Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

What do you take more to heart - word of mouth enthusiasm or simply reading words. I, for one, trust and am more apt to follow-up on an enthusiastic endorsement from a friend, family member or an "average joe" who has used a product. Are you more willing to believe what someone tells you in conversation, or someone who is paid to advertise something? How to Spark Buzz, Excitement, and Free Publicity for Your Business or Organization With Little or No Money is an excellent and entertaining guide on the effectiveness of word-of-mouth advertising, rather than costly promotional options.

In today's economy, money is a slim commodity and yet in order to grow and even stabilize your business, you must have advertising. You decide what is more appealing: spending thousands of dollars and getting equal, or possibly less, positive exposure to your business or have people sing your business and/or products praises with no cost word-of-mouth. This should be a no hesitation answer. However, even though you may know which route you would rather go, you may not know exactly how or where to start.

How to Spark Buzz, Excitement, and Free Publicity for Your Business or Organization With Little or No Money By Lynn Thorne, takes the reader step-by-step into every aspect of marketing and publicizing, from beginning to follow-ups and customer service. This is a true indispensable guide for every business person and one that will be used again and again. As an extra bonus, How to Spark Buzz, Excitement, and Free Publicity for Your Business or Organization With Little or No Money is an enjoyable read, rather than a drawn out, hair-pulling, yawn-inducing instruction guide. Informative, educational, effective and entertaining. There is no other way to go and readers of this book will cherish it as their business flourishes without their pocketbooks screaming out in pain. Highly recommend!

If you're like me, and you have your own business, you've probably read countless business "how-to" books; most of them well-meaning, but, also, well...boring! What good is even the best information, if you fall asleep learning it! Trust me, that won't happen when you read Lynn Thorne's new book, "Word-of-Mouth Advertising." From page one you'll find yourself picking up a wealth of new strategies to move your business forward, while thoroughly enjoying the ride. With her natural wit and sass, Thorne reminds us that learning can still be fun (and funny!) That is not to say that the book is all fluff and no substance; quite the contrary! Her full title is: Word-of-Mouth Advertising, Online and Off: How to Spark Buzz, Excitement and Free Publicity for Your Business or Organization With Little of No Money. I know, it's a mouth-full and it promises a lot, but Thorne delivers! The book is impressively well-researched and thorough; a real "how to" manual chock-full of case studies and references. And one that you'll actually have fun reading!

"Word of Mouth Advertising Online and Off" is a solid resource for both large and small companies, non-profits, and independent sales people, on word of mouth marketing. Although the book starts off slowly and is somewhat repetitive (each chapter is unnecessarily summarized at the end in an "After Word"), the content is comprehensive and thoroughly researched. Especially in these rough economic times where every dollar spent needs to produce some sort of positive return, business owners and sales people will be looking for alternative (read: cheaper) methods to get the word out about their product. This book explains the most effective way to utilize email marketing, blogs, viral marketing, customer generated marketing, podcasts, etc.

I especially enjoyed the concrete examples of inventive word of mouth marketing successfully (and unsuccessfully) utilized by start-up companies, local businesses, as well as Fortune 500 corporations. I found much of the information was useful to me, as a small business owner, as well as for my husband, who is in medical sales for a large corporation. Over dinner one night discussing the ideas in the book (romantic, I know), we actually came up with a marketing idea for him to pitch to his company as a great way to get people talking about his product. As a small business owner and a consumer, I especially appreciated the discussions about customer service and, separately, the ethical considerations of word of mouth marketing. This book covers it all in a very easy-to-read, written-for-the-average-person kind of way.

This book is well-written with dozens of tips for the reader on how to maximize the many opportunities that exist right under their nose for free, or nearly-free advertising. There are so many ways to generate 'buzz' for yourself or your product, but most of us are just too danged busy CREATING our product to go about marketing it with any degree of success.

Thorne uses humor, insight and experience to underscore her tips-of-the-trade to good effect. An enjoyable read that's sure to give you many "a-ha" moments where you say, "Wow... I'd have never thought of that!"

Well worth the purchase price, it's sure to generate many times' that amount in new opportunities.

I highly recommend this information packed marketing tool. Over the past 15 years of business we have spent thousands of dollars on marketing classes. And it has been worth every penny.

But, if you want a resource for twenty bucks that will cover much of what I have learned over the past 15 years. Then this is the book. Lynn has compiled a wealth of information in a easy to read entertaining way. There is so much information that it is a bit like taking a drink of water from a fire hydrant!

My advice to you would be to pick two WOM tips that are in this book. Pick one that is comfortable for you, and pick one that you feel is absurd!! And then follow the formula exactly!

Be diligent and prepared to wait. It doesn't happen overnight. But if you stick with it, they will come!
www.irvingharris.com

We've all heard the phrase "word-of-mouth success." But if you think such success only happens to other business owners and professionals, you're wrong. Word of Mouth Advertising Online & Off walks you through the simple steps you too can take to build that highly coveted online and offline buzz for your brand, products, or services -- no matter how small your budget. Author Lynn Thorne, who's clearly done her homework, makes a great case for abandoning traditional (pricy, hit-or-miss) marketing tactics in favor of more grassroots, customized ways of hyping your business or organization. As a bonus, Thorne's writing style is both conversational and hilarious, making the book tough to put down. A must-read for entrepreneurs and marketing mavens everywhere.
--Michelle Goodman, author of My So-Called Freelance Life and The Anti 9-to-5 Guide
www.anti9to5guide.com

Lynn Thorne's Word of Mouth Advertising is a winner. Chock full of examples you can use today, this is one of the more helpful books I've read in a long time.