Example of word of mouth marketing

Word of mouth marketing isn’t just about getting customers to talk about your brand. It’s about turning your customer into a raving fan.

Look at someone like Taylor Swift. She didn’t build her empire by getting someone to buy her album one time. Nope. She built her empire by building relationships. She occasionally sends flowers, gifts or special event invites to her hardcore fans.

And what do those fans do? They don’t just buy an album. They’ll also get their friends to buy albums, go to concerts with them, and more.

Her hardcore fans usually don’t just buy one album either. When she was promoting her 1989 album, she added five different sets of 13 imitation Polaroids, which were 65 pictures of her with song lyrics written on them, inside each CD. 

And what did fans do? They bought several of the same album. Why? To collect all 65 Polaroids. The result? She sold 1.287 million albums in one week.

Not bad.

While the marketing strategy on its own is quite clever, it never would’ve worked unless she had built up a hardcore fanbase.

So if you wanna know how to really get people talking about your brand to the point of obsession, in this article you’ll learn all about word of mouth marketing. This includes, what word of mouth marketing is, the importance of word of mouth marketing, the benefits, and word of mouth marketing strategies, alongside much more.  

Word of mouth marketing is a form of promotion that relies on happy customers and fans to promote a brand organically. This can be done through many forms of media like images, video, vlogs, etc. Word of mouth marketing is a great way of championing your product as those who create organic content around it genuinely care for it. As this form of marketing is free and can result in additional sales without your staff needing to do anything, offering a top-quality product that is easy to capture and describe can sell itself through your customers.

What is Word of Mouth Advertising?

By contrast, word of mouth advertising can result in the same impact as word of mouth marketing but typically involves payment to an influencer. Word of mouth advertising is a form of paid advertising where brands have control over the content pushed out by other people about the brand. The important thing to consider as a brand is if the person pushing out the content is the right person for the job. Do they represent the brand? Do they believe in your brand as much as you do? Are you willing to put your reputation on the line to use this person? There is much to consider before going down the route of word of mouth advertising.

Benefits of Word of Mouth Marketing

If you’re on the fence about whether or not to try increasing your word of mouth marketing, these benefits will help you consider trying it out.

1. Free marketing: Unless you’re doing word of mouth advertising, word of mouth marketing is free. You’ll still need to put effort in to get customers and build a strong enough relationship. However, their word of mouth promotion doesn’t come at a cost for you unless you’re paying for a loyalty app on the Shopify app store. For the most part, if you’re offering a shopping experience worth talking about, over time some customers may start raving about your brand to their friends.

2. More Sales: You benefit from the additional sales from the free referral your customer made. But you also get a few sales from the customer who recommended your brand. Why? Because if a customer loves your brand enough to recommend your brand to their friends, they’ll likely keep shopping with you. Learn how I made $743.65 with a customer loyalty program.

3. Grow brand at a faster rate: Word of mouth marketing has a viral marketing element to it. If you add enough hype around your brand or build an epic experience for your customers, it’s possible that a popular customer will help your brand go viral. When starting out, word of mouth may only lead to a couple of sales. However, as your brand grows bigger you might notice that more people start tagging friends on your social media posts, forwarding emails to friends and more. Over time, you’ll find your brand grows at a faster rate than if you were to just rely on Facebook advertising or social media marketing.

Why is Word of Mouth Important?

There are many benefits of word of mouth marketing but why is it so important? Well, according to SDL, about more than half of all consumers (58%) share their positive experiences with a company on social media.

What does this mean? It means that after buying from your store or interacting with your brand, your customers are engaging in word of mouth promotion online.

It can come in the form of posting a photo of a package they just received or taking a selfie wearing your product. They might tag you in a post to thank you or to show off their product.

On top of that, Nielsen shared an article where they found that 84% of consumers say they completely or somewhat trust product recommendations from those around them like friends, family, and coworkers.

Not only do customers share their experiences but their network are also likely to trust those recommendations. Organic Word of mouth marketing is not forced like word of mouth advertising, therefore, it is easier to interact with.

So, word of mouth marketing can be a powerful way to help you build your brand and customer base.

10 Word of Mouth Marketing Strategies

#1. Influencer Marketing

If you’re looking for a word of mouth advertising tactic you can have control over, influencer marketing is for you.

With influencer marketing, you’ll need to pay an influencer to feature your products on their social media. Since you’re paying them, you can have some control over what they post, when they post and how they post it.

The best thing about word of mouth advertising is that you can pay to start creating conversations around your product and potentially gain some sales from it.

The downside? It’s not really organic. Having real customers honestly rave about your products is a great feeling. And while you might get excited about getting sales this way, over the long haul this word of mouth tactic can get expensive.

#2. Hashtag Effect

Whenever I create a new Instagram account for my store, I always create a hashtag. It’s never anything super fancy, I usually just do my business name after the hashtag like #businessname.

At first, all the posts are my brand’s posts. However, every time without fail, eventually other people start using that hashtag too. Customers and fans of the niche end up using the hashtag for their posts too. Hashtags are a subtle but easy way to get your customers to do word of mouth marketing.

And as a result, it ends up making the hashtag more popular. While it can be hard to track whether the sales came from the hashtag or some other channel, this simple tactic helps build a stronger brand awareness.

Since the hashtag is the same as your brand name, you’ll be more likely to get found on Instagram. Plus, if your posts are dominating the hashtag feed, you’re more likely to get found. If you’re more likely to get found, you have a better chance of getting more sales.

#3. User-Generated Content

As your store grows, customers will start sharing user-generated content. What’s that? It’s content they create. It could be an Instagram post showing them wearing your product or a blog post on their website where they rave about your products.

You can take simple steps to encourage word of mouth by getting customers to create content. How? Post customer photos on your social media or on your product pages. Don’t forget to credit them in the post!

Offer incentives for promoting your brand. Maybe you have a referral or affiliate program where you offer perks or points for various types of content customers create.

Create a contest where you ask customers to send pictures of them with your product for a chance to win a free product or gift card to your store. You can even ask them to get their friends to vote on their post to help them win which can also boost your word of mouth outreach. Be careful with this type of marketing to ensure that it is not perceived as word of mouth advertising by tracking interactions closely.

