Winning word of mouth approval

1. Pre-reading Task:
In this article Bethan Hutton tells how companies stay one step ahead of Japan’s materialistic youth. But before you read, think about what sorts of products or services you would talk about with friends, looking for a recommendation? Feel free to add to the list.
– cars;
– hi-fi equipment;
– holidays;
– language courses;
– clothes;
– hair designer;
– a builder or painter to do work on your house or flat.

2. Read the article:
The natural habitat of Japanese teenagers is a small area in central Tokyo between Shibuya and Harajuku stations which is full of boutiques and music shops. At weekends, teenagers from the city and the surrounding provinces go there to spot the latest street fashions.
The area is also a magnet for anyone researching or selling to the teenage market: fashion and cosmetic companies, record producers, editors of young fashion magazines, soft drink and snack promoters, and makers of games and gadgets.
One such company was Bandai, the toy company responsible for Tamagotchi, the egg-shaped, pocket-sized virtual pet which swept the world in the late 1990s. Tamagotchi’s first public appearance was in a test marketing exercise on the streets of Shibuya.
The schoolgirls who saw it were so impressed they told all their friends, and the first few batches of Tamagotchi to hit the shops sold out immediately. Such is the power of “kuchikomi”, or word of mouth.
Advertisers everywhere know that personal recommendation carries great weight. Normally, word-of-mouth promotion is free, but impossible to arrange. In Japan it can be arranged – at a price.
There are agencies with hundreds of teenagers on their books who receive their products and tell their friends about them; others are paid to queue up for the launch of a new product or opening of a new store, creating an artificial “buzz” about it.
Halfway between Shibuya and Harajuku is the office of Hiroaki Morita, who set up Teens Network Ship on leaving school nine years ago. The agency is the longest-established specialist in the teenage market, and often uses informal, “kuchikomi” style marketing methods. It has a register of 2,000 senior high school pupils in the Tokyo area, and is now expanding nationally.
As Mr. Morita describes it, the logic is simple: selected teenagers are given information or samples of a new product. Feeling superior for knowing about something ahead of the crowd, they tell on average 50 of their friends and classmates about their “discovery”, so that with a core group of 1,000, word can spread to 50,000 and more.
Information spreads more rapidly among the 15 to 18 age groups than at any other life stage, Mr. Morita says. For the three years at senior high school, they spend eight hours a day with the same 50 classmates, creating an exceptionally tight social network.

From The Financial Times

3. True or False.
Decide whether these statements are true or false and correct the false ones.
1. Mr. Morita paid to teenagers for telling their classmates about a new product.
2. Information usually spreads rather slowly among teenagers.
3. At first, virtual pets did not have a great success.
4. Central Tokyo is a place to spot the latest street fashions.
5. At first schoolchildren were not so enthusiastic about Tamagotchi.
6. The longest-established specialist in the teenage market frequently uses formal methods.
7. Teenagers do not have a special natural habitat in Tokyo.
8. Tamagotchi’s immediate success was due to the word-of-mouth policy.
9. Tamagotchi was produced by a high-tech computer company.
10. Personal recommendations are of utmost importance in the world of business.

4. What do these figures refer to?
1. 2000;      4. 50 000;
2. 1990;      5. 1000;
3. 50;         6. 15-18.

5. Give three forms of the following verbs from the text and compose sentences of your own using them. Mind that some verbs are regular and some are not.
1. to go – ________ – ________
2. to hit – ________ – ________
3. to tell – ________ – ________
4. to know – ________ – ________
5. to receive – ________ – ________
6. to fee – ________ – ________
7. to sweep – ________ – ________
8. to pay – ________ – ________
9. to spend – ________ – ________
10. to have – ________ – ________

6. Build word-combinations:
a) Put these words together;
b) Make no more than 3 sentences incorporating all of these word-combinations:

7. Give an English definition to the following words and word combinations from the text:
1. Teenager – ___________
2. Rapid – ___________
3. High school – ___________
4. Classmate – ___________
5. Sample – ___________
6. Network – ___________
7. To be impressed – ___________
8. Public appearance – ___________
9. Promotion – ___________
10. Fashion – ___________

