Book Summary Preview : The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing

The Big Idea
Word-of-mouth marketing is the most powerful and persuasive weapon you can use, and it won’t cost you anything! Based on Silverman’s years of consulting with successful word-of-mouth campaigns of his own clients, here is one of the first resources on how to harness the power of word-of-mouth, and be heard above the media noise. Spread the word about your hot new product or company!

The Copernican Revolution in Marketing
Just as it is untrue that the sun revolves around the earth, marketing does not revolve around advertising, selling, and promotions. Much of marketing is illusion-creation. This encompasses product image, positioning, brand identity, etc.

Word-of-mouth is actually the center of the marketing universe. People talk about ads they see, information they have read, and it is the talk that persuades one to buy, not the actual marketing material. When a satisfied, happy customer recommends your product or service, it comes across as genuine, objective, and unsolicited. The main thing is to build a great relationship with customers so they will always speak favorably about your business. Getting the customer to sell your product through word-of-mouth is the best way to increase sales.

The other side of the coin…
Studies have shown that a satisfied customer will tell an average of three people about a product or service she likes, and eleven people about a product or service with which she had a negative experience. So word-of-mouth marketing can backfire if you don’t watch how you treat your customers, you may create your own bad reputation.

Word of Mouth is more important now than ever before.
Today is the Information Age and none of us have the time to digest huge quantities of information. Traditional advertising is on the decline. It costs more to advertise now, and the results are less effective. Word of mouth becomes a necessary time-saver. Customers will filter the information they receive, and pass it on and give us the benefit of their experience.

E-mail, chat rooms, forums, Websites, and teleconferences will bring us the word of mouth that saves time and money.

1. Dominating your market by shortening the customer decision cycle
It may be widely believed the 3 ways to increase sales are by:

• Increasing number of customers
• Increasing dollar amount each customer spends per purchase
• Increasing the frequency of purchase

But the most important way by which sales can increase is by increasing the speed with which decisions are made. . . . . . . .

Want to read the rest of this summary? click here >>