Some would say the word of mouth industry has officially entered its second chapter. For the past decade or so, word of mouth has evolved from a nascent idea into an organized group of companies providing value to clients everywhere. Ask most companies today if they have a word of mouth strategy and you’ll no longer get a deer-in-the-headlights stare.
That’s one reason I included a volume number in my latest book, The Word of Mouth Manual, Volume II. The other reason being that the title begins a conversation (Where’s Volume I?), which is what word of mouth marketing is all about: the ability to activate and engage in discussions about products and services.
The challenge I laid out for this book was to make everything about it an embodiment of word of mouth, itself. The book isn’t just a book about word of mouth; it is word of mouth. There’s a monkey on the cover. It’s water resistant which makes it perfect as a rainhat (though, regrettably, it’s not completely water proof, as some bloggers have claimed). Its compact size and rounded corners make you want to pick it up. The content is fed in bite sized portions: Thirteen of the 14 chapters are simple and easy to read, but stylistically unique for a business book. The content connects Casey Kasem to Scooby Doo and the Numa Numa dance to Lacoste; there’s a bonus chapter that paints Captain Crunch as an abusive husband and it even touches on Toucan Sam eating LSD (horribly written, which is sorta worth talking about). There are dozens of other instructive word of mouth challenges like this in the book.
Many of you may have already learned about The Word of Mouth Manual, Volume II through its unorthodox distribution model, which is the ultimate word of mouth challenge. In this day and age, how do you 1.) make a book worth talking about, and; 2.) ensure that enough people read it to get the dialogue going. To jumpstart the dialogue about the future of publishing, I published an “open letter” to the industry on the Harvard Business School Press blog, so I won’t spend much time on the backdrop for change. But, let it be said that few publishers will help you harness word of mouth, so it’s best to look in other directions.
I began my search for the ultimate word of mouth distribution model by self-publishing. Even with the ability to work with a major publisher, controlling the entire process and creating the “right” book had more than a few people talking. The publishers raised their eyebrows and told each other I was crazy. Co-workers murmured in halls, “He’s producing the book himself. Why?” Word of mouth is generated from getting as many communities to talk as possible, so this was the place to begin.
I set up my own Amazon page and bulk order process with 800 CEO READ. Today’s Internet tools create an equal playing field with many major publishers’ distribution models, so it’s easy to sell on your own. I then did three things to make selling matter.
- First, I only printed a few thousand copies because scarcity is worth talking about.
- Second, I ensured that every book was special. Each is hand-signed and comes with a one-of-its-kind piece of artwork from BzzAgent’s artist-in-residence Seth B. Minkin, because original is worth talking about. (You can find the YouTube video of Seth’s creative process, I bet.)
- Finally, I priced it at $45. Yes, this is a high price for any book, but for one as good as this it’s cheap. (Ok, I tried, but you can all probably see through that.) The truth is: The price premium is an important element of talk-worthiness. No one talks about the fact that a paperback is $14.95.
Our final element, though, is the most critical factor. A $45 price doesn’t seem so egregious when you realize that you can read the entire book for free. If you want the real thing, say to give as a gift or because you like holding physical books, you can get it. But you can also download the electronic version at no charge. Yes, I spent countless hours writing this book and then I’m just giving it away to anyone who wants to read it. You know the answer: If a tree falls in a forest …
But how do you get the idea of a free PDF to be heard far and wide? This past Monday, 20 bloggers were given the opportunity to distribute the free PDF to their readers. Seth Godin, Tom Peters, Guy Kawasaki, Jason Fried’s 37signals, Bill Taylor at Harvard Business School Online were some of the best known participants involved in the project. But a critical component was to include individuals from a broad set of communities: Emmanuel Vivier of Culture Buzz in France (for global readers), Todd Defren from Shift Communications (for those who follow PR), John Jantch of Duct Tape Marketing (focusing on small businesses). John Bell, Mitch Caplan and Rohit Bharagava’s digital prowess; Jackie Huba and John Moore’s WOM perspective; Jeremy Gutche’s Trendhunting; Chris Brogan, Chris Carfi, Greg Verdino, and Mitch Joel’s social media chops; Mitch Caplan’s marketing agency intellect, Todd Sattersten’s publishing expertise and Jeff Bussgang’s Venture Capital hat.
So everyone wants to know how the book is doing thus far (does WOM really work!)? In the first 48 hours, more than 35,000 people downloaded it and the “real” copies are selling. The free distribution model has been talked about in hundreds of blogs and the press has been calling for interviews.
In short, it’s been worth talking about.