8. Jumbled words – make them real!
a. TOONIMORP
b. GARAVEE
c. NISAFOH
d. SEEXRICE
e. LISASTEPCI

9. Debates!
TOPIC: Tamagotchi is the best friend for everybody.

RULES:
1. To start debates you need to be divided in 2 groups. Choose the jury/judge.
2. Each group should defend one viewpoint: either you state that there are certain business sectors that are “ethically unsound” or you support the opposite point of view.
3. People in the group may personally be of different opinions, but as a group they have to defend one point for all.
4. Spend some 15 minutes to find arguments to support your statement.
5. Choose 3 speakers in each group who will present the group opinion.
6. Each speaker should talk for 2 minutes.
7. After every speaker finishes his part of speech, the opposite team has the right to ask one question.
8. After all the speakers have expressed their points the two groups can exchange questions.
9. Finally the judge announces the winner, basing his decision on:
– how convincing the speakers were;
– whether the questions were smart;
– whether they fit in time limits (not more or less);
– whether they respected the opposite team.

10. Make a written table of advantages and disadvantages of having a Tamagotchi as a pet.

11. Write an acrostic on TAMAGOTCHI, giving characteristics to it.
(every letter of the word “tamagotchi” is the first letter of the line in your acrostic)

Key:
3. T; 2. F; 3. T; 4. T; 5. F; 6. F; 7. F; 8. T; 9. F; 10. T
6. 1. j; 2. f; 3. a; 4. g; 5. c; 6. i; 7. b; 8. e; 9. d; 10. h
8. 1. promotion; 2. average; 3. fashion; 4. exercise; 5. specialist

Alyona Pavlova ,
Moscow State University of Printing Arts

What is Word of Mouth Marketing and how to create a foolproof WOMM campaign for your eCommerce store? Read to find out our top 5 tips and more!

I recently watched a video of California surfers taking on a famous wave called the Wedge. One particular surfer had a surfboard that caught my eye. During his interview, he couldn’t stop raving about his Beater Board. 

Now, I definitely wasn’t in the market for a new surfboard. I already have too many. But after seeing it in action, and hearing him talk about it, I felt I could trust what he was saying.

A few clicks later, I had a brand new Beater Board. I told my friends about it too.

That right there is the power of word of mouth marketing. To drum up enthusiasm about your product that your customers can’t wait to tell more people about it. 

And you know the best part? It is a marketing strategy you can easily implement within your eCommerce business right now.

In this article, I’m going to break down exactly what word of mouth marketing is, demonstrate how it is used in business today, and show you how it can help you take your store to the next level. Here’s the full outline:

1. What is Word-of-Mouth Marketing (WOMM)?
2. Why is Word-Of-Mouth Marketing Important?
3. 5 Tips for a Successful Word-of-Mouth Marketing Campaign
3.1 Products and Services
3.2 Referral Incentives
3.3 Customer Support
3.4 Purchase Process
3.5 Customer Reviews
4. Closing

What is Word-of-Mouth Marketing (WOMM)?

Word of mouth marketing (WOMM), alternatively known as word of mouth advertising, is a marketing strategy that turns satisfied customers into brand advocates: people who will speak about your brand. 

A word of mouth marketing campaign uses customer’s positive experiences to build trust towards a business’ products and services.

Word-of-mouth marketing can convince potential customers to purchase products as well, just like how the surfer’s enthusiastic endorsement convinced me to buy a Beater Board.

The internet makes it easier to get your happy customers to spread news about your great products. Between social media and blogs, happy customers are now able to share their experiences not just with their friends and families but with the entire world.

Word of mouth marketing has become more effective and important to your business than ever before.

Why is Word-Of-Mouth Marketing important?

It is estimated that there are more than 24 million eCommerce websites operating as of 2020. Word of mouth helps you stand out in a crowded marketplace and grow your brand.

To return to surfing one last time: there are so many manufacturers making top-notch boards. I own a number of them. Even for the best surfboard makers, it’s hard to stand out against other surfboard shapers, manufacturers, and stockists.

A personal recommendation could cut through the noise. 70% of US consumers trust product recommendations from friends and family, compared to 15% of consumers who trust brands on social media. 

Word of mouth marketing is social proof and trust rolled into one. 

Projections say that by 2021 over 2.14 billion consumers worldwide are set to buy goods and services online, with online retailers taking a cut of an estimated revenue of 6.54 trillion US dollars in 2022. That’s up just over 3 trillion from 2019, which returned a worldwide revenue amount of 3.53 trillion US dollars.

So there are plenty of opportunities for your eCommerce store to grow, it’s simply a matter of getting noticed in a highly competitive market.

