Word of Mouth Marketing I

Currently I am reading this book titled "The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing." by George Silverman. I have read until Chapter 6. In the first few chapters, it is talking about how come the word-of-mouth marketing is so powerful. The first reason is because it actually reduce the decision time and costs and depending on the word-of-mouth that the prospects listen to, the extent of reducing the decision time and costs would be different. It also talks about the nine levels of word-of-mouth marketing, from spewing bad things about your products and services to eagerly sharing what is good about your products and services.

The book also says what type of medium of word-of-mouth marketing should be used for the niche market that you want to focus on. For example, if you are targeting innovators, the keywords that should be used in your word-of-mouth marketing would be, "It's so new and unusual, no one's even heard of it. It works on a totally new principle. Most people wouldn't even understand it." Sentence of similar nature would get the innovator market to be interested in your products or services.

The book also breaks the buying process into the following stages.
1) Deciding to Decide
2) Weighing Information
3) Trial
4) Implementing
5) Expanding Commitment

In the end, I strongly recommend this book to people who are interested in marketing, no matter whether you are interested in knowing more about Word-of-Mouth Marketing. I am now reading the section about Expert to Expert/Expert to Peer/Peer to Peer Word-of-Mouth.

One point I hope to stress to users is, have you rewarded customers that persuade their friends or acquaintances to buy your product? I think this is an area that is greatly neglected by most of the companies. Imagine if you are rewarded for sharing a product that you loved, you would be extremely loyal to the product. As mentioned in many business books, it is cheaper to make a repeat sale then to make a new sale. Take note of this.