Your Mom May Be Your Best Launch Secret

I was reading Guy Kawasaki’s recent blog on the marketing power of regular folks. The blog highlights a recent article in the December issue of the Journal of Advertising Research which claims that despite lots of time and money being spent by marketers trying to influence key bloggers and other social influencers, the best marketing tool is word of mouth.

The article quotes a study co-authored by James Coyle, assistant professor of marketing in Miami’s Farmer School of Business and of interactive media studies; Elizabeth Lightfoot of CNET Networks; and Ted Smith and Amy Scott of MedTrackAlert.

The study reinforced that consumers respond more to messages that are unique and trusted, and consumers who believe they are capable of performing the advertised behavior are more willing to pass along information to friends and relatives within their social networks.

Just think about the sheer number of forwarded emails you get from your mom, your brother or your best friend in one week. For example, my neighbor sent me an email just before the holidays encouraging us to shop at Sears this Christmas. The reason – he had received a forwarded email claiming that Sears is paying salary differences and maintaining benefits for its reservist employees even though it is not required by law to do so. He called Sears to check the legitimacy of it and sure enough, it’s true. What a great way to reach your customers and do something good at the same time! Plus I got the same email from about 5 people in one week.

Word of mouth is an extremely fast and cost-effective marketing tool. In today's wired world, an email sent to a contact list of only 20 people could potentially end up in the inboxes of hundreds, thousands, or even millions of "friends" around the world. So next time, you’ve got a new product, service or brand to launch – don’t forgot to send the info to your mom and let her email do the rest!