That’s why, on top of all your other marketing tactics, it’s well worth implementing word of mouth marketing within your marketing campaign.

And you know the best part about word of mouth marketing? It’s basically free. And if your brand is worth bragging about in the first place, then you’ve got unlimited free marketing right in your pocket.

5 tips for a successful Word-of-Mouth marketing campaign

If your customers have a positive experience with your brand, they’ll naturally want to talk about it. And why wouldn’t they? We all want our close ones to enjoy the same great things that we’ve stumbled across.

This can be done through many forms of media like Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, vlogging, and blogging. It can occur through face-to-face interactions. Or, perhaps from influencers that work with brands to advocate for a brand’s product or services.

In fact, a survey conducted around the world involving respondents from 56 countries found that 92% of consumers trust earned media, such as word of mouth recommendations from friends and family. Furthermore, they trusted this type of marketing above all other forms of advertising, including search engine ads (37%) and banner ads (24%).

Here are 5 tips to get started on your own word of mouth marketing campaign.

1. Ensure that your products and services are worth talking about

No marketing campaign can outlast a bad product, no matter how marketing-savvy you are.

To give your brand the best chance of being talked about by your customers, you must offer your customers something they’ll love. After all, why would anyone brag about something they aren’t excited about?

So make sure you are getting the basics right first. Share-worthy products, top-shelf customer service, and awesome after-sales services all build customer trust and will encourage them to talk about your brand.

Take Byron Bay’s brand Spell for example. They not only make some of the world’s most beautiful bohemian clothes but they have also used the ethical clothing movement to their advantage.

And that’s a super-smart move, as you can see below ethical clothing is trending. The fashion and clothing industry has seen a big uptick in the demand for clothes that are manufactured and sourced ethically.

In following this trend and aligning with customer demand, Spell has created a killer product that is easy to market, is super social media friendly, and, best of all, is next-level shareworthy.

A great product and marketing strategy will get even the most tight-lipped customers talking. 

2. Offer referral incentives that your customers will love

To ensure the success of your word of mouth marketing campaign, it’s an absolute must to offer referral program incentives that your customer base is going to love.

Many shops offer rewards through a customer loyalty program as a way to encourage happy customers to come back for more. A referral marketing program incentive will not only do that but offer rewards to any friends they bring too.

Take Timberland here for example. 

They offer a 20% discount not only to their existing customer but also to any new customer they refer to your shop. And considering that they amassed over $3 billion in 2019, up from $1.8 billion in 2014, their marketing strategy works well.

The president of Timberland says that in 2014 they shifted their focus onto their ideal customer, who values ethically sourced functional footwear over trendy styles and fast fashion. 

It turns out that their target market is made up of millennials, who not only like ethical fashion but also a good deal, according to Jeff Fromm who is a market-analyst for Futurecast. So when Timberland hit those two key points in their referral marketing campaign, their revenue exploded. 

Timberland is a perfect example of how offering referral incentives that your ideal customer would love can be a powerful marketing move.

3. Provide first-class customer support

Sometimes the product isn’t the thing worth talking about. Often it’s the service that people really care for. If you get your customer support dialed in, people will be shouting your praises from the top of their social mountains. And on the flip side, if your brand is a pain to deal with, you’ll lose customers faster than you can build new ones.

In fact, customer retention (keeping happy customers) is far cheaper than customer acquisition (getting new customers). Five times cheaper to be exact.

So once you gain a new customer, you want to keep them.

Continuing on the ethical clothing trend here for a bit longer, check out how Patagonia ensures their customers are returning to their stores.

Patagonia offers top-notch after-sales services like their repairs policy. If any of your Patagonia garments happen to break, tear at the seams, or is substandard in any way, their team will repair the item free of charge under their Ironclad Guarantee.

If the damage is due to general wear and tear, they will repair the garment for a fair price. Not only that but they also offer this repair service to garments and apparel that aren’t manufactured by their own team.

In doing so, Patagonia is not only further aligning with their ethical clothing pledge, a big reason why many customers shop there in the first place, but they are also offering awesome after-sales services that will ensure their customers will return to their stores again and again.

Remember, return customers are great customers. Not only will they continue to spend money buying your products and services but they are also much more likely to be talking about it also.

And referred customers are 4 times more likely to buy when referred by a friend. So get your customer support right and you are on your way to serious success!

