Реклама for of word

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.

---

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.

---

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.

---

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.

---

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.

---

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 (lovingly nicknamed WOMM) can make or break your biz. It can build you up and tear you down faster than an OC socialite. Do word of mouth marketing right and you’ll have (almost) no need of an ad budget; customers will share stories of your sublime service at dinner parties across the country, and that’s better than any billboard.

The popularity of sites like Yelp and Angie’s List, and even Health Grades for the medical industry, show how important the old Word o’ Mouth is. While anonymous online word of mouth is plentiful, savvy users are aware of how reviews can be manipulated and faked, which is why person to person WOM is still the most powerful form.

The WOMM wombat shares it’s opinions with friends

Word of mouth marketing is, at its heart, using happy customers to promote your business. The aim in word of mouth marketing is to provide customers with such an unbelievably amazing, life-affirming product or service that they can’t help but share their experience with friends, family, co-workers, and the random dude who sits at the bus stop every day with his exotic parrot.

Imagine it: customers doing your marketing work for you! Well, they’ll need a bit of help, especially in the online era when word of mouth marketing has evolved quite a bit. Traditionally, word of mouth marketing refers to verbal endorsements: good word of your business, exchanged vocally via your pie hole. Today however, word of mouth marketing can be found in:

• Facebook likes

• Twitter @s

• Amazon reviews, Yelp reviews, and similar sites

• Customer testimonials

• Blog posts

• Brand mentions

• Message forums

• And, of course, old school chatter

Word of Mouth Marketing Statistics

I don’t think we really need to explain why word of mouth marketing rocks — it’s kind of a cornerstone of marketing. But in case you need to convince coworkers and friends, here are some word of mouth marketing stats taken from a study done by Lithium.

• 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family more than any other form of advertising. [Lithium]

• 20% to 50% of purchases are the result of a word-of-mouth recommendation [AdAge]

• Only 10% of consumers trust brands. [Lithium]

• 70% of consumers read online customer reviews when considering a brand. [Lithium]

• 81% of consumers are influenced by their friends’ social media posts. [Lithium]

These numbers make a pretty solid case for word of mouth marketing. So how can you take a bite out of the prize? Let’s take a look.

5 Steps for Improving Your Word of Mouth Marketing

Word of mouth marketing isn’t a magic philosopher’s stone to quick-fix your problems; it’s a long journey with a big payoff, assuming you can make the trek. Begin your incredible journey with these five steps. After that, just keep walking!

Step 1. Amazing Service, Amazing Staff: Give People a Reason to Rave

Word of mouth marketing is most successful with brands that are working really hard to do right by their customers. This means a great offering partnered with exceptional customer service. Obviously your product needs to be strong, but it’s just as important that the staff interacting with customers and clients is top-notch.

That is one happy staff [Image via reedigitalphotos.net]

Honestly, it’s the positive human interactions most people get excited about; consumers often encounter so much lousy customer service that in contrast, great service is a minor miracle for most.

Step 2. Be Unique: Let Your Freak Flag Fly High!

One way to generate word of mouth is by making your business truly note-worthy. You can do this a number of ways, such as with:

• a one-of-a-kind product

• unique company culture

• creative marketing ideas

Take Old Spice as an example. They generated a ton of word of mouth marketing with their “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” marketing strategy, which we’ve talked about before in regards to successful YouTube advertising. Sometimes it works to be a little weird.

Whether you’re a freak or a geek, it pays to be different. Well, not so much in high school…

While it’s cheap to be strange just for strategy’s sake, if your business has a unique company culture or bizarre brand identity, be loud and proud about it! People appreciate what’s out of the ordinary, and you’ll gain fans and word of mouth attention simply for walking to the beat of your own drummer.

Step 3. Become an Industry Thought Leader

Want to get people talking about you? Establish yourself as an industry thought leader! This requires considerable effort on your part — you’ll need you to engage in dialogue with existing industry leaders and power players while staying up to date on the latest industry news. Once you really know your stuff and feel confident, make your own predictions and inferences based on industry trends. Just make sure you can back up your theories with hard evidence!

It’s not the easiest route to take, but the long-term benefits of becoming an industry leader are worth your sweat and toil. When people start looking to your brand as a thought leader in your field, you’ll soon end up with more word of mouth marketing than you know what to do with.

Step 4. Create a Good Name for Yourself

People appreciate businesses that are honest and fair. No slimy tactics here. Grow your reputation by being respectful of your customers and treating them right. Don’t try to fleece your customers, and they’ll thank ya kindly for it.

Don’t try to trick your customers

Step 5. Active, Engaged Social Community

You can also foster word of mouth marketing through a tight-knit social community. Online community can be developed by:

• encouraging dialogue

• hosting contests

• organizing events (online and offline)

• loyalty programs

The best word of mouth marketing power brands convince consumers that by buying their product, they’re making a personal statement and joining special ranks. Die-hard devotees may even refer to favorite brands as “family” as certain products or services become part of a customer’s identity.

Great communities help users identify themselves. It’s why fans of TV shows love giving themselves nicknames (e.g. Bronies, Fannibals, Trekkies). It’s why you can’t enter a Starbucks without seeing a swarm of white Apple logos and why Soylent drinkers think they are the superior humans.

Original Comic Con photo by Scott Sebring

This kind of devotion isn’t easy to come by, but achieving such loyalty is the ultimate marketing hole-in-one. So how do you get there? Well, in order to develop an intimate community there needs to be some sort of exclusivity. A community is formed not just by who is in the group, but also who isn’t. This doesn’t mean you should immediately bar the door; there’s a balance to consider. You want to be welcoming towards all, but embrace only the few. Your community probably shouldn’t appeal to everyone, it should cater to a niche group.

Some brands have done an incredible job capitalizing on the ‘community’ aspect of their product. Let’s examine a few top-notch word of mouth marketing examples from brands hitting it out of the park.

Word of Mouth Marketing Examples

Some brands manage to develop a near cult-like following. Why do folks love them? How do they do it? Let’s take a look.

Jeep

Jeep has made themselves into THE car for adventure lovers; the car for those who would rather not worry about something as small and inconsequential as “roads.”

Even more remarkably, Jeep has managed to market themselves as the brand for true Americans. As Globe and Mail (ironically, a Canadian news site) notes:

Jeep is appealing to the deepest, most powerful drivers of the American psyche. Americans like to believe they possess qualities that set them apart – that they are rugged, and tough, and individualistic, and resourceful, capable, straightforward and indomitable. It [Jeep] speaks directly to what Americans most like and admire about themselves, believe to be true about themselves…Jeep is just so American.

Spotted on the street while writing this post. Note the American flag. Case in point.

Most people who drive Jeeps truly identify with this subculture of carpe diem tough guys and will unabashedly explain why Jeep trumps all.

Zappos

Zappos is another company with an extremely devoted following. If you ask Zappos superfans why they love the brand, they’ll probably say something about Zappos’ exceptional customers service.

Zappos trains their call center workers to be responsive, helpful, and noticeably human. They pride themselves on providing free 24/7 customer service via American call centers. It may not sound revolutionary, but this kind of service is hard to come by. Just think about the last time you had to call Comcast (I know, I know, it’s OK, sorry for bringing back those memories. Take a deep breath and throw back that Xanax).

There are incredible stories about Zappos workers going above and beyond for customers. One story tells how one worker, after discovering that a return shipment of shoes was delayed because the customer’s mother had passed away, sent flowers to the home in lieu of an invoice. It’s this kind of demonstrative concern for customers that has made Zappos the brand it is today.

Zappos also knows that happy workers breed happy customers, which is why even low wage call center employees are treated to company perks. We could all learn a few things about how Zappos incentivizes workers and tries to make the office a 2nd home for employees. Zappos demonstrates how good company culture naturally breeds word of mouth marketing.

Craigslist

Craigslist is probably the most incredible word of mouth marketing example. For one, the website is as barebones as it gets, with a startling lack of bells and/or whistles. Craigslist doesn’t even have a logo. Oh, and the advertising budget? $0. Zero dollars. It’s so basic, so primitive, that the design alone leads the apprehensive to mistrust it, wary of its resemblance to scammy old Angelfire-style sites from the internet’s primordial ooze.

Instead of focusing on revenue and ROI, Craigslist has everything focused on the customer. As CEO Jim Buckmaster notes, “All we do is try to respond to what users are asking for. That’s how we set our priorities. Users aren’t asking us to run ads, so it doesn’t come onto our radar.” From a business perspective, this is bordering blasphemy, but it earns Craigslist great admiration as it stays true to its mission statement to “connect the world for the common good.”

As a result of keeping it old school, Craigslist has managed to make themselves a household name, racking up over 50 billion page views per month while relying on word of mouth as its sole source of marketing. While Craigslist is an exceptional success story, it’s true that redirecting energy and resources towards building up word of mouth marketing (as opposed to regular advertising) can benefit any brand. Businesses that develop strong word of mouth marketing often don’t have to spend as much money on advertising. They’ve built themselves a self-sustaining perpetual marketing machine.

Etsy

Etsy has powerful appeal as an alternative to the mass market consumerism that plagues most of our purchasing prerogatives.

Just one of the adorable things you can buy on Etsy

They market themselves as a shopping alternative for folks who are looking for one-of-a-kind items that reflect their own uniqueness. This strategy thrives off a growing trend in which individuals are looking to distance themselves from the collective kitsch. Like Craigslist, Etsy prefers to rely on WOMM rather than ads. CEO Rob Kalin notes:

“When you have a service that people feel enthusiastic about, they spread the word and pass it on. If we were to take out big glossy ads in magazines or do television commercials, then that changes how people perceive what your company is.”

This isn’t to say you should immediately go dump your advertising budget in the river, but it does remind us that a certain balance is vital. Your business will go much farther devoting attention to customer experience and building community than it would were you to simply plaster ads all across the web.

