Street Sampling Blog

[influence of spheres, word of mouth marketing]

While attending the Chicago conference, I’ve taken some notes that mean a lot to my business, and hopefully will bring meaning and life to yours.

MARKETING ZONES

Zone 1 - The Impact Zone

Stepping right up and engaging an active participant. Demonstrations are designed for this type of zone. After engaging individuals in a lively, fun, interactive way, chances are pretty good they, in turn, will share your business with 4 of their friends.

Zone 2 - Residual Zone

This zone involves the transfer of information from a trusted authority. Messages delivered in this medium hold power.

Zone 3 - Loose Talk

Who wouldn’t want a ton of people doing nothing but talking about your business, right?! This type of zone marketing can significantly reduce the “cost per touch.” However, this is one of the hardest zones to accurately measure.

So with all that in mind, let’s consider a few key points to…

WORD OF MOUTH MARKETING

Word of Mouth Mindset

Be sure to put the customer in charge! It is not your conversation, but theirs that is most important. Always be sure to listen. If there is a shortcoming in the selling world, it is one’s inability to know when to keep silent and let the potential buyer do the talking!

Word of Mouth Message

Focus on the product fundamentals as the basis of messaging. Understand the role the product plays in the user’s lives; deliver the message in unexpected places.

Word of Mouth Messenger

Your proper selection of your product’s brand ambassadors has, of course, a hugh impact on your message. Properly selected brand ambassadors typically are advice influencers (inclusive), and have social networks 5 to 6 times larger than the average trendsetter (exclusive).

Again, these are just a few of the keynotes I made as reminders to myself. They may very well be applicable to your business, too.

[hypertargeting, word of mouth, 2009 marketing]

So I am in Chicago at a conference and wanted to share some highlights.

First, let me let you know that hyper-targeting is a buzz word floating around here. Hyper-targeting means drilling down and segmenting who your product would best appeal to. For example, assuming you owned Microsoft, and you are marketing for more consumers to purchase an Xbox, you need to “drill down” even further. Plain and simple, Xbox has seven categories ranging in the 17-21 year old market.

Just another bit to throw your way, here’s whats hot now and into 2009:

Strategy in all program elements
Word of mouth
Reach
Digital media
Measurement
Global reach
Amplification
Conversion.

In fact, obvious as it may be to state, conversion is (always) everything! Your business goal revolves around your ability to convert interested individuals into paying consumers.

Points to keep in mind; I’ve got to run, another workshop in the works to attend.

[experiential marketing also known as word of mouth marketing]

The other day I read a lengthy sales letter online. The details I won’t get into other than suffice to say cold marketing is a tough haul. The unlucky sap poured over $40,000 into a cold marketing campaign and saw so little return for his investment (it truly was pitiful), that I actually felt sorry for him.

Common sense tells us that a warm market is a ready market. It is so much easier to convert sales from warm marketing - rapidly turning them into a hot market of buying customers.

Word-of-mouth marketing, [also known as WOMM] encompasses a variety of subcategories, including buzz, blog, viral, grassroots, cause, influencer and social media marketing. You also need to include brand ambassador programs, work with consumer-generated media, and more.

WOMM (interchangeable with experiential marketing) is highly valued by product marketers. The sheer personal nature of the communications between individuals generates that added layer of credibility your product or service must have to be successful.

Statistical research bears out that individuals are more inclined to believe WOMM than other, more formal, forms of promotion methods. With experiential marketing, and that highly-in-your-favor one-on-one marketing, your listener is much more likely to hear your business message, and even more importantly, remember that message!

Take your business to the streets! Engaging people one-on-one, done properly with professionally trained brand ambassadors, is always more effective.

Just think about it… How many times have you bought a product solely based on the recommendation of a friend or family member? That simple act of one-on-one (word of mouth) praising of a product, you’ve got to agree, is your shoe in to increase your ROI.

The field of experiential marketing is wide open. For the advertiser, it is a must! And for those seeking work, with the right temperament and enthusiasm, employment as a brand ambassador may be just an email or phone call away.

We encourage you to come check out all your options at Street Sampling!