4. Streamline your online shop’s purchase process

One of the easiest ways to increase purchase conversions and customer satisfaction is to streamline your purchasing process. Consider this, well planned out website design can increase your conversions by up to a massive 400%! 

Think about it. Reflect on the last time you bounced out of an online purchase. Ask yourself what led you to abandon your cart or, worse still, opt out before you even started adding anything to your order. 

Perhaps it was the site’s pesky pop-ups that drove you away, maybe a clunky purchasing experience was what frustrated you into desertion, or perhaps it was hidden shipping fees that finally drove the final nail in the f#*% coffin.

Whatever it was, put yourself in your customer’s place. What can you do to ensure their purchasing experience is as quick and easy as can be?

Take a look at The Little Market, their single-page checkout makes for a super easy checkout that offers their customers an easy and stress-free shopping experience.

To get your store’s purchase process right, like The Little Market has, ponder these questions and considerations:

• Site speed and page load time: Is your site clunky and slow?
• Website usability and ease of use: How optimized is your site’s layout and how hard is it to get around?
• Site navigation: How easy is it for your customers to find a product they’re on the hunt for?
• Shopping cart design: How easy is it for a customer to checkout? How many steps are involved? How long does it take?

If you get all of these things right you can seriously improve your site’s success. Remember happy customers = more word of mouth = more conversions.

5. Leverage customer reviews

Sometimes WOMM isn’t as easy as it sounds. Occasionally you have to give your customers a gentle nudge in the right direction. A good way to do this is to integrate a reviewing system into your eCommerce store.

Why?

Because customers love to see other people’s experiences with your brand. They’d rather see those insights, opinions, and points of view than your advertising and sales pitches.

So consider customer reviews as just another form of word of mouth marketing, encouraging new visitors to your site and potential customers to trust your brand’s products and services.

Take Verishop here. They’ve integrated a basic review system within their site. It’s clean, simple, out of the way, but it serves its purpose: to boost your customer’s confidence when making a purchase.

These reviews, negative or positive (hopefully positive), are incredibly influential on people. They will help to increase your sales, boost your ROI, and, best of all, act as that beautiful form of free word of mouth marketing.

Closing

Leveraging word of mouth doesn’t have to be super complicated. In fact, it should be relatively easy and very cost-effective if you get it right.

Now that you know exactly how to set up your referral program just right, there really is no excuse. Get out there and start a killer WOMM campaign, your business and profit margins will thank you!

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Word-of-mouth marketing is the oldest and most effective marketing tactic. Even back in medieval times, if you wanted to know who sold the best oxen, you listened to the advice of friends and neighbors. Now, 83% of consumers say a word-of-mouth recommendation from a friend or family member makes them more likely to make a purchase.

You can use this powerful marketing method to recruit members to your association. It’s less expensive than other tactics, but does require time and effort.

The Science Behind Word-Of-Mouth Marketing

During the 20th century, marketing and behavioral science became partners in the art and science of persuasion. Marketers started basing campaign decisions on behavioral science research. Social psychologist Robert Cialdini took on marketing guru-like status upon publishing his book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

One of Cialdini’s principles of persuasion is social proof: we tend to do what we see others doing. Psychologists say this behavior goes back to our hunter-gatherer days. We follow social norms by adapting our behavior to what we see around us to remain or become socially acceptable. Otherwise, we might get kicked out of the tribe, a death sentence back then. These social precepts have been stuck in our lizard brain ever since.

Social proof can be amplified. It takes on even greater significance when we see people we know, like, or trust doing something, for example, our family and friends, or people we think are similar to us, even if we don’t know them.

Another amplifying factor is the behavior of experts and influencers. When social proof is combined with authority, another of Cialdini’s principles of persuasion, you are many times more likely to style your behavior after someone else’s.

You’ve seen countless examples of social proof in action. Something becomes inevitable or desirable because we see other people doing or recommending it, for example:

• Putting money into tip jars.
• Noticing or joining lines in front of restaurants.
• Selecting menu items described as “most popular.”
• Wanting to do what you see friends or celebrities doing on Instagram.
• Choosing restaurants based on the Facebook reviews of friends.

8 Ways to Encourage Word-Of-Mouth Marketing

Before you try out these word-of-mouth marketing tactics, make sure your membership experience is worth talking about. No one is going to rave about your association unless you offer an excellent membership value proposition.

#1: Start a new member referral program.