JetBlue

Folks rave about JetBlue because of the way they treat their flyers. While other airlines penny-and-dime passengers for in-flight entertainment, refreshments, and food, JetBlue offers the same amenities gratis, all while maintaining an upbeat attitude and solid customer service.

Sometimes it’s the little things that count, and JetBlue has gained a ton of word of mouth marketing traction by providing small acts of kindness towards their passengers.

Word of Mouth Marketing: The Power is Yours!

Word of mouth marketing is a powerful tool, but for some businesses, it can be tough to wield. Getting customers enthusiastic about your brand requires stellar service, a unique identity, solid reputation, and a thriving community. Above all, put your customers first and deliver above and beyond what you promise. Surprising clients with your awesomeness will ensure they spread word of your biz all across the land.

What Is Word-of-Mouth Marketing?

Word-of-mouth marketing (or WOM marketing) is when a consumer’s interest in a company’s product or service is reflected in their daily dialogues. Essentially, it is free advertising triggered by customer experiences—and usually, something that goes beyond what they expected.

Word-of-mouth marketing can be encouraged through different publicity activities set up by companies or by having opportunities to encourage consumer-to-consumer and consumer-to-marketer communications. Also referred to as «word-of-mouth advertising,» WOM marketing includes buzz, viral, blog, emotional, and social media marketing.

Understanding Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Word-of-mouth marketing differs from natural word-of-mouth references to a company’s products and services in how it may come as the result of a promotion, encouragement, or other influence by a company, otherwise known as «seeding.»

When a diner has a wonderful time at a restaurant because their expectations were exceeded and later tweets about it, or when someone had a great experience using a product in a new way and tells everyone they know about it, those are examples of word-of-mouth marketing. Also, word-of-mouth marketing does not stop at the first interaction; it tends to lead to a cascade of follow-on interactions.

The encouragement on the part of a company may take one of several forms. The best way is to give them a reason to talk, such as exceeding expectations or providing insider skills or information about a product.

Other strategies include offering consumers new ways to share information about a company’s products and services, and engaging and interacting with the consumer, such as through exemplary customer service. This is especially valuable with social media-based customer service, which provides for seamless sharing and promotion.

Benefits of Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Eighty-eight percent of people around the world said they trust recommendations from friends and family (earned media) above all other forms of advertising. This shows just how effective word-of-mouth marketing can be.

Consumers are more emotionally bonded to a company when they feel they are listened to by the company. That is why many companies will have sales representatives discuss their products and services with consumers personally or through a feedback phone line. This kind of interaction, as well as promotional events, can stimulate conversations about a company’s product.

There is a significant temptation to fabricate word-of-mouth marketing. Accordingly, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) crafted a code of ethics checklist for the industry, advising that the best word-of-mouth marketing strategies are credible, social, repeatable, measurable, and respectful, and there is no excuse for dishonesty.

WOM marketing expert Andy Sernovitz has boiled down WOMMA’s code of ethics into three key rules to avoid issues:

• Say who you are representing (always disclose a relationship)
• Say only what you believe (be honest with an opinion)
• Never lie about who you are (be honest about your identity)

The Bottom Line

Word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing is when a consumer shares a positive experience with their peers about a good or service. WOM marketing is great for businesses as it generates business without incurring additional marketing costs. Businesses can, however, purposely contribute to word-of-mouth marketing efforts.

WOM marketing is usually experienced over dinner parties, texts, and casual encounters between friends and family. It can also be set through buzz, viral media, blogs, and social media marketing.

Have you heard the term «teleconferenced peer influence groups»? If not, you’re not alone. You probably know it by its more common moniker: “word-of-mouth marketing” (WOMM).

The term “Teleconferenced peer influence groups” was originally coined by psychologist George Silverman in the 1970s, after using focus groups to discuss different pharmaceutical products.

His observations indicate the basic tenets behind how word of mouth works: «One or two physicians who were having good experiences with a drug would sway an entire group of skeptics. They would even sway a dissatisfied group of ex-prescribers who had had negative experiences!” (Source: thefreelibrary)

Now, 50 years later, this approach has grown into a widely used marketing tactic — with the data to prove it: 74% of consumers identify word of mouth as a critical part of their purchasing decision. And a whopping 92% of consumers say they trust recommendations from friends.

So what’s the word on word-of-mouth marketing? Read on to find out.

Table of Contents

• What is Word-of-Mouth Marketing?

• Why is Word-of-Mouth Marketing Important?

• Types of Word-of-Mouth Marketing

• Why is Face-to-Face marketing effective?

• What are Some Word-of-Mouth Marketing Strategies?

• What are Benefits of a Word-of-Mouth Marketing Strategy?

What is Word-of-Mouth Marketing?

Word of mouth (WOM) is one of the oldest and most effective forms of marketing. And, it has evolved relatively seamlessly into the digital landscape. At its core, it can be defined as:

A marketing method that relies on casual social interactions to promote a product.

Word-of-mouth marketing involves businesses finding ways to encourage individuals to share recommendations, news, and accolades about their brand, products, and services.

 For example, when was the last time you had an interaction with a brand, positive or negative, and then told someone else about it? Think about a time when the food and service at a new restaurant you tried were so good and unique, you had to tell your friend to go try. Or, maybe it’s a software tool that has greatly improved your team’s workflow, so you left a review on G2 or recommend it to a peer. 

All of these consumer interactions build trust and increase the front-of-mind real estate presence for your business in the ever-crowded ether of messaging bombardment people receive these days. (Of course, it should be noted that WOM can also hurt you based on the sentiment of the discussion).

Why is Word-of-Mouth Marketing Important?

Word-of-mouth marketing is about a face-to-face interaction (or avatar to avatar as the case may be in today’s digital age) that is built on pre-founded trust. It’s a cost-effective way to spread the word about your company and products among online and in-person communities.

If it’s not already top of mind for your marketing, it should be! Word-of-mouth marketing is cost-effective, builds brand loyalty, and reveals new ways you can reach potential customers.

Types of Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Referrals from word of mouth can come from several sources, but for marketing purposes, the most important channels to know about include:

• Peer-to-peer
• Face-to-face
• User-generated content
• Social media conversations

1. Peer-to-Peer

• A friend says to a friend “I just had the best meal at a restaurant downtown. I think you’d love it!”

This is arguably the most basic form of word-of-mouth marketing. When you get a recommendation from a peer that you respect and trust, you’re far more likely to check out the recommended product, restaurant, etc., yourself. For marketers, this type of interaction is tough to really measure accurately or influence directly. 

Tip: To improve your reporting, ask new customers how they found out about you. If they say “I heard about you from my friend” you can ask them to expand on what specifically their friend liked. These learnings will help you invest time and energy confidently into brand-building marketing and acquisition efforts.

2. Face-to-face marketing 

• A sales rep is set up at a kiosk in the grocery store and offers you a sample of their new line of cheeses. Mmm cheese….

Face-to-face marketing is usually set up as a more “professional” relationship between the recommender and recommendee. It has a more clear sales factor, but it’s still a 1:1 tactic. 

Why is Face-to-Face marketing effective?

Think of a software product demonstration to a new prospective client, or free samples at a grocery store. In both cases, you may not purchase that day, but you’ve had a face-to-face interaction with someone who is passionate about what they’re selling. They had the opportunity to tell you about their brand, and offer a business card. So they’ve had that extra touchpoint to remain memorable when it comes time to make your purchase decision. 

Face-to-face marketing tips: Let your personality shine, and incorporate brand values into your selling story. Today’s consumers gravitate heavily towards authenticity and shared values (such as eco-friendliness and inclusivity). Highlighting these during your product pitch will help you stay top of mind.

3. UGC (User-generated content)

• You go to the restaurant your friend suggested and liked it so much you hit the Big 3 of UGC: posted a picture of your meal to Facebook, added a video to your Instagram Story (tagging the restaurant), and wrote a 5-star review on Yelp.

UGC (User-generated content) is what marketers like to refer to as “low hanging fruit” — once it’s created that is. And, brands can use this content in their own content marketing strategy to (1) show off an unbiased testimonial and to (2) build an even stronger relationship with the customer who posted. Much like peer to peer recommendations, this content can reach a larger audience that the poster may or may not know directly. 

If you can figure out how to cultivate user-generated content, you’ve unlocked one of the quickest and cheapest ways to grow your online presence.

Tip: Respond to both positive and negative online reviews. Be honest, appreciative, and genuine, and more people will want to publicly share their experiences!

There are components of social media in all of the above marketing options, but it’s so important it deserves its own call-out. Social posts on any platform that mention your brand are powerful instances of social proof.

To put some numbers to the value of WOM on social media: over half of purchases inspired by social media sharing occur within 1 week of sharing or favoriting, and 80% of purchases resulting from social media shares occur within 3 weeks of sharing. [Source: VisionCritical]

It’s important to think of social media in a broad context here: consider everything, from the major channels like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram to the new and exciting like TikTok, to forum-based platforms like Trip Advisor.

Tip: Engage when you’re tagged! Consumers love when brands respond so encourage your social media manager to like, share, and comment when posts tag you or use an official brand hashtag.

What are Some Word-of-Mouth Marketing Strategies?

• Create a Conversation
• Use Influencers & Brand Ambassadors
• Encourage UGC
• Social Media Listening

WOMM is ultimately quite ubiquitous, which is what makes it so incredibly valuable — but it’s also what makes it incredibly difficult to control.

How do you measure success? How do you implement a strategy for improving and increasing your face to face recommendations? How do you swiftly find and address negative reviews or comments and protect your carefully crafted reputation? Let’s explore how to implement these tactics into your marketing strategy.

1. Create a Conversation

Word-of-mouth marketing is about real people sharing their thoughts about your brand and products, thereby indirectly encouraging more sales and recommendations for you — like a ripple effect. 

But how do you keep the conversation going? Chatter matters so you need to help generate that buzz!  

Find out where conversations are happening

This comes from understanding your audience. Where do they hang out? Jump in on forum discussions around related topics to your industry, products, and services. Facebook groups are another great place to start.

