Word-of-mouth via email

When you were a teenager, do you remember how you heard of the best parties, or found out about the cool new bands? I’ll bet it was from a friend, who in turn heard of it from another friend. Soon enough there was a buzz all around you.

Word-of-mouth is powerful, even more so with the flood of information that surrounds and distracts us today. Everyone needs as much help as they can get to wade through it all, and we often look to our friends for this help. We benefit from the trusted people in our lives who act as filters and only pass on what is useful.

Word-of-mouth via email is especially tricky, since we get so many a day, they are easy to ignore, and many of us are weary of mass emails. However, when distributing information, I’ve found that understanding and leveraging these filters (the people we know and trust ) is a more effective method than the mass/direct mail approach. By using these filters effectively, you are respecting the audience’s time.

Here are some tips on how to use email for word-of-mouth campaigns:

Categorize your email list based on interests
Instead of just sending out mass emails, break up your list into groups that will have similar interest in the event, service or product you are providing. Most importantly, tailor your e-mails to the different groups based on their interest.

Be personal
Word-of-mouth is based on strong and trusting relationships. If people don’t trust you, or the person they are receiving the information from, they are less likely to pass your message on. Don’t just use their names, but write personal messages where possible. Also, use blind carbon copy – an email with a huge list at the start signals that this is not a personal message.

Be concise and stagger emails
Don’t overwhelm your audience; give them small chunks of information spread out over time. Also, stagger the emails between the groups that have different interests. You’ll likely find that the message spreads across the groups anyway, but the message is not always coming from you. Getting the same message from different people whom you trust, adds credibility to the message.

Measure your results whenever possible
Whether using a system like WebEcho, or just asking people what they think, it’s important to get feedback and adjust your campaign accordingly. Sometimes it will just take a simple tweak to achieve significantly improved results.