Encourage members to recruit new members. Provide recruitment talking points for different audience segments, and tips that teach members how to talk about membership benefits and impact, not membership features.

Reward members who put their reputation on the line by recommending membership. They’re making an effort on their own time to reach out to a prospect, follow up, and perhaps even help them during new member onboarding.

Show appreciation by giving successful recruiters a promo code for an event or product, an invitation to an exclusive event, or other VIP treatment. Give them a choice of rewards: what appeals to one member may not appeal to another. If you know the lifetime value of membership, you can figure out how much you can afford to spend on a reward—probably more than you think.

#2: Collect membership testimonials.

Include testimonials in marketing messages and collateral. Make sure you use a testimonial from someone in the same membership segment as the prospect.

Collect testimonials in quick interviews over the phone or by email. Craft a testimonial based on your conversation. Paraphrase for readability but capture their language as much as possible—you don’t want all your testimonials to sound like the same person. Focus the testimonial on the selling points or value proposition for that particular audience segment. Ideally, use a “problem, solution, results” format.

Get the member’s approval on the final version and permission to embed a link to their website or LinkedIn profile—another proof of credibility.

#3: Share membership success stories.

Membership success stories are turbo-charged testimonials. When you hear a good testimonial, dig deeper so you can turn it into a longer story to share on your website/blog and in newsletters. Because these success stories illustrate the possibilities of membership, they are good for existing members to see as well.

Companies (like ours) use case studies (and video testimonials) to share client success stories. Your success stories can use the same format—problem, solution, results—to show how membership makes an impact. Make sure you collect success stories from all membership segments.

If you’re creating success stories from scratch, use a Q&A template to facilitate collection. Just like testimonials, paraphrase and edit member responses to transform them into compelling stories.

#4: Create a buzz on social media.

There’s no better advertising than members sharing enthusiastic photos and posts about their membership experience—the ultimate social proof. Make it more likely this type of sharing will happen by giving members an experience to talk about. Create “natural” and Instagram-friendly selfie spots.

People love an excuse to humblebrag. Encourage members to share photos about association projects and causes that move them, whether it’s a grand challenge or a community service project.

Conference hashtags are a standard now, but consider a unique hashtag for contributions to your professional community or participation in association activities, such as volunteering, social events, educational events, committee meetings, webinars, and online learning. Create a hashtag that’s related to your industry/profession, not just your association abbreviation, so it’s used widely.

Find new ways to spread the membership buzz. Keep an eye on pop culture and social memes so you can creatively tweak one for your association.

#5: Activate industry influencers.

Get influencers to talk about your association in a positive way and you’ll amplify social proof with their expert’s seal of approval.

Focus on influencers who have a platform where they regularly share their opinions, such as a website, blog, or podcast, or a regular column on an industry website. Even a social media platform like LinkedIn or Twitter will do.

Show influencers how the association makes an impact on the industry and members’ lives. Invite them to a conversation with association leaders, or ask for their help with a mutually appealing project. Don’t just play “show and tell.” Ask for their insight too. How do they think your association could make a bigger impact?

#6: Facilitate conversations between fans and prospects.

Create situations where your loyal fans have the opportunity to talk with membership prospects. For example, ask membership ambassadors to find and hang out with prospects at events.

#7: Rethink website photos.

Real member photos are better than stock photos. Remember, you want to remind your audience that your membership is full of people just like them. If they recognize faces, all the better. But, make sure these faces represent all segments of your membership and target audience.

#8: Brag confidently.

Show off statistics that illustrate your value, for example, market penetration, percentage of industry award winners who are members, and other industry accolades. Use only compelling stats; mediocre social proof is worse than no social proof.

People like belonging to an organization that everyone raves about—and association professionals like using software their peers rave about. See social proof in action in a case study that explains why one association gives MemberSuite their seal of approval. Here’s a hint: “After implementing MemberSuite, ACUHO-I’s individual membership recruitment rates increased by 45%.” There’s nothing mediocre about that statistic!

Robinhood ⁠— one of the most popular investment apps & our inspiration for this article’s idea ⁠—  is in the news these days. The news, as you might be aware of, is they restricted trading in Gamestop. 

There are plenty of debates surrounding that decision, of course, but we aren’t interested in it…not even a bit.  

What we are here to discuss is the “one of the most popular” part; more precisely, we will discuss the primary strategy that helped Robinhood get there: Word of mouth marketing or WOMM! We’ll also share some WOMM strategies you can implement to grow your brand & sales.

