Word of mouth and electronic word of mouth

Introduction

Consumers increasingly use online tools (e.g., social media, blogs, etc.) to share their opinions about the products and services they consume (Gupta and Harris, 2010; Lee et al., 2011) and to research the companies that sell them. These tools are significantly changing everyday life and the relationship between customers and businesses (Lee et al., 2011).

The rapid growth of online communication through social media, websites, blogs, etc., has increased academic interest in word of mouth (WOM) and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) (e.g., Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004; Brown et al., 2007; Cheung and Thadani, 2012; Hussain et al., 2017; Yang, 2017). Specifically, the present paper will review the literature on how these two media have evolved, the main differences between them, and the degree to which they influence both businesses and consumers, now that they have become some of the most influential information sources for decision-making.

Background

Word of mouth is one of the oldest ways of conveying information (Dellarocas, 2003), and it has been defined in many ways. One of the earliest definitions was that put forward by Katz and Lazarsfeld (1966), who described it as the exchanging of marketing information between consumers in such a way that it plays a fundamental role in shaping their behavior and in changing attitudes toward products and services. Other authors (e.g., Arndt, 1967) have suggested that WOM is a person-to-person communication tool, between a communicator and a receiver, who perceives the information received about a brand, product, or service as non-commercial. Likewise, WOM has been defined as communication between consumers about a product, service, or company in which the sources are considered independent of commercial influence (Litvin et al., 2008). These interpersonal exchanges provide access to information related to the consumption of that product or service over and above formal advertising, i.e., that goes beyond the messages provided by the companies and involuntarily influences the individual’s decision-making (Brown et al., 2007). WOM is widely regarded as one of the most influential factors affecting consumer behavior (Daugherty and Hoffman, 2014). This influence is especially important with intangible products that are difficult to evaluate prior to consumption, such as tourism or hospitality. Consequently, WOM is considered the most important information source in consumers’ buying decisions (Litvin et al., 2008; Jalilvand and Samiei, 2012) and intended behavior. For example, tourist satisfaction is of utmost importance because of its influence on behavioral intentions, WOM and purchasing decisions. In other words, overall satisfaction leads to the possibility of revisiting and recommending the destination (Sotiriadis and Van Zyl, 2013).

Similarly, previous research indicates that consumers regard WOM as a much more reliable medium than traditional media (e.g., television, radio, print advertisements, etc.) (Cheung and Thadani, 2012). It is thus considered one of the most influential sources of information about products and services (Lee and Youn, 2009). Users generally trust other consumers more than sellers (Nieto et al., 2014). As a result, WOM can influence many receivers (Lau and Ng, 2001) and is viewed as a consumer-dominated marketing channel in which the senders are independent of the market, which lends them credibility (Brown et al., 2007). This independence makes WOM a more reliable and credible medium (Arndt, 1967; Lee and Youn, 2009).

Today’s new form of online WOM communication is known as electronic word-of-mouth or eWOM (Yang, 2017). This form of communication has taken on special importance with the emergence of online platforms, which have made it one of the most influential information sources on the Web (Abubakar and Ilkan, 2016), for instance, in the tourism industry (Sotiriadis and Van Zyl, 2013). As a result of technological advances, these new means of communication have led to changes in consumer behavior (Cantallops and Salvi, 2014; Gómez-Suárez et al., 2017), because of the influence they enable consumers to exert on each other (Jalilvand and Samiei, 2012) by allowing them to obtain or share information about companies, products, or brands (Gómez-Suárez et al., 2017).

One of the most comprehensive conceptions of eWOM was proposed by Litvin et al. (2008), who described it as all informal communication via the Internet addressed to consumers and related to the use or characteristics of goods or services or the sellers thereof. The advantage of this tool is that it is available to all consumers, who can use online platforms to share their opinions and reviews with other users. Where once consumers trusted WOM from friends and family, today they look to online comments (eWOM) for information about a product or service (Nieto et al., 2014).

As a result of ICT, today consumers from all over the world can leave comments that other users can use to easily obtain information about goods and services. Both active and passive consumers use this information medium (eWOM). Individuals who share their opinions with others online are active consumers; those who simply search for information in the comments or opinions posted by other customers are passive consumers (Wang and Fesenmaier, 2004).

