Surprising Insights From A Collection of Word of Mouth Marketing Info Graphics

October 24, 2011 By 1 Comment

Info graphic are doing the round online, and the good ones really do help when it comes down to summarising a collection of data. So I thought I would dig around and find a few on word of mouth marketing that were worth sharing.

I found three from really credible resources and there are definitely some surprises here. I have summarised my key points below but I think one thing does stand out. The social media groupies do not come out as well as they sell themselves. The three info graphics are below my summary:

  • 9 out of 10 word of mouth marketing conversations happen offline. Ouch. And guess what: social media is not word of mouth marketing.
  • Most word of mouth marketing conversations are positive. This certainly dispels some rumours but I would imagine this would depend on the brands industry and category so I would still be careful.
  • Service and experience are critical drivers of your marketing strategy. Make your online strategies a subset of this rather than the definer of this.
  • Buying decisions are most influenced by people and information (see two points below) – not advertising.
  • Offline is more credible than online
  • Information from search marketing is more relevant to buying decisions than info from social media. Your content marketing strategy is more important than our social media when it comes to buying (but this does not mean you ignore social media).
  • The source of information is critical and the least trustworthy source of information are platforms and message’s controlled by marketers.
  • Spreading an idea is a very different action from buying. Don’t confuse the two.

These are just my thoughts based on the graphics below. Check them out and let me know what your thoughts are below in the comments? [Continue reading...]

The 5 Reasons Why We Talk About Brands — And How To leverage It?

October 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

2004 Dell had 8 million customers. Those 8 million customers passed on 40 million positive comments, creating 1 million new customers through word of mouth.*

The numbers don’t lie.

Word of Mouth is the most effective form of marketing.

Today you can expect between 1 – 5% ROI on your traditional above the line media spend. Given Dell’s numbers you just cannot compare the value of word of mouth to traditional media — even digital media — as up to 90% of word of mouth happens off line.

So why do people talk and how can you leverage it?

There are five primary reasons why people talk to each other about brands and products. Each has a different focus and there are different ways you can leverage it — which in some cases just requires some creative thinking as opposed to a structured approach: [Continue reading...]

Why your customer strategy must focus on social thinking and not social techno

October 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

This is not a go-do post. It’s a go and think about it post. Here are three Ted Talks I originally saw on Mashable and convey an important message for your customer strategy and how you create earned media: It is how we socialise and not technology that we need to focus on. What makes [...]

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Where Has The Media Eco-System Really Changed – And How To Master This

October 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

This post was originally published in 2009 as part of the Making Mobile Media Work and The Mobile Consumer Series. While things are moving and changing really fast it it still is relevant today as it was then. The traditional media eco-system is going through a major metamorphosis. At first glance it would seem that [...]

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Why You Are Only Getting 1,5 % On Your Advertising – And How To Fix It

October 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

With the growing economic challenges, marketing ROI will be a bigger consideration for many brands, with the focus on getting more for less. Many brands will already have experienced a cut-back on budgets. So What’s The Real Cost Of Advertising? Many digital marketers are securing their budgets by naively claiming that traditional media is dead. [...]

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Something Old, Something New, And Something Just The Same

October 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

There is traditional word of mouth and then there is new word of mouth. This is an idea I have seen online in a various places. The logic is simple: social media equals new word of mouth. I cannot fault the logic but I think this idea is misleading and detracts from what is really [...]

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