But before all that, let’s understand what word of mouth marketing is and why you should consider it.

What Is Word Of Mouth Marketing?

Word of mouth marketing is a combination of (intended & unintended) efforts to get your customers talking & sharing about your business’s product/service, online and offline. If the intended efforts include paying someone in the process, it’s called “word of mouth advertising,” but we’ll put it in the WOMM bracket for this article.

In other words, word of mouth marketing is about people promoting your offerings to people they influence. The influence can be as direct as you recommending a product to your close friend to as stretched as you giving a 5-star rating on the app store and some unknown individual reading it from thousands of miles away.

Why Should You Consider WOMM?

“People influence people. Nothing influences people more than a recommendation from a trusted friend. A trusted referral influences people more than the best broadcast message. A trusted referral is the Holy Grail of advertising.” 

This Mark Zuckerberg quote sums up the importance of word-of-mouth marketing perfectly. Statistically, too, word of mouth is perhaps the best marketing out there.

• 92% of consumers say they trust earned media, such as recommendations from friends and family, above all other advertising forms. [Source]
• Over 74% of customers believe word of mouth is a key influence in their purchasing decision. [Source]
• 1000 customers can start around 500,000 conversations about your brand.

In short, instead of pondering whether or not you should optimize for WOMM, read this next section & start using the tactics right away.

8 Word Of Mouth Strategies To Implement Right Away

1. Create a referral program

A referral program is a word-of-mouth marketing tactic that encourages existing customers to share your brand with their friends & family.

The most common way to encourage existing customers is by providing incentives. It can be anything…a discount on the next purchase, a financial reward, a coupon, a gift card…anything! For instance, Robinhood’s “Invite Friends, Get Stock” referral program is a significant contributor to their ever-increasing userbase.

How can you create a successful referral strategy? For one, if you are a Shopify store owner, you can start a 14 day free trial with Social Snowball! It will auto-create an affiliate account for all purchasers (meaning, it will enable all your customers to become referrals). They can then create custom discount codes, share them with their friends, and receive a financial reward if their friend purchases from your store. A win-win-win! (and if you consider us a part of this process, a win-win-win-win!)

The best benefit of such referral/affiliate programs? You don’t have to pay upfront to the affiliates.

2. Invest in influencer marketing

If you have the budget to pay upfront, investing in influencer marketing can give a fantastic ROI (return on investment). According to Influencer Marketing Hub, businesses are making $5.20 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing.

Influencer marketing, if you don’t know, is a type of social media marketing/word of mouth advertising that includes paying an individual with influence over a relevant audience for sharing your product/message to that audience. 

Cristiano Ronaldo sharing his Nike shoes with his 250 million+ Instagram followers is a prominent example of influencer marketing.

You don’t necessarily have to have a $1 billion budget and pay a celebrity like Ronaldo, though. You can pay as little as $100 to a micro-influencer with a following of 5k-10k. 

3. Encourage user-generated content

User-generated content (or UGC) is any type of content ⁠— text, image, video, GIF ⁠—  created by actual users rather than the brand. Though influencer marketing includes user-generated content, it’s not organic, and everyone knows that.

So, how do you go about encouraging your customers to share about you/your products without paying them? Well, there are many ways. The simplest one is to create a product so good that they want to share it…maybe to help a friend, boost their ego, get social approval, etc.

Other than that, you can…

• Host a giveaway wherein sharing your brand on social media & tagging your account is a requirement to participate.
• Reshare the best UGC on your profile. This encourages more people to use your hashtag, mention your brand, etc. For example, this “Photo of the Day” post by GoPro:

• Have a referral program so that they will do it for the incentives. Tip: Give better incentives than your competitors, and affiliate marketers/influencers will promote your brand ahead of others on their ranking sites.
• Send unexpected freebies with orders. Something as trivial as a handwritten note can also work.
• Send freebies to micro-influencers. They love sharing everything happening in their day & your beautifully-packed gift on their doorstep might make it to their Insta story or Youtube vlog.
• Give a customized experience. E.g., Starbucks writing names on the cup.
• Publish content they’d want to share. For instance, you might (please! please!) share this article with your friend who’s starting a Shopify dropshipping business.
• Build a brand so strong that sharing about it gives them a sense of belonging to a social circle/cult. E.g., Nike.
• Launch competitions or try Gamification marketing.