Electronic word of mouth also provides companies with an advantage over traditional WOM insofar as it allows them both to try to understand what factors motivate consumers to post their opinions online and to gauge the impact of those comments on other people (Cantallops and Salvi, 2014). However, consumers’ use of technology to share opinions about products or services (eWOM) can be a liability for companies, as it can become a factor they do not control (Yang, 2017). To counteract this, businesses are seeking to gain greater control of customers’ online reviews by creating virtual spaces on their own websites, where consumers can leave comments and share their opinions about the business’s products and services (Vallejo et al., 2015). By way of example, in the field of tourism, companies are starting to understand that ICT-enabled media influence tourists’ purchasing behavior (Sotiriadis and Van Zyl, 2013).

Understandably, companies view both types of recommendations – WOM and eWOM – as a new opportunity to listen to customers’ needs and adjust how they promote their products or services to better meet them, thereby increasing their return. A negative or positive attitude toward the product or service will influence customers’ future purchase intentions by allowing them to compare the product or service’s actual performance with their expectations (Yang, 2017).

In the field of consumer behavior, some previous studies (e.g., Park and Lee, 2009) have shown that consumers pay more attention to negative information than to positive information (Cheung and Thadani, 2012). For example, the customers most satisfied with a product or service tend to become loyal representatives thereof via positive eWOM (Royo-Vela and Casamassima, 2011), which can yield highly competitive advantages for establishments, businesses, or sellers, especially smaller ones, which tend to have fewer resources. Some studies have suggested that traditional WOM is the sales and marketing tactic most often used by small businesses.

Additionally, eWOM offers businesses a way to identify customers’ needs and perceptions and even a cost-effective way to communicate with them (Nieto et al., 2014). Today, eWOM has become an important medium for companies’ social-media marketing (Hussain et al., 2017).

WOM vs. eWOM

While many authors (e.g., Filieri and McLeay, 2014) consider eWOM reviews to be electronic versions of traditional WOM reviews, this paper aims to summarize and explain the main differences between the two concepts (Table 1). The first such difference is credibility as an information source (Cheung and Thadani, 2012; Hussain et al., 2017), since it can influence consumers’ attitudes toward products or services (Veasna et al., 2013), for example, with regard to the purchase of tourism services, which are considered to be high-risk (Sotiriadis and Van Zyl, 2013). Luo et al. (2013) have suggested that the anonymity of online messages could have a negative effect on their credibility. In contrast, other studies (e.g., Hussain et al., 2017) have argued that consumers use eWOM more to reduce risk when decision-making. Likewise, eWOM tends to be more credible when the consumer using it has previous experience (Sotiriadis and Van Zyl, 2013).

Message privacy is another feature that sets the two media apart, since with traditional WOM information is shared through private, real-time, face-to-face dialogs and conversations. In contrast, information shared through eWOM is not private and can sometimes be seen by anonymous people who do not know each other. Furthermore, reviews can be viewed at various points in time (Cheung and Thadani, 2012). Indeed, because eWOM reviews are written, consumers and companies can check them at any time; this stands in contrast to traditional WOM, where once the message has reached the receiver, it tends to disappear.

Another salient difference between the two media is the speed of diffusion of the message; eWOM statements spread much faster than WOM statements because of where they are published, i.e., on the Internet (Gupta and Harris, 2010). Online platforms for sharing information (social media, websites, blogs, etc.) are what set eWOM apart from traditional WOM (Cheung and Thadani, 2012). First, they make the reviews accessible to more consumers (Cheung and Thadani, 2012; Sotiriadis and Van Zyl, 2013). Second, because they are written, they persist over time (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004; Cheung and Thadani, 2012).

Conclusion

This paper has reviewed the literature with a view to providing a clearer understanding of WOM and eWOM in the context of consumer information searches.

To this end, the review found that, in keeping with numerous studies, WOM is both the oldest medium for sharing opinions about products or services and the one most likely to influence consumer behavior, due to the high reliability and credibility transmitted by family and friends. In contrast, few studies have examined the interaction between perceived risk and eWOM source credibility (Hussain et al., 2017).

