Word of mouth is easily the most powerful and effective tool in advertising. Just ask any small, successful business that swears it doesn’t do any advertising on its own. Though word of mouth is often perceived as something that comes naturally as long as you have a great product or service, there is most definitely a strategy behind it all. If you really want to spread awareness of your product or service, you’ll need to roll up your sleeves, get to work, and start an epidemic.
In his book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell discusses what it is exactly that causes certain ideas, fashion trends, products, and bestsellers to gain nationwide recognition. His argument: they spread like viruses just as in an epidemic. So how do you start an epidemic for your own business’s products and services? According to Gladwell, there are three factors that play a major role in your epidemic spreading efforts: The Law of the Few, The Stickiness Factor, and The Power of Context.
1. The Law of the Few
The 80/20 Principle is the idea that in any situation roughly 80 percent of the “work” will be done by 20 percent of the participants. So it is in the epidemic spreading process. The Law of the Few is the idea that your product can become the nation’s next big trend thanks to only a few people—a very rare type of few people.
“The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts,” says Gladwell. These people are especially enthusiastic, energetic, and have many social connections. As they come in contact with your message, product, or service, they will begin to spread the word to all of their connections. Unlike the average Joe though, these special people are so enthusiastic and likeable that they can sell almost any of their numerous friends on your product. So in this case, rather than focusing all of your attention on reaching the masses with your marketing efforts, why not try to reach the rare few that could spread the word for you?
2. The Stickiness Factor
What’s the point of creating a message that is contagious, if it’s not going to stick? Most of the time, thanks to the stickiness of a message it gets spread even further. Gladwell said, “The Stickiness Factor says that there are specific ways of making a contagious message memorable; there are relatively simple changes in the presentation and structuring of information that can make a big difference in how much of an impact it makes.” Unless your audience remembers the message they heard, why would they purchase your product or buy into your services? Tweak your presentation to make your message so intriguing that people won’t be able to get it out of their head. Once it’s stuck in their head, they’ll most likely start telling their friends about it.
3. The Power of Context
Gary Vaynerchuk once said, “If content is king, then context is God.” Malcolm Gladwell said, “The Power of Context says that human beings are a lot more sensitive to their environment than they may seem.” When marketing to your audience, it is important to consider their environment. Gladwell argues that the key to getting people to change their behavior sometimes lies with the smallest details in their immediate situation. I guess the question then is how well do you know your audience?
Marketing guru Seth Godin echoes a lot of the claims made by Gladwell. In his book All Marketers Are Liars, Godin had this to say, “Whether you create a product, market a service or run a nonprofit, you win when you spread your ideas. If your ideas spread from person to person, you’ll grow in influence and everything will get easier.” He goes on to say, “If everyone who matters knows your idea, you win.” Get your message into the hands of influential people, make that message as memorable as possible, and make sure it is tailored to your audience’s wants and needs. That’s how you start and epidemic. And that is, as Godin puts it, how you win.