Word of Mouth in War and Marketing

Word of mouth drives an enormous amount of business my way so I'm diving deeper in how to trigger it.

Below are two uncommon examples—one from wartime in the 1800s and the other from a marketer in 2017—of how to get people talking about you.

We start with Napoleon's strategy to improve his army's morale during a trying time:

...during a difficult campaign against the Austrians in Bavaria, the French won a hard-fought victory. The next morning Napoleon reviewed the Thirteenth Regiment of Light Infantry, which had played a key role in the battle, and asked the colonel to name its bravest man. The colonel thought for a moment: “Sir, it is the drum major.”?

Napoleon immediately asked to see the young bandsman, who appeared, quaking in his boots. Then Napoleon announced loudly for everyone to hear, “They say that you are the bravest man in this regiment. I appoint you a knight of the Legion of Honor, baron of the Empire, and award you a pension of four thousand francs.”?

The soldiers gasped. Napoleon was famous for his well-timed promotions and for promoting soldiers on merit, making even the lowliest private feel that if he proved himself, he could someday be a marshal.?But a drum major becoming a baron overnight? That was entirely beyond their experience. Word of it spread rapidly through the troops and had an electrifying effect—particularly on the newest conscripts, the ones who were most homesick and depressed.

Napoleon made an unusual, unprecedented move—publicly altering the trajectory of a mere drum major's life—knowing word would spread.

The logic was simple. Every soldier realized that If Napoleon did that for a drum major, he might deliver similar boons for others, regardless of role or rank.?

Fast-forward to 2017.

If you have a team and they don't have a good one-liner to explain what your business does, you are wasting an opportunity.

Every time someone on your team goes to a cookout, has a chat in line at the bank, or speaks at a conference, it's an opportunity for word of mouth. Having a good one-liner is the difference between:

"I work for a company that manages servers"

or...

"I work for a company that ensures small businesses' online stores never go down so they they're always making money"?

The first one is bland and gets forgotten. The second is sticky. It has stakes. If someone's interests have anything to do with "small business," "online store," or "making money," it will resonate.?

Donald Miller is a marketer who helps people find the perfect one-liner. After he takes a leader through the process, one challenge is getting everyone on the leader's team to remember it.

He found a weird way to make this happen:

Carry around a wad of five-dollar bills and ask somebody in the office each day what your company does. If someone answers with the one-liner, reward him or her with a crisp five. Soon, word will spread around the office and people will know they need to get this down. It might cost you a thousand dollars by the time you’re done, but I assure you, it will be the best money you’ve spent marketing your company.

Imagine the effectiveness of this approach versus an all-hands meeting (that people will tune out) or a company-wide email (that people will delete).

Word of mouth is how you get the one-liner to permeate.

Both Napoleon and Donald's approaches worked because they?broke a pattern. Their tactics were unexpected and novel.?

Ask yourself: how could you break a pattern to drive word of mouth for your work?

Sources: Robert Greene's?33 Strategies of War?and Donald Miller's?Building a StoryBrand.