Be sure to adhere strictly to any forum guidelines in place (which often include no advertising). Otherwise, your words will be swiftly removed by moderators.

Appeal to Your Audience

You can’t market unless you understand who you are talking to, right? And in today’s ever more complicated world, the psychosomatics of your customer base go far behind the demographics data.

Tip: Gather the data from previous campaigns, email sends, and social interaction to analyze what type of content your audience reacts positively to, such as discounts, contests, or polls.

Maintain your online reputation

If you start seeing a lot of negative word-of-mouth buzz, you’ll want to address it swiftly and professionally. Don’t let it fester. Not only does this go a long way toward solving the issue, but it also leaves a very positive impression for current and potential customers. 

So, rather than recording their frustrating conversation trying to cancel their internet service and posting it for millions of people to share in their misery, you instead have someone posting “I just had a surprisingly pleasant customer service experience with XYZ. I’d highly recommend them!” If someone was thinking of switching, this could be what helps convince them.

Having a comprehensive crisis communication strategy is essential for any marketing team. But especially important when you’re prioritizing your WOMM efforts. To get help monitoring and responding to these types of situations, get a free tour of our real-time alerting tool. 

2. Encourage UGC

The Drum found that 75% of people feel user-generated content makes a brand more authentic.

So how can businesses encourage people to create content? Here are some tips:

• Create a brand hashtag to invite participation
• Jump on a trending topic and apply it to your brand
• Run a contest — you can always offer incentives here too
• Ask for feedback so you can hear straight from customers what they want 

Customer reviews are a great tactic and should absolutely be part of your word-of-mouth marketing strategy. 

70% of people trust consumer reviews online according to HubSpot. That’s actually huge if you think about it. Thousands of strangers are trusting what thousands of other strangers say about a product online.

Accolades can be featured on your website, social platforms, in campaigns, or 3rd party sites. They can be written statements, quotes, video interviews, or a comprehensive story in a blog article.

Here’s an example of a quote from a Meltwater customer that we may choose to share on our homepage or in other key customer journey locations because we think it accurately represents our solution and who we are: 

If you haven’t invested in 3rd party review platforms, here are some popular ones to get started:

• G2
• Yelp
• GlassDoor
• Reviews.io

Do note that you need to ask permission to re-share anything. 

3. Utilize Influencers and Brand Ambassadors

An influencer or brand ambassador is an individual with a significant following who works with brands to promote products and services. As of 2021, the three biggest social platforms for influencer marketing are Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. (Source: Business Insider)

Influencers are powerful in that they are another trusted source for consumers, but unlike a 1:1 connection, they are speaking as a “friend” to a much larger audience. And the best part is, the ROI is far more trackable if you’re working with them in an official partnership capacity.

Tip: Bigger isn’t necessarily better when it comes to follower count. Ask prospective influencer partners about their engagement metrics to get a sense of how active their audience is.

Example: If you are vegan and struggling to find everyday recipes or are seeking a community where you can connect with other like-minded vegans, you may follow someone like Michelle Cehn a micro-influencer and founder of World of Vegan.

Influencer marketing is deserving of its own blog post altogether, and we just happen to have one, but here are some of the main points to consider:

There are roughly 4 different levels: 

• Nano: 500-1K followers 
• Micro: 1K-100K followers
• Macro: 100K — 1M followers 
• Power / Celebrity: 1M +

Questions to keep in mind:

• Do they fit our brand image?
• Have they worked with your competition?
• Who is their audience?
• Does this make sense for our budget? 

Lastly, take a step back and really listen. 

Look at how people are talking about your industry and pay particular attention to their pain points. This will help you both drive social conversations and implement solutions based on what people are talking about in your space. 

This will also help you track the type of content your audience enjoys (photos, videos, Instagram Stories, etc.,). These all provide clues to help you maximize return on building an engaged following that will continue to spread the word to their friends.  

Gain valuable audience insights with Meltwaters social listening tools. Don’t forget the invaluable information you can glean from tracking your competitors as well! Request a demo to learn more.

What are Benefits of a Word-of-Mouth Marketing Strategy?

To wrap it up, let’s review the main benefits of using word of mouth as an integral component of your marketing:

1. Low Cost

Because you’re not paying for true word of mouth, this type of marketing strategy contributes to lower costs, as others are doing most of the work for you. It helps influence sales with little to no advertising spend.

2. Builds Trust, Brand Reputation & Loyalty

Developing trust is not only one of the first steps in a relationship marketing strategy, but it’s also one of the most difficult.

Since word-of-mouth recommendations are coming from a peer that you trust, a familiar face, or online reviews, they are inherently trustworthy — especially in comparison to a brand simply shouting into the void about how great they are.

3. Creates Long-term Value

Gaining consistent, positive buzz around your products through word-of-mouth marketing will help you maintain repeat customers and make it easier to approach influencers for brand advocacy partnerships. 

Referrals like this are invaluable to grow your loyal customer base, ensuring the snowball keeps rolling — as a study from the Wharton School of Business found: customers referred by people they know and trust are between 16% to 24% more loyal to that brand on average.

Looking for new ways to grow your customer base? Don’t forget about wowing the customers you already have, to generate word-of-mouth marketing.  Think of the last time you recommended your favorite restaurant, clothing item, or other product to a friend. You probably shared because you loved your experience. The same goes for your company – when customers are wowed by your business, they naturally want to spread the good word.

This excitement to share is what drives word-of-mouth marketing (also called WOM marketing, WOMM, or word-of-mouth advertising). And this sharing leads to new customers, because the people who hear your customers’ word of mouth highly trust the word of their peers. So, word-of-mouth marketing could be your secret weapon for growth – especially because it often happens for free.

Athough word-of-mouth marketing depends on your customers and fans, it’s not out of your control. There are many ways to further your word-of-mouth marketing strategy. Below, we cover everything about the power of word of mouth, from what sets word of mouth apart from all other types of marketing to how you can harness word-of-mouth marketing to scale your own business.

What prompts word-of-mouth marketing?

Usually, word of mouth is prompted by an above-and-beyond positive experience someone has had with your brand. Think about the last time you ate an amazing dinner out, or tried a cool new product that easily solved one of your problems. You probably couldn’t help but share this standout experience with your friends.

Why is word-of-mouth marketing so important?

Word-of-mouth marketing stands out because of its high level of trust.

Why do people trust word of mouth?

Usually, word-of-mouth recommendations come from friends, family members, and others within someone’s close circles. When someone sees a friend or family member raving about a particular brand, they’re much more likely to buy. That’s because peer recommendations are seen as especially valuable.

Source

Word-of-mouth marketing benefits

According to a Nielsen report, 92% of people trust word of mouth referrals from those they know, more than they trust all other forms of advertising.

Word-of-mouth marketing means your customers and other fans are essentially doing the marketing for you, at little to no cost to your business! They are promoting straight to their network, usually in person or on social media. This makes word of mouth not only cost-effective, but highly valuable.

Plus, thanks to social media, what someone shares can reach millions in mere seconds. And word of mouth doesn’t just stop after one interaction – one person will tell another, and another, and so on. With every share, repost, or retweet, word-of-mouth marketing carries the potential for exponential growth.

All this happens at a very low cost to your business – often, for free.

Source

Word of mouth statistics: How effective is word-of-mouth marketing?

These word-of-mouth marketing statistics further prove how successful word-of-mouth marketing can be:

• 83% of Americans say that word-of-mouth recommendations from people they know make them more likely to purchase a given product or service.
• According to Nielsen, consumers are 4 times more likely to buy when referred by a friend, so word of mouth produces high conversion rates.
• When it comes to products they have purchased, 74% of people identified word of mouth as a key factor in their purchase decision.
• Marketers rate the quality of leads brought in by word of mouth as a 4.28 out of 5.

Check out more word-of-mouth marketing statistics in the infographic below.

What are the types of word-of-mouth marketing?

Word-of-mouth marketing (word-of-mouth advertising) can be divided into two main types or categories: amplified word of mouth and organic word of mouth.

Amplified word-of-mouth marketing is directly encouraged by your business via a marketing campaign. Within the campaign, businesses will usually use some sort of reward to motivate this word of mouth. Amplified word of mouth strategies are also easy to track, since they are tied to a campaign.

Examples of amplified word of mouth include:

• Referral programs
• Affiliate programs
• Brand ambassador programs
• Influencer marketing campaigns
• Other customer endorsements you encourage with rewards
• Other campaigns and contests to encourage social media sharing

In contrast, organic word-of-mouth marketing occurs when someone recommends your brand naturally and without direct prompting from your business.

It is much harder to motivate and track. But this type of word of mouth isn’t fully out of your control. It is usually triggered by an event experienced by the customer. Whether that’s amazing customer service or a free gift with purchase, triggers set your brand apart from the competition and keep you top of mind. Plus, they make for great talking points and organic word of mouth.

We’ll dive into common ways to trigger word-of-mouth marketing in the next section.

Examples of organic word of mouth include:

• Spontaneous social media sharing (user-generated content)
• Reviews and comments from satisfied customers
• Natural sharing of a product through any type of conversation
• “Dark social” sharing in DMs and private emails, that doesn’t have a tracking tag

6 word-of-mouth marketing strategies for any campaign (+WOMM examples)

With the right word-of-mouth marketing campaign, you can successfully create a steady stream of referrals and repeatable word of mouth for your brand.

Fortunately, there are plenty word-of-mouth channels at your disposal: referral programs, influencer programs, brand ambassador programs, affiliate marketing, and many more. Whichever channel you choose, however, it’s important to develop an overall WOMM strategy to encourage organic sharing.

Here are a few proven WOMM strategies to help get you started, along with some word-of-mouth marketing examples that show the strategies in action.

1. Create triggers for word of mouth

Triggers are little cues that remind your audience about your brand, even without any actual advertising.

Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger gives this example: What immediately comes to mind when someone says peanut butter? Was it jelly? In this case, peanut butter acts almost like an advertisement for jelly.

