Word-of -Mouth Advertising Online and Off: How to Spark Buzz, Excitement, and Free Publicity for Your Business or Organization -- With Little or No Money [Paperback]

Lynn Thorne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2008

Word-of-Mouth Marketing, WOMM as it is commonly known, is the least expensive form of advertising and often the most effective. People believe what their friends, neighbors, and online contacts say about you, your products, and services. And they remember it for a long, long time. Word-of-mouth promotion is highly valued. There is no more powerful form of marketing than an endorsement from one of your current customers. A satisfied customer s recommendation has much greater value than traditional advertising because it is coming from someone who is familiar with the quality of your work. The best part is that initiating this form of advertising costs little or no money. For WOMM to increase your business, you need an active plan in place and do what is necessary to create buzz. If your business is on the Web, there are myriads of possibilities for starting a highly successful viral marketing campaign using the Internet, software, blogs, online activists, press releases, discussion forums and boards, affiliate marketing, and product sampling. Technology has dramatically changed traditional marketing programs. This new up-to-date book covers it all. This all sounds great, but what is the catch? There really is none, except you must know what you are doing! This groundbreaking and exhaustively researched new book will provide everything you need to know to get you started creating the buzz free publicity about your product or service whether online or off. In this easy to read and comprehensive new book you will learn what WOMM is, how to get people talking about your product or service, how to get your customers to be your sales force, how to get WOMM to spread quickly, how to automate WOMM, how to create a blog, create awareness, and how to amplify it. The entire process is covered here: marketing, dealing with negative customer experience, writing online press releases, creating a customer reference program, bringing together a fan club/loyalist community, naming VIPs, using flogs (photos), and spurring evangelism among influential people. Included are tactics that pertain especially to non-profits, including reputation management. In addition, we have gone the extra mile and spent an unprecedented amount of time researching, interviewing, e-mailing, and communicating with hundreds of today s most successful WOMM marketers. Aside from learning the basics you will be privy to their secrets and proven successful ideas. Instruction is great, but advice from experts is even better, and the experts chronicled in this book are earning millions. If you are interested in learning essentially everything there is to know about WOMM in addition to hundreds of hints, tricks, and secrets on how to put WOMM marketing techniques in place and start earning enormous profits, then this book is for you.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Publishing Company (FL) (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1601380119
• ISBN-13: 978-1601380111
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,752,828 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Help for you to build WOMM into your marketing plan so your company can leverage Word-of-Mouth advertising to maximum benefit!, October 20, 2008

By 

Jeff Lippincott "JLIPPIN" (Princeton, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Word-of -Mouth Advertising Online and Off: How to Spark Buzz, Excitement, and Free Publicity for Your Business or Organization -- With Little or No Money (Paperback)

Nice book. It is well written and well outlined. It explains pretty clearly what you can do to get free publicity for your product or service and how to create buzz. It has 12 chapters and two appendices:

0. Introduction to Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM)

1. First words - 5 advantages of WOMM

2. The C-word - The customer is king

3. The B-word - Buzz

4. Virtual words - Internet marketing

5. All the world's a stage - Affiliate marketing

6. For words - Viral marketing

7. Is that even a word? - Blogs

8. In words and out words - Email marketing

9. A word from our sponsors - Chapters 6-8, but for NPOs

10. The F-word - False, fake, and forthright

11. Bad words - Monitor negative buzz

12. Conclusion - Famous last words

A. Proven secrets and tips from WOMM

B. More types of low cost (or free) WOMM campaigns

There are many different types of marketing plans. Some are pretty much just advertising plans. Others are personal networking plans. Some are stickly Internet-based, i.e., Internet marketing. While others involve public speaking and doing seminars and workshops for a fee or free. The one that tends to touch upon all of these different styles of marketing is Word-of-Mouth (WOMM).

In this book you learn about the 5 steps to successful WOMM:

>>Find all the right people

>>Massage your message (give people something to talk about)

>>Give "the message/talk" away (send out free samples)

>>Pass "the talk" out (blog, viral campaign, reviews ...)

>>Stay on track

The author covers a lot of angles in this book when it comes to WOMM. I think it is definitely a worthwhile read for any small business owner who wants to reevaluate their company's marketing plan and make sure it is using WOMM to its fullest potential. 4 stars!

PS. I just read and posted a review for "Dirty Little Secrets of Buzz" (ISBN: 9781402213373). In my humble opinion, the instant book being reviewed should be read along with Dirty Little Secrets. Both books compliment each other.

5.0 out of 5 stars What every small business owner needs to know, November 29, 2011

By 

Joe - See all my reviews

This review is from: Word-of -Mouth Advertising Online and Off: How to Spark Buzz, Excitement, and Free Publicity for Your Business or Organization -- With Little or No Money (Paperback)

Well organized and an easy read. The author provides lots of examples and tips to help you design a wining WOMM campaign. This book would be very useful for anyone starting their own business and looking to maximize their marketing potential with minimal investment.

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Information, very easy read, November 29, 2011

By 

Dawn Fink (Lexington Park, MD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Word-of -Mouth Advertising Online and Off: How to Spark Buzz, Excitement, and Free Publicity for Your Business or Organization -- With Little or No Money (Paperback)

This book was very well written. It is an extremely easy read. The author set a very conversational tone from the beginning that just pulled you right in. All of the case studies were insightful and offered good suggestions for ways to avoid pitfalls. I would recommend this book for anyone looking for a way to advertise themselves with little or no budget.