Viral marketing + incentives = Increased Holiday Sales

According to Word of Mouth Marketing Association, viral marketing and incentives were the major factors in online retail sales this holiday season. Previous surveys have shown that a staggering number of customers turn to friends, colleagues, etc. for advice about possible purchases. This year incentives offered by retailers, most in the form of free shipping, has played a major role in increased sales, as well. Has the importance of incentives reflected savvy shopping by the customers- getting the best deal for their money, or has it been due to the idea of "getting something for nothing?" The word "free" tends to have great power in today's society.

Whatever the reason, it appears that the optimism of companies about holiday sales, early in the season, has most likely proven true. In fact, to draw customers to their web sites, over 97% of online retailers invested in search engine marketing, 73% in comparison shopping engines, and many in other unconventional online marketing strategies.

The Use of Podcasts

Word of Mouth Marketing Association (Womma) is preparing for its Word of Mouth Summit to be held in Washington, DC next week. One of the papers that will be presented at the Word of Mouth Marketing Research Symposium on December 11, 2006, is Podcasts: Driving Word of Mouth.

According to this paper, to be presented by Dave Evans, VP of Social Media for Digital Voodoo and founder of HearThis.com, prior to a previous conference, WOMMAs Word of Mouth Basic Training (WOMBAT) Conference, traffic to the site increased from the time of the first podcast release up to the beginning of the conference.

My partner in music2work2 and I were discussing new plans for the website and marketing today. One of the many items in the plans are podcasts. It is reassuring to hear that others have found podcasts to be such an important part of marketing for their businesses. I am really anxious for us to be able to start making some of the changes, adding new music and new features. It's going to be terrific!

Positive Word of Mouth

From life experience in general, and specifically from doing volunteer work with a non-profit organization, I would be inclined to say that most often people who are dissatisfied are the ones who speak loudest. My experience has been that complaints far outnumber compliments. So, it was very encouraging to me to read in WOM Research, Word of Mouth Marketing Association's online newletter that positive reviews of online products and services outweigh negative ones 8 to 1. Shoppers are more anxious to spread information about great products than they are to badmouth the worst ones.

"According to research by Keller Fay Group, 63 percent of all word of mouth is positive. A recent JupiterKagan study concludes that 60 percent of online shoppers provide feedback about a shopping experience, and are more likely to give feedback about a positive experience than a negative one."

This is very encouraging news for online ventures such as M2W2 and indicates just how important "word of mouth marketing" is. I am pleased to know that my experience with non-profit customers or members does not hold true in the for-profit world.