This is the type of association you want to create for your brand. One famous example is a KFC campaign that ran in Japan in the 1970s. Translated to “Kentucky is Christmas,” it promoted a party barrel of fried chicken as Christmas dinner. The campaign was so successful that until today, many families in Japan order Kentucky Fried Chicken when the holiday season rolls around.

Create your own triggers by finding something your audience sees or does on a regular basis. By associating your brand with these, you increase the likelihood of people remembering and talking about you.

2. Appeal to your audience

Like all marketing strategies, word of mouth works best when it puts its audience first. Think of what digital marketing content would appeal best to your audience – would it be an interactive contest, a behind-the-scenes video, or something else? By continuing to give your audience what it wants, you’re able to add to your social currency and generate word of mouth.

Social currency is all about reputation. People share what they think will make them look good in front of others, because every share puts their reputation on the line. They’ll only “spend” their social currency on your brand, and spread the word about you, if they think it will give their reputation a boost. So, make sure you’ve created something your audience loves, and will think it’s cool to share with others.

Source

3. Provide value to customers

The brands worth talking about are ones that provide value. Whether that means solving a problem with your product or delivering an unparalleled customer experience, a customer that sees value in your brand will both stick with you and share your brand with others.

Providing value is also one of the best ways to gain a customer’s good will. If you can offer value – and in a way that stands out – you may just earn a positive customer review, promote brand loyalty, and maximize your word of mouth.

4. Tap into emotion

Emotional attachments are one of the biggest drivers of word-of-mouth marketing. If people feel strongly about a brand or product, they are not likely to drop it, even if a more logical option comes along.

People respond more to emotions, as well. Whether it’s something happy, sad, funny, or otherwise, they instinctively want to share it with others.

If you can create experiences that result in positive emotions, your word of mouth efforts can go a long way. For instance, think of how Always fought against stereotypes and empowered young women with its #LikeAGirl ads.

And if your brand has a unique personality, this can also stir up emotions. Use your personality for emotional appeal, in a way that stands out from the crowd, and customers won’t be able to stop talking. This works especially well if you’re appealing to humor. Think back to Wendy’s – they went viral thanks to their signature snarky, humorous tweets.

5. Tell your story

Creating a compelling story goes hand in hand with giving audiences what they want, offering value and appealing to emotions. If customers love the “why” behind what you do – your mission and values – and that “why” is packaged in a story that’s moving and easy to tell, customers will share your story with others.

One example is 4Ocean’s story: they pull plastic from the ocean daily to help marine life, and then recycle much of that plastic into bracelets and other products.

6. Create exclusivity

Making people feel like they know secrets or insider information is another recipe for generating sharing. Think of how Starbucks “secret menu” drinks have gone viral on social media, and how In-N-Out Burger got people talking both online and offline with their own “secret menu” items (which were key in driving the brand’s overall success).

Secrets don’t just work for food brands, though. If you share new and exciting products with your most loyal customers first, or create a sale that people can only access with a code you emailed, people will want their friends to get in on the action, too. They’ll tell their friends quickly, meaning more buzz, and more sales, for you.

How do online reviews affect word-of-mouth advertising?

As we’ve outlined above, you can build word-of-mouth advertising in many ways. But one of the best ways is by getting positive customer reviews. A majority 90% of people read reviews before deciding whether or not to visit a business, and 72% will only push through with a purchase after reading positive reviews.

Plus, good reviews help build your brand’s social proof and boost your online reputation – both terrific ways to gain exposure and get even more people talking about you.

Customer reviews also allow you to expand into other channels and platforms. Say, a happy customer writes a review about you on Yelp. That review can then be searched and shared across other channels, as well. You can share some of the best reviews on your own social media accounts, or even post them as testimonials on your own website.

Here’s a step-by-step example of how reviews can play a role in word-of-mouth advertising:

• Winter season is about to start, and Ken and Val are talking about chimney sweeping services.
• Val tells Ken that she needs to hire someone to come to her house some time in the next few weeks.
• Ken shares that he’s also been searching for someone and found a few chimney services with good reviews online (thanks to previous word of mouth). He mentions a few that looked especially promising.
• Val takes a look at a few of the services, and ends up picking one that did an amazing job.
• Val starts telling all her friends, including Ken, and even posts a picture of her cozy fireplace with a newly cleaned chimney (further generating word of mouth!).

How to build word-of-mouth marketing on social media?

Stop collecting and start connecting. This is a key guideline for any strong word-of-mouth marketing strategy these days.

Sure, you can have millions of social media followers. But to effectively use social media platforms to drive word-of-mouth marketing, you have to be active and engaging.

This means providing valuable information, responding to comments and questions, and encouraging and sharing some of your audience’s user-generated content (UGC).

The more connected you are to your followers, the more likely they will become true fans and supporters. And what do true fans usually do? Share your brand with others and increase word of mouth in new markets you may not have been able to reach otherwise.

Social proof and social media: Get others to show, not just tell

People decide what to do based on what they see other people doing. If they hear someone talking about how good your product is, this word of mouth will make them more likely to try the product. But when they see someone using your product in their everyday life, this social proof gives word-of-mouth a bigger boost. And social media shares of your product mean many people see how your product is used, all at once.

Ambassadors’ and influencers’ posts using your product, affiliates’ product reviews on social networks, and UGC images and videos from any customer show off your product and further inspire people to try it for themselves.

How is WOMM different from referral marketing?

Word-of-mouth marketing is all about getting people talking about your brand or business. It looks for the best ways to promote sharing, often through general consumer interest or unique content. WOMM is all about spreading brand awareness to your audience. Depending on the types you choose to focus on, though, you may have difficulty tracking and controlling it.

Referral marketing is a segment of word-of-mouth marketing. It’s common for word of mouth to occur naturally in the process of referring others. But at its core, referral marketing is a proactive way to gain new customers, focused on key targets and specific results.

Referrals occur when someone who uses or knows your brand recommends it to others in their network, usually friends, family members, or colleagues. Since they are sharing your brand with others, they are generating word of mouth. But this recommendation is direct and purposeful, not just casually mentioned.

Combining word of mouth and referral marketing

Most types of marketing use word of mouth in one way or another. Referral marketing is no different. In fact, word of mouth helps companies get new customers all the time – which is the main aim of referral marketing.

Instead of doing a mass shout-out, however, referral marketing allows you to get more personal.

Referral marketing is all about motivating individual customers to share a product or service with others they know, by offering incentives whenever these recommendations bring in first-time customers. In time, this type of marketing works to build customer loyalty and establish long-term relationships, both among existing and newly referred customers.

Referral marketing also allows you to monitor your conversions, engagement, and other metrics.

With a formal referral program, businesses can incentivize customer sharing and organize their entire referral process. The right referral software can also generate automatic referral links and track each step of the process, so you know exactly where referrals are coming from.

Using referral marketing with other word of mouth strategies maximizes brand awareness and increases the odds of  creating a viral sharing effect. By integrating diverse types of word-of-mouth marketing into your overall marketing strategy, you increase the odds of achieving success.

To learn more about referral marketing, check out our referral marketing guide or learn essential referral program tips.

Other related word-of-mouth marketing terms

As a major business strategy, WOMM can be seen alongside many other marketing concepts. Here are a few common ones you may come across:

• Buzz marketing: This involves getting key ambassadors or influencers to spread the conversation about your brand. It’s focused on building viral growth around certain products or campaigns, usually using attention-grabbing techniques (i.e., videos, memes) and generating online buzz.
• Viral marketing: This type of marketing relies on one’s existing network to spread information from person to person in a rapid manner. This often occurs online or using social media, with content so compelling that people can’t help but send it with others.
• Blog marketing: When used for word of mouth, blog marketing involves blog posts that an influencer or brand ambassador creates. With a few strategic ads or sponsored posts, bloggers create content that quickly travels to their followers, who in turn, share it with their friends. By recruiting the right bloggers, a business can generate fair amount of word of mouth through their content marketing.
• Social media marketing:  Thanks to hashtags and rapid shares, the content created on social media has a way of reaching people outside of the original group following. And as we’ve seen, shared content has a higher value when it comes from someone people know and trust.

Wrapping up

Don’t sleep on word-of-mouth marketing, because recommendations and referrals are powerful. People trust the word of their family and friends. This makes them more likely to purchase from you when their peers recommend your products.

The best way to use this to your advantage is to leverage multiple types of word-of-mouth marketing, including by encouraging user-generated content, asking for reviews, and starting a referral program.

No matter which marketing tactics you use to generate buzz, it’s key to apply the fundamental word-of-mouth strategies: creating sharing triggers, appealing to your fan base, offering value, and stirring up an emotional response.

Ready to generate word of mouth in a way that’s easy to measure? Check out our complete guide to starting a referral program. 

Do you want to discover the world’s most reliable word-of-mouth marketing examples?

No, it’s not commercial ads or pay-per-click ads. The most dependable marketing tactic comes from other people you don’t even know. It’s all about word-of-mouth marketing.

Because word-of-mouth is in the hands of your market, it can be not easy to control at times. However, there are other ways for your company to benefit from word of mouth.

We’ll go over some of the most useful and successful examples of word-of-mouth marketing with WOM benefits and effective strategies below, and we’ll help you figure out which will work best for your company.

Let’s start with what word-of-mouth marketing is!

Word-of-mouth marketing, often known as word-of-mouth advertising, is a marketing approach based on personal references. Person X suggests that Person Y try your goods/services. They already trust the individual giving them the suggestion, so the brand they’re referring to benefits from that trust and credibility.

Because personal recommendations can be shared online—especially through social media. That’s why word-of-mouth marketing is now the easiest way to grow your business.

Many of these recommendations now come from a social media influencer, an online review, or a satisfied customer sharing their great experience. When done correctly, it can have massive consequences.

