Beyond Buzz:
The Next Generation of Word-of-Mouth Marketing
By: Lois Kelly
Published: Feb 28, 2007
ISBN: 9780814473832
Format: Hardcover, 228pp
Publisher: Amacom Books
New marketing is about conversations, and not hiding behind outmoded corporate speak, writes Lois Kelly , in her insightful book
Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word-of-Mouth Marketing. Talking with customers as if you really mean it, and listening to their thoughts and ideas, are how new marketers learn what is important about their companies and products.
For marketing expert Lois Kelly, the importance of engaging customers in real and meaningful conversations is crucial to successful marketing campaigns. While the tools of marketing, including blogs and the many social media sites are important, they are only the vehicles to help facilitate an honest discussion. A successful marketer seeks ways to open lines of communication, around topics of interest to the customer. Letting go of control of the marketing message, and becoming more open to ideas outside of your company and its products, helps the marketer to learn what is important to people.
Lois Kelly (photo left) makes a convincing case for listening to customers and learning their needs and desires, as the keys to successful marketing. The only way to learn is to talk, and to create comfortable and meaningful ways to open up real discussion. It is not enough to place advertisements, write a few blog posts, or join a social media network.
Without engaging customers and clients in the conversation, the entire point of the new talk based marketing is lost in the shuffle. Engaging with customers on a deep emotional level requires talking and listening to their ideas about needs. For many traditional marketers, that is a radical step in thinking that is essential in the modern marketplace.
For me, the power of the book is in its direct approach, to conversation and talking with customers, as the crux of successful marketing. Lois Kelly sets out concrete examples of successful conversation building marketers, demonstrating the effectiveness of real discussion. She also provides a workable framework to help any marketer talk on a meaningful level with customers. The book is a concise crash course in conversational marketing that can be used by anyone in any business.
I highly recommend Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word-of-Mouth Marketing by Lois Kelly for anyone who is really serious about engaging customers in meaningful conversations. If your goal is to listen to your customers, and you are not sure how to create the right climate, this book sets out a myriad of ways to help you talk and learn from your own customers and clients.
Read Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word-of-Mouth Marketing by Lois Kelly, and start some real conversations with your customers today.
