http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SqJz0NgnnE

The ad was designed to be a part of a viral marketing campaign for Gatorade. The ad was pulled however when Gatorade decided it wanted to pursue a different direction with it’s marketing campaign but somehow the video still leaked out and to Gatorade’s great fortune, they got to see just how successful the campaign might have been.

Granted, Gatorade has millions of dollars it can spend on stunt girls and fancy video editing but no amount of money can buy the phenomenal reach their video has had online. It goes to show that if your video is worth watching, people will watch it and spread it around whether they know what it’s for or not. This is the "word of mouth " marketer’s dream come true. I bet the folks at Gatorade are kicking themselves now for not attaching a bigger logo to the end of the clip!

When was the last time you read a business book? Last month? Last week? Yesterday? Now? (Wow, if you’re reading a book now AND reading this blog I’m personally inviting you to my house for tea and crumpets so you can teach me how to simultaneously read two things at once!) Here’s a better question. When was the last time you read a business book that was as easy as reading the latest Harry Potter? Probably can’t even remember huh?

Well my friends, I present to you one of the easiest and rewarding books out there today. It is called "Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking" and it’s written by one of marketing’s biggest rock stars, Andy Sernovitz .

It’s written in an incredibly conversational tone and offers seemingly "no brainer" advice on how to build your company through the sheer power of word of mouth marketing . I think the biggest word I ran into was "obfuscation" (it means to confuse, FYI). Andy combines his 18 years of experience with changes that are happening currently with the internet to paint an astonishingly simple picture of the right way to market your business.

The book is a mere 184 pages including a foreword by fellow marketing/internet compatriots Seth Godin and an afterward by Guy Kawasaki. If you don’t want to miss out on lots of free marketing for your business, be sure to check it out .

The more people you tell, the better your chance of having a successful business. But there are things to do, and there are things not to do.

Don’t Plug Where You Aren’t Supposed to

When you’re online in a chat room, notice that no one is saying anything about their business. You may think, “what can a small plug here hurt?”, so you say something about your company.

This can be harmful because it is called spam – and on most sites, spam is illegal. It is important to note that if you even put a small plug in about your business on an unauthorized site, you are spamming and can be kicked off the website.

Do not do what some do and be tempted to have others posting for you. Getting your staff or hiring an outside source to present your business on sites that do not want it is also spamming.

Don’t Be Dishonest

If you get people to talk about your products that don’t really use them, that is being dishonest. You are lying to the people. When you see an advertisement for a certain product, you want to know the person really uses the product they are advertising. If it works for them, other people will try it.

Getting people – especially celebrities – to lie about a product they don’t use is wrong an unethical.

The best way to run a business is to be honest. Be honest about where you advertise. Before you place an ad or chat about your business in a chat room, be sure that it is welcome on that site, or don’t do it.

Be honest about who you have advertising for you. Make sure they are doing everything legal. In addition, be honest about who you get to say testimonials from. Make sure they really do use the products – or don’t use them in your advertising.

Do Tell the Truth

Honesty is always the best policy. If you lie, you will eventually be exposed.

Eventually, when everyone finds out that you have been lying, you will lose customers and most likely your business. By being honest, you will gain customers and you will be successful in your business adventures in the long run.

Do Put Yourself in Your Customer’s Shoes

Think about how you would like to be treated if you were a customer. Now let’s say you found out that the owner of a business you were dealing with was lying and wasn’t really doing what they said they were doing.

Let’s go further and say that the celebrity that is doing commercials for the company never used the company’s products. How would that make you feel?

The bottom line is that honesty is the best policy, as well as only offering information about your business where that information is welcome.

Now you may be thinking about ways to get the word out about your products. If you’re like most small business owners, you’ve already checked into advertising and now you realize that it can cost a lot of money. As with most new businesses, you are likely on a tight budget and looking for affordable solutions.

You may have printed a few business cards and fliers, but they are not generating many customers.

What other options do you have? Well, think about generating word of mouth buzz, where you’re only limited by your imagination and creativity.

Open Your Mouth

You must be prepared to talk. Tell everyone you come into contact with about your new business and its products and services. Tell them where you are located and what you have to offer.

Offer a Freebie

There is a line in a popular country song that says, “Just give it away.” You have to do that. Give a sample of one of your products to people you meet.

Give one as a tip when you eat at a restaurant, and to your pastor, mailman, delivery truck driver, and Sunday school teacher. Give away as many of your products as you can.

Hand Out Gift Certificates

When you are giving away products, include a gift certificate good for the next purchase of your products or services.

Once the first one runs out, the customer may be more interested in purchasing your product if they think they are getting a good deal.

Special Sales

Have a weekend sale where you give a percentage off to all new customers. Alternatively, offer a free product to all existing customers that bring in a new customer who makes a purchase.

While new and prospective customers are in your store (online or otherwise), get names and addresses for future product specials.

They will think they will get a great deal by giving you their information, and you will have a customer base you can easily call on when you want to make more sales.

Use Motivated Talkers

Pick several motivated talkers to help ‘talk up’ your product. Give them a product to try and let them tell everyone they know about how much they enjoyed it.

Have a yard sale and give away your product to anyone that takes some of your unwanted stuff off your hands. Or, better yet, sell your products at the yard sale. This way, you increase business profits and make more room in your house at the same time.

Holiday Advertising

Kill two birds with one stone. Give your product as Christmas gifts to your family members. You never know who they will come into contact with that they can tell about your business.

Once you start to implement word of mouth publicity, you will soon see that it is just as effective, if not more so, than taking out an advertisement in your local paper.

