Andy Sernovitz's Damn, I Wish I'd Thought of That!

You put the Word of Mouth Marketing book on the best-seller list

May 16, 2012

My book, Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking, had a big week last week:

#6 New York Times Bestseller
#1 Amazon Business Bestseller
#1 USA TODAY Money Bestseller
#1 B&N.com Bestseller

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

It’s a nice compliment for the book, but it says something bigger about the word of mouth movement. This is more than marketing, it’s a philosophy that spans all businesses and all industries.

This is about earning the respect and recommendation of our customers. It’s about building a trust, loyalty, and love that will carry the good guys at the good businesses through good times and bad.

And hey, it’s also a lot more fun too.

So to all of you who pre-ordered, blogged about the book, and shared it online and off — thank you for helping to make this word of mouth movement possible.

P.S. The book is available at Amazon, B&N.com, and in bookstores everywhere. And we had such a strong response from our workbook giveaway, we’ve decided to extend it. Just send your receipt for the book to editor@wordofmouth.org and we’ll send you our 16-page Word of Mouth Workbook (PDF).

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A name with a bug, part 2

May 16, 2012

Last week we had an amazing conference called the Word of Mouth Crash Course. It was a fantastic day, the third in a series.

But it wasn’t as big as we expected, and we discovered a critical reason why:

We changed the name of the event — it used to be called Word of Mouth Supergenius — without any testing.

Here’s what happened — people thought that it was an online course instead of a live conference. The word course implied online training to many people. We also failed to use certain trigger words that indicate that something is a live event: Summit, Expo, Conference, Boot Camp, etc.

Many of our most loyal fans had no idea that there was a conference, even though they definitely saw the promotion. It just didn’t connect somehow. They were disappointed when they found out later, and we lost a huge opportunity to serve them.

Lesson: Test, test, test any new name. You’re not going to know how it works until you start using it.

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A name with a bug, part 1

May 15, 2012

We were going to launch a site called WordofMouthMarketing.org.

During the few months we were planning it, everyone kept saying WordofMouth.org — they kept dropping the word marketing. Even employees and contractors who were working on the project.

That was a problem. If our own team couldn’t get the name right, how would our customers find the site?

So we killed the project until we could get ownership of WordofMouth.org.

It was incredibly lucky that we caught the problem before we launched. We would have sent all of our confused customers to someone else’s site.

Lesson: Test, test, test any new name. You’re not going to know how it works until you start using it.

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Give them an experience they’ll never stop talking about — and a reminder to re-start the talk

May 14, 2012

The Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, TX invites school and scout groups to spend the night camping in the zoo. It’s an amazing behind-the-scenes experience. More that just the camping, which is remarkable, you also get to feed a giraffe, pet a rhino, and hold a giant cockroach.

Just as important: Every kid gets a free shirt with the Zoo Snooze logo on it. And everyone other kid in school finds out about the Zoo every time the shirt is worn. (And because it was a Cub Scout trip, dozens of kids in the same grade all have the shirt.)

Lesson: Don’t just think about the experience. Think about the word of mouth experience afterward. Giving away a $5 shirt may be all it takes to turn customers into evangelists.

Lesson 2: It’s a shame how few businesses understand that souvenirs are critical word of mouth tools and not just a way to milk your customers for extra cash on the way out.

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What’s the simplest thing you can do to create a remarkable experience?

May 13, 2012

Subway gave us a kids meal in this nice reusable bag.

We talked about it, we told people, we kept it, and we tell more people when our daughter carries it around.

Probably cost them 30 cents — which is about 10 cents more than a throw-away box.

But the conversations it starts are priceless word of mouth advertising moments.

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35 ways to improve sales

May 12, 2012

Classic advice from e-commerce master Sam Decker, now CEO of Mass Relevance, originally published in 2004 and still relevant: Can I find that item I’m looking for? Tune your internal search engine to match top search terms to product pages. Put top sellers on home page. People buy on impulse or recommendation. Match the landing [...]

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Be friendly

May 11, 2012

Want people to love your company? Be nice, say hello, give praise. One of my favorites — random compliments for users of MailChimp:

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Marketing to kids. The right way.

May 9, 2012

I hate, hate, hate companies that market to my kids. I’m the guy who removes logos from stuff I buy so our family doesn’t turn into a walking billboard. But there is something you can do to reach my kids and make me happy: Teach them something. Teach them something that can be a family activity. [...]

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