I’ve been traveling more than my fair share recently to supporting our latest book, “Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?” (due out next week). It shouldn’t surprise you to learn that no matter whom I talk to, no matter the company, product, or service , whether it’s business-to-consumer (B2C) or business-to-business (B2B), online marketers are running into similar challenges. So it goes without saying they’re making some of the same mistakes over and over.

Trying to Manufacture Word of Mouth and Viral Effect

To lift brand exposure, marketers are resorting to some of the goofiest and phoniest campaigns. Although typically entertaining and sometimes even viral, these campaigns fall short in one of two areas: they either lack relevance to the customer to move beyond entertainment or lack a significant association with the brand or product. So if you aren’t selling more or at least endearing customers to your brand, what’s the point?

Does this really help Gillette sell more razors? Certainly not any more than Chihuahuas help sell tacos.

The only profitable way to harvest word of mouth is to provide customers with a product or service experience that’s worth talking about.

Anything short of that is a cheap gimmick.

Continue reading my column on ClickZ…