Word of Mouth Marketing: Sharing Is Not Salesmanship
By Ted Wright October 11, 2018
If you’ve been reading previous posts, you should know that Word of Mouth Marketing is all about sharing stories.
Word of Mouth Marketing is about trying to get your story out to people who are really going to care about it and do it in such a way that they’ll organically come to hear about your story.
It’s the organization of those people out in the public who love to share stories with their friends and make sure those friends have an easy way to learn about products and services worth knowing about.
For an influencer, your brand story is a lot like a birthday present.
With a birthday present, you spend a lot of time thinking about what you’re going to put inside the gift box – and your goal is to find a gift that matches the person you’re giving the gift to. You take the box and you wrap it in something that’s interesting – wrapping paper. It’s shiny, it’s sparkly, it grabs a person’s attention. Top it off with a bow – and you’ve created a package that’s just asking to be opened.
When you give a gift, you’re sharing something special with somebody – this is just like Word of Mouth Marketing.
Word of Mouth Marketing is creating a story, wrapping it up nicely (this could be through event marketing, a PR stunt, or lighting someone’s hair on fire) as long as it’s authentic, interesting, and authentic – something people will share.
Bring the gift it to your friend’s birthday party, and just wait to see what happens.
If you want to make sure your brand story is worth sharing, here is the Fizz no-fail checklist:
- Authentic: When you explain your brand and work to others, are you using your own, authentic voice and excitement, or do you sound more like a lawyer?
- Interesting: If you bring it up at brunch, are people interested? This is of course subjective to the type of group you’re at brunch with – mothers with 3 young children will have different interests and concerns than a group of young adults looking for their first post-college job, but the story should be interesting for the demographic it’s meant to be targeted to.
- Relevant: Really, is this going to make a difference in anyone’s lives?
It’s about sharing. It’s not about salesmanship.
Word of Mouth Marketing never says “Hey, let me tell you about this!” – it’s about when an influencer finds a relevant and authentic opportunity to share something with you.
We all love birthday presents, but not many people love telemarketers. It’s about sharing when it’s authentic, not pushing products at any opportunity.
People will always welcome having things shared with them if they fit into these three categories:
- This is interesting to me
- This is relevant to my life
- This is authentic to the person (or brand) sharing this with me
Real influencer marketing works because influencers, at their core, love to share. Whether it’s with their small group of friends or thousands of people on social media – they share using word of mouth marketing. It’s organic, authentic, and they are people who would share whether they’re getting paid or not.
Ted Wright is the founder of Fizz, the world’s leading word of mouth marketing (WOMM) agency. Ted is also an acclaimed WOMM keynote speaker and the author of Fizz: Harness the Power of Word of Mouth Marketing to Drive Brand Growth