If you really feel that it’s necessary to do traditional advertising, keep in mind that the more buzz you create by word of mouth advertising, the more successful you will be – and the more money you will make to put into those traditional advertising programs.

The topic: Pink stun guns.

The big deal: It’s a genius marketing ploy for a weapon company.

The consensus: Make it pink and it will sell–whatever "it" is.

The women who called in were more than enthused about this development in self protection and some had even already purchased or received the pink protective devices from loved ones as gifts. The general feeling was that before, while they wanted to have a Taser, they were turned off by the standard black or silver ones as those colors (on this particular product) exude masculinity, aggressiveness and thus produce a general fear of holding one in one’s hand. There’s a reason weapons are traditionally black–it’s scary! So when the news that these weapons would come in "friendlier" colors, it made these women feel less afraid to handle them.

Taser has not done anything the fashion industry, cell phone manufacturers or countless other companies with countless products hasn’t done when marketing to their female clientèle. They haven’t come up with a brand new marketing tactic. But what they have done is step out of the conventional box and took a risk. They now offer "fashion Tasers" in a multitude of colors including of course, two shades of pink and even a sassy leopard pattern. And they are selling like mad.

So the moral of this story? You don’t have to invent a brand new, never heard of before, marketing scheme to increase your sales. Simply consider the possibilities that are right in front of you…and don’t be afraid to try.

And that there’s just something about pink .

Here are some simple word-of-mouth ideas that really work:

Surprise and delight your customers – An unexpected free gift and a thank you tucked inside an order just might bring a smile to your customer’s face and it may be enough to get them to talk about your company. For instance, if a customer has placed several orders, why not thank him by giving him a product at no charge and a personal note thanking him for the business. There are several retailers that include a piece of chocolate or candy with every order to thank their customers. Anything you can do to make your customers happy gives you a shot at getting some word-of-mouth marketing in return.

Top-notch customer service – Train your customer service reps to interact with customers with the utmost patience and respect. A pleasant conversation with a representative of your company might turn into a referral if the customer feels the rep really went above and beyond in terms of service. Make returns hassle free, answer phone calls and emails promptly and answer all questions with informative answers.

Become active in your industry’s community – Be a regular participant in industry blogs; add informative posts and you’ll give your business a human touch that others in your field can relate to. Just be sure you’re not advertising in your posts; being a participant in blogs means that you’re part of a community of people who share similar interests and enjoy talking with each other. Being a good poster can very well give potential customers a sense of trust, which just might lead to future referrals.

Make it easy for people to talk about your business – With every order, include cards with your website name and a description of your products or services. It might end up being passed on to a customer’s friend. Send coupons out via email and encourage customers to forward to a friend. Your website address should be memorable, easy to say, obvious to spell and not excessively long. If you make it difficult for customers to refer your company, then they won’t; it’s as simple as that.

While you may not be able to directly control word-of-mouth marketing, you can have some effect on it indirectly. Just remember to always treat your customers in a way that makes them feel special and important. Always work to put a smile on their face – it doesn’t take much effort or cost a lot of money, but it can end up making a big impact on your sales.

Figure out your target audience - These are the people who are most likely to buy your products or services. For example, if you are selling baby carriers, then perhaps your main audience is pregnant women aged 22-38.

Find your target audience - Make a list of magazines, newspapers, websites, blogs, product reviews, etc. that cater to this audience. This will be the core target of your PR campaign.

Shape your website or store to cater to this audience - Before you get traffic to your site or store you want to make sure you are ready for them. Make sure your website’s content reads in a tone that will be well received by your target audience. A website selling crazy dog toys should have a fun and energetic tone, while a website offering legal services should have a professional and serious tone.

Once you are prepared, it’s time to begin your campaign. Here are a few tactics that can work wonders in the PR department, if executed correctly:

Send out a Press Release - The problem with most press releases is that they are completely self-serving. If you are a company that sells dried food, do you really think anyone, besides you, cares that you added peaches to your product lineup? It’s amazing, but 99% of press releases contain information that is only interesting to the company that wrote it. The key to a successful press release is that it needs to be newsworthy – meaning that it should have a story that is interesting to people outside the company and not be solely focused on the company. Instead of focusing on the fact that the company added a new product, try using a different, more interesting angle – perhaps the health benefits of peaches or that school children’s love of junk food has lead to a growing obesity problem. Then, slowly add in information about the product and company. To really get the press release right, you might decide that hiring a professional copywriter is best.

Send your press release to:

* Your PR campaign’s core target
* Press release submission service (like www.PRWeb.com )

Create a 20-30 second video - The best way to explain your product or service to someone in the media is by showing them a short demonstration video. The video should look professional and quickly demonstrate or describe your company’s products or services. Having the video readily available for interested media outlets will prove to be beneficial by easily explaining what your product or service is. To be proactive, you can call or email media outlets in your core target and ask permission to email them a short video about your company’s offering. You can also put the video up on your website and place it on video sharing sites like YouTube.com .

Send Emails - This is not an email campaign or spam, this is personalized emails to your PR campaign’s core target. You should have a short boilerplate message that can be tailored to each media outlet. The email message should include a brief description of your product or service, and the attachments should be: 1) a photograph of the product or service and 2) your press release. If you have a video, you should also have a link to the video in the email message. You are trying to convince them to run a story on your product or service so make sure your test is short and enticing–definitely not long or pushy.

Of course, those are just some of the ways to get your company’s name in the news. There are plenty of others, but the ones listed here will give you a good start, if done correctly. Just remember that with a PR campaign, you are trying to sell a story, not your product or service.