#4. Get Reviews

Reviews work as an effective word of mouth strategy. The customer leaves a product review on the product page for the product they purchased. Then, store visitors end up seeing the post and may become influenced to buy the product based on the reviews they’ve read from real customers.

You can use Shopify apps like Product Reviews Addon to automate the collection of product reviews on your store. The emails are sent directly to your customers for you. If customers leave negative reviews, they’ll be redirected to your customer support team so that you can improve their experience.

#5. Create a Referral Program

A referral program can be designed to help you increase the success of your word of mouth marketing campaigns. You can offer perks for different levels of promotion. For example, if your customer refers a friend who purchases, you can offer a financial reward as a token of appreciation.

You can also offer non-monetary perks for other levels of promotion such as sharing user-generated content, posting product links on social media, tagging your brand on product posts and more.

You can use Shopify apps like Smile.io and Referral Candy to easily build a referral program on your online store.

So about a year ago, Carter Wilkerson tweeted Wendy’s asking how many retweets he’d need to get free nuggets. Wendy’s tweeted back saying an astronomical 18 million and while he didn’t get 18 million tweets, his tweet still became the most retweeted tweet of all time.

Imagine if Wendy’s didn’t respond to his tweet. That word of mouth campaign never would’ve happened. Becoming the most retweeted tweet of all time is a pretty big deal. It ended up amassing a ton of free media coverage because of the nature of the tweet, the record he broke and the nuggets he ended up receiving despite not achieving the goal.

As you build your store, you’re going to have countless interactions with your customers. If you can be positive, playful and active with them all, you may have a home run one day. It might not be as big as ‘the most retweeted tweet’ but it could still help boost your brand’s success.

#7. Give People No Choice But To Talk

There’s no brand who can get people talking as much as Red Bull. They often do these extreme stunts that go viral just because of how insane they are. Felix Baumgartner skydived from the edge of space. Paul Steiner climbed off one plane onto another while in the air. Basically, every stunt Red Bull does is fast and dangerous.

Naturally, when you do something extreme to get attention, you’re going to get people talking. While most brands don’t have the budget to do extreme and dangerous stunts, you can still get a similar impact with easy to execute ideas.

Some ecommerce brands hand deliver packages if customers need it delivered by a specific deadline. You can also surprise a customer with a free gift on their birthday using the Happy Birthday Email app. Your customer support team can respond to emails with video responses instead of text or talk in silly accents like a pirate.

#8. Surprise with Freebies

Shoppers love free stuff. And Sephora uses that fact to their advantage.

Multiple times a week Sephora sends emails with discount codes customers can use to get a free product. If a customer spends a certain amount of money, they can even use that money to get even more free stuff.

On a customers birthday month, they can collect their free gift from any Sephora location for free or with purchase if buying online. But does it result in word of mouth promotion? Yup, on my birthday back in January, even I posted about my free gift online.

You might think that freebies cost more money than they make. However, the 2017 birthday gift I got resulted in me buying that free gift multiple times. And now two years in a row I’ve spent over $300 each year on Sephora’s website. And I’m just one example. Truth is, the freebie can hook a person in and build their loyalty.

#9. Host Giveaways

Giveaways and contests are a great word of mouth marketing idea for those starting out. You can give away a free product on your store. You can have entries that require customers to share the giveaway on social media for a chance to win the prize. This helps you reach a newer audience organically.

You can use Shopify apps like ViralSweep or Social Boost to create contests and giveaways on your store.

The best part? After your contest has ended, you can reach out to everyone who lost and offer a runner-up prize. The runner-up prize could be a $5 gift card to your store. That way you can incentivize people to buy from your store despite not winning the contest. Just make sure that customers can’t score any freebies with the free gift card so you don’t lose money.

#10. Affiliate Networks

Affiliate marketing can help you increase your word of mouth marketing. You have a few key options you can experiment with.

First, you can get customers to sign up for your affiliate program. After a customer has made a purchase on your store, you can ask them to refer their friends and receive a commission for the sale if their friend using their referral link.

Second, you can reach out to niche bloggers. You can ask them to write articles about your products and brand. They can include affiliate links that allow them to monetize the post.

While you’re offering a monetary incentive, the reality is the risk is low as you only need to pay a commission if a sale is made. Also, even when sales aren’t made a brand awareness is being created by affiliates to help make more people familiar with your brand. 

Word of Mouth Marketing Statistics

Why should you believe us? Word of mouth marketing is a great strategy for some but how do you know if it is worthwhile for your business. Statistics can answer many of your questions and tell you if word of mouth marketing is the right strategy for you.

1. 51 percent of marketers say that Word of Mouth marketing outperforms brand-created content

   

Searchers, and indeed customers, have increasingly found it hard to believe branded content due to the rise in companies claiming to be the number 1 service provider in their area, or the best in the business without providing proof behind the claim. It is only fair to believe a customer’s word over a brand’s for this very reason. Customers can give a great first-hand account of their experience with a brand and be 100 percent truthful as they have nothing to lose.

2.  40 percent of desktop searchers use ad-blockers

Ad-blockers are making it harder for brands to advertise their products to potential customers. Due to the ever rising use of these plug-ins companies need to find other ways of generating new leads. Word of mouth marketing is the obvious first choice to replace ads as it is honest and organic.

3. Searchers need, on average, 2-6 reviews to instill trust in a brand

Reviews on Google, Yelp, and other review sites have never been more important, especially for smaller and local businesses. Reaching out to happy customers and asking them for online reviews can help increase trust in your brand among people who are thinking to buy from you. By having more than two reviews online you can increase sales of your product without doing any work yourself.

