Word of Mouth: The Real Deal

As Dave Balter (founder of BzzAgent and conference speaker) writes in his must read book, Grapevine: The New Art of Word-of-Mouth Marketing, the big key to successful WOM is moving from an "at you" approach to a "with you" mindset. Campaigns that are generated by both the consumer and marketer will have much stronger legs.

The WOMMA conference not only poured out mounds of meaningful content and ideas, but was an incredible network of talented and cool people. I polled a few of them to share their big takeaways, too:

Successful and long-lasting word of mouth marketing is not a tactic. It's a way of doing business every day. Businesses need to be interesting to get customers interested. It's no secret that remarkable things get remarked, yet too many businesses and their products are so unremarkable to the extent no one cares to remark about them.
--John Moore of Brandautopsy.com

WOM is gaining momentum and credibility among mainstream companies, across many industries, as evidenced by the attendance at the conference. It wasn’t just service providers, as in the past.

There was an increased emphasis on "listening" before "engaging" in WOM. It's vital to understand the context of how people are talking about your brands and products before you engage in a WOM campaign.
--Luci Sheehan, Vice President of Sales, Umbria, Inc.

My biggest takeaway is that marketers need to shift their thinking about WOM and take a much bigger approach. They need to think of word of mouth in a much broader sense than simply a replacement for advertising. Word of mouth may touch customers at many different points in their experience and interaction with a brand. WOM programs need to be integrated into many aspects of a company's operations, not just marketing -- product development, marketing, customer support. The more integrated the programs, the more successful they will be.
--Maggie Colby, Leader, Intuit Marketing Best Practices

No matter what size organization you work with, if you are B2B or B2C, WOMMA and its programs are worth your time and money. The membership offers a lot of special benefits, but just signing up for the free weekly blast provides tremendous value. Building brands today takes fire on all cylinders. Make WOM a big engine.

Brand on!

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