Here are a few examples of word-of-mouth marketing:

• An influencer uses your product and shares it with their followers.
• A consumer posts about your product on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, among others.
• Your customer takes images and posts them on social media.
• A satisfied consumer posts a nice review on your Facebook page, Google Maps, Reddit, or another social media platform.

Social media allows marketers to deploy targeted campaigns and methods to promote and support word-of-mouth marketing online.

Why is word-of-mouth marketing important?

Word-of-mouth marketing is defined as a face-to-face interaction based on pre-established trust. It’s a low-cost technique to get the word out about your business and products to online and offline communities.

It should be top of mind for your marketing if it isn’t already. Word-of-mouth marketing is effective for:

• Low-cost marketing
• Promotes brand loyalty and
• Uncovers new ways to reach potential customers

According to a Nielsen survey, 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family more than advertisements, proving the value of word-of-mouth marketing.

Benefits of word-of-mouth marketing

The benefits of word-of-mouth marketing are huge. When people talk positively about your product or brand, you might consider you’re on the right track to developing a brand name for your business.

Word-of-mouth marketing is the quickest and most reliable kind of marketing and is more beneficial than other marketing methods. That’s why here we are sharing the five benefits of word-of-mouth marketing.

Later in this article, we will also share a few word-of-mouth marketing examples.

Free promotion

Word-of-mouth marketing is a free promotion means of spreading product and service information. While most forms of marketing, such as print and TV or radio, involve an out-of-pocket investment, word-of-mouth marketing does not.

Companies hope that by providing a high-quality product or service in a friendly manner, their satisfied customers will tell their families and friends about their positive customer experiences.

Boost search traffic

The brand, sales, and market presence will improve without spending money on advertising. What can be done to boost search traffic? It generally has much to do with being transparent about your company’s ideals. 

Suppose you can hook clients with your goal, clever marketing, or a memorable event. Instead of spending a share of your revenue, you may boost search traffic for your site.

Social engagement

Communication and participation with members of an online community are referred to as social engagement. People do not utilize social media for a one-way exchange of information. They’re looking for people and brands to connect with.

Nowadays, word-of-mouth marketing strategy is the most important factor in boosting your social engagement. If you develop your product and market in a user-friendly way, your business’s social engagement will increase automatically. Ultimately this process helps your overall marketing and brand development process.

Grow brand image rapidly

In business, building your brand image is essential; it is how you grow in size and profit. Word-of-mouth promotion encourages people to talk about your brand and boosts sales, strengthening your company’s brand image. Your present and potential clients will more likely respond favourably to your products and services if you have a strong brand image.

Word-of-mouth marketing may be a powerful tool for improving a company’s sales. You won’t get good referrals and publicity if you don’t give a nice client experience, no matter how amazing your website is or how effectively you operate your business.

Increase sales

Most importantly, positive word-of-marketing can help you increase sales. Most people seek advice from their friends and peers while making online purchases.

As a result, when someone asks for a recommendation, you will definitely share a good experience with your friend and family the way you have received it previously. Ultimately this process helps businesses to generate or increase sales.

How to implement the word-of-mouth marketing campaign

Companies must provide a product or service that people enjoy using. You don’t have to be the first, but you should ensure that your product is better than the competitors. Here are a few ideas for getting people to know how to implement the word-of-mouth marketing campaign.

Create hashtag

Let’s imagine you started a brand Instagram account for your business. Begin with a hashtag. It doesn’t have to be fancy; simply follow the hashtag with your brand, such as #WPSocialNinja. All posts will be from your business at first.

However, other people will undoubtedly begin to use your hashtag as well. Customers and admirers of your company’s speciality will frequently include your hashtag in their social media posts.

Hashtags are a simple yet powerful way to get your customers to share information about your company. As a result, the #hashtag will gain popularity.

Customer testimonials

Detailed customer testimonials can be a great way to spread word-of-mouth about your products and services. The authenticity and level of expectation are much better than anything else.

So if you want to implement your word-of-mouth promotion strategy on your brand without spending the money. You should use the customer testimonials options and display the best customer testimonials from great market leaders and valuable customers. This will improve the overall brand.

Run referral program

For today’s marketers, referral programs are one of the most common methods of gaining new customers. They’re also a standard component of many effective word-of-mouth marketing campaigns.

Customers are rewarded for referring friends and family to your company through a referral program. This exercise has the potential to generate strong word-of-mouth conversations about your brand along the way.

Collect reviews

As a word-of-mouth strategy, collecting reviews work well. The customer gives feedback on the product page for the product they purchased. The post is then seen by store visitors, who may be motivated to buy the goods based on the customer evaluations they’ve read.

Customers that write negative evaluations will be directed to your customer service department so that you can improve their customer experience.

Apply influencer marketing

Influencer marketing is for you if you seek a sustainable word-of-mouth marketing strategy.

You’ll have to pay an influencer to feature your products on their social media if you want to use influencer marketing. You can control what they post and how they post it because you’re paying them.

The nice part about word-of-mouth marketing is that you can pay to start a talk about your product and possibly make some purchases.

Provide quality customer service

Another important factor to consider before starting your WOM marketing campaign is that even if you have the best product in the world, if your brand is a hassle to work with, people will not return to buy with you. They will also refrain from recommending your business or items to others.

After all, the world’s internet retailers number over 9.1 million. At least one of them must sell the same products as you. You can anticipate new customers to go to them instead of you if they deliver better customer service to their present clients and share a nice online review.

Customers will gladly talk about your customer service if your business and product are excellent enough and have an influence on their life.

Be social on social media

You’ll need to communicate with your clients regularly if you manage an online business. Having a friendly and active relationship with them while producing high-quality content for your social media presence is important.

To catch your customers’ attention, you should share aesthetically pleasing photographs, shoppable product images, videos, and graphics, depending on your goals. You know that displaying social media presence like your social feeds and reviews takes time and effort.

You may speed up the process by exploring relevant social media plugins depending on your company’s needs.

Five positive word-of-mouth marketing examples

If you have a good experience with a company, you might tell a friend or family member about it. This is word-of-mouth marketing. Businesses can persuade customers to perform the work for them. Which brands are the successors of word-of-mouth marketing?

Here are five positive word-of-mouth marketing examples from past years.

Teslas referral program

Tesla has a marketing budget of zero dollars. Are they insane? Other automakers have multibillion-dollar marketing budgets and often spend money on billboards, magazines, and television to promote their products. Without advertising, how can Tesla compete in the auto industry? And, perhaps more crucially, how did Tesla achieve growth and a massive ROI on a $0 advertising budget?

The simple and clear solution: Tesla established a strong customer-centric referral program. Although word-of-mouth marketing has been around for a long time, it has never been used for a big purchase like a car. Tesla, on the other hand, made it work.

Before the business launched a referral program, Tesla owners had already informed their friends about their cars through word-of-mouth. Tesla encouraged the advocacy by introducing a referral program that offered meaningful, unique, and exclusive prizes.

Here’s how Tesla made referral marketing an important element of its growth strategy:

Referral program 1: New Tesla customers get a $1,000 credit. Referrers received a $1,000 Tesla credit. Tesla’s original referral program offered straightforward, two-sided incentives. A customer’s only opportunity to get a discount on Tesla products is through the referral program.

Referral program 2: ​​New Tesla customers get a $1,000 credit. The referrer with the most referrals in each region (North America, Europe, and Asia) won a fantastic prize: a new Tesla P90 Model S, a home charger, and a trip to the Gigafactory’s grand opening.

Referral program 3: New Tesla customers received a $1,200 credit. Referrers are entered into a lottery for a chance to win a tour of SpaceX’s headquarters.

Tesla’s third referral program rewarded Tesla supporters with non-monetary, experiential prizes. A tour of SpaceX was appealing because it reinforced Tesla’s brand identity as a forward-thinking innovator in the field of zero-emission vehicles.

Coca-Cola and share a coke campaign

Coca-Cola set a good ground for word-of-mouth marketing examples. The ‘Share a Coke’ campaign began in Australia in 2011, with the usual Coca-Cola bottle wrapper being replaced with the words ‘Share a Coke with…’ and a popular name. The campaign aimed to build a more intimate relationship with customers and inspire shared happy experiences.

The top 150 most popular names in Australia were printed on millions of bottles, and the campaign was so well-received that it was copied by other countries worldwide with its twists.

For example, Israel’s largest billboards were converted into interactive signs that greeted inhabitants by name. China also printed nicknames instead of first names on their bottles, creating an even more personalized touch.

The ‘Share a Coke and a Song’ campaign, which featured popular song lyrics printed on Coke bottles, was launched in the United States in 2016. With Selena Gomez posted a photo for the campaign, the campaign became the most-liked photo on Instagram at the time.

In 2017, a new campaign version was released in the United Kingdom. There were 75 holiday destinations instead of names or songs printed on the labels. That was a great approach to word-of-mouth marketing examples.

Netflix’s marketing plan

Whether you’re a big fan of television shows or not, you’ve undoubtedly heard about Netflix’s Squid game. Squid Games has become one of the year’s most talked-about issues.

The success of one of the all-time great advertising strategies that your brand or business may utilize to enhance sales and organic publicity.

Despite its reputation as a minor component of many marketing plans, Netflix’s Squid Game proved that it might be a major driving force in advertising. Because marketing organizations can’t buy or certain word-of-mouth marketing strategies, it’s usually done organically. However, now that social media is so accessible to brands, businesses might try to start a wave of trends or buzz to get word-of-mouth going.

Squid Game was brought to our attention by family and friends who couldn’t stop talking about it. Countless memes are saturating news feeds on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. It was a great source of word-of-mouth marketing examples.

We had to give the TV show a shot as well. When a TV show is followed by trends and memes, it almost drives you to want to watch the show so that you can relate to the people around you and understand the jokes being given.

The basic fact is that no paid ad campaign of any size could reach the level of success that Squid Game did only through word-of-mouth, and there is a science to back this up. Make your campaign so specific that your target audience becomes an enthusiastic supporter of the story.

