Word of Mouth Marketing: What It Is and How to Make It Work
Word of mouth
Word of mouth refers to the passing on of information in a personal conversation. The initiators of this dissemination of information are usually neutral people who report their experiences and impressions without being asked and thus directly or indirectly provide advice for action.
Word of mouth marketing refers to the targeted impetus for spreading messages about brands, products and companies. Word of mouth marketing differs from viral marketing mainly in the channel: the latter primarily uses social networks.
Word of Mouth Marketing - WOM
It is also called (WOM Marketing), (WOMM), or (Word-of-Mouth Advertising). It is one of the ways in which a product or service can be marketed, through customers passing on information about the product, praising it, conveying their positive experiences with it, and encouraging others to acquire and use it.
Word-of-mouth marketing reflects the consumer's interest in a particular product or service, so he shares news about it in his daily conversation with others. It is free advertising that the company receives through positive customer experiences about the products and services it provides.
Word of mouth includes Buzz Marketing, Viral Marketing, Online Marketing, Blog Marketing, Emotional Marketing, and Mass Media Marketing. Or social media marketing.
Ways to encourage word-of-mouth shopping
The company can use some tactics to encourage word-of-mouth marketing, including:
- Show interest and appreciation to existing customers by remembering their names and offering more than expected, such as offering discounts and gifts associated with the brand with every purchase.
- Include a fun in-store activity, such as a workshop, live demo, etc.
- Create a compelling story about the company or product, why it was created, its values, and why you believe in what you do.
- Create shareable content that is useful, funny, or controversial.
- Make it easy to share company content, so customers can share content with others.
- Motivate customers to share information about products or services with their friends and family.
- Giving new customers additional benefits to encourage them to continue with the company.
Advantages of word-of-mouth marketing
- Word-of-mouth marketing can provide additional sales to a company without spending any money on advertising.
- It encourages attracting new consumers to try products and services, as people trust the opinions of friends and family more than the advertising provided by companies.
Disadvantages of word of mouth marketing
- Companies typically have little control over how and when word-of-mouth marketing occurs. In addition, word-of-mouth marketing is not always positive. Customers who have bad experiences can spread negative sentiment around a business that can turn potential customers away from trying products and services.
- Word-of-mouth marketing can give consumers expectations about products that may be difficult to meet. A positive recommendation from a friend may convince a consumer to try a product, but if the product does not live up to their expectations, they may be disappointed.
Word of mouth marketing steps
- To understand your product
The first thing you need to do before starting word of mouth marketing is to understand and know your product well and know what you offer to customers.
Therefore, you should ask yourself the following:
What is your product? What values are you providing through this product? What does this product offer customers? In what way do you help society through your product?
When you understand what the product is and have information about your brand then you will gain appreciation from customers and the community around you.
- Get to know your competitor
When you are well informed about what is happening around you in the market and when you know and understand your competitors and the services or solutions they can provide, then you can stay ahead.
Therefore you should ask the following questions:
- What can you do to be better than them?
- How are they different from you and how is that to your advantage?
- What are your weaknesses and how can you overcome them?
- Identify your target customers
When you determine the category you want to target to offer your services, you must understand and determine what they like and what they prefer so that you can build your marketing strategy based on this data and information.
- Giving gifts
Gifts and competitions are unique word-of-mouth marketing ideas that enable you to launch your plan, by using social media to announce free gifts offered by your company, and thus you will be able to reach a new audience.
To create contests and giveaway programs you can use Shopify apps like ViralSweep or Social Boost .
After completing the competitions, you can also offer consolation prizes, for example, to whoever gets second place, such as a $5 gift card. This will have a significant impact on motivating people and directing them to purchase from your store even though they did not win the competition.
- Forming supportive networks
You can use paid marketing or affiliate marketing to increase the intensity of word-of-mouth marketing for your product through some of the following options:
You can urge your customers to participate in your promoter program, by asking them to direct their friends or family to buy your product in exchange for a certain commission.