Notwithstanding the above, the review of the theoretical framework also revealed a gap in the literature on WOM credibility in situations involving multiple or many communicators and receivers and how this ultimately affects the end consumer. This would include, for instance, situations in which one person communicates a message to another, who acts as an intermediary, both receiving the original message and passing it along to a third party, i.e., the end consumer. In such cases, the original message can be altered or distorted, chipping away at the credibility of the WOM review as a source of information. This lends much more strength to written comments and reviews, such as eWOM, which can ultimately reduce risk and increase consumer confidence.

Another feature that distinguishes eWOM from traditional WOM is the speed with which it spreads and the ease of access to it. In this regard, when consumers need information about a product or service, they ultimately turn to online media (eWOM) for two reasons. First, they can get the information more quickly, as there is no need to wait for someone else – a friend or family member – to offer an opinion about what they wish to consume. Second, if they have already received WOM reviews, they can use eWOM to corroborate the information received. Therefore, credibility and speed are the two main features not only distinguishing the two media, but also influencing consumer behavior.

Finally, the analysis of the review showed that these two concepts – WOM and eWOM – while seemingly the same, are at the same time very different. The Internet has transformed traditional WOM into eWOM. The communication of opinions is no longer done interpersonally (i.e., person-to-person or face-to-face), but rather is mediated by ICT. However, the many studies conducted (e.g., Katz and Lazarsfeld, 1966; Brown et al., 2007; Daugherty and Hoffman, 2014; Yang, 2017) agree that they are the media most able to influence consumer behavior and the most often used to obtain information before, during, and after consuming a given product or service. For example, in the field of tourism, eWOM is considered the most influential pre-purchase source of travel information (Sotiriadis and Van Zyl, 2013).

Author Contributions

This paper tries to offer a clearer understanding of the two concepts through a literature review and an exploration of how, as a result of advances in ICT, traditional WOM has given rise to eWOM. The author has made an important, direct, intellectual contribution to this paper and has approved it for publication.

Funding

This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under Research Project ECO2014-59688-R (“Planning and implementation of optimal management strategies for physical, online and mobile POSs based on ICT and innovation”).

Conflict of Interest Statement

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

References

Vallejo, J. M., Redondo, Y. P., and Acerete, A. U. (2015). The characteristics of electronic word-of-mouth and its influence on the intention to repurchase online. Eur. J. Bus. Manag. Econ. 24, 61–75.

Today’s marketplace is heavily influenced by the internet, which has changed the way consumers make decisions about their purchases: They won’t rely solely on marketer-generated information only (ads or salespeople). Instead, they look up reviews on sites such as TripAdvisor or HolidayCheck, find more product information or check customer testimonials on e-commerce websites, look at other people’s recommendations, etc. In other words, they turn to eWOM.

eWOM is a powerful market force, because consumers find it an unbiased and trustworthy source of product information. Over the past two decades, a lot of research has investigated the role of eWOM in the marketplace. In this article, we take stock of that knowledge and offer marketers a roadmap about how eWOM works so that they are better equipped to manage this marketplace phenomenon, and, eventually, boost product sales.

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What eWOM is not

Before diving into the eWOM phenomenon, it is important to delineate what is eWOM and what it is not. For example, critics’ reviews, electronic recommendation systems, and general chatter on the internet have all been placed under the header of eWOM. Even though these phenomena are related, they are qualitatively different from eWOM. In addition, extant definitions of eWOM have become outdated as they refer to “statements” or “textual postings”, while today’s consumers can engage in eWOM through other formats, such as photos and videos. We therefore introduce a revised definition of eWOM that addresses the confusion about this concept: eWOM is consumer-generated, consumption-related communication that employs digital tools and is directed primarily to other consumers.

eWOM is consumer-generated, consumption-related communication that employs digital tools and is directed primarily to other consumers.

This definition allows us to delineate the key components: the source (consumers as senders of eWOM), the message (consumption-related content), the channel (digital conversation tools), and the receiver (primarily other consumers). 

The three stages of eWOM

Having defined its key components, we further propose that eWOM consists of three key stages: creation, exposure and evaluation. For eWOM to have an effect in the marketplace, it first needs to be created. Then, consumers need to be exposed to it, because eWOM that is created but not noticed will not have any effect. Finally, for the effect to materialize, consumers need to evaluate the eWOM message and take it into account in their decision-making process.

