Talk Triggers – How to Harness Word of Mouth
Season 1, Ep. 45
Now for anyone that’s been listening to the podcast for awhile – you’ll know I FIRMLY believe that the days of out-spending, out-shouting and out-interrupting our competitors is over.

What do I mean by that? I mean that if you want to stand out in a new age of influence – in an age where what gets talked about, what gets remembered, what (in the words of my next guest) is considered ‘remarkable’ enough to share within our networks – isn’t ‘business as usual’ – OR ‘marketing as usual’.

In fact – I believe it was Robert Stephens, founder of Geek Squad – who said the immortal words ‘advertising is a tax paid by the unremarkable’.

The challenge now is not to constantly interrupt what people are interested in – but to BECOME what they are interested in. To provide a service or information so valuable – so engaging – or so unexpected – that word of mouth – or word of mouse – literally takes care of itself.

My next guest Jay Baer would describe these moments as Talk Triggers. A Talk Trigger being any strategic, operational differentiators that compel word of mouth. NOTICE THE WORD STRATEGIC THERE – NOT ACCIDENTAL – NOT HOPEFUL – BUT AN ACTUAL PLAN TO CREATE CONSISTENT AND PASSIONATE WORD OF MOUTH. Sounds simple – yet as he points out – nearly every organisation has a…. We have social media strategies, marketing strategies, sales strategies etc.

Now word of mouth has always been the backbone of any business – but in a digital landscape – where voice search, reviews and algorithms all tie back to the sentiment of the crowd. If you don’t have a plan – you are missing one of the biggest opportunities available.

Jay has spent 25 years in digital marketing and customer experience, consulting for more than 700 companies, including 34 of the FORTUNE 500. His current firm – Convince & Convert – provides word of mouth, digital marketing, and customer experience advice and counsel to some of the world’s most important brands.

Jay’s Convince & Convert blog was named the world’s #1 content marketing blog by the Content Marketing Institute. He is also the author of three best selling books – including “Youtility: Why Smart Marketing is About Help not Hype”, “Hug Your Haters”, and his latest book with co-author Daniel Lemin, “Talk Triggers – The complete guide to creating customers with word of mouth”.

It is fair to say that Jay understands every aspect of what it is to build a brand around earned influence. And the great thing about earned influence – rather than hype or the number of followers you can amass – it’s really hard to lose once you have it.

Now a warning about this conversation – it’s pretty rapid fire – so grab a pen and paper now. In it we sprint our way through:

Why so many people confuse influence with audience
Why relevance is the new killer app
Why contribution takes courage – and the fears that will hold you back
How to hardwire ‘help over hype’ into your marketing strategy
The 4 requirements to designing a compelling talk trigger
Why in this day and age building a marketing campaign around earned influence shouldn’t be the Wild West – but instead driven by data, AI and machine learning
AND finally – why real influence is always earned.

So sit back, grab yourself a coffee and enjoy the insights of one of the most experienced thought leaders on the planet when it comes to brand influence. My conversation with the outrageously talented – Jay Baer.