When it comes to marketing for the Word
of Mouth Marketing Association’s annual
events, we do our best to leave the trees
alone. WOMMA is an uber-connected digital organization, which means we have
lots of different touchpoints with our
members, a multitude of ways for them to
reach us, and we’re always on. We use
that same “always on” approach for our
event marketing — and rely on word of
mouth to work its magic and drive our
registration. The marketing strategy for
this year’s Word of Mouth Marketing University (WOMM-U) event, our first-annual
event focused on hands-on WOM education, was no different.
I was recently asked: “How is it that you
market a major event for your industry without using any paper or direct marketing, and
what do you have against paper?” We don’t
have an aversion to paper at WOMMA, but
we do have a slew of tricks that put to work
the same kind of spreadable, talkable,
infectable tactics that we promote.
And when it comes to using WOM to
get the word out about our events, it’s
less about “how” than “why.” Simply put:
We use word of mouth marketing to promote our events because word of mouth
marketing works.
PAPERLESS WAYS TO PROMOTE
E-newsletters: All year long, we offer
free e-newsletters both to WOMMA members and nonmembers alike. We have a
daily newsletter, The WOMMA Word,
which features the top five WOMM stories
of the day, and a weekly version. Our pool
of subscribers is around 15,000, which
means 15,000 people have opted-in to
receive our stuff.
Event Invitations: When people click a
link to subscribe to our newsletters, they
also are invited to subscribe to event invitations. This separate subscription —
which is 100 percent opt-in and has more
than 5,600 subscribers — gives us a pool
of folks who have raised their hands as
being interested specifically in our events.
We have their permission to send them e-mails with event announcements, keynote
updates, etc. — and all we had to do is
ask them if they want it.
Tell-a-Friend Prompts: Our speakers, registered attendees and board members are
constantly encouraged to spread the word
about our events. We remind speakers to
talk about their upcoming presentations as
a way to “pack the seats,” and we tell attendees to let their contacts know they’re
coming as a way to start networking and
get conversations going before they arrive.
We also give speakers a $75 discount code
— which gives them an added incentive to
pass the message along, post it to their
blogs and tell their friends.
Tools: As part of getting speakers, attendees and other WOMMA fans to spread
the word, we provide them the tools they
need to do it quickly and easily. On our
event microsites, we put event logos, promotional videos, links, etc. that people
can easily grab and embed in their blogs,
on their social networking sites, on their
own Web sites, etc. Making it as easy as
possible for people to talk about the
event increases the likelihood that they
will. And they do!
Online Social Networks: WOMMA’s
Facebook group has just fewer than 1,000
members, and we use the platform to
send out event invitations and post some
of our promotional materials. It’s also a
place where people can connect and start
discussions pre-conference, as well as get
a look at who else is coming.
Some Traditional Stand-bys: Of course,
it’s not all new media and Web 2.0
around here. We rely on some traditional
event marketing standbys as well. We do
find and secure media partnerships,
where we can get out our message to a
new set of eyes. And sometimes this
involves a flier drop — which admittedly
includes the use of paper. (Full disclosure: For WOMM-U 2008, we sent only
one batch of fliers to a media partner
event — about one branch worth of tree
damage).
The moral of the story as far as
WOMMA’s first-ever Word of Mouth Marketing University was concerned is: Not
only is word of mouth the best way to
reach consumers, but WOMM is the
hands-down best way to get the attention
of word of mouth marketers. Not only
that, but all of the above-mentioned
WOMM tactics are essentially no-cost,
which means our marketing budget for the
event registered at $0.
WOMM-U 2008 was a huge success —
due in large part to our WOMM tactics.
We exceeded our registration goals —
we projected 200 attendees and came in
at nearly 250 — and were able to debut
our new classroom-style format to a full
crowd in Miami. And the word on the
street — on Twitter, in the blogosphere,
around the social networking water
coolers, etc. — has been resoundingly
positive.
It’s not just a matter of practicing what
we preach; it’s about what works. And
that’s word of mouth.
Shannon Stairhime is the editorial and content
manager at the Word of Mouth Marketing
Association. She may be reached at (312) 853-
4400 or editor@womma.org.
