Wartime retail. I first heard this phrase about a year ago, but at the time thought it was a bit extreme. As the year went on, I started to realize there might be something to it. After “Black Friday,” I’m convinced there is.

Retailers and marketers pulled out all the stops this year, turning “Black Friday” into a week-long event. There were “Better-Than-Black-Friday” sales, retailers opening at midnight on Thanksgiving night – some didn’t even close for the holiday – and in addition to the discounts, some offered money back in the form of gift cards for certain purchases. Several of the major retailers finally clued in, offering many of the same in-store sales online – and those that didn’t missed a huge key segment of buyers. Even Apple finally jumped on the bandwagon and offered deep discounts. That in itself points to the current situation…wartime retail.

Black Friday, however, shouldn’t be relegated solely to large, big-box retailers. Independent small businesses absolutely need to be in the mix competing for the traffic. Even if the marketing budget is minuscule compared to the national chains, it’s essential to get out there through other avenues.

Take social media for example, from Nov. 5 through Nov. 28, Google tracked more than 13 million blog posts mentioning “Black Friday.” On Twitter during that same time period the average daily posts topped 55,000. People are talking about great deals and they’re sharing the information with their friends. Obviously the same golden rules of social media still apply. Focus on information rather than shameless self promotion.

If you missed the boat on Black Friday, commit yourself to getting your name out there for “Cyber Monday,” which is just hours away, or throughout the rest of the holiday season. What are you doing to engage an audience that’s already listening? Can you partner with other local retailers to offer deals? Non-retail based businesses can also tap into the season. Restaurant owners might offer specials for hungry and tired shoppers or run promotions on gift cards.

Recently, 12 downtown Phoenix retailers joined forces to host a Twitter Hunt, a scavenger hunt that not only brought potential buyers to all 12 spots, but also helped develop deeper relationships with consumers. Local First Arizona is also helping local retailers with its Buy Local Week, an opportunity to get your promotions in front of Arizona residents.

Bottom line, get creative with your promotions and how you are engaging your target audience. Remember it’s wartime retail.

My gratitude post came a little later than I would’ve liked, but as the saying goes, better late than never. I will try to keep this brief…if I tried to list everything and everyone I am grateful for I know I would miss at least one.

First and foremost, I am grateful for all of the mentors in my life. These are people who have guided and encouraged me either academically, professionally or personally. A few that instantly spring to mind are Terry Greene Sterling, one of my college journalism professors who taught me what true journalism is (and continues to show me), my mom of course, my grandma, J.C. Gobins, for instilling a good business sense in me, Winston Mitchell, who took me under his wing, toughened me up (well I still have some work to do) and let me see what it was like to be an on-camera reporter in one of the toughest cities…NYC. Today, I consider Patrick Harter and Brent Spore my mentors. I admire the way they see the world and their genius marketing minds. I’m grateful beyond measure for each one of these mentors, as they have helped me get to where I am today.

I am also grateful for my clients…for the mutual trust we’ve developed, the new adventures everyday and the opportunity to continually learn and grow with them.

Finally, I am thankful for my wonderful family, friends and amazing dogs who bring so much laughter to my life. Thank you for everything and thank you to @JayBaer for keeping #tweetsgiving going!

Word of mouth marketing (WOMM) has been regarded as an important piece of the marketing puzzle, and increasingly is proving an essential component to any communications or marketing strategy. But what exactly is it and how can organizations effectively implement it?

Andy Sernovitz, author of Word of Mouth Marketing, defines it as, “Word of mouth marketing is two things: it’s giving people a reason to talk about your stuff and making it easier for the conversation to take place.”

The reason could be a great feature or service or an amazing experience, the buzz worthy moment. Making it easier includes the logistical components – the programs or support you provide to help the conversation spread farther and faster. This can be through forums, brand ambassadors, emails, etc.

Social media is now a component of word of mouth marketing, but online has always been a big part of it – think email marketing and the ability to forward that email onto someone else.

But is word of mouth suitable for every company? Can a sock manufacturer have just as much success as Apple for instance?

“My favorite word of mouth examples are all for really boring stuff,” Sernovitz said. “Fiskar scissors has this giant fan club called the Fiskarteers and it’s all of these scrap bookers who meet up several times a year, they have an online community and they have blogs and incredible enthusiasm. Duck brand duct tape sponsors an annual ‘make a prom dress out of duct tape’ competition.”

To effectively use word of mouth there are a few things to keep in mind:
1.    Be interesting
2.    Make it easy
3.    Make people happy
4.    Earn trust and respect.

Sernovitz also suggests using the “5 T’s”: talkers, topics, tools, taking part, and tracking and measuring.

“The most important thing is called the five T’s and if you start to think about those, it’s how you build a campaign,” Sernovitz said.

“It doesn’t start with tools,” he said. “It doesn’t start with, ‘what are we going to do on Twitter?’ It starts with ‘who’s going to talk about us?’ The talkers. ‘What are they going to say?’ Then if Twitter is the place we should be sharing, then Twitter is the place we should be sharing it.”

Are you using word of mouth strategies? If so, what has and had not worked? Or has a company ever compelled you enough to use word of mouth? What did they do?

**Andy Sernovitz will send a signed copy of his book, “Word of Mouth Marketing” to the best two comments – so comment away!

For the audio interview click the play button below, and for the video podcast visit JetPack Radio.

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