4 Great Word of Mouth Marketing Examples

1. ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

   In 2014 ALS released their ice bucket challenge as a fundraiser presented in the form of a challenge. Nominees poured a bucket of ice-cold water over themselves, capturing it in the form of an image or video, and donated money to the charity. The challenge was then posted over social media, and friends or family members were nominated to do the challenge. This campaign blew up with videos coming in from all over the world. The campaign was partaken by celebrities also. The biggest success for the campaign, of course, was the money raised which amounted to $115 million during the 8-week period in 2014

2. Dunkin’ Donuts

   Dunkin’ Donuts is an important part of America culture. Locals and tourists alike enjoy the delicious treat and it has become a beloved brand to the US. Because of their great product, they have earned staunch followers across the world and Dunkin’ Donut’s have found great ways to utilize word of mouth marketing through these great people. Using social media to launch competitions and post unique content, followers engage with them regularly. They engage in different ways like liking content, sharing it or even creating their own content around the brand to portray their experience of it. Their hard work paid off with their social media profiles growing hugely –  15 million Facebook fans, 1.5 million Instagram followers, and 1.2 million Twitter followers.

3. Netflix

   Using customer information to really understand what customers want on their platform, Netflix has not only been able to recommend shows to users but they have been able to create Netflix originals that are tailored to the biggest interests on the platform. Using this information in a smart way the company has been able to grow their customer sentiment positively creating an army of Netflix influencers who rave about the brand over the many social media platforms available to them. This free publicity has allowed the company to grow exponentially over its competitors like Amazon Prime, Hulu, and even YouTube.

4. Lush Loyalty

   Lush, as a beauty brand, offer ethical products that have not be tested on animals. Fighting for both social and environmental causes like animal testing and fair trade the company has collected an army of cult-like followers who believe in their values. These young followers are comfortable on most social media channels and also have more disposable income than the generations before them. Using unique content and promoting gifting Lush products, the company has been able to grow its profits year on year without needed to splash out on any advertising.

Word of Mouth Marketing: Conclusion

Creating a word of mouth marketing campaign can help you build brand recognition and get sales in the process. Turning your customers into raving fans isn’t easy. But you can apply the word of mouth marketing ideas from this article to help you start getting your customers talking. You may need to invest in word of mouth advertising in the beginning to build the hype but as your brand continues to grow, you’ll start to notice word of mouth happening on your social media quite regularly. Encourage customers to tag friends on social media posts, share their product photos online and leave product reviews. These little steps done regularly can help you master word of mouth marketing, even if you’re just starting out. The benefits are endless when you use word of mouth marketing alongside other forms of marketing.

Want to Learn More?

• 50 Most Inspiring and Successful Shopify Stores
• 9 Marketing Strategies That’ll Level Up Your Ecommerce Store
• 20 Great Customer Service Ideas to Surprise and Delight Shoppers
• Customer Retention: 8 Tips to Keep Your Customers Coming Back

How have you been building up hype around your brand? Share in the comments!

Word of mouth marketing is when a consumer’s interest is reflected in their everyday dialogue. It’s a low-cost (sometimes even free) and effective marketing method.

Many businesses consider word of mouth marketing the most valuable form of marketing because it enables you to spread good reviews about your product or service to a large audience, boosting brand awareness and loyalty.

Word of mouth marketing has been successfully used by many companies to get their customers to promote their brand by talking about experiences that they’d like to share with their friends and families.

Netflix, for example, used word of mouth marketing to make binge-watching popular with its organic tagline Netflix and chill. The company promoted it on social media which became a huge success.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at how businesses have used word of mouth marketing to connect with their target audience and boost sales. Along the way, we’ll share actionable tips that you can use to engage customers with your brand.

But first, let’s quickly take a look at why word of mouth marketing is arguably one of the most valuable sources of advertising.

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Why Is Word of Mouth Marketing Important?

Word of mouth marketing – also called word of mouth advertising – is a modern form of simple word of mouth. It’s one of the most effective forms of advertising for boosting brand recognition and sales.

Many businesses have adopted strategies that encourage customers to talk about positive experiences with their products.

According to HubSpot, consumers discuss specific brands casually around 90 times per week! The same study also reports that around 71% of people trust consumer reviews online. In simple words, consumers trust recommendations made by family and friends.

Word of mouth marketing is an honest promotion which helps you build trust with prospective customers. In fact, The Nielsen Company reports that 83% of customers trust recommendations from family, friends, and peers when making purchasing decisions. This goes to show that people don’t believe advertisements to the extent they trust suggestions from family and friends.

In the context of digital marketing, user-generated content is basically a form of word of mouth marketing that enables customers to promote your brand. And one of the most effective types of user-generated content is online reviews.

This involves existing customers sharing their positive experiences with your products and services with prospective customers. According to BrightLocal, 72% of respondents say positive product reviews boost their trust in a company.

Check out our in-depth article to learn more about how product reviews increase conversions.

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Before we dig deeper into how you can come up with an effective word of mouth marketing strategy for your business, let’s quickly step through some of the advantages of word of mouth marketing.

Instills brand loyalty

Successful businesses, whether online or brick-and-mortar – quickly realize that loyal customers lead to positive word of mouth about their product. To make the most of it, they focus more on building customer loyalty.

The thing is, these businesses know that while people don’t always trust paid advertisements, they are much more likely to heed a recommendation by someone they trust. Trust drives consumer decisions and, in turn, sales.

Associating positive emotions with the brand through word of mouth can help differentiate them from the competition and enhance the company’s brand image.

It’s cost-effective

As mentioned earlier, word of mouth marketing is an inexpensive method of promoting your products and services. While businesses spend thousands (or even millions) of dollars to run TV or online marketing campaigns, word of mouth marketing is a comparatively low-cost strategy.

Moreover, it doesn’t cost the consumers anything to spread the word about your company or your products. This is precisely why more and more companies are relying on their customers to share good product experiences with their friends and families.

Builds a community of brand advocates

Word of mouth marketing can help you build a community of brand advocates. This means when customers purchase your product, they tell their friends, families, and peers about it and share their experience on social platforms. These customers will likely support and vouch for your product online as well as offline.

Take a look at how this customer recommends the Shoptimizer WooCommerce theme to a first-time online store owner and highlights its key advantage i.e. conversion optimization.

As a result, you can attract more and more consumers that will continue to interact with your brand post-purchase. A loyal community of fans stands as proof of your brand quality. It can help promote your brand and persuade others to buy your products, helping you increase customer retention.