Throughout these three stages consumers take on a dual role: They are eWOM creators, senders of information, and when they are exposed or evaluating, they are eWOM receivers. 

In our literature review, we focused on what we know about consumers’ motivations, opportunities, and abilities to create, be exposed to, and evaluate eWOM. We also described what marketers can do in each of the three eWOM stages to influence consumer motivations, increase their opportunities, and reinforce their abilities as senders and receivers of eWOM.   

How marketers can use the roadmap

Marketers can influence eWOM at any of the three stages. If they want to influence the creation of eWOM they must first ask, ”Why do people create eWOM?” Our roadmap shows that there are many motivations for doing this, and these have evolved over time. For example, in the early days of the internet, consumers wrote posts about products because they genuinely wanted to help others in their consumer experience. However, in more recent years, in line with the increased use of social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, people have less altruistic motivations. Instead, they create posts for social recognition, meaning that they like to show off to their friends by saying things like, “Look at me, I went to this exclusive restaurant.” 

To make the most of eWOM and help initiate its creation, marketers need to understand these different motivations. To support altruistic eWOM creation, marketers can appeal to consumers by forwarding product-related questions asked by other consumers (ex. Amazon). To support eWOM created for social recognition, marketers can offer picture-perfect photo opportunities (ex. Disneyland) and encourage consumers to share these on their social media accounts. 

When it comes to helping consumers be exposed to and evaluate eWOM, beauty company Sephora is a good example illustrating how marketers can leverage eWOM content created about their products. eWOM messages are easily accessible through a search function on the Sephora website, improving exposure.

Customers can search for other customers reviews that are specifically relevant to them (skin type, eye colour, product benefit sought…) which helps in their evaluation of the eWOM message (is it credible, informative, convincing?) and positively influences the eWOM impact on purchase likelihood and customer satisfaction.  

Marketers must stay ahead of the game

With the rise of the internet and social media, marketers’ jobs have become more complicated. They need to stay ahead of the game to be able to influence consumers purchase decisions. Technological developments such as augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and personal assistants such as Siri, Amazon Echo and Google Home are becoming ubiquitous and will influence the role of eWOM. Marketers also need to keep track of legal developments, as these are set to limit what they can do with consumer information. Managing and directing eWOM may become more difficult (such as paying influencers), so they may have to find new ways to leverage it. 

Technological developments such as augmented reality and artificial intelligence will influence the role of eWOM.

Marketers often only see part of the picture when it comes to eWOM, yet they should keep in mind that eWOM owes its power to the fact that it offers truthful insight in consumer experiences. Introducing virtual influencers (such as Essence Cosmetics does: https://essence.eu/int) may seem a good idea at first sight (more company control compared to working with real influencers), but risks backfiring in the long run as consumers may feel deceived.  

Word of mouth is one of the oldest (and most effective) forms of marketing. But, does it translate into the online world?

Ultimately customers trust the opinions of other customers more than what brands have to say.

So, it’s your job to ensure you’re encouraging and leveraging word of mouth marketing to build brand awareness and trust with potential customers.

Luckily, the rise of electronic word of mouth means reaching new audiences at scale is easier and more effective than ever before.

Keep reading to discover what electronic word of mouth marketing is, how it differs from traditional word of mouth marketing and a stack of practical ways you can leverage this in your existing marketing toolkit.

What is electronic word of mouth?

How do you decide which product or brand to buy? No matter what we’re shopping for, you want to make sure we’re picking the best option on the market.

So, you do your research. You might jump onto Google, read a few customer reviews and even browse through the brand’s social channels.

Why? Because you want to know what other people think about this product or brand, and whether they’d recommend it or not.

And that is exactly what electronic word of mouth (EWOM) is all about. It’s a way of scoping out previous customer’s opinions online and seeing what they think about a product or service we want to buy.

Instead of relying solely on a brand’s website or marketing materials (that will only tell one side of the story), electronic word of mouth gives us a more honest, candid perspective. It covers everything from reviews to testimonials and even social media posts and provides an unfiltered version of how other customers feel about this brand.

The goal of EWOM is simple: for consumers to help other consumers make an informed purchase decision.

