How to use word of mouth
Michael Pollock
There is a simple and important understanding in this piece that Dave
Morgan wrote today in a newsletter about a new book: PryoMarketing by
Greg Stielstra. All nonprofits have a core group of stakeholders -
picture them as you read this and you can start to apply this
thinking. The principles absolutely apply. It's quite provocative. I
have edited him somewhat.
"Sielstra makes sense of what is behind social or word-of- mouth
marketing, and presents a very practical approach to making these
techniques work in the field.
What did Stielstra say? Well, he started with a pretty effective
metaphor for why mass marketing no longer works. Simply put, consumers
today are drowning in product choices, media choices and ads. And,
unfortunately, many of the very tactics that marketers are employing
to cut through this clutter -- putting more ads in more places or
using sensationalism or shock to get ads noticed -- is backfiring and
making consumers more resistant to, and even resenting, advertising in
general.
What is his strategy for overcoming this flood? He used another pretty
effective metaphor here as well -- fire. Stielstra's view is that
marketers need to think about their work in connecting their products
and services with consumers like fire. It is the strategy that he used
to help make The Purpose-Driven Life a massive bestseller (he was
marketing director for that publisher). Here is his four-step plan and
how he has used it:
* Gather the driest tinder.
Marketers should start first by focusing only on their very best
target customers, those most likely to buy, who like the product and
want to tell their friends and acquaintances about it. Much like
starting a campfire, marketers should not try to light a bunch of
thick logs all at once (I come from the mountains of western
Pennsylvania, so I understand this). Instead, they should take great
care to find the smallest and most "ignitable" audiences first. You
need to find receptive consumers with powerful affinity networks. For
The Purpose-Driven Life, since it was an inspirational book about
faith, Zondervan focused first on 400 ministers around the country who
had already been using sermons prepared by the author.
* Touch it with a match.
Once the target audience has been collected, marketers need to deliver
a product experience to these folks. This doesn't mean hammer them
with ads. It means creatively find ways to get your products into
these best prospects' hands so that they can experience it. For The
Purpose-Driven Life, the publisher sent those 400 ministers copies of
the book, together with teaching plans tied to the book and offers to
sell the book in bulk to their parishioners at cost. The 400 ministers
distributed 400,000 books this way.
* Fan the flames.
Once the tinder has caught fire -- or the target audience has
experienced the product -- you need to help the fire grow. You need to
give these consumer tools to evangelize the product. For The Purpose-
Driven Life, Zondervan helped the ministers create and lead daily
discussion groups with their parishioners. In this case, 400,000 folks
participated in daily discussions for 40 days, with each session tied
to the book's 40 chapters, as per the teaching plans. This immersive
experience created a mass of extraordinary book evangelists. Within
months, the book made it to the USA Today Bestseller List, where it
spent more than 100 weeks.
* Save the coals.
Once you have captured satisfied customers, don't lose them. Don't let
the flame go out. Much as you save some hot coals for the next day's
fire, you need to capture key customer contact information so that you
can easily reach these folks again to sell more products to them in
the future. For The Purpose-Driven Life, the publisher found that a
large number of customers were buying the book in bulk and giving them
away to friends. So, rather than just prospecting for new book buyers,
the company continued to market to its core buyers, who kept buying
more and more books."