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3 Strategies for Word of Mouth Marketing

Here are some ways you can use word of mouth marketing to promote your brand.

#1: Ask for reviews

As a business owner, you should always be encouraging customers to leave a review. Online reviews are engaging, shareable, and (perhaps most importantly) unbiased.

You can use online product reviews to establish social proof. To take things up a notch, you can publish customer reviews and testimonials on your product pages and social media pages. This way, prospective customers will be more likely to purchase from you based on reviews they read from other people.

You can collect reviews and ratings on your product pages, social media, and email newsletters. CommerceKit, for example, is a powerful tool that can help you automatically collect reviews directly on your site.

Along the way, you might receive some negative reviews. But don’t worry, we got you! Check out our article on why a bad review is actually good for tips on how to interact with customers that leave negative reviews.

Online reviews aren’t the only type of user-generated content that can bolster your word of mouth marketing strategy.

Savvy digital marketers use social media to promote their content all the time. As your sales grow, you’ll notice customers sharing user-generated content on their social pages. This includes engaging and shareable content containing images, videos, Tweet threads, or Instagram captions that highlight their positive experience with your products.

Forever21 example

Apparel brand Forever21, for example, encourages buyers to share their style by uploading their favorite outfit photos on Instagram. Organic sharing like this is an effective way to boost your word of mouth outreach.

Promotional incentives, like coupons and exclusive discounts, are a great way to boost brand awareness. You can use your affiliate or referral program to give away points or perks for different types of user-generated content – more on this later.

Cluse example

Here’s how Cluse does it:

Cluse’s giveaway post encourages its followers to tag their friends in a user-generated content post and also asks them to get their friends to follow its Instagram page.

Check out our article on how to ask for a review for actionable tips!

#2: Interact over social media

When brands start or join conversations over social media, it generates many opportunities for word of mouth marketing. Positive and memorable social media interactions help build a community around the brand.

Aviation American Gin example

Last year, when Popeyes Chicken announced a new chicken sandwich, it started an online battle between two fast-food giants Wendy’s and Chick-fil-A. This gave Aviation American Gin a chance to get in the conversation in a playful way, and swoop thousands of valuable retweets on Twitter.

Aviation American Gin moved quickly at the fast-food heavyweights using other companies’ social posts to its advantage.

This is a great example of why word of mouth marketing is one of the most effective types of outreach. This sort of savvy social media campaign has helped the company attract the attention of a large number of social media users looking for entertaining content to consume and share online.

Netflix Film example

It’s simple, really. Social media offers a powerful medium to communicate with your target audience and build a strong and authentic brand image. You can use it to inform, educate, and entertain your consumers as well as find new customers by getting them to engage with your content.

Another way you can increase your brand recognition on social media is by creating a hashtag. Remember the Forever21 example? The apparel giant tells customers to upload their outfit photos using the hashtag #F21xME.

Hashtag campaigns are useful for building brand recognition and driving traffic. You can also use a hashtag on social platforms to start an online word of mouth campaign to share your promotional messages.

In other words, use your business hashtag every time you share a post on Instagram or Twitter and your customers will likely follow suit. Plus, hashtag feeds offer a quick and easy way to get in the conversations around your products. As a result, you can tap into conversations and respond to them in a timely manner. This, in turn, generates positive word of mouth from your customers!

Away example

A branded hashtag is a useful tool that can help you collect user-generated content. Here’s an example of Away using #travelaway in their Instagram post:

#3: Engage with consumers

A well-designed referral program can help you boost the results of your word of mouth marketing efforts. Encouraging existing customers to share positive words about you with their family, friends, and peers is a great way to attract new customers.

Your aim is to give customers a reason to share your brand with others, online or offline, and referral incentives are just the tools you need. You can offer coupons, credits, discounts, or free products to the referrer that leads to a purchase.

Similarly, you can incentivize customers to share user-generated content by tagging your brand on social posts or sharing product links on social pages.

7-Eleven example

The convenience store 7-Eleven encourages customers to post photos on social media using the hashtags #7ElevenDay, #TFW, and #slurplife for a free small Slurpee cup on July 11th.

Affiliate marketing is also a great way to acquire new customers. Here’s how you build an affiliate network: after you make a successful sale, ask the customer to refer their friend and earn a commission for the sale if their friend uses their referral link.

Niche bloggers can also help you promote your products on their blogs by including affiliate links in their content. Every sale leading from their referral will generate a commission for them while helping you boost your brand recognition.

You can also organize giveaways, contests, and lucky draws. All you have to do is tell customers to share user-generated content or the giveaway post on their social pages. This way, you’ll be able to get customers to interact with your brand and generate organic traffic along the way.

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Examples of Word of Mouth Marketing

Here’s a quick question for you: What does a beverage company, a cloud storage solution, and a mattress manufacturer have in common? Word of mouth marketing.

Let’s take a look at how different types of companies use word of mouth marketing strategies to create positive feelings and emotions about their products.

Coca-Cola

It’s no secret that Coca-Cola is one of the world’s most popular drinks. Over the years, it has run multiple campaigns which have led to positive word of mouth promotion for the brand and increased the consumption of Coke worldwide.

Its “Share a Coke” campaign was launched in 2014 to get consumers to view Coke in a way that boosts its consumption i.e. by getting people to share it with their friends and family. Its social media campaign asked customers to find bottles with common names (and uncommon spellings of common names!) on them and share it online using the hashtag #ShareaCoke.

Dropbox

Dropbox is an online storage company that has successfully used word of mouth to attract a lot of new customers. It offered free storage space in the early days with bonus free space for referrals that drew a lot of attention.

It offered 500 MB extra storage space to new users and the people referred by them. This campaign led to rapid growth in Dropbox’s revenue.

Casper

Casper is an online company that produces mattresses, bedding, and other sleep-related products. For each of their mattresses, it offers a trial period for 100 days from purchase. Consumers can then decide to keep the mattress or return it.

This customer-focused approach has clicked with consumers who prefer testing a product’s comfort and durability. Casper also ran aggressive social media campaigns sharing customer reviews, helping it acquire more than one million customers in eight countries.

