In little more than a decade, we’ve witnessed society move from a world where marketers of products, services, and ideas exercised complete control of venue, message, frequency, and channel; to one in which power is increasingly shifting to consumers through interactive engagement or even co-creation of content. Just consider:
- Today, nearly three-quarters of adults in the U.S. use the internet, and online population demographics -- and activities (fueled by broadband) -- continue to expand.
- Terms like wikkis & widgets, Facebook & Flickr, podcasts & YouTube, and RSS feeds & SEO (search engine optimization) are entering the lexicon of sophisticated marketers in the nonprofit as well as private sectors.
- The statistics are mind-boggling – MySpace would be the one of the largest countries in the world; more than 80 million blogs exist today; and the number of text messages sent each day exceeds the total population of earth.
- Yet, despite the extraordinary focus on online activities, the overwhelming majority of communications take place face-to-face or over the phone (recent brand research shows that roughly 9 out of 10 communications regarding brands take place this way).
The Word of Mouth Marketing Association defines word of mouth (WOM) as “The act of consumers providing information to other consumers.” We define word of mouth marketing (WOMM – keep your eye on that second “m”) as “Giving people a reason to talk about your products and services, and making it easier for that conversation to take place.”
Properly executed, word of mouth marketing invites organizations of every type and stripe to engage with the public by offering remarkable public offerings, products, services, or ideas; encouraging them to share perspectives with each other and with the marketer; and to do so in an ethical and transparent fashion.
The discipline encompasses dozens of marketing techniques intended to accomplish these goals.
As someone with decades of experience working in the nonprofit sector, I understand that using terms like “products” or “marketers” might offend some who believe that self-respecting nonprofit organizations should think of themselves as being on a higher plane. Fundamentally, I agree. Yet the unmistakable reality is that nonprofit organizations face unprecedented levels of competition for the public’s attention and support, and there is much that NPO’s can learn from what the smartest companies are doing today.
The reality is that the inherent power of word of mouth marketing lies in: New strategies and tactics to achieve historically-proven ends – the power of people’s recommendations to their friends, or to other people they interact with whom they feel are “just like me.”
At a practical level, savvy marketers from the nonprofit, private and public sectors are focusing increasingly on leveraging their investments in traditional media, online marketing, social networking, and the new phenomena called consumer generated media (i.e., people contributing public comments, messages, or media on blogs, message boards, in online communities, etc.) to produce the most powerful and effective form of marketing ever conceived: Word of Mouth!
Nonprofit organizations are particularly advantaged when it comes to using these powerful new communications techniques as NPO’s have, at many levels, always depended upon the goodwill of interested advocates, activists, and donors to spread their message.
You will readily comprehend the vastly different levels of control / influence that a marketer can exercise when using these common types of word of mouth / non-traditional marketing techniques.
- Buzz Marketing: Using high-profile entertainment or news to get people to talk about your organization.
- Viral Marketing: Creating entertaining or informative messages that are designed to be passed along in an exponential fashion, often electronically or by email.
- Community Marketing: Forming or supporting niche communities that are likely to share interests about your organization or cause (such as user groups or discussion forums); providing tools, content, and information to support those communities.
- Grassroots Marketing: Organizing and motivating volunteers to engage in personal or local outreach.
- Evangelist Marketing: Cultivating evangelists, advocates, or volunteers who are encouraged to take a leadership role in actively spreading the word on your behalf.
- Influencer Marketing: Identifying key communities and opinion leaders who are likely to talk about what you do and have the ability to influence the opinions of others.
- Conversation Creation: Interesting or fun advertising, emails, catch phrases, entertainment, or promotions designed to start word of mouth activity.
- Blogging: Creating blogs and participating in the blogosphere, in the spirit of open, transparent communications; sharing information of value that the blog community may talk about.
While most of these techniques predate recent technological advances, the reality is that technology now enables both marketers to engage in such practices on far-larger scale; and consumers to more easily participate. Further, they have sparked a growing desire on the part of consumers to interact with each other, and with organizations that capture their interest and loyalty.
Just as few nonprofit organizations used the internet 15 years ago; it is also true that few nonprofit organizations are taking of word of mouth marketing concepts or programs in any organized way. But of one thing you can be sure: The importance of word of mouth marketing will grow exponentially in the years to come. |