small business and word of mouth - why it works
DESCRIPTION
Presentation from Bill Balderaz and Amy Marshall of Webbed Marketing (www.webbedmarketing.com) for the Word of Mouth Research SymposiumTRANSCRIPT
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Small Business and Word of Mouth – Why it works
Bill Balderaz Amy Marshall
Webbed Marketing www.webbedmarketing.com
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Slide 2
Agenda
• Why WOM works for Small Business • Planning a WOM episode for Small Business • An approach to tracking WOM • Small Business WOM case studies
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Slide 3
WOM is Good for Small Businesses
• Fast • Flexible • Willing to experiment • Gutsy • Limited budget
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Slide 4
Small Businesses are Fast
• Make decisions quick • Moderate approval processes • No “brand police” • Acting quickly is critical for WOM strategies
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Slide 5
Small Businesses are Flexible and Willing to Experiment
• Less to loose as a big brand • Results driven • Motivated to have customers create content
because of limited bandwidth • Take more risks on edgy content
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Slide 6
Small Businesses are Gutsy
• Thick skin for negative comments and can respond quickly
• Able to “let go” of conversations • Engage in customer conversations
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Slide 7
Small Businesses Have Small Budgets
• Can’t always afford expensive, traditional media • WOM is less expensive per impression • Measurement is tangible
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Planning a Word of Mouth Episode for Small Business
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Slide 9
Clear Goals
• Can’t measure “more buzz” • Define measurable metrics – 16 media placements,
40 relevant links, increase sales 12% • Take baseline metrics before campaign starts
SEO metrics, Social Media metrics
• Break metrics down into quantifiable goals Mentions in blogs, social networks, links to the site…
• Small businesses can quantify metrics easily
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Slide 10
Determine the Hook
• Set goals before determining the “hook” • Questionnaire to determine need – What gets the
participants excited • Examples: Free sample, white paper, video,
online calculator/application, stunt
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Slide 11
Determine Distribution Plan
• Earn your way into distribution • Avoid word “Free” • Small businesses tend to have a small niche – look
for specialized networks or “celebrity” bloggers that don’t often get pitched
• Rate the value of each participant and determine the pitch
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Slide 12
Determine Distribution Plan
• Think in terms of most efficient coverage • Examples: Pitch a blogger, obtain a following on
MySpace/Facebook, use tagging sites, Tweet to your target, make new connections on LinkedIn build a presence on targeted social networks
• Great Content+Great Distribution=Great Word of Mouth
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An Approach to Tracking WOM
Scorecard
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Slide 14
The Webbed Marketing Scorecard
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Slide 15
The Webbed Marketing Scorecard
• Tracks “micro goals” that funnel into strategic goals
• In bound links, blog mentions, presence on social networks, traffic numbers, web mentions and other measurable metrics funnel into strategic goals
• Provide real evidence of measurable improvement • Provide direction on where to focus efforts
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Small Business WOM Case Studies
Moochie & Company Suburban Cylinder Propane
Blossom4Girls Shizuka Spa – aka “The Bird Poop Facial”
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Slide 17
Moochie & Co.
• A high end start up specialty web and mall pet gift and accessories retailer
• Highly targeted market, highly competitive industry, limited advertising budget
• Consumers and influencers are heavy web users
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Slide 18
Moochie & Co.
• Press releases timed with high search volume, high media attention topics “I Love My Mommy” tshirt near Mother’s Day “Take Your Dog to Work” campaign “I Have Two Daddies” campaign “MySpace for Cats & Dogs”
• Highly targeted market, highly competitive industry, limited advertising budget
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Slide 19
Moochie & Co.
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Slide 20
Moochie & Co.