4. Ask for reviews & testimonials

In this hyper-connected world, people do not necessarily discover your business through a friend or family member. It’s entirely possible they visit your storefront through your other advertising efforts or from a Twitter banter one of your employees is having.

In such cases, having reviews & testimonials (in other words, word of mouth) from your previous customers on the product/landing page can multifold the conversions. It’s obvious, but still, if you are a numbers person, here are two statistics for you: 

1. 95% of customers read reviews before making a purchase! [Source]
2. 79% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. [Source]

Let’s take an example you’ll relate to most at this moment. You were looking for “word of mouth strategies” and came across this article. After reading the first point, you found referral marketing can boost your revenue, and there’s this Shopify app called “Social Snowball” that can help you create a flawless referral program. You go to the Shopify app store and see this:

& this:

You install it on your store not because we offer a 10-day free trial (that we obviously do) but because other customers found it helpful. 

The same goes for your customers. It’s free social proof, and you must not leave it on the table.

5. Get social on social media

Talk the language of people to be a part of their conversations. The most successful social media brand accounts are the ones that converse & have personality.

Dbrand is an excellent example of how one should go about developing a brand personality, having conversations on social media, and building a fanbase. They roast their customers and communicate like the memers of the internet.

Still, people reply to their comments, retweet their tweets, and follow them everywhere, even though many have never bought from them. That’s free word of mouth! That’s the value of being social on social media!

6. Tap into people’s emotions

Tying your business with something you and most of your customers believe in is an excellent way to get word of mouth.

Just recently, Burger King France started giving away potatoes to support farmers. Not only did it help thousands of farmers across the country, but it also got Burger King likes & shares (read “word of mouth”) from their customers, media outlets, and global social media audience.

Doing such things keeps the existing customers attached to the brand. And if someone indefinitely loves your brand/product, sooner or later, they’ll mention it to their friends & followers.

BTW, there are many ways to tap into people’s emotions; you don’t need to “support a cause” to get them emotionally invested. 

7. Do something out of the box!

People love talking about extraordinary things because they are, well, unusual & unexpected. 

The abovementioned Burger King France example fits here nicely. Red Bull-sponsored crazy stunt videos gain millions of views. Swipe Night got a lot of people talking about Tinder.

Similarly, do something out of the box to get people talking and sharing. And it doesn’t have to cost much. 

Here’s an example of an out-of-the-box idea that must have got YLAW Group quite some free advertising. 

In fact, even extra effort put into something regular can leave a positive impression in people’s minds. E.g., sending a personalized “Happy birthday!” email. 

8. Build a great customer experience

Though we talked about “word of mouth” as something positive for your brand throughout this article, you must understand it’s a double-edged sword. 

All the above points were strategies to get people to care about and share about your products. However, if you do something your general audience doesn’t like, it will backfire ⁠— people will talk against you. 

E.g., the recent Robinhood saga.

Therefore, building a great customer experience is the most crucial part of any word-of-mouth strategy. This includes everything from creating an intuitive website to having an always-ready customer support team sitting there to pick up customer calls as soon as the phone rings.

Jeff Bezos summarized it the best:

“If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.”

Conclusion – Word Of Mouth Marketing

Because people trust people, word of mouth marketing is the most cost-effective yet high-value marketing strategy. And in this hyper-connected world, you have all the more reason to focus on it. 

Just explore the strategies we mentioned as a beginning exercise. To summarize it for you, here’s what you should look into:

• Referral marketing: Happy customers will happily share & motivate their social circle to purchase your product/service because a) They loved it & b) They’ll receive an incentive if the other party buys through their code/link. [Check out our guide on how to create an affiliate program to get started]
• Influencer marketing: Pay people with influence over a significant and relevant audience to get exposure and sales.
• UGC: Encourage users to post about your product/service on their social media, blogs, YouTube, etc.
• Gather online reviews/Get client testimonials:  72% of consumers say reading positive customer reviews increases their trust in a business, as per a BrightLocal study.
• Leverage social media by getting social: On any particular social media, talking in the language other social media users use is a sure-shot way to be a part of the conversation. 
• Emotional provocation: Tap into your customer’s emotions to build a better brand-consumer bond. 
• Out-of-the-box ideas: People love to share & see unusual stuff. Plus, if it’s something extraordinary, people will remember it for way more time.  

And to wrap it up, before applying all these strategies, perfect customer experience! 

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.