And here’s why it matters: 88% of people trust online reviews from other consumers just as much as they trust recommendations from their family and friends.

The more we trust a brand, the more likely we are to shop from them. And for businesses and marketers, leveraging EWOM can set your business apart (without the need to spend thousands of dollars on advertising).

With just 33% of businesses actively seeking out and collecting reviews, there’s a huge opportunity for your brand to proactively encourage and leverage these value pieces of social proof to impact your bottom line.

What are the core components of electronic word of mouth?

There are three key components that make up EWOM which work together to influence brand perceptions and ultimately drive conversions.

These key components are:

1. The message
2. The channel
3. The receiver

Let’s break each part down.

The Message

This component of EWOM is all about the specific piece of content created by your customers. In most cases, it will be a rating, review or testimonial that reveals how they feel about your product, service or overall brand experience.

Unlike the rest of your marketing toolkit, you have no final say over what message is distributed to the world through EWOM.

Instead, your customers have the ability to speak freely about their experience (positive praise or negative reviews) with your brand. While this can be a helpful tool to build trust with new customers, it can be a double edged sword (but more on that in a minute).

The Channel

Next up, we have the tools your customers use to share their message with the world. In the case of EWOM, the channels available to your audience typically include:

• Reviews on your website (such as leaving a review on your eCommerce store)
• Third-party review platforms (such as Trustpilot or ProductReview.com,.au)
• Online forums or communities (such as Facebook Groups)
• Social media platforms

Each tool offers different ways for users to share their experience with your brand. Some might use a star rating system while others might offer open-ended questions and text boxes.

The Receiver

Finally, we have the person on the other end of the review: the receiver.

This will typically be potential customers that are researching your brand and looking for an honest perspective on your products or services.

Their goal is to understand the general sentiment towards your business:

• Do other people like and trust this brand?
• What is the true quality of their product and services?
• Are there better options to choose instead?

These three components of EWOM are what make this type of marketing so effective. EWOM gives potential buyers the opportunity to hear from hundreds of past customers and learn whether this product or brand is really worth their money.

By offering opportunities for your customers to share positive experiences with your brand online, you’ll be able to boost your appeal to potential buyers (without having to invest in traditional advertising).

What are the stages of electronic word of mouth?

But it doesn’t stop there. When it comes to EWOM, there are three key stages you need to know about:

1. Creation
2. Exposure
3. Evaluation

As a marketer, it’s your job to learn each stage of this process to find strategic ways to boost your chances of your brand generating positive EWOM and maximise the impact of any good reviews and testimonials you receive.

Stage 1: Creation

Naturally, the first step of this process is all about your customers sharing their experiences with your brand online.

While this might seem straightforward, you still have an important role to play in generating this EWOM. Because what’s the point of your customers having great opinions of your brand if they don’t have any way to share them at scale?

After a customer purchases from your brand, you need to have a plan in place for them to share their feedback online.

This could include:

• Sending out a follow-up email that encourages them to rate the product or service they’ve purchased
• Prompting them to leave a testimonial or Google review once you’ve wrapped up a project with them
• Encouraging customers to share their product to social media using a branded hashtag

The easier you make it for your customers to leave reviews or post content to social media, the more likely you’ll be to generate positive EWOM.

Stage 2: Exposure

Next up, it’s time for you to put these pieces of social proof to work. Once you’ve started receiving these reviews, ratings and testimonials, you need to find ways to broadcast these to your audience (and potential customers).

That means you need to design your digital presence to include EWOM as a key social proof point.

Not sure how to do this? Here are a few practical strategies to get you started:

• Embed product reviews or ratings onto your website or eCommerce store
• Add a testimonial carousel to your website’s Homepage
• Leverage user generated content across your social media channels

The more visible this EWOM is to your audience, the bigger impact it will have on your bottom line.

Stage 3: Evaluation

Last up, we have the final step in the process: evaluation. This is how potential customers make use of your EWOM and decide whether it’s credible and relevant to their purchasing decisions.

When conducting research for a new product or service, each customer is looking to solve a specific problem. Perhaps they want to know how reliable your product’s sizing chart is or if it’s worth spending more on a premium option (rather than opting for a cheaper solution).

Basically, to succeed at the evaluation stage, you need to offer opportunities for your audience to filter through your EWOM with ease.