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Conclusion

Word of mouth marketing is one of the most effective forms of marketing that involves giving customers reasons to share good opinions about your products with their friends and family. It helps you influence the customer’s purchase decisions, build trust, and boost brand awareness.

To recap, word of mouth marketing builds a community of brand advocates who vouch for your products online and offline. There are tons of ways to make your business a topic of conversation. Asking for reviews, interacting over social media, and engaging with consumers is just the tip of the iceberg.

Ready to collect reviews and leverage word of mouth marketing to increase sales? Sign up for CommerceKit updates as we build it!

Word-of-mouth marketing is a strategy that convinces existing customers to tell their family and friends about products they’re happy with. For retailers, the goal is to create something worth spreading the word about. 

This type of marketing drives $6 trillion in revenue annually for retailers. It’s estimated to account for 13% of all consumer sales. Shoppers in industries like electronics, groceries, and apparel rely on word-of-mouth recommendations most often.

Ready to take advantage of word-of-mouth recommendations? In this guide, we’ll share how your retail business can drive revenue using word-of-mouth marketing. 

What is a word-of-mouth marketing strategy?

Word-of-mouth marketing, also known as word-of-mouth advertising, is the process of influencing organic discussions about your brand. It’s a free advertisement from a customer that comes from having a positive experience with your brand. Highly involved buyers often recommend their personal contacts. They also make word of mouth a key influencer in their purchasing decisions, and generate high customer lifetime loyalty.

Word of mouth is the most effective marketing channel, but more importantly, it is the only thing that really shows that what you are building has any true value.

It’s a strategy almost half of businesses worldwide rely on heavily to drive sales. That makes sense considering 92% of consumers trust family and friends over advertising, and 38.5% of brands report conversions and sales from influencer marketing.

Why word-of-mouth marketing matters for retailers

Traditional advertising is taking a back seat to other forms of promotion in today’s world. Many advertising channels have seen a decline in click-through rate (CTR) over the past few years.

In Q1 2020, the median CTR for Google Research ads decreased from 2.5% to 1.55%. CTR remains lower year over year. The same applies to display ads, which have an even worse CTR average of 0.47%.

Head to social media and things don’t get much better. Just 1.1% of people who view your Facebook news feed ads, 0.79% of Facebook Story views, and 0.22% of Instagram ad audiences will click through. 

As a small-business retailer, you don’t have money to waste on expensive and unpredictable ads. You need to know your marketing strategies will work and be cost effective. 

Word of mouth is a reliable channel for retailers of any size and age. Not only is it mostly free to generate referrals, but 40% of leads come from word-of-mouth marketing.

Not convinced? Beyond friends and family, 88% of people trust online reviews written by other consumers as much as they trust recommendations from personal contacts. Plus, 74% of consumers identify word of mouth as a key influencer in their purchasing decisions. 

Benefits of word-of-mouth marketing

Customer loyalty

Word-of-mouth marketing creates a loyal customer base. Shoppers don’t just purchase and forget. Instead, they engage with the brand and share their experience with others. 

Data shows that 65% of sales will come from existing customers. By having customers who can verify that your products are amazing, you’ll have a base of people who’ll continue buying from you.

These people can assist your marketing efforts and bring new customers to your business. They provide the value of sharing a referral, and you save time and money on acquiring new customers. 

(That’s especially important considering customer acquisition costs have increased by nearly 50% in the past eight years.)

Brand affinity and trust

With so much competition for customer attention, brands are investing heavily in marketing and advertising. But that comes with an onslaught of shady marketing tactics that consumers are becoming ignorant to. 

Think about where you see them: Facebook, Instagram, radio, laptop, billboards. People just want products from brands they can trust. They can be skeptical of professional ads. 

Nielsen reports that 92% of consumers believe suggestions from friends and family more than advertising.

Those recommendations and reviews from customers or brand ambassadors are more trustworthy. It shows your business’ track record of being reliable and builds trust with buyers.

In short: trust drives consumer decision making. Retailers don’t have to build their own trust; just get someone who a potential customer already trusts to recommend them. 

Social engagement and buzz

Viral marketing campaigns aren’t sustainable, but they give short bursts of brand awareness and revenue to retailers.

A word-of-mouth marketing strategy is viral in nature. If you create enough hype around your brand or create a memorable customer experience, it can help your brand go viral. 

At first, you’ll find WOM may only lead to a few sales. But as your brand grows, you’ll see more people start tagging friends in your posts, mentioning you in their Stories or Reels, or talking about your brand on TikTok. 

Over time, this social engagement and buzz can help you grow at a faster rate than just relying on influencer partnerships, Facebook ads, or organic social media marketing. 

Reach older generations

It’s easy to forget that not everybody shops online. The internet penetration rate is just 59.5% globally, meaning billions of potential shoppers don’t use the web to research, browse, or buy products. 

Word of mouth slots perfectly into that strategy, making it essential for retailers who reach older generations. Some 18% of Generation X discover products through word of mouth, compared to 16% of baby boomers and 12% of Generation Z. 

The difference between word-of-mouth and referral marketing

People often confuse referral marketing and word-of-mouth marketing as the same thing, which makes sense considering the two concepts seem similar at first glance. 

The difference? Word-of-mouth marketing is about creating buzz around your brand or service. It’s organic and not a true promotional strategy because it’s not forced. People naturally talk about your brand because they genuinely want to. 

Imagine a brand you love sends you a free birthday gift in the mail. You share it on social media, your friends see it, they sign up for the same campaign. 

When they receive their birthday gift, they share it on social media, tell their friends, and recommend others sign up because the service was so great. The retailers who use organic word-of-mouth marketing are starting viral campaigns. 

Referral marketing, on the other hand, is a promotion strategy that encourages current customers to refer new ones. There is usually an incentive attached to referral programs, such as points in a program, discounts on future purchases, or cash bonuses. 

How to drive word-of-mouth marketing

Word of mouth is undoubtedly a powerful marketing tactic for retailers.

Here’s how to develop your own word-of-mouth strategy to trigger positive conversations about your brand, expand your potential customer base, and make more revenue. 

