• The ROI on Word of Mouth Marketing

    Posted on May 18th, 2007 by and currently 2 commenting.

    Talking to companies about word of mouth marketing ” especially organic WOM ” and how it can fit into their identity, is both fun and interesting. They seem to get it most of the time. And get excited about it.

    But then comes the dreaded Return-On-Investment (ROI) question. And I’m not going to get into that (again), but a couple of months ago, I was enjoying a great post by Kathy Sierra and one of her graphs stuck out in particular.

    And then it all clicked.

    As the engagement and involvement of your community ” your passionate fans ” increases, the less money you need. They are happy to help. Happy to be asked their opinion. Happy to spread the word for you because they are now a part of you. Your identity has become a part of their identity. And vise-versa.

    It’s a beautiful thing and everyone goes home happy.

  • http://www.writeideasmarketing.com Andrea Morris

    Agreed. I also think that WOM advertising increases the further away a customer’s real experience is from their expected experience. If you meet their expectations and nothing more, there is no story. If you don’t meet their expectations they will complain (the more you mess up, the more they will talk). If you exceed their expectations then they tell all their friends how wonderful you are – and isn’t that the key to WOM?

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