Word of Mouth Marketing and Knowledge Managemen
- Yuval Markowitz
- Oct 1, 2007
- 4 min read
What is word-of-mouth marketing?
Word-of-mouth marketing is a method in which marketing messages are transferred, sometimes without any action needed from the message distributor, from one person to another through words. This marketing method relies on people's instinct and desire to share experiences and tell about what happens to them with their friends, family, and acquaintances in various social circles surrounding them.
In this method, the marketing message spreads quickly, efficiently, and cheaply, just like a virus.
A marketing message published through word-of-mouth marketing continues to spread and expand almost effortlessly among potential target audiences since the people talking about it recommend it to people they know. Additionally, those who learn about it through a third-party recommendation give the information about it a higher level of trust, reliability, and loyalty.
Marketing in Knowledge Management Projects
We mapped needs and characterized a knowledge management solution, and now it's time to market it to potential users. Unlike commercial marketing, in the knowledge management world, the "cost" to users is not financial but based on the need to change work habits and the valuable time users need to invest using the knowledge management solution.
The use of marketing in the knowledge management world is designed to achieve several central goals:
Awareness marketing aims to cultivate among employees the awareness that the organization regularly maintains a project for managing organizational knowledge.
Exposing the knowledge management solution to users - During the solution launch phase, as part of the knowledge management solution lifecycle, it's important to publicize the launched knowledge management solution with its benefits and advantages and motivate users to try and use it.
Marketing as an implementation tool - aimed at bringing about a situation where marketing efforts attract the target audience to the knowledge management solution, and through accompanying implementation tools, we ensure that they indeed know and are familiar with how to use the knowledge management solution and the dedicated tools associated with it.
Marketing in the knowledge management world is a necessary stage in exposing the knowledge management solution, and it's important to do it correctly to achieve its goals. (See our article "Impressive! How do you market a website and portal within the organization? ").
Word of Mouth Marketing and Knowledge Management
Word-of-mouth marketing can be our most effective and least expensive marketing tool when marketing a knowledge management solution. Consider what would make you use a knowledge management solution more than a colleague you trust telling you that they managed to solve an issue that has been troubling you for a long time using the knowledge management solution. Your natural response would likely be:
Where can I find this?
How do I use this?
An employee who uses the knowledge management solution and recommends it as an efficient work tool to their colleagues essentially creates a "contagion" process in which the solution is publicized without any effort on your part. Thus, the rumor spreads, and the user circle expands. It is recommended that word-of-mouth marketing be promoted and encouraged after the knowledge management solution goes live to allow users to experience using the solution and spread the user experience rather than something amorphous.
Of course, this requires you to ensure that the content in the knowledge management solution is well-written and tailored to the target audience so that we don't create a situation where expectations lead to disappointment, which could achieve the opposite goal where the knowledge management solution is indeed marketed by word of mouth but in a negative way.
How Do You Do This?
Here are several ways to actively and effectively encourage word-of-mouth marketing:
Talk about it - Publish the marketing message and speak highly of the knowledge management solution and its benefits at every opportunity, from hallway conversations to professional meetings. Ask participants to enter and use it, and mention, "If you enjoyed it, tell your friends; if not, tell us..."
Use agents - Use task team members (see article "Task Force") to spread the marketing message. You can print "business cards" for the knowledge management solution with the marketing message on them, which these agents will distribute as a complementary marketing act.
Be excellent - People talk about things worth mentioning and noting. An updated knowledge management solution with content tailored to the target audience and well-written will create buzz for itself and cause users to talk about it.
Summary
The marketing of knowledge management solutions is no small matter. Using word-of-mouth marketing will ease marketing efforts and lead to broad exposure to the chosen marketing message for publishing the knowledge management solution. Needless to say, one should not rely on word-of-mouth marketing alone but should act through additional marketing channels to maximize the exposure of the marketing message.
Good luck!
Comentários