1. Create something buzzworthy
2. Provide quality service and experiences 
3. Amplify brand advocates
4. Empower fans and experts
5. Build an active social media following
6. Become a local thought leader
7. Collect online reviews

1. Create something buzzworthy

The first thing that comes to mind when you hear “buzzworthy” is a product launch or a big sale. However, there’s a strategy behind viral content that gains popularity through social sharing.

According to a research study by Jonah Berger, the author of Contagious, there are six key factors that drive what people talk about and share.

Let’s take a look at how we retailers use them to drive word-of-mouth recommendations:

1. Social currency. The better your product makes someone look, the more likely they’ll be to share it. Create content that excites customers. Who are your customers trying to impress? How can you make them better at something? Create a blog, do a Facebook Live, or run live workshops.
2. Triggers. Things that are top of mind are more likely to be shared. Create partnerships with influencers and other local brands that have similar audiences. Make sure they also have similar values as your brand. 
3. Emotion. People share things they care about. Think about content that will excite your readers emotionally. Relevant content is a good way to engage and get them talking about your brand.
4. Public. The easier something is to see, the more likely people will imitate it. Create content your audience can share. Host public events and share news. Try to avoid sensitive topics or polarizing opinion pieces or any other content that will turn off readers from sharing. 
5. Practical value. People share useful information to help others. What are your audience’s pain points? What questions do they have? What information are they looking for? For example, if your audience is made up of wine enthusiasts, create a tasting guide or answer an FAQ about how wine is made.
6. Stories. Stories boast our feelings of trust and compassion. They also help communicate important information in a relatable way. Share your story or stories about your customers using your products. It helps readers envision using your products and can encourage them to share the story in their network. 

2. Provide quality service and experiences

The secret to word-of-mouth marketing is to create something worth talking about—be it products, services, or experiences.

The good news is that the bar is low. Research shows 94% of US consumers would recommend a brand whose service they rate as “very good”. But that experience spans many different sectors in a retail store, from your product to customer service and visual merchandising. 

Do your best to go any lengths to make customers feel happy and satisfied, whether in-store or online. Train sales associates on what a positive experience looks like, how to ask discovery questions and use techniques like suggestive selling. 

Look to create unique and functional in-store experiences for customers. You can create beautiful window displays, leverage visual merchandising, or create helpful and cool retail signage.

Myriam Jessier is a customer of Les gourmandises d’Olivier, a French pastry shop that pivoted its entire business online in four days during the pandemic. It makes money thanks to word of mouth. 

According to Myriam, “It involves an Instagram presence, but a lot of customers recommend things because macaroons and croissants are not something you trust anyone with.”

Lean into comforts. We seek childhood comforts. French expats adore this brand [Les gourmandises d’Olivier] and share it as a self-care tip. This couple and their pastries take me back to the ’90s, back when my dad was still alive and things weren’t so dire. That feeling, there’s no price for it. They import specific things from France for that feeling and mouthfeel.

The most important part: if your customers don’t love your products, it’s unlikely they’ll take the time to tell their friends, their family, or people on the internet about it.

3. Amplify brand advocates

Happy customers are the perfect people to refer products to their family and friends. Encourage them to do so by recognizing and rewarding their brand loyalty.

User-generated content is any image, video, or text posted online by your customers. Not only will it make existing customers feel valued if you share their social media posts on your brand profile, but Social Media Today found that 85% of users believe UGC is more believable than other types of content.

“Content generated by your users and followers can be much more impactful, engaging, and shareable. That is why you have to learn how to encourage people to create user-generated content. 

“Start with encouraging your Instagram followers to use your branded hashtag or @mention you in Instagram content about your brand. You can also run contests and share giveaways with UGC as an entry to qualify.” —Courtney Quigley, Business Reputation Consultant at Rize Reviews

4. Empower fans and experts

A subsection of customer satisfaction, empowerment is another great way to generate word-of-mouth marketing referrals. It makes customers feel confident in their choices. 

The simplest way to do this is by getting customers involved in the product development process. This shows you care about them and their stories and experiences, and that you value their feedback.

Three ways to empower fans include:

• Collect feedback for new products by sending out post-purchase surveys with tools like Typeform and Shopify Email. 
• Livestream with subject matter experts and fans to give them a voice. 
• Get on channels they prefer. 

Clothing retailer Gymshark empowered fans with its video livestreams. Its community consisted mainly of fitness enthusiasts and professionals. To empower both, it paid personal trainers to host live workout sessions through its Facebook page. The trainers got paid work when most of their income disappeared; others could get their workout when gyms closed.

5. Build an active social media following

Did you know that 71% of consumers are more likely to purchase based on social media referrals? 

Social networks are superb word-of-mouth marketing channels because they scale. One happy customer who heads to LinkedIn, for example, can influence hundreds of others to buy the same item (depending on their audience size). 

One way to get more word-of-mouth referrals is through building your own social media community. Communities create a feeling of fellowship around shared interests and goals. They also:

• Promote engagement
• Bring people closer to your brand
• Increase visibility
• Provide inspiration for customers
• Build trust and attracts followers 

Myriam describes how the pastry shop Les gourmandises d’Olivier builds its social media presence through WOM marketing:

• “Great product + IG friendly macaroon making classes. The pastries are that good. But the macaroon making is unique and IG friendly. It attracted a crowd starved for cool things to do at home. An influencer reached out and Sandrine was baffled. She just told the lady: bring your lover boy on Valentine’s Day and we’ll make macaroons, no money. The rest is history, the content produced resonated with quite a few folks.”

• “Connect with local fans. There are a few folks, high rollers, who spend thousands online and come into the shop for the daily fix (or almost daily fix). They tell all their colleagues and friends about it. So you come in for one croissant and, oh boy, you find out you can buy a bunch of these and make them at home on your own time without having to deal with COVID restrictions.”

This product is great for word-of-mouth marketing for many reasons. It photographs super well. It also tastes incredibly good, and customers can even pretend they are a pâtissier if they buy the frozen bits to bake at home.

6. Become a local thought leader

Brick-and-mortar retail stores have one big advantage over online-only businesses: they can build a local community presence. SMB owners have a better understanding of their community. They can actively get involved and bring value to the people around them. 

