Talk Triggers: The Complete Guide to Creating Customers with Word of Mouth

by Jay Baer

There is also a belief in some corners of the business world that social media is word of mouth, or that social media has replaced word of mouth as the driver of consumer awareness and preference. It isn’t. And it hasn’t. Social media is a critical component of the overall word-of-mouth equation. In fact, offline and online conversations are almost exactly equal in size, according to new research from Engagement Labs.

It may seem like the narrower reach of face-to-face conversations would limit the net impact of word of mouth, but in reality, the persuasiveness of these exchanges more than overcomes their private nature.

Once it’s not a differentiator, the talk trigger loses its edge and becomes a general advantage like “food quality” and “service.” Not unimportant but also not strong enough to be remembered and passed along either.

Our aim is to help you get intentional about your word of mouth—turning it from a program that runs on hope to a strategy powered by talk triggers. We want you to move from random word of mouth to robust word-of-mouth marketing.

Same Is Lame

For a differentiator to keep spreading beyond the first telling, however, it has to be inherently more interesting. It should be unexpected. It should be worthy of a story,

You, Mr. or Ms. Reader, have never said to a friend or perfect stranger: “Let me tell you about a perfectly adequate experience I had recently!”

The best story—the most compelling and dynamic talk trigger—can set your business apart in ways that incremental upgrades to customer service or price reductions cannot.

It’s often been said that advertising is a tax paid by unremarkable businesses. Talk triggers enable you to ...

when businesses look solely at the very top players in their industries, they often see that tax being paid and assume it’s the path to success. We disagree, especially if you are in any way a challenger brand that seeks to steal market share from a category leader—trying to do so without a talk trigger is like trying to pole-vault with a bowling ball tied to your ankle. It’s doable in the strictest sense, but you’re adding a degree of difficulty that is daunting and unnecessary.

The best way to create conversation is to have a selling proposition that is actually unique.

your product isn’t talkable, then cost becomes the sole basis of comparison. “Customers will always find a point of distinction. Therefore, if you fail to outline one for them in compelling fashion, they will go to the worst possible distinguisher for you: price,”

Sally Hogshead says, when it comes to word of mouth, “different is better than better.”

improved customer experience is not a competitive advantage.

people can and should be both satisfied and surprised.

You should have good customer experience first, so you stop losing frustrated customers like a leaky bucket, and then, once you have your operational house in order, go all-in on creating a talk trigger that stimulates conversation.

the best talk triggers work because they are distillates of the essence of your organization. In this sense, talk triggers are not marketing. They aren’t a stunt or a campaign or a slogan. They are you. Of course, talk triggers create marketing advantages, but those marketing advantages aren’t a consequence of empty sloganeering.

he best buzz comes not from clever PR or advertising but rather from attributes inherent in the product or service itself.”

It is imperative to create a talk trigger that contains enough of the unexpected to cause conversation. Otherwise, what’s the point?

“Word of mouth is just talking. Word-of-mouth marketing is the organizing of that talk and driving it in a particular way. It’s doing something intentional.”

it became self-perpetuating as builders discovered it and told their friends and colleagues.

“Don’t create brochures; create conversation tools. And keep in mind that less is more when it comes to these. Think about something as simple as a lowly T-shirt. Consider how a T-shirt with ‘BREAK THE STIGMA’ written on it invites a conversation. A hand-painted, one-of-a-kind Fitness Rebel T-shirt with your name on it invites a conversation. Less is more when it comes to stories as well. Short, sharable stories rule.”

You have a choice. Every business (and every person) has the same choice. You can try to be incrementally better than your competition and hope that customers notice it and actually say something, although they typically don’t. Or you can embrace the “same is lame” philosophy, create a talk trigger like Kurt’s shirts, and turn your customers into volunteer marketers, recruiting new customers through face-to-face and online recommendations.

The Four Talk Triggers Criteria

FOUR GROUPS OF CUSTOMERS EXPERIENCE ADVISORS Enjoy sharing their experiences with others. They are more likely to proactively recommend brands and to use social media to do so. UNIQUENESS SEEKERS Specifically seek out and remain loyal to brands that offer something unique. They have high expectations for companies. SKEPTICS More likely to believe that companies’ attempts to be unique are merely gimmicks, and that few differences truly exist. FUNDAMENTALS FANS Focus more on a company’s ability to consistently deliver a great product or service than on offering something unique.

Uniqueness seekers value, appreciate, and support companies that commit to doing something different.

Experience advisors do not personally gravitate toward differentiators nearly as much as uniqueness seekers, but they are far more likely than the other groups to both talk about and ask about brands. They say they like it less, but they actually talk about it more. These are the people who are the most proactive about word of mouth, not necessarily because they love differentiators, but rather because it makes them feel good about themselves and their own expertise.

Three-quarters of this group have proactively engaged in word of mouth, and the chart below shows just how much more this group wants to tell others about their experiences (again, on a seven-point scale).

far more likely to be female.

much younger than the other groups, with half of them age thirty-five years or younger—this

Fundamentals fans are the lovers of USP (unique selling proposition). They care about quality customer experience more than uniqueness and are less likely to engage in word of mouth than the seekers or advisors. They prefer good to different. They also skew slightly older, with nearly half the category being age forty-five or older.

skeptics, is almost hostile to the notion of differentiators.

almost twice as likely to agree with the following: “Usually when companies try to offer something unique, it’s more of a gimmick than something that really improves my experience as a customer.”

highly likely to concur with the following statement: “Companies should focus less on trying to be different or unique.”

although skeptics say they abhor different, that doesn’t stop them from talking about your business.

operational differentiator needs to meet these four criteria. All talk triggers shall be: remarkable, relevant, reasonable, and repeatable.

4 REQUIREMENTS OF A TALK TRIGGER

Be Remarkable

It has to be a story worth telling.

The Merriam-Webster definition of the word remarkable nails it: “worthy of being or likely to be noticed especially as being uncommon or extraordinary.”

people rarely discuss adequate experiences.

one of the secrets to many successful brands is they have as many people dislike them as like them,”

When it comes to talk triggers in particular, the skeptics may think your efforts to be remarkable are somehow disingenuous or frivolous.

don’t be afraid of the skeptics. They might say that they don’t like you, but they’ll still talk about you—even when your product isn’t flashy.

Be Relevant

What’s the point of causing conversations among customers if that chatter doesn’t tie back to your core business in some obvious way?

Many marketers overlook the importance of relevancy in their word-of-mouth programs and beyond. For instance, just about every B2B company, and especially those in technology, has launched some sort of contest for customers in the past. It’s astounding that the prize awarded to the winner of those contests is almost invariably an iPad. What follows is the entire list of companies that should give away an iPad as a prize: Apple Telephone companies Major electronics retailers

That’s it. That’s the list. If your company has nothing to do with iPads, why are you using your own time, money, and effort to create conversation around something that is manifestly unrelated to your own products and services?

4 REQUIREMENTS OF A TA...

needs to be relevant. It should support your broader company positioning and objectives. It has to make sense within the context of what you do, who you are, and what you stand for.