Word-of-mouth doesn’t affect all businesses in the same way, and the role it plays in your business depends on four factors including the nature of your products, the people you are trying to reach, your customer connectivity, and the strategies used in your particular industry.

By the very nature of word-of-mouth communications, it is not possible to spread the message too widely, and luckily due to the six degrees of separation and the 90/10 rule there is no need to. The 90/10 rule, by which word-of-mouth is governed, says that 90 percent of the world is influenced by the other 10 percent, and a word-of-mouth campaign therefore must be based on such targeted communications.

Carefully chart and archive all official and unofficial opinion leaders, as a disproportionate amount of selling time can and should be aimed at highly-reputable, would-be adopters, and sales incentives should be encouraged and added when working with early-adopters. Also, events that pair happy new customers with a wider audience can and should be staged, user newsletters can be established, then circulated to targeted non-users, and testimonials can be systematically gathered and circulated. I highly recommend that all of these programs and others should be put together in a detailed, written, step-by-step word-of-mouth plan.

A formal word-of-mouth strategic plan need not be complicated to be effective, and a lot can be achieved by simply covering topics including discussion of the nature of your products or services, the idea or messages you are trying to spread, identity of your network hubs and connectors, are they individual people, or organizations. Include discussion of your customer networks and how they are connected, how often and how regular they interact, what influences them and their behavior, and what specific tactics you will employ to create word-of-mouth marketing.