Amazon word-of-mouth marketing

We have also selected Amazon’s story for the criteria of word-of-mouth marketing examples. Word-of-mouth is one of the most basic forms of marketing, but it’s also one of the most effective. People enjoy telling people about their new purchases, and one of the first inquiries they receive is, “where did you buy it?” When customers shop on the Amazon platform, they often have a great experience, making them more inclined to suggest it to their friends and family.

Jeff Bezos recognized from the start that the customer experience would be critical in determining whether or not his customers would spread the word about Amazon. He integrated customer experience into his marketing plan from the start by including it in his goal statement:

“To have the world’s largest selection and be the world’s most customer-focused organization.”

However, simply having the “world’s largest assortment” is not enough to be a successful marketing strategy—Amazon needed to build consumer loyalty and encourage repeat purchases.

One piece of this loyalty pie is the word-of-mouth recommendations their platform and shopping experience create. By making it easy to check out and get their merchandise, their customers rave about the shopping experience. 

And recommendations are potent marketing tools, and approximately 90% of people will trust a brand recommended to them even if recommended by a stranger. Word-of-mouth marketing strategy drives roughly 13% of all sales globally, which amounts to approximately $6 trillion annually.

Amazon utilizes word-of-mouth and word-of-mouth marketing examples in various ways. One option is for customers who have had a good experience on the platform to promote it to their friends and relatives.

Starbucks builds empire on word-of-mouth

Starbucks began as a small shop in Seattle over 30 years ago. Regarding word-of-mouth marketing, they did not use traditional methods; instead, they devised an innovative marketing plan that fits perfectly with the concept they intended to communicate.

How often have you noticed a Starbucks Latte billboard while driving down the road? Consider ad slots in magazines, newspapers, or any other area where you may expect to find a commercial.

When Starbucks first opened its doors over 30 years ago, it never ran ads in newspapers, never put up billboards on the highway, and advertising was not done the way it is now.

Starbucks built only one experience for its customers, aiming to provide them with a place they could call their “third home.”It reflects the definition of customer service; they know who their customers are and work to ensure that no one has a negative experience when they leave.

Yes, Starbucks is costly, but customers keep going back for more. Why? Because they provide a high-quality product and work tirelessly to ensure you get the “perfect cup of coffee” every time.

They provided you with an experience, service, and product that made you happy, made you talk about it, and you helped shape Starbucks into who they are today.

It only took a few folks who came in for a cup of coffee, had a memorable experience, and told their friends and family about it.

Word-of-mouth marketing examples and the overall marketing process are quite effective. WOM has the power to move mountains and create or ruin a company.

You are word of mouth, and I am word of mouth. It’s wonderful to see entrepreneurs recognize that their company’s success isn’t simply dependent on them; it also depends on us.

Word of mouth marketing example: Key takeaways

Building a community through word-of-mouth marketing is important to any successful marketing strategy. However, with such quick successes, word-of-mouth marketing examples may be easily integrated into a larger brand plan.

Following these strategies can help your brand produce word-of-mouth marketing based on the 5 word-of-mouth marketing examples listed above.

• Research your target market
• Let consumers drive your success
• Make your goods or service stand out from the crowd
• Always provide value to your customers, and know who your target market is
• To generate buzz, use social media and experiences intelligently
• Connect with your audience on a personal level
• Create a referral program to encourage sharing and make it as simple as possible to spread the word about your company

Bonus tips: For word-of-mouth marketing

We’ve already covered topics such as word-of-mouth marketing, why it’s important for business, how to implement the concept, and, most importantly, examples of word-of-mouth marketing.

We suggest you use a social media plugin to take your marketing strategy to the next level. Try  WP Social Ninna, the all-in-one social solution for your website. This plugin is a feature-packed tool that allows your user to integrate 4+ social feeds, 10+ social reviews, and 15+ social chat widgets.

Using this powerful plugin, you can gain solid credibility from your consumer base. You can also include a Testimonial feature, a Notification Popup, and Global Translation options, all of which will facilitate your business in creating a successful marketing campaign.

This will contribute to creating word-of-mouth marketing and increasing sales.
Visit our online community to learn more about how we can support your business’s social presence and activity.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

«WOMM» redirects here. For the American radio station, see WOMM-LP.

Word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM, WOM marketing, also called word of mouth advertising) differs from naturally occurring word of mouth, in that it is actively influenced or encouraged by organizations (e.g. ‘seeding’ a message in a networks rewarding regular consumers to engage in WOM, employing WOM ‘agents’). While it is difficult to truly control WOM, research^[1] has shown that there are three generic avenues to ‘manage’ WOM for the purpose of WOMM:

• build a strong WOM foundation (e.g. sufficient levels of satisfaction, trust and commitment),
• indirect WOMM management which implies that managers only have a moderate amount of control (e.g. controversial advertising, teaser campaigns, customer membership clubs),
• direct WOMM management, which has higher levels of control (e.g. paid WOM ‘agents’, «friend get friend» schemes).

The success of word-of-mouth marketing depends largely on the nature of the rewards that are used. Research has shown that when the wrong incentives are used to motivate consumers or agents to spread positive word-of-mouth about products or brands, the campaigns can backfire on the organization.^[2] Proconsumer WOM has been suggested as a counterweight to commercially motivated word of mouth.^[3]

History[edit]

George Silverman, a psychologist, pioneered word-of-mouth marketing when he created what he called «teleconferenced peer influence groups» in order to engage physicians in dialogue about new pharmaceutical products. Silverman noticed an interesting phenomenon while conducting focus groups with physicians in the early 1970s. «One or two physicians who were having good experiences with a drug would sway an entire group of skeptics. They would even sway a dissatisfied group of ex-prescribers who had had negative experiences!»^[4]

With the emergence of Web 2.0, many web startups like Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, and Digg have used buzz marketing by merging it with the social networks that they have developed.^{[citation needed][clarification needed]} With the increasing use of the Internet as a research and communications platform, word of mouth has become a more powerful and useful resource for consumers and marketers. It has become possible because, with the advent of the Internet, the process of communication has been simplified due to the disappearance of such communication barriers as distance, linguistic and others. People have become more willing to share their opinions, create thematic communities, which ultimately influenced the WOM.

In October 2005, the advertising watchdog group Commercial Alert petitioned the United States FTC to issue guidelines requiring paid word-of-mouth marketers to disclose their relationship and related compensation with the company whose product they are marketing.^[5] The United States FTC stated that it would investigate situations in which the relationship between the word-of-mouth marketer of a product and the seller is not revealed and could influence the endorsement. The FTC stated that it would pursue violators on a case-by-case basis. Consequences for violators may include cease-and-desist orders, fines or civil penalties.^[6]

The Word of Mouth Marketing Association, a US American trade group that represents hundreds of companies, has adopted an ethics code stating that manufacturers should not pay cash to consumers in return for recommendations or endorsements.^[7]

Research firm PQ Media estimated that in 2008, companies spent $1.54 billion on word-of-mouth marketing. While spending on traditional advertising channels was slowing, spending on word-of-mouth marketing grew 14.2 percent in 2008, 30 percent of that for food and drink brands.^[8]

Word of mouth marketing today is both online and through face-to-face interaction. The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science has shown that to achieve growth, brands must create word of mouth beyond core fan groups—meaning marketers should not focus solely on communities such as Facebook.^{[citation needed]} According to Deloitte, further research has shown that ‘most advocacy takes place offline’—instead it happens in person. According to the Journal of Advertising Research, 75% of all consumer conversations about brands happen face-to-face, 15% happen over the phone and just 10% online. On the other hand, some see social media interaction as being inextricably tied to word of mouth marketing.^[9] In 2003, Fred Reichheld implemented the strategy of word-of-mouth marketing by introducing Net Promoter Score, which analyzes the number of Promoters a brand has, who recommend the brand to other people they know through such marketing tactic.

Factors[edit]

According to academic research^[10] and Jonah Berger’s bestselling book Contagious: Why Things Catch On,^[11] there are six key factors that drive what people talk about and share.^[12] They are organized in an acronym called STEPPS, which stands for:

• Social currency — The better something makes people look, the more likely they will be to share it.^[13]
• Triggers — Things that are top of mind (i.e., accessible) are more likely to be tip of tongue.^[14]
• Emotion — When we care, we share. High arousal emotions increase sharing.^[13]
• Public — The easier something is to see, the more likely people are to imitate it.^[14]
• Practical value — People share useful information to help others.
• Stories — Trojan horse stories carry messages and ideas along for the ride.

Another key psychological driver of word-of-mouth is interest.^[15] As Sernovitz suggests, “nobody talks about boring companies, boring products, or boring ads,”.^[16]

Concepts/models[edit]

Three models[edit]

When further research went into developing the concept word-of-mouth marketing, many models behind the word of mouth strategy also developed. These models include the organic inter consumer influence model, the linear marketer influence model and the network coproduction model.

When dealing with the initial and simplest form of word of mouth Marketing it is related to the model of the organic inter-consumer influence model.^[17] This means that organizations having no direct input of what is being said about the particular product, it is just one consumer talking to another about product reviews and or customer service experience. The main motivation behind this model is for others to warn and inform potential consumers of a product out of their best interest not for personal gain.^[17] This model is referred to being organic because it occurs naturally, meaning it is not planned by the firm and occurs when the consumer wants to share their experience with a certain brand or product.

As research started to progress, marketers found the importance of «influential consumers».^[17] So the linear marketer influence model was adopted. The linear marketer influence model introduces the idea of influential customers creating conversations with potential customers and consumers about how a certain product can be beneficial for them to purchase. This model allows organizations to make sure that credible influential sources are spreading the word/ message of the organization and presenting the value proposition of the organization successfully and accurately to the target consumer.^[17] This can be done through «targeted advertisements and promotions through credible sources that review the product».^[17] Marketers found this model to be an effective model of word-of-mouth marketing and it decreased the chances of negative opinions and attitudes from being spread about a particular product of the organization.