That means allowing your audience to:

• Sort your reviews or testimonials by star ratings (both good and bad) and even by specific keywords
• Understand more about each reviewer (such as their age, location or their clothing size) to filter by the results most aligned with their potential purchase
• Assess the credibility of reviews by using trusted third-party sites that vet potential posters and weed out any untrustworthy sources

Why does this all matter? The better you understand the way EWOM is created and distributed, the more strategic you can be about how to encourage and leverage this user-generated content from your customers.

How does EWOM differ from regular word of mouth?

You’ve probably heard about traditional word of mouth (WOM). In fact, it’s one of the oldest forms of marketing – with the earliest definitions dating back to the 1960s.

In a nutshell, WOM is all about how individuals share their opinions of a product or service with other individuals. It’s a type of interpersonal communication that uses face-to-face conversations to promote products and services.

The key here is that WOM has the ability to share consumer behaviour and change people’s attitudes towards specific brands, products or services.

And instead of gathering information from the brand itself, WOM allows past consumers to educate potential consumers (usually friends and family) about what they liked (or didn’t like) about the brand.

The key characteristics of traditional WOM include:

• It’s focused on person-to-person contact and happens in offline settings
• It’s transient and the message is only communicated in a face-to-face conversation
• It’s reach is limited and is usually one person sharing their opinion with another person
• It happens between existing connections (such as friends, family or coworkers)

So, what are the key differences between EWOM and traditional WOM?

• Credibility: WOM uses existing relationships between the communicator and receiver (more credible), while EWOM uses anonymous relationships (less credible).
• Privacy: WOM conversations are conducted in real time (more private), while EWOM can be received by anyone (less private).
• Diffusion speed: WOM uses a slow distribution of messages from one person to another, while EWOM allows the quick distribution of messages at scale.
• Accessibility: WOM is limited to one-to-one encounters (less accessible) while EWOM allows for one-to-many encounters (easily accessible).

With that in mind, the main benefits of EWOM over traditional WOM include:

• Broader reach: each review or testimonial can be seen by hundreds if not thousands of potential customers.
• Lasting impact: these pieces of content live online for months or even years and can keep converting customers across long periods of time.
• Research at-scale: rather than relying on one opinion, EWOM makes it easier for customers to understand broad sentiment towards a brand in minutes.

However, there are drawbacks to EWOM to consider too. While EWOM can be an asset, it can also be a liability. Some studies have shown that consumers pay more attention to negative reviews and information than the positive ones.

As a marketer, it’s important to have a plan in place to navigate poor reviews or negative commentary about your brand online. By proactively responding to these pieces of feedback in a practical and constructive way, you can retain your brand’s perception online and safeguard sentiment towards your products and services.

Regardless of whether you’re using traditional WOM or EWOM, the benefits are the same for your business: it offers a unique opportunity to better understand your customers needs and improve your service or offering to respond to their feedback.

What are the benefits of EWOM marketing?

So, what impact can EWOM have on your business? Let’s look at the key benefits of this marketing channel and explore how it can move the needle for your business.

• It can boost your businesses’ bottom line without making a dent in your marketing budget: by turning your customers into brand advocates, you can organically boost sales and increase conversions at scale.
• It can foster a thriving community of advocates: the more engaged your customers are with your brand, the more likely they are to recommend your brand to others online.
• It can increase your customers’ lifetime value: did you know it costs 5x more to acquire new customers than to re-engage your past purchasers?
  • By creating referral or loyalty programs (more on that later) you can boost the sentiment of your EWOM and build a sense of loyalty with your brand that will encourage customers to shop with you time and time again.
• It can lift your brand trust: recent stats from HubSpot reveal that 75% of customers don’t trust adverts, but 90% trust their friends and family instead, and 70% trust online reviews. So, by harnessing the power of EWOM you can increase the chance of customers trusting and choosing your brand.

How to leverage electronic word of mouth marketing

Now you’ve got a good handle on what EWOM is and how it operates, let’s arm you with a stack of practical tactics to leverage EWOM marketing for your brand.

Encourage online reviews

This first tip is all about inspiring the creation of EWOM. By having the right technical infrastructure in place on your website and social channels, you can ensure every customer who shops with you is able to craft meaningful EWOM for your business.