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Slide 21
Suburban Cylinder Propane
• Decidedly “unsexy” topic • Difficult to explain to consumers • Opportunity to use humor • Leverage an icon everyone knows
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Slide 22
Suburban Cylinder Propane
• Create phony awards ceremony • Disgruntled Tooth Fairy speaks out • Distributed via press releases (one outlet published
it as a “real” release!), on social networks and direct to “grilling” influencers
• The Propane Fairy developed a fan base
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Slide 23
Suburban Cylinder Propane
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Slide 24
Blossom4Girls
• Highly competitive space • Unknown brand • Limited advertising budget
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Slide 25
Blossom4Girls
• Take advantage of existing buzz around High School Musical
• Take advantage of “School’s Out” stories being published
• Stay true to brand image • Hold contest for Blossom4Girls Party
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Slide 26
Blossom4Girls
Metric May 2008 June 2008 Traffic Rank (3 mo average) This metric ranks websites in terms of overall traffic. Note: Yahoo! is number 1 in the Alexa
ranking. The lower the number, the higher the traffic. 2,905,495 602,403
In Bound Links Indexed by Yahoo! This approximate metric tracks how many Yahoo! indexed sites link to the domain. 7 84 Alexa Page views per user This metric measures the average number of pages viewed by human visitors. 6.5 8.6 Webbed-O-Meter Buzz Measurement This category combines mentions on blogs, forums and other consumer generated content
sites to decide a site’s “buzz” factor. The scale is 1 to 100 with 100 being the highest score.
2.2 5.6
Web (IceRocket) “Blossom4Girls”
“www.blossom4girls.com” 197 157 1,250
548 Web (Google)
“Blossom4Girls” “www.blossom4girls.com”
1,260 555
Compete.com Traffic numbers People
Visits Insufficient
data 3,441 10,162
Quantcast numbers US Reach
Rank Insufficient
data 2,163 526,739
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Slide 27
Shizuka New York
• Located in Midtown Manhattan • Cosmetology & skin care with “Eastern Holistic
Knowledge” • Featured in international media including Marie
Claire, Shape, Vogue, and Harpers Bazaar
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Slide 28
Shizuka New York
• Following Word of Mouth program: Mention on Jay Leno Mention on CNN Home page of CNN.com E! “The Soup” The Hollywood Reporter
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Slide 29
With a Compelling Hook
• Highlighting “Bird Poop Facials”
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Slide 30
The Right Channels
• SEO Press Release • Blogger Outreach • Video • Social Networks
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Slide 31
And Goals
• Branding and awareness • Increased site traffic • New clients
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Slide 32
SEO Press Release
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Slide 33
SEO Press Release
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Slide 34
SEO Press Release
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Slide 35
SEO Press Release
Google News results were at two at the beginning of May and are now at 433
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Slide 36
Blogger Outreach
• Identify bloggers in key categories: Already talking Skin Care Pop Culture News of the Weird
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Slide 37
Blogger Outreach
• Read the blog! • Clearly identify who you are • Tailor your message • Provide only relevant content • Ask yourself again before you hit “send”
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Slide 38
Blogger Outreach
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Slide 39
Blogger Outreach
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Slide 40
Blogger Outreach
• Responses have been positive. “Many thanks for the information...sounds very interesting
and I will look into it.” “Thanks for writing us! We'd be happy to feature your video
- do you have embeddable code for it?” “Thanks much - I will take a look.”
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Slide 41
Video
• Spoof interview produced • Uploaded to YouTube • Embedded in press release • Sent to bloggers
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Slide 42
Video
• The YouTube Geisha Facial video – 13,000+ views
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Slide 43
Social Networks
• Use social networks to connect with influencers, reporters and consumers: StumbleUpon Mixx Digg MySpace
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Slide 44
Social Networks
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Slide 45
Social Networks
• Since Mid-May, sites sending traffic to ShizukaNY.com have been from the PR and WOM efforts
Source Pages/Visit % New Visits
stumbleupon.com 1.17 98%
prweb.com 3.15 81%
newyork.citysearch.com 3.88 90%
beauty.ivillage.com 2.11 98%
spafinder.com 3.49 79%
cnbc.com 1.51 21%
elvacilon.lamusica.com 2.21 94%
mizfitonline.com 1.04 100%
mixx.com 1.05 93%
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Slide 46
Social Networks
• 46% of site traffic in May and June came from Social Networks, including StumbleUpon, Mixx, YouTube and Digg
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Slide 47
Other Results
• Site traffic • Inbound links • Web results
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Slide 48
Site Traffic
• From March to June traffic increased more than 60% • Traffic increased from all sources • Inbound links increased from 529 to 1,109
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Slide 49
Web Results
Ice Rocket web results were at 3,960 at the beginning of May and are now up to 20,700
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Slide 50
Summary
• Start with a strategic goal (more sales, leads, or media awareness)
• Break those into measurable “micro-goals” (inbound links, website traffic, blogger mentions)
• Create a baseline scorecard • Correlate progress against the strategic against
progress on “micro-goals”