The Network Coproduction Model: This saw marketers introduce «one to one seeding and communication programs».^[17] This model encourages conversations between customers about the certain product through releasing information on a particular product.^[18] This word-of-mouth model is more focused on online activities, using blogs and online communities as sources in communicating the message of the product. The network coproduction model gives marketers the opportunity to control and manage word of mouth activity online.^[17]

• Seeding is one example of how Marketers use the network coproduction model of word-of-mouth marketing. With seeding marketers can use various techniques and approaches these approaches can be indirect like engineering WOM conversations and direct approaches^[18][19]
• The engineering approach consists of marketers constructing conversations, so there is more buzz created and the number of conversations based on an organizations product increases.^[18]
• A direct approach to seeding is targeting special selected consumers and allowing them to sample products that an organization has. This allows these selected customers to present their feelings towards these products through online communities or blogs.^[18]
• Seeding campaigns can offer marketers the ability to reach a new set of consumers. It is most effective when the product is at the beginning stage of its product life style and helps to set the reputation of the brand and product into motion.^[18][19]

Buzz[edit]

Marketing buzz or simply «buzz» is a term used in word-of-mouth marketing—the interaction of consumers and users of a product or service serve to amplify the original marketing message.^[20] Some describe buzz as a form of hype among consumers,^[21] a vague but positive association, excitement, or anticipation about a product or service. Positive «buzz» is often a goal of viral marketing, public relations, and of advertising on Web 2.0 media. The term refers both to the execution of the marketing technique, and the resulting goodwill that is created. Examples of products with strong marketing buzz upon introduction were Harry Potter, the Volkswagen New Beetle, Pokémon, Beanie Babies, and the Blair Witch Project.^[21]

Viral effects[edit]

Viral marketing and viral advertising are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of virus or computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet.^[22] Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages. The goal of marketers interested in creating successful viral marketing programs is to identify individuals with high social networking potential (SNP) – and have a high probability of being taken by another competitor—and create viral messages that appeal to this segment of the population. The term «viral marketing» has also been used pejoratively to refer to stealth marketing campaigns—the unscrupulous use of astroturfing on-line combined with undermarket advertising in shopping centers to create the impression of spontaneous word-of-mouth enthusiasm.^[23]

Analyzing WOM[edit]

Consumers may promote brands by word-of-mouth due to social, functional, and emotional factors.^[24]
Research has identified thirteen brand characteristics that stimulate WOM, namely:^[25]

1. Age of the brand in the marketplace: A long history of a brand or product can create an emotional relationship between the consumer and itself. This can stimulate WOM if the brand is known to be reliable or effective evident by the existence of its place in a market, this can be effective for companies for communicating their strength to other competitors.
2. Type of good: Depending on the type of product, experiences customers have with a product may mean that WOM can be used to suggest brands and products to others when in different forms of situations. An example of this could be a household or garden object.
3. Complexity: WOM is used in this instance to help explain the use of a product or its effectiveness to whether of not it will serve its purpose or need.
4. Knowledge about a brand: Similar to complexity, WOM can be used to describe the effectiveness of a brand, the history behind it and what the main purpose of the product is. WOM is also used to identify a company’s future whether it be positive or negative.
5. Differentiation: An experience with different products within a market can mean that WOM can offer solutions to others and explain which products and brands could be more effective than others when looking at similar products serving the same need. Previous consumers can help describe strengths and weaknesses of products and help make the correct decision.
6. Relevance of a brand to a broad audience
7. Quality: esteem given to a brand
8. Premium: WOM regarding premiums can refer^[26] too different packaging of a brands products e.g. during Easter or over Christmas. Different and exciting packaging and deals can stimulate a huge source of WOM communication and can lead to brands becoming extremely popular over short periods of time. An example of this would be supermarket ‘bulk buy’ deals over the Christmas holiday period.
9. Visibility
10. Excitement: WOM can be used to promote up and coming products which results in huge amounts of excitement. An example of this could be new technology being released to the public and advances in medical technology and vehicles. These examples are best used to demonstrate excitement as a result of word of mouth marketing.
11. Satisfaction
12. Perceived risk: WOM can be used to warn other potential buyers that a product is not what it claims to be. An example of this may be online buying as a result of marketing strategies from phony companies who focus on producing fake goods that look and seem like the legitimate product. An example of this would be fake iPhones and clothing (most significantly shoes and sports wear).
13. Involvement

This research also found that while social and functional drivers are the most important for promotion via WOM online, the emotional driver predominates offline.

Advantages and disadvantages[edit]

Word of mouth marketing can be very effective in the communication of the advertising campaign as it can offer a solution to «penetrating consumers guards» to get them talking about a particular product.^{[citation needed]}

Many marketers find this type of marketing strategy advantageous to the entire advertising campaign of a certain product. One positive aspect of this marketing strategy is that sources of this word-of-mouth advertising are mostly personal. This means that they are not subject to persuasion from the organization for personal gains or subject to being biased.^{[citation needed]} This has a positive effect on the advertising campaign as it shows what consumers honestly think about a product and the motivation to try the particular product or services increases, due to the consumer being recommended by a trusted reliable source.

However, there are some disadvantages and criticisms with word-of-mouth marketing. Word-of-mouth marketing is subject to a lot of clutter. Unlike traditional word of mouth, electronic WOM is able to include not only positive reviews but also negative reviews made by former, actual and potential customers online in a timely manner.^[27] As a result, word-of-mouth marketing may sometimes not be beneficial in changing or influencing consumer’s attitudes and perception especially from an organic source as negative conversations may be held about the brand.^{[citation needed]} This is due to the organic source not finding the product beneficial and therefore has a negative perception of the product, which is then shared. Although positive word-of-mouth positively influences purchase intention while negative word-of-mouth decreases customer purchase intention, the effect is asymmetric. Compared with positive word-of-mouth, negative word-of-mouth has a larger effect on purchase intentions.^[28]

One more criticism about this marketing strategy is that people tend to be offput and feel deceived when they find out that a person who influenced their attitude about a product has been working towards or benefiting from doing that.^[29] This ultimately has the potential to make consumers change their attitude, which can have a negative impact on the firm’s product reputation. This may be the case as consumers feel that it wasn’t in the source’s interest to tell what their full perceptions were of the brand.^[29] Similarly, engineered word of mouth by internet-campaigns companies can be seen as artificial and sometime based on information considered private.^[19]

See also[edit]

• Social media marketing
• Two-step flow of communication
• Evangelism marketing
• Viral marketing
• Marketing buzz
• Guerrilla marketing
• User-generated content
• Online Brand Defense — A type of consumer behavior that has been considered creating significant impact on Word-of-mouth

References[edit]

In the emerging era, different mobile apps like mobile apps in 2021 show their diversified ways of engaging with their advertising. Word-of-mouth marketing is one of these essential parts between owner and users. App Samurai can perform many marketing strategies such as word of mouth marketing for you.

What is Word of Mouth Marketing?

(WOMM) Word of Mouth Marketing is mainly known as word of mouth advertising. It is a targeted means of advertisement that relies on the power of word of mouth by utilizing loyal customers to spread the word about a product or service rendered. This marketing practice (WOMM) aims to make people talk and share important information about a product or brand. A successful word-of-mouth marketing campaign is a chain reaction where a person talks to multiple hosts who keep spreading the information to other people. Among other forms of marketing, word of mouth marketing gives brands the highest form of lead conversion.

Talk Triggers statistics on word of mouth marketing revealed that the marketing technique is 115% more effective than traditional marketing measures. 32% of people come across new products from word-of-mouth recommendations, while 29% get direct referrals from friends’ recommendations.  A new report stated that 90% of people are more likely to trust a recommended brand from friends or even strangers. Showing the power of word-of-mouth marketing, Semrush statistics revealed that online WOM marketing drives $6trillion in annual global spending. Much more, it is more effective than paid ads, thus resulting in five times more sales. Since the increased yield of word-of-mouth marketing, 70% of marketers are looking to increase their online word-of-mouth expenses.

There are two major ways by which the word of mouth marketing is utilized; Organic Word of Mouth and Amplified Word of Mouth.

Organic Word of Mouth

Organic word of mouth marketing occurs naturally with people satisfied with the products purchased from the company or the service used. This set of people develop a natural desire to share their support for the brand by telling their friends, family, and strangers about its products. Most times, these natural advertisers have no affiliation to the brand save being a buyer.

 Amplified Word of Mouth

The Amplified word of mouth marketing is an extended measure through which marketers launch marketing campaigns to accelerate word of mouth marketing in communities. Most times, the amplified word of mouth requires a budget to fund the process. The power of word of mouth is harnessed by contacting certain individuals (influencers) with a large and targeted audience to talk about the brand and its services to their communities. Usually, these individuals are people who are generally loved and trusted by their audience. By using these individuals, their audience, in turn, ensures to patronize the advertised brands. Unlike traditional word-of-mouth marketing, the amplified technique requires the brand to contact the influencer for a partnership deal. Although this technique requires funds, the return on investment makes up for the funds spent.

How does Word of Mouth Marketing Works?

Paid advertisement through Google, Facebook, and Instagram has become highly expensive and competitive. Many times, brands have complained about the low lead generation and conversion despite investing so much in advertisements. While the complaints have become unresolvable, brands have invested in alternative marketing measures requiring less monetary investment and cost-efficient economies. To enhance effectiveness with this form of marketing, brands should create a good customer experience for existing customers as one chain of negative reviews can nullify positive ones.

Below is an explanation of how word of mouth marketing works;

•   Set up quality products to facilitate a positive buyer experience
•   Provide seamless user interface and order process since most consumers considered visual appearance when making a purchasing decision.
•   Then, leave people to talk about your services to friends and family members or contact known figures to amplify their validation using their social media platforms. It is important to contact individuals with a large audience and trigger the audience to use the goods or service.

How Effective Is Word-of-Mouth Marketing?

