Now that I'm working in an online ad agency, I've become a little more aware of the ways that brands reach their customers online. As we know, that's not always done through direct advertising channels. One very effective way - maybe the most effective - is word of mouth.
But online, all word of mouth is not created equal. Behold:
Exhibit A - Positive Word of Mouth
Door Sixteen is one of my favorite blogs. I subscribe to 100+ blogs in my Google Reader, but if I absolutely had to whittle it down to ten, D16 would definitely remain on my list. I just really like blogger Anna's way of looking at the world. She's very frank and honest about her experience living in Newburgh, renovating an old house, working in book publishing, etc. Also, she has great taste. So when she recently posted about the products she uses for her skin care regime, I was intrigued.
I don't do alot (anything) for skin care. I have been lucky to have pretty decent skin, but as I get older (this is turning into a common theme on this blog, isn't it?) I feel like my skin needs more TLC. Anna posted about her great experience with Mario Badescu products,
Like Martha Stewart, I’m kind of obsessed with Mario Badescu products. There’s a product for just about every skin type and condition you can think of, and the amazing thing is that it all works. I know I sound like a shill here, but I swear on my dogs that no one is paying me or compensating me in any way. If you have grouchy skin and you’re not happy with your current skin care regimen, go fill out this questionnaire. In a few days, you’ll get an email with product recommendations and an offer to get a bunch of free samples. Take the samples. They are generous enough to really be able to tell if a product is going to work for you.
Her glowing recommendation of the products could have tempted me, in an oh-when-I-get-some-money-I'll-try-those-out type of way. But when I saw the words FREE SAMPLES, I was hooked. I went directly over to the site and filled out a questionnaire. I did indeed receive a followup email and am now patiently awaiting the arrival of my samples. No, I didn't buy Mario Badescu products, but Anna's blog post was the impetus for my visitng the site and checking them out. More than I would ever have done otherwise. I value her opinion, I value that she doesn't want her audience to think she's a shill. And that's exactly why her recommendation means something to me. This is an incredibly powerful way to market a product, but obviously, one that marketers can't really reproduce themselves (or can they?) since it's so organic.
Compare this with an outrageous example of negative word of mouth that I saw in the NYTimes last week.
Exhibit B: Negative Word of Mouth
In this widely circulated NYTimes article, the owner of a site called Decor My Eyes, talks about how he welcomes customers who leave complaints, because their (negative) word of mouth ends up on high ranking review sites that often place his website on the first page of various Google searches. It's a really fascinating and disturbing look at the way businesses can sort of cheat the system. And it's completely opposite to the positive word of mouth described above. It's also alot easier for businesses to do than to actually, you know, create an amazing product that will have people evangelizing all over their personal blogs.
Google says they're on top of the case and since the article have tweaked their algorithm to prevent Decor My Eyes from ranking so highly. But I wonder if this article has now opened up the floodgates and we'll start to see other, smaller businesses try this approach to get more attention for their site.
