I was able to grab a couple minutes with Scott Cook, founder of Intuit, at the Conversational Marketing Summit today.

Cook is the very approachable and thoughtful leader of an organization cited by many as one of the better examples of how a company actually grows through word of mouth.

The idea that marketing today consists of having conversations with customers is one that is still meeting some resistance in the corporate and small business worlds. It occurs to me that the companies that have embraced it, are good at it and are growing comfortably inside this new way of looking at marketing, are the ones that already have an internal culture that is based in conversations rather than directives. These are the organizations that make it ok for their employees to point out and fix what’s wrong, to experiment and to take risks.

Conversational marketing relies heavily on authenticity and transparency - you can’t give those to your clients if you don’t own them in your business.

Cook talks about something he calls the “volunteer workforce” and offers some clues to the success of Intuit’s word of mouth model. Listen below.

5:00:04 PM    

Guarantees have long served marketing organizations as a way to shift the risk from buyer to seller. By assuring that a prospect can get a 100%, no questions asked, no hassle full refund if not thrilled guarantee, the thinking is that the buyer has nothing to fear if the product doesn’t live up to expectations.

I believe that every company can explore some form of a guarantee as part of their marketing offering. If you think about it you probably offer an implied guarantee of satisfaction to your customers whether you advertise it or not.

There are many examples of simple, straightforward, unconditional guarantees but I think there is one very important condition that you must add to your offer of guarantee to make it a powerful marketing tool.

When you offer a money back guarantee also clearly spell out that the only condition the buyer must meet in order to receive a full refund is that they suggest to you ways that you could make the product or service better or more in line with what they wanted or expected.

I believe that this simple condition does several beneficial things:
1. It helps you get valuable feedback that may indeed allow you build a better service
2. It sends the message right upfront that you care about the experience in the future as much as you do about the sale in the present

There are lots of marketers that offer guarantees simply to get the sale. They figure that they can handle the few who bother to ask for a return.

With a “oneconditional guarantee” you invite participation and conversation - you and your products continually improve - and you will likely win back clients who otherwise would simply move on to another product and silence, or at least muffle, potential detractors.

4:00:06 PM    

Graffiti, a simple Facebook application that allows users to add quick, or in some cases elaborate, drawings on Facebook profiles and walls has been an absolute overnight success as far as applications go.

The tool gives people a fun way to communicate and offers a lesson for marketers. How can you find and create new ways to energize the ways that your clients and prospect communicate and interact with your brand and each other.

I did a quick, in the field, Duct Tape Marketing interview with Mark Kantor, co-creator of the program at the Conversational Marketing Summit in San Francisco this week. Click the player below to listen

1:34:14 PM    

I came across a photo that says more about my book, Duct Tape Marketing, than I could ever do on my own.

The post and photo can be found at Prevail PR

Ideas that you can use today - that’s the theme of my book and, well, this photo sure says that to me - thanks Aaron.

1:34:12 PM