Great Word Of Mouth Starts With Great Topics

Effective word of mouth marketing needs topics, talkers, tools, time and tracking.  But perhaps the critical start point is your topic.  

Want word of mouth to work for you? Then give people something to talk about. 

A complex or boring message rarely works so when you step out in public your topics must spark interest and cause conversations.  And that only comes about because they are new, different or useful to your audience.  

Your messages must be simple and uncluttered otherwise people beyond your organisation will not understand them and struggle to tell others when they connect with them over the phone, on-line or face to face.

True, your first topic could be about what your organisation does.  But you need to build on this with new, relevant and engaging conversations that are reflect the  value your organisation brings.  People will not share stale or repetitive content so your marketing imperative is to continually refresh, reinvent and represent your information. 

Stories make great topics.  While most of us have little time to be marketed to, we will make time to hear a story. These could be stories about achievements, who you helped or better still those generated by supporters willing to craft and pass on their personal testaments to others (user generated content.)  

A great word of mouth campaign requires simple topics people can relate to and willingly share.  And generally these have one of two key ingredients humans respond to: humour and emotion.