Review: Talk Triggers

Review: Talk Triggers by Jay Baer

Talk Triggers by Jay Baer and Daniel Lemin is an excellent book about word of mouth marketing (WOM). When scratching the surface, you may think of WOM as entirely focused on a solid service experience. Yes, this is part of it. But it has to be an amazing, stand-out service experience that uniquely associated to your brand. However, it goes beyond that. There are key points that Baer discusses that are structured into what he coins as a 'Talk Trigger'.

Talk Triggers

Jay Baer is already a best selling author and keynote speaker at many conferences about smart marketing and social media. Certainly his book with Daniel Lemin about word of mouth marketing, complements this work well. Think of this book as talk triggers the complete guide to creating customers with word of mouth. In fact, Baer outlines how companies can structure their talk tracks, messaging, and a key element to drive WOM.

"Word of mouth is just talking. Word-of-mouth marketing is the organizing of that talk and driving it in a particular way. It's doing something intentional." Ted Wright

Great examples

A book like this needs real-world examples. Luckily, you won't be disappointed, as the examples include:

• The Cheesecake Factory - book menu
• Doubletree Hotels - chocolate chip cookies
• Holiday World - free soft drinks
• Americollect - friendly collections
• LockBusters - amazing customer experience in a stressful situation, and
• FreshBooks - dinner events.

What Talk Triggers Exist?

But as Ted Wright points out in the quote above, word of mouth marketing is more than just getting people talking. There has to be a way to create operational differentiators that create conversations. Baer does a great job of creating a conceptual model to achieve this. This done by addressing the types of talk triggers that emphasize:

• Empathy
• Usefulness
• Generosity
• Speed, and
• Attitude

"If you decide to shelve or change a talk trigger, pay attention to how you communicate it to customers." p217

How to Create Talk Triggers?

Beyond giving the reader examples and plenty of good tidbits of advice - it provides a six step program. Most useful for readers is to understand how to create talk triggers as a structure for your own brand. Baer and Lemin's six steps are shown in the diagram as:

1. Gather Internal Insights
2. Get Close to your Customers
3. Test and Measure
4. Create Candidate talk triggers
5. Expand and turn on
6. Amplify your talk triggers, then

Create your next Talk Trigger.

This is a great structure that helps make this a tactically useful book for any marketer or executive.

"Don't do any media or influencer outreach about your talk triggers. "talk triggers are best left to their intended audience, your customers." p286

Overall

It is true that the topic of Word of Mouth marketing has been covered before. Several other books exist, and are quite good in their own right. However, Baer and Lemin have done an exceptional job of laying out the 'how to' of creating talk triggers. To any marketer - this is critical. Ultimately this approach makes the book an asset, and tactically useful. It is so much more than just a good idea, and an interesting philosophy to pursue.

Although, I would recommend this primarily to the advanced marketer, it is an excellent book for any level. It is particularly important that executives and CEO's read this seminar publication. I found the book to be truly exceptional. It is a major step forward from the other books on the same topic.

Great job Jay Baer & Daniel Lemin!

Find it at: Talk Triggers