You can contact some famous blogs to write some good articles about the products you offer and your brand, so that these articles include specific links that will earn them profit.
By offering this commission or cash incentive, you are promoting your product in a safe and non-lossable manner, as you will only pay the commission in the event of a sale.
- Build a community around you
72% of marketers use social media to find loyal customers, and the more you can build a strong network of fans on social media, the stronger your word-of-mouth marketing program will be.
Specifically through social media, it shows how important the role your customers play, and you have to know how to reach them by searching for where they are, whether they are on Instagram or Vine, or they prefer twitter, or perhaps they are more active on Quora than Facebook, you have to determine that.
- Link with influencers
72% of marketers use social media to find loyal customers, and the more you can build a strong network of fans on social media, the stronger your word-of-mouth marketing program will be.
According to Augure , 75% of marketers consider that linking with influencers significantly leads to the creation of new customers, and 76% of them believe that they are important in building loyal relationships with customers .
Advertising your brand through influencers is one of the best word-of-mouth marketing methods as you connect with your audience through people who already have an influence on the audience's purchasing decisions.
Influencers are anyone from bloggers, social media stars, or any of your current clients. Always search for them and make sure they have a large number of followers.
75% of marketers consider that linking with influencers significantly leads to the creation of new customers, and 76% of them believe that they are important in building loyal relationships with customers.
- Feedback Always be careful to follow up on feedback from your customers by following their comments on your product page, as these comments are visible to store visitors and will certainly affect their desire to buy the product, positively or negatively. You can use Shopify applications such as Product Reviews Addon to automate the process of collecting feedback and customer comments to be filtered and sorted so that you can direct negative comments to the customer support team to improve customer opinion and satisfaction.
- Invest more money in improving the customer experience The effectiveness of word-of-mouth marketing depends greatly on customer recommendations, and the best way to obtain these recommendations is to provide a distinctive experience that exceeds the customer’s expectations and makes him enjoy when he deals with your company, as it is known that people usually do not determine an average rating for their experience with a particular product, but rather their opinion is either Positive or negative, therefore providing a distinctive experience to the customer guarantees you a distinguished recommendation.
- Reward loyal customers Incentives play an important role in transforming customers into loyal customers, advocates, or effective promoters of your product. You can provide incentives to them through special offers or exclusive content that makes them feel special, so they will enthusiastically and passionately share their wonderful experience with those around them about your product.
Examples of word-of-mouth marketing
ALS Ice Bucket Challenge
In 2014, ALS launched their Ice Bucket Challenge as a fundraising method. The challenge was for candidates to pour a bucket of cold water on themselves, film it, and donate money to charities. They then posted this challenge on social media and were asked to... Everyone who takes up the challenge can nominate a family member or friend to do it as well. This campaign has been extremely popular, many celebrities around the world have participated in it, and approximately $115 million in donations have been collected within just 8 weeks.
Dunkin Donuts
The Dunkin' Donuts brand is considered a distinct example of American culture, whether at the local level or at the global level, as it is one of the beloved brands around the world because of the distinctive values it represents that it acquired over the years and was transmitted to people through word of mouth marketing, specifically using social media. It was for fans of this brand. The brand has the greatest role in promoting its products and the values it represents, so that Dunkin' Donuts has become a distinctive positive status shared in the praise of more than 15 million fans on their Facebook page, more than 1.5 million followers on Instagram, and 1.2 million followers on Twitter.
Netflix
Netflix was keen to study what its customers wanted and what interested them before putting its products on the market. They were able to create original works specifically designed to suit the tastes and desires of its customers around the world. Consequently, the company achieved tremendous successes due to its acquisition of a very large number of customers and promoters who sponsored effective word-of-mouth marketing. Which led to its growth and surpassing the largest competitors such as Amazon Prime , Hulu , and even YouTube.