In the word-of-mouth marketing statistics and insights, Nielsen reported that about 92% of the consumers have believed that the suggestions from friends and family more than the app advertising. 88% of the people consider online reviews written by other consumers. On the other hand, 74% of people have trust that word of mouth is a critical factor for an influencer in their purchasing decisions. Only 33% of the business collectively reviews and actively seeking out.

Tips for Word of Mouth Marketing

The amazing thing about word-of-mouth marketing is the fact that it works for every type of business. A study by BrightLocal revealed that nearly 9 in 10 customers read reviews to validate the authenticity and effectiveness of a business. Whether as a small or a big business, you would need those reviews to survive in the digital marketing space. Here are tips to enhance successful word of mouth marketing campaigns;

Provide excellent customer service: Excellent customer service is not only one of the few ways to stay ahead of the market competition; it is also a way to facilitate high customer flow. Statistics on word-of-mouth marketing states that over 50% of unsatisfied customers tell their friends and family members about their experiences, while 32% take their businesses to a new seller. 

•   Make your contact details easily accessible
•   Maintain a good image in and out of the business space – Presenting a good image helps to maintain the kind of image you want and ensures to maintain positive word of mouth
•   Get testimonials from satisfied customers. Testimonials are powerful endorsement that sparks god word of mouth. The testimonials can be posted on the company’s website and social media platforms to portray a positive image of the business
•   Engage Customers on Social Media: Since word of mouth mainly revolves around people saying good things about the brand’s product or services, engaging previous buyers is one of the best ways to utilize word-of-mouth marketing. You could utilize Twitter to run a hashtag, then tell the audience to post a picture with the brand’s product using the hashtag; #dogecoin. The result of this engagement is a new way to measure word-of-mouth marketing.
• Get Publicity: Get publicity by getting involved in sponsoring local citizen-centered events. Get the media to talk about your contribution to events and activities. This way, people would be able to spread the good news about the brand. Sponsoring a charity organization means that people would always refer to your brand as one who cares for the less privileged. In turn, you get more consumers willing to support your brand with their patronage.

Top 3 Tactics for Word of Mouth Marketing

There are three tactics for creating a word-of-mouth marketing campaign for mobile apps.

1. Create a Topic

The first thing in creating a word-of-mouth marketing campaign for different services is to create something worth talking about. For this purpose, it can be more uncomplicated and more comfortable, from a warm and exciting meeting at the hotel, park, and restaurant to a heavily invested marketing video. The way of activity and creativity word-of-mouth marketing campaign in the mobile apps do not want high investment. For the best word-of-mouth marketing campaign, you can adopt the right mobile marketing strategies and efficiently promote the mobile app at a reasonable price.

2. Promote User-Generated Content 

One of the best free tools to increase user involvement in Mobile apps marketing and get people to talk about apps is user-generated content. Images, social posts, and videos are modern and the most ‘in’ form of word-of-mouth marketing. If you give the people comfort and simplicity to talk about something, they will be happy, enjoy, and remain engaged. People try to make them content that will facilitate you in word-of-mouth marketing campaigns and promote the mobile apps.

3. Share Reviews

For a mobile app in 2021, try to share the full reviews and testimonials with your friends, audiences, and users. You must need to know about each and everything in mobile apps marketing. You know how to use testimonials and reviews as an effective and unique word-of-mouth marketing strategy. For the best marketing campaign, there is a need to develop your brand’s loyal followers who shared their experiences, stories, and work regarding how your brand and mobile apps change their lives and bodies. This type of work gives you the best way to the promotion of mobile apps and word-of-mouth marketing.

Word of Mouth Marketing Ideas

• Give your customers a different experience and experience they cannot get in other places. That would cause them to talk about your brand more. You could make some of your customers ambassadors. This would naturally cause them to recommend people to your brand
•   Invest in Visual Triggers to create word of mouth. People will naturally want to share your visuals if they find them visually amazing.
•   Emotional provocation is an effective way to get the audience to talk about your products. You could leverage a brand people like, then attach your company to it. Hence, if your brand produces movies, you could attach the release of your next movie to Netflix. Everyone likes and believes in the use of Netflix. Attaching the availability of your movie to the brand will go a long way.
•   Pay attention to ratings and reviews. Even if a friend refers a prospective buyer, the buyer would still love to check other users’ experiences online. Get feedback and word-of-mouth referrals from your customers. Then, display their honest reviews on various platform
•   Create a referral program. Although this form of marketing is very effective, it requires little cost. Offer referral rewards like discounts and gifts to nudge happy customers to introduce others to your business
•   Take advantage of Influencers: WOM marketing should be sparked among influencers with a strong social media presence. Since people trust these influencers, it would be great to utilize the power of word of mouth by paying them to promote a product

Best Word of Mouth Marketing Campaigns

Influencer WOM Marketing – This campaign is one of the best forms of WOM marketing. It doesn’t only give your brand control over the influencer but also helps you to measure the marketing target. This marketing campaign requires you to pay an influencer. By so doing, you can control what they post, how they post, and when they post. However, in using this strategy, ensure work with an influencer that resonates with your target audience.

•   Hashtag # Campaign: the use of hashtags is a subtle way of making customers talk about your brand. Hence, when people purchase your product, you could tell them to upload the product online using the hashtag. The hashtag campaign builds stronger brand awareness and drives in sales from people who would have ordinarily not make a purchase.
•   User-generated Content: This WOM marketing campaign utilizes the content created by product consumers. This could be a Tik-Tok video showing the customers wearing your product. Whenever this is done, ensure to repost the video or picture on the brand’s media platforms. Ensure to credit them when doing that. In your user-generated campaign, you could also offer incentives for customers who create the best content. That would spark contests and get people to interact with your brand.  
•   Get Social: Many people got to know more about Tesla and its products because Elon Musk became more social after getting free publicity for being one of the richest men in the world. He took advantage of the opportunity, tweeted more about Tesla, and the brand gained more visibility. His social media interactions and engagement also gave a huge boost to DogeCoin. As a business owner, it is best to leverage social media.
•   Give out Freebies: Shoppers enjoy freebies. Every week, send out discount codes customers can use to get free products. You could also utilize the ‘buy 1 get 1 free to get more people to buy a product.
•   Utilize Affiliate Marketing: Set up an affiliate program by making your clients refer their friends using their affiliate links. In turn, they get a reward based on the number of people referred. You could also work with popular bloggers to write articles that would contain links to your sites.
•   Word of Mouth Review: Reviews can be traditional and automated. However, traditional reviews are limited because people can only reach several people at a time. However, automated reviews have a larger audience. On your website, ensure to provide a review section to allow customers to leave a product review for goods purchased.

Online Word of Mouth Marketing

Electronic or online word-of-mouth marketing refers to a statement made by a potential or existing customer about a brand and its products or services to an audience through platforms on the internet. eWOM revolves around the opinions of people about a brand.

Types of Online WOM

The most common types of online WOM are Reviews and Ratings

•   Reviews – Reviews are information or recommendation given by consumers or industry professionals about a brand
•   Rating – Rating is an evaluation of the quality of a product on a given scale. It is usually represented in stars. 4 stars out of 5 means that the consumer is satisfied, and 5 stars out of 5 means that the client is highly satisfied

Characteristics of Online WOM

•   Enhanced Volume: Online WOM has a wider reach than traditional WOM strategies. The electronic technique also creates more awareness and generates more sales since the audience is larger.
•   Platform Dispersion: In the online WOM, marketers can make comments about a product on different platforms with different audiences to gain a more augmented marketing result
•   Persistence and Observability: To a large extent, comments about a brand on social media platforms determine the action prospects take towards patronizing the brand. Since eWOM are usually persistent and easily observed, it helps the audience make an informed decision
•   Anonymity and Deception: Anonymous reviews and comments do not influence eWOM positively. It could affect previous perceptions. Hence, a good eWOM pays more attention to the comment from an expert towards a brand
•   Salience of Valence: In WOM marketing, it is easy for the audience to interpret customers’ ratings. The audience can either determine if the relationship between a buyer and a seller is good or sour through the ratings. Hence, even if the potential buyer has decided to buy, they may still look for the ‘push’ to buy online. The review seen ends up determining the buyer’s intentions.
•   Community Engagement: It is easy to note customer engagement through their interactions online. Excellent interaction is a good way to leverage competitive advantage. Brands should find these interactive people to create quality content

Word of Mouth Advertising Statistics

A new way to measure word-of-mouth marketing is the existing statistics. According to Invesp, 88% of consumers place the highest level of trust in the WOM recommendations of known people, while 64% of marketing executives highlighted WOM marketing as the most effective form of marketing. A report revealed by Semrush blog revealed that 70% of marketers are looking to increase the amount spent on WOM marketing. In the same report, 17% of Canadians revealed WOM as the fourth-leading reason for anyone to consider visiting a convenience store. 23% of people consider buying a Christmas gift or Valentine’s day gift because of WOM recommendation. In relation to the disposition of brands towards the power of word of mouth, the report revealed that brands who offer positive experiences get three times more WOM recommendations than those who had dull experiences.

How to Create WOM Marketing

Creating a WOM marketing is different from improving on it. Creating a WOM marketing involves following the strategies and working out the strategies with a team while improving on it means identifying the strategies that worked to invest more in it. For instance, influencer marketing is a section of eWOM, but it doesn’t yield for all brands. Hence, it is best to identify the strategies that work and improve on them.

Is Word of Mouth Marketing Traditional?

Word of Mouth Marketing is considered traditional because it is the oldest form of marketing. However, the creative use of the internet has revolutionized the approach to its use. At this time, it is considered one of the most reliable forms of marketing whose relevance would outlast time.

Final

Word-of-mouth marketing for mobile apps in 2021 is a very emerging app in this era in which people remain ‘in’ touch about all app information and receive positives vibes for it. By adopting the above categories, you can get more benefits from your mobile apps marketing campaign. You can get support from App Samurai for your mobile application marketing campaigns and strategies.