The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 8

The 4th M: Means or Media

You now have a remarkable product—remarkable to real customers, not just to you as the marketer. You have stories that people want to tell. You have identified the leveraged influencers who will tell the stories, as well as the first users. You have a way of rolling out the product so they will try it and tell their friends. These are naturally motivated people, so you don’t have to motivate them.

But you can help them. After all, word of mouth is too important to leave up to your customers!

If you leave word of mouth up to your customers, you are assuming that the customers are able to represent your product accurately in an exciting way. You are assuming that your customers are able to figure out to whom ...