There are several ways to do this, such as:

• Hosting events related to your business (or for charity)
• Participating in, or sponsoring, existing events
• Having a volunteer program or incentive for employees
• Donating to local causes through one-offs or portions of your profits
• Joining community boards or organizations your business could help with (such as arts or music councils, health boards, etc.)

One retailer putting this into action is Better Life Bags, a retail business located in Detroit, Michigan. Its founder, Rebecca Smith, built the entire business on top of a mission to support women in the local community: 

“Our mission is to hire women who have various barriers to employment to make our custom leather and fabric bags. They are adopted into our Better Life family and given a chance to succeed in life, family, and friendship.”

7. Collect online reviews

Today, word of mouth can come from outside a customer’s social circle. 

Online reviews from customers now make an impact on purchasing decisions. Reviews help customers feel they can trust a business. Some 94% of consumers say positive reviews make them more likely to buy from a business.

Despite their value, when was the last time you asked previous customers to leave a review? Just a third of businesses actively do it.

Reviews with high star ratings and positive sentiment impact buying decisions, so it’s important to make sure your reviews are in good shape. 

Recent reviews have an impact on whether or not a customer will buy from your business. Data shows 86% of consumers say they’ll look at reviews from the past three months. This means that old reviews get less attention and have diminishing returns over time. 

So, what can you do to get customer reviews consistently? The simplest way is to ask: 

• Ask for customer reviews in person, over email, or via SMS.
• Add review links to order confirmation emails.
• Train sales teams to always ask for feedback after taking payment in-store.
• Offer incentives—such as entry to a competition or points for a loyalty program—in exchange for reviews on sites like Yelp.

You can choose from a variety of Shopify apps to proactively ask for reviews. Here are a few notable apps, in no particular order: 

• Product Reviews
• Stamped.io Product Reviews
• Loox Product Reviews & Photos

Examples of word of mouth marketing campaigns

Casper

Casper is a DTC company praised for its incredible short-term growth. It sold $20 million in its first 10 months through word of mouth and a minimal advertising budget. 

The brand has a fun social media strategy that includes sleep-related articles, fast response times, and gifting events. Alongside high-quality products, those elements work together to create the perfect storm: the willingness for customers to share its products organically.

Getting customers to engage with Casper was a crucial part of the startup’s strategy from the beginning, because it didn’t have the advertising budget to compete against the mattress giants.

Threadless

Threadless is a t-shirt marketplace based out of Chicago and founded in 2003. It helps artists sell their designs for t-shirts and accessories online. 

In its first two years, more than 10,000 members joined the site and sold six figures’ worth of t-shirts—largely through word-of-mouth marketing.

Part of its strategy was competitions. Its founder, Jake Nickell, organically promoted a t-shirt design competition using blog comments and social media posts. Family and friends shared the competition off their own back. 

Thanks to its early commitment to word-of-mouth marketing, the company now brings in over $12M per year.

In-N-Out Burger

In-N-Out Burger is a cult favorite burger chain in the US. Its popularity (and estimated $957 million annual revenue) derives mostly from brand advocates and word-of-mouth marketing.

Locals love In-N-Out because the food is always fresh. The joint makes everything the old-fashioned way, with nothing frozen or prepackaged. Plus, customers only find out about its “secret menu” when told about it from family and friends. 

In-N-Out also supports non-profit organizations close to its restaurant locations. All of those elements combine to create a restaurant that customers recommend to their friends without having to ask. 

Zappos

Zappos is an online shoe and clothing retailer based in Las Vegas. The company was founded in 1999 and was bought out by Amazon in 2009 for $1.2 billion. 

Its growth strategy? Word-of-mouth marketing. 

It’s another case study showing how excellent customer service can drive the early success of a retailer. Zappos went out of its way to surprise and delight customers: it sent flowers to a customer and upgraded them to VIP status after it heard their feet were injured through medical treatment. 

Stellar customer service is embedded in every interaction someone has with the Zappos brand—even when returning an item. If someone doesn’t like the shoes they’ve purchased, they can return them free of charge.

Sozy

Sozy is a clothing brand on a mission to empower women with soft and cozy clothing. It also aims to make a difference in the world, with 10% of profits supporting survivors of sexual violence, and an additional 10% of profits going toward other chariable initiatives. It’s safe to say they are a brand many women can get behind. 

Word of mouth is one of its most effective marketing channels. “It is the only thing that shows what you are building has true value,” says Sozy’s founder Lanai Moliterno. The brand encourages people to naturally spread the word through its ambassador program.

“We offer ambassadors a gift card to join. Once they do, they are usually our best marketers. Our clothing is so soft and flattering that it doesn’t take much convincing for them to talk about it with their audiences. It works so well, we built a dedicated process to grow our ambassador program.”

Sozy’s ambassadors also help provide feedback about new products. They share thoughts on designs, what items they share most, and how their audiences respond to posts. In turn, this helps Sozy create better products for their customers, which helps get the word out naturally and drives more sales. 

Getting started with your WOMM strategy

There’s no doubt that WOM is a form of marketing with the power to increase retail sales and ecommerce conversion rates. 

The key is to create products worth talking about. Give outstanding customer service, amplify brand advocates, and build an active social media following. It’s a marketing strategy that’s tough to standardize, but a steady flow of word-of-mouth recommendations have the power to grow your business dramatically.

What is Word of Mouth Marketing?

Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) is when a product influenced the customers so much that it becomes their routine dialogue. The customer keeps on sharing his experiences with others and advertises the product in the disguise. Companies and businesses encourage word of mouth marketing by organizing events, where customers communicate with other customers and influence their decision.

Who Uses Word of Mouth Marketing

Word of mouth marketing is when customers share their product experience with their friends and relatives. According to an estimate, 92% of the people trust their friends rather than media. That’s why companies and businesses encourage WOM marketing by providing a quality product to the customers.  

By encouragement I mean that companies provide new insightful information about the product that customers aren’t aware of. They also teach customers the new techniques and methods of sharing information about the product to influence their decision.