So, how can you encourage your purchasers to leave an online review?

The first step is to decide what specific action you want your customers to take:

• Do you want them to leave a product review on your eCommerce store?
• Do you want them to rate their overall user experience with your brand?
• Do you want them to craft a detailed review on a third-party site?
• Do you want them to document their experience on social media?

Once you’ve got clear on your end-goal, it’s time to set up the frameworks to make this process simple and seamless. That means ensuring:

• Your eCommerce store offers easy opportunities for customers to leave a review
• Your email marketing follows up purchasers with reminders to rate their experience
• Your social channels (such as Facebook and Google MyBusiness) are set up to encourage reviews from customers

With the right tools in place, your customers will be more likely to generate positive EWOM on your behalf and build powerful social proof for your business.

Leverage user-generated content

What happens when a customer posts about your brand on social media? Whether they snap a photo of your product, film an Instagram Story showcasing your brand or include your business in a Facebook video, you need to have a process in place to leverage this user-generated content (UGC).

No matter how you use UGC, this is what you need to know: UGC is one of the most powerful forms of social proof and can help you build trust and win new business in a cost-effective way.

So, let’s look at some practical ways you can harness the full potential of UGC:

• Reshare transformation photos that show the before and after benefits of your product on your social media channels

• Combine a series of related pieces of UGC into a punchy TikTok or Reel
• Add high-quality pieces of UGC to your eCommerce store to show how products perform in real-life situations
• Pepper UGC into your next email marketing campaign to help drive sales for your products and services

The key with UGC is to ensure you’re redistributing it to your own marketing channels to ensure potential customers see these valuable pieces of content.

Develop an influencer marketing strategy

Speaking of powerful EWOM, a great way to shape the sentiment of conversation about your brand online is to leverage the power of influencer marketing.

By aligning your brand with high-quality influencers, you’ll be able to:

• Reach new valuable audiences without investing in social media advertising
• Build powerful trust, authority and brand awareness
• Generate new high-value pieces of content that you can leverage and reshare

The key to succeeding with influencer marketing is to have a clear objective in place before you engage an influencer.

That means clarifying:

• What audience do you want to reach and who is best placed to connect you with them?
• What key message do you want the influencer to communicate?
• How are you going to review this influencer content before it goes live?

With a clear brief and approval processes in place, you can ensure you’re selecting the right influencer for your campaign and protecting your brand’s image on social media.

Craft a referral program

Incentivising EWOM can be a practical step to generate a solid bank of reviews, testimonials and UGC. And one of the best ways to do that is through a referral program.

And here’s why: recent research shows that 84% of satisfied customers are willing to refer to a product or service, but only 29% actually do.

So, by creating a referral program you can give happy customers a ready to recommend your brand to their friends and family, and reward them along the way.

Some practical ways to incentivise referrals include:

• Offering discount codes
• Earning gift cards or store credit
• Receiving exclusive prizes or products

With a strong referral program, you’ll be able to encourage customers to share their experience online with their network and boost your brand’s reach to new, high-value audiences.

Use and promote memorable hashtags

Last, but not least, is a practical way to curate and encourage the creation of UGC: hashtags.

Throughout both your online and offline marketing, it’s a wise move to have a clear branded hashtag for users to add to their posts about your brand. Why? Because this helps you to collate and review all your UGC in one handy place.

But there are a few important steps to making sure your hashtags have the maximum impact, including:

• Making them simple and easy to use: avoid too many characters or tricky words that users might forget how to spell.
• Using capital letters to spell out each word: this will help users to find and use your hashtags in their UGC.
• Tailor them to your brand: adding your brand name into your hashtags will ensure only relevant posts come up under this hashtag.

So, there you have it. When it comes to electronic word of mouth, this is a powerful tool for building trust with potential customers online. By understanding each stage of the EWOM process (from creation to distribution), you’ll be able to use these powerful pieces of social proof to boost conversions and sales for your business.

«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]

HistoryEdit

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.

FactorsEdit

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/modelsEdit

Three modelsEdit

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]

BuzzEdit

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 effectsEdit

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 WOMEdit

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 disadvantagesEdit

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 alsoEdit

• 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

ReferencesEdit