people often expend more effort if they’re getting no payment at all than they would for a low cash payment. This is why I hate shlll marketing so much. People are paid to act like they’re enjoying a product, even if they’re not. Suppose the sample guy at the supermarket offered you $5 to tell your friends you dug the gouda cube? You’ll likely say, “No thanks.”

So rewards don’t pollute the process. Cash does. That’s why paying [people], whether in dollars or Krugerands, is never going to generate the same authenticity of just letting them try a product on their own.”

Oh, and nothing to do with small business, but I hadn’t come across this one before…

“Sometime around the beginning of time, Eve offered Adam an apple, and so word of mouth began.”

Hmm. Not exactly a positive spin on word of mouth I would have thought.

Anyway, this book is fairly good read, a solid argument for word of mouth marketing methods, and also a nice behind the scenes look at the author’s BzzAgent company. Did anyone say plug-fest, or is that meant to be ‘word of mouth’?

Oh and it’s free as an e-book by clicking here, and you can buy the paper copy for yourself if you like it for trophy value.

Otherwise I hope I’ve given you the important bits. Happy marketing!

-Martin Russell

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