The ’sweat equity’ of WOM

Branding, Marketing Basics, Referrals / Referral Programs, Word of Mouth / Buzz

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Just about everyone would agree that word of mouth (WOM) is the best kind of marketing their is. Consequently countless books, blogs, products and presentations have been devoted to taming the elusive WOM.

In a comment to a post on The Society for Word of Mouth blog, Jack Shipley uses a great turn of phrase which says as much about WOM as quite a few books I’ve read. He refers to spending:

“the sweat equity of WOM for greater returns”

It’s a great phrase because it points to one of the keys to generating great WOM - graft.

WOM existed long before Twitter, blogs, social networks and review sites. It existed long before people worried about branding. It existed because some products or services or shops or people or caves or woolly mammoth traps were better than others.

When something is remarkably better than whatever else is available, that’s one really good reason to talk about it.

So, the hard work and graft that people put into building their businesses and creating products and services that will wow their customers is paid back in positive WOM.

It’s sweat equity.

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July 23rd, 2008 No comments

Need a guest blogger for your blog?

RPMC

by Mark Nagurski

Drew McLellan invited me to put together a guest post which ran yesterday on his Drew’s Marketing Minute blog. It’s definitely something I enjoyed doing and it opens this blog up to a wider audience as well.

Anyway … that got me thinking.

I’ve done a few guest posts for different blogs now and would love to do some more. So, if you have a blog, newsletter or print publication and think your readers would be interested in some Really Practical Marketing ideas or more general small business ramblings then let me know.

You can email me here.

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July 19th, 2008 2 comments

Finding under-served markets

Differentiation / Positioning, Marketing Basics

by Mark Nagurski

The Internet abounds with websites designed for parents - communities, forums, discount clubs, activities. All good stuff.

Springwise points to a new idea, a site dedicated to Aunties. Savvy Auntie describes itself as:

Unofficially, this site is meant for all you ladies who are totally mad for your nieces or nephews, friends’ kids, whatever….and you just want a place online where you can talk about them (and yes totally show them off!) and feel safe to ask questions about kids, their health, nutrition, even what they’re into these days – without having to go to a mom and feeling unsavvy!

Aunties and ladies who love kids have no doubt, totally, always been there but I can only assume that existing businesses presumed they were totally well enough catered for in this respect by parenting sites and blogs. Totally.

The Internet makes some pretty small niches viable as markets, plus, even if they’re not particularly large you can also use under-served markets as an extension to your core marketing.

Either way, as marketers we should always be looking for those unserved markets.

So, two quick questions that might point you in the right direction:

Is there a subset within your marketplace that you could serve particularly well? Is it large enough to sustain a business or could it be a nice extra if you can dominate it?
Are there groups of people outside my intended market that use my products or services? Could I market directly to them or create something for them in particular?

What other ways have you used to identify new, under-served markets?

Really Practical Marketing - Small business marketing ideas, local marketing basics and marketing tips and resources

The ’sweat equity’ of WOM

Need a guest blogger for your blog?

Finding under-served markets