How Effective is Word of Mouth Marketing?

Here are some of the statistics of the word of mouth marketing that will help you to analyze its effectiveness.

• According to a study, 13% of the total annual consumer sale comes from WOM marketing with the worth of 6 trillion US dollars.
• WOM marketing generates 5 times more sales than the paid media campaigns, and people trust and buy recommended products 90%.
• 88% of the people put a high level of trust in the people that they know.
• A company that emotionally connects with customers generates 3 times more sales than the brand that does not.
• 28% of the customers say that WOM marketing is a significant factor influencing their brand affinity.
• 64% of marketers believe that WOM marketing is a very effective marketing tool.
• 70% of the marketers are planning to increase their spending on online WOM marketing, and 29% of the marketers are planning to spend on offline WOM marketing.
• 80% of the advertisers use WOM marketing for brand awareness, and 43% of the marketers use WOM marketing for direct sales.

Word of Mouth Marketing Strategies

Here are some of the following word of mouth marketing strategies that you should use;

Offer Something Unique

You should come up with something unique and different and offer it to the customers, that would amaze people and they would share their experience with others. It doesn’t mean that you have to redo everything again, just work on some old ideas and present it differently. Or you should follow some different marketing strategies.

Rating and Reviews System

Sometimes people like your product, but they won’t recommend it to dozens of their friends and family members. It means that you can use their feedback for your marketing purposes. According to a study conducted by Bright Local’s Customer Review Survey in 2017;

• An average person studies at 7 reviews before trusting any brand.
• 85% of people trust online reviews like real-life recommendations.
• 49% of the people think that a 4-star rating is a minimum requirement for the purchase decision.

Tap into People Emotions

Emotionally connecting with your customers is a very powerful tool that would make customers talk about the company’s product. It could be a common belief that the company’s product and customers have in common.

For instance, e-commerce retailer ‘Ben & Jerry’s’ emotionally connect themselves with customers by showing them that they’re environmentalists.

Referral Program

A referral program is a great idea of convincing people to refer the company’s product with their social circle. But if you attach rewards with more referral and successful conversion, then people would take it seriously to win the rewards because they are a great source of motivation. Rewards could be in the form of bonuses, cash prizes, gifts, or discounts. Referring programs should be simple and done with few clicks.

Offer Incentives

If you offer incentives to the customers that would do WOM marketing for your brand, then more and more people would be willing to do it. It doesn’t matter that incentives are big or small; customers would do WOM marketing for you if they get something in return.

You should offer discounts to your customers if they do refer.

Connect with Industry Influencers

You should connect with those people that have a great influence over the public and also have a plethora of following. It means that their platform is well established, if they do WOM marketing for your brand, then it would have a major influence.

Mention, tag, and feature those influencers in your content, and provide them free services that they would actively engage.

Focus on User Generated Content

User-generated content means that the content relevant to your product generated by customers. It could be random and poorly worded, but honestly that would attract customers. You can identify customers’ content by using the hashtag, offer rewards to those who would create content like social media post, picture, or gif, and make them feel that you are a part of their community.

Advantages of of Word of Mouth

Some of the advantages of word-of-mouth marketing are as follows;

Trust

People are willing to trust something when they see other people happy using the same product. According to an advertising report prepared by Nielsen Global Trust that 92% of the people follow the recommendation of their friends and family, rather than traditional marketing. Word of marketing takes a turn in the age of science and technology by forcing marketers to rely on the referral of their customers.

Lost Cost

The marketing and advertising budget of companies comprise of hundred and thousands of dollars. WOM marketing and referral programs don’t have any cost compare to them. Like email marketing or social media marketing, you just have to create engaging content and send it to the customers.

Long-term Value

According to a study on integrated marketing and sales conducted by the University of North Carolina that the people who purchase your brand’s product through referrals are more likely to purchase it again than those who are through media and advertising. It is because referral marketing attaches a memory of a referring person. Therefore, referring memory lasts longer than an ordinary advertisement.

Branding

A market comprises a lot of big competitors; it becomes difficult for a small business owner to establish his brand. However, WOM marketing and referral provides a unique touch to your brand. It could be in the form of tips, articles, or other materials that interest people, and they would share it with friends.

Disadvantages of Word of Mouth

Some of the disadvantages of word-of-mouth marketing are as follows;

Slow & Limited

WOM marketing is good, you can’t expect it to reach and influence everyone through it. It works slowly and it has a limited reach. The electronic version of the referral program is much faster, and it doesn’t guarantee the conversion. There’s a limit to one’s contact, and it would work in the beginning but not in the long term.

Time is very important for new businesses. If your business doesn’t produce something in the beginning, then it would keep on accumulating expenses. WOM marketing works, but it is slower and you never know whether it works or not.

Difficult to Track

It’s difficult to track the conversion rate from the referrals. Small businesses don’t have the expertise of whether the converts are either from the referral or the new ones. George Silverman said that you would need to know not only what is said but who said it, and the sequence of information should continue. The reason that you require such information is that you would it for planning in the future.

Bad reviews

Bad reviews and negative feedback of unsatisfied customers can badly impact the overall performance of your business. It would also discourage and create doubts in the minds of new customers. They would run away before even check it out your product/service, and they would also share the bad experience among their social circle.

Word of Mouth Marketing Examples

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

ALS launched a challenge of pouring ice bucket over you in 2014, the participant has to make a video and send it to them. The purpose was to raise funding, people across the world participated in the contest. The campaign was a great success over social media and it collected 115 million US dollars in 8 weeks.

Netflix

Netflix studies the pattern of shows that people watch and then recommend similar shows to them. The regular watchers of Netflix share their experiences over social media, and Netflix targets the social circles of its followers.

Slack

Slack is a great tool for small businesses that they can use it for free in the beginning, but it depends on the referrals and WOM marketing. Now, slack has a much wider audience because of its referral programs.

Conclusion

If you are a small business owner, then word of mouth marketing is a great tool for you to reach more people. But you can’t rely on them forever because it has a limited range. Eventually you would need paid media to go beyond. Most importantly, you should be certain about the performance of your product, because negative marketing spread much faster than positive referrals.