It’s a common theme here: Word of Mouth. I love a good word of mouth story, especially when I know that the “campaign” was premeditated and empowered by a smart company. I am a marketer, after all.

Stormhoek is an example of a company that has spent what resources they have on trying to generate good buzz, and as the blogophiles reading this already know, it’s all due to the efforts of one man: Hugh MacLeod.

For newbies, a quick catch-up: Hugh MacLeod is a marketer, blogger and artist from England, who draws cartoons on the back of business cards:

He also has interest in a few companies, Stormhoek among them. Using nothing more than a few good ideas, a bit of free product and marketing to an influential community using free channels (his blog, email, et al) he’s been able to generate loads of word of mouth for this small wine company from South Africa.

But at this point, all of that is old news. The technophiles of Silicon Valley (and the world, really) have already made Stormhoek a success, just as MacLeod always figured they would. And that’s a wonderful thing. This is very Long Tail, (we’ll get to that in a later post, when I’ve read the book!) targeting a small niche market and enjoying “boutique” success in a world of industry giants.

But the reason I write this post today is because this “little wine that could” doesn’t just make for good blog posts and technology conference small-talk fodder, but apparently it’s worthy of being immortalized in song:

The Stormhoek Song, by Rob Lane, aka the Weekend Wino.

This is when word of mouth achieves a level of magic, when the community of users feels so strongly about your product that they pour their heart and soul (and considerable talents) into evangelizing on behalf of your company. And as a customer, who would you trust? The copywriters and creatives paid thousands to craft the pricey print ad, or the fan who wrote a song about how much he loves the product, with no encouragement at all?

Important note: Hugh and Stormhoek have never “led” their community to say anything in particular. They’ve just provided some free product to people they thought might spread the word, and then got out of the way. And now they have a free jingle, with built-in passion and a kick-ass steel drum accompaniment, IMO.

I have GOT to find a bottle of this stuff for my wife! Hugh? When can we expect a Canadian distributor?

(Use of the word evangelist is courtesy of the Church of the Customer Blog)

One of the many blogs that I check in on (daily) is by David Meerman Scott.

David and I share a lot of beliefs when it comes to how to build a great website, and successfully promote your business with it (read: make sales). Simply put, we’re both fans of content first; give your readers some value on your site, and they will become your customers. The biggest mistake you can make as a business is not having suitable information on your site to match your search terms, especially when there’s a bulky ad-spend on the line.

Today I read a post by David that made me say “Yes! Eureka! Tell the world, David!” Okay, all I actually did was click over to write this post right away, but I do emphatically support the logic he’s throwing down. Here’s a quick excerpt:

“Remember, driving people to a site or landing page is just the start of a sales process. Compelling web content drives people to action.”

If you haven’t already, go to David’s home page and download “The New Rules of PR,” and that should convince you to buy “Cashing in with Content.”

Keep up the good work, David.

When you do things right, it’s amazing what can happen.

Keeping in mind that word of mouth is still the most powerful form of marketing, why don’t more companies focus on giving their customers a reason to be evangelists for their cause? It’s a simple formula: Give the people who already care about your company a bit of incentive to tell their friends about you, and they just might create a viral marketing phenomenon on your behalf. As I keep seeming to repeat in each of my posts (stop selling, you snake!) Tell Ten Friends is based around the principle that if you use this logic, and use some of the available technology online, you can make magic happen for your company, for your brand, and of course for your bottom line.

Let’s recap the events of yesterday: Chris writes a blog. It’s a good one, and it’s about Movie Marketing. Big studio contacts Chris, and empowers him to talk about their upcoming film. Mack takes notice, and is blown away by the vision and cooperation of said studio. He encourages others to spread the word, and we do (We’re not used to that kind of treatment from big business, you see. I’d love to see the number of resulting links from each one of these posts, when the dust has settled on this one).

So now a slew (I counted them. It’s officially a slew) of bloggers are spreading the word on behalf of a studio with a marketing budget big enough to move mountains all on its own. All because they had the good sense to throw a bone to the people most likely to tell the world about them. Mack says it best in his post from today:

“We talk, we spread ideas, and enjoy doing so. We especially love to talk about companies that are smart enough to talk to us. The question your company needs to ask itself is: Why didn’t you give us a reason to talk about you?”

Well said. And this doesn’t just apply to the blogging community. Every company worth its weight in salt knows that it’s more expensive to find new customers than it is to retain existing ones. To the tenth power or so, if I’m not mistaken. So here’s what I suggest…Even out that ratio a bit. Spend a bit of time and effort, and maybe even some cash to empower your existing customer base to tell ten friends about you.

To quote Seth for billionth time (I’ll have to paraphrase in this case, I’ve searched enough urls in this post as it is): Being remarkable doesn’t have to be too difficult. You just need to give people a reason to make a remark about you. It’s really that simple.

Thanks once again to Mack Collier and all of the members of the Viral Community for participating in this shining example of what’s possible when you make the effort, and please the right people.