Written by Andy Sernovitz, author, "Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking," founding CEO, Word of Mouth Marketing Association.

Great word-of-mouth marketing campaigns are elegant. They are fun.

And they are far easier to execute that you think.

It's not about advertising budgets or global brands. It's about giving people a reason to talk. It's Seth Godin's "purple cow"-- giving people something so fantastic that they are compelled to tell a friend. It's about being remarkable, a word that means "worth talking about."

We've highlighted seven great examples of excellent word-of-mouth marketing executions. all of which were excerpted from WOMMA's Case Studies Library. These case studies are from some of the best companies in the business that are doing some absolutely talk-worthy work.

A more important lesson, though, is that this is something you can do for your own company. One of the most exciting things about word-of-mouth marketing is that we can do it ourselves, without big budgets or big teams.

I've looked at hundreds of the best word-of-mouth campaigns of all sizes, and they all share the same elements: The Five Ts of Word-of-Mouth Marketing. Work your way down this list and you'll be able to build a campaign that really gets people talking.

The Five Ts of Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Talkers: find the people who like to talk
Are they your customers? Neighborhood moms? Doctors? Bloggers? Think about the people who are most likely to tell a friend about what you're doing. Make sure they know about your new topic of conversation.

Topics: give them a reason to talk
Give people a reason to talk about you. It doesn’t need to be fancy. A special sale, good service, a cool, new feature, a better flavor, a funny package. (Remember the Gateway computers that came in cow-patterned boxes?)

Tools: help the message spread faster and further
Do everything you can to make it easy for talkers to pass along your topic. Include postcards and stickers in the box when you ship a package. Put up a chat room so people can talk to each other. Join a blog conversation. Hand out samples. (Did you ever get one of those emails with a "secret" coupon that was supposedly for employees only? Did you forward it?)

Taking part: join the conversation
Conversations die out when there’s only one person talking. When people are talking about you, answer them. Reply to their emails. Comment on blogs that write about you. Send a lot of thank-you notes.

Tracking: measure and understand what people are saying
The word-of-mouth conversation is the best feedback you’re ever going to get. It’s far better than any other kind of market research because it is the authentic voice of the consumer. Hear what people are saying, learn from it and use it to be a better company.

You can download a worksheet to help plan your 5Ts at http://www.wordofmouthbook.com and learn a lot more in my new book, "Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking."

If you're not already doing word-of-mouth marketing, you'll be inspired to do so by the cases you read on the next pages. It's fun, it's doable and it's just plain old-fashioned good marketing.

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Author notes:
Andy Sernovitz is the author of Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking (http://www.wordofmouthbook.com) and founding CEO of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. Read full bio.

Shannon Stairhime is research editor of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (http://www.womma.org), where she has her eye on the most interesting developments in this fast-moving field. She also edits the WOMMA Case Study library, where you can see more great word-of-mouth successes and submit your own. (http://www.womma.org/casestudy)
Read full bio.