Sara WilliamsMany of you must have heard about this awesome new term ‘Word of Mouth Marketing’- a great way of getting conversions, it means where people share their experience with others. It is a widely used term in the business world. Being mere a famous phrase, it is handy too.
“People trust the words of their confidants.”
Infographic on Word of Mouth Marketing
Had a wonderful dinner last night at a restaurant which is around the corner of the street? Was the dinner much amazing than you expected? Then you tweet it or share this on Instagram. Also, you suggest it to your friends and family, which leads to a percentage of the gain in business, this explains the best what WOM ‘literally’ means.
In this article, we are going to learn about the word of mouth marketing and how one can implement it.
Before we dive into its benefits, let’s learn its definition first.
What is the word of mouth marketing?
Word of mouth marketing means that you share your experience or review with your friends and family. This word of mouth can be anything like online reviews, recommendations, referring someone on any social media platform, etc.
In the business world, we even call it referral marketing.
Referral marketing means adding new customers while using loyal customers as a base. It is a planned approach to attract new customers to generate more sales.
Even companies reward their loyal customers or advocate for making conversions.
There are some extraordinary facts you should acknowledge about word of mouth marketing, and they will help you learn the effectiveness of word of marketing as a tool.
- According to Neilson, 92% of customers are more likely to follow those recommendations that are from friends or family over sales representatives.
- References through word-of-mouth marketing lead to 20-50% purchase related decision making of the customers.
- Customers who connected after recommendation have a 16% higher lifetime value.
- People who got referred are four times more likely to purchase those products that are endorsed by their friends.
Why Word of Mouth Marketing is so important?
Always put yourself in customer shoes and then question yourself whether you will buy a product with negative or no online reviews?
Of course, the answer will be ‘No’ for some, and some will go with the suggestions of their family or friends, but opinions and reviews matter! Social media platforms play an essential role in the purchase-related decision.
A review, be it negative or positive it can reach millions in matters of a few seconds. WOM is not a new term, the time before when online media was not a thing, Word of Mouth has always been there to get leads.
There are several pieces of research performed on this, and all have the same conclusion, that people trust the reviews and the word of other people; word of mouth is all about reviews.
Here are some advantages that will provide you with a better understanding.
1. A more strong relation between the duo
As we all know that word of mouth is a relationship between the customer and the business. It permits the company to understand the behavior of the customer.
Giving incentives makes them feel valuable, and they are more likely to remain by your side for a long time. More definite relation with the customer is the basis of any business, and once you reward them for their efforts; they’ll ultimately get motivated to promote your name.
2. It goes viral
Word of mouth works as viral content. It immediately goes viral because of its easy sharing methods. One can simply forward it to friends and family. Since we all are digitized, it gives a boost to the word of mouth marketing as well, as one can use various social media methods to support it single-handedly. People can immediately check what their friends are sharing or advertising, and that post affects their decision or choice.
3. Economical way of promotion
Not every business or brand has a huge budget to promote its products, but they all have the ambition to expand their markets. Word of mouth marketing has made it simple for them to spread their word too in a cost-effective way.
It not only assists in growing the company but also establishes its base in the market.
It is pocket-friendly because you don’t need a number of people to promote it, you can use your existing customers as your advocates to help your brand.
It can reduce your burden as you don’t have to pay a large amount of money.
4. Works as an advertisement
Established companies don’t require advertisements as they already have goodwill in the market. But for small businesses or startups, it is not possible to spend a significant amount on an ad initially.
Therefore, word of mouth comes handy to promote your business by encouraging your customer base. For startups, it acts as a boon.
5. Trust factor
It is the most significant reason why one should try word of mouth marketing as it entails trust regarding the product. When a new buyer considers someone’s testimonials, that means he trusts those words. People usually ask their friends and family for recommendations whenever they have to buy something new because they believe that they will give the best advice or opinion; therefore, it is the most influential tool that can lead to conversions.
Word of Mouth is all about reviews.
How to implement Word of Mouth Strategy in your business?
Word of mouth marketing is not restricted to referring to people while meeting or talking.
Word of mouth can be anything or in any mode that helps people to connect them more with the brand.
Before starting, here are a few facts you might know:
1. User- Generated Facts (UGF)
- People don’t have trust in online advertisements, but they believe in recommendations from their acquaintances.
- By WOM a business can earn two times more.
- There is only a small group of companies that are considering WOM; this article will help them know the importance of it.
Encourage UGF as the facts and the content which is created by the consumers of the product. The content of these customers is more trusted as they have been a part of your business for a long time and by this, it gives a company to work well for them and keep them as a family.
UGF is more like online reviews, but it is more focused on social media, like creating the hashtags for different content of also sharing creative imagery and creating attractive campaigns.
2. Offer Incentives and Values
Send them your valuable stuff like e-books to make them aware more about your brand.
Sharing relevant information, sending them newsletters, telling them about a new product launch can make them feel special.
Also, thank them by giving your customer discounts and a free product this can up your WOM game, as they will definitely share good about you to others.
You can even go ahead and can send them personalized emails to make them feel important for you.
3. Create Referral Programs
Word of mouth programs mean using referral programs to boost your business; in other words, we can also say that word of mouth is called referral marketing.
Any company can launch a referral program to make it’s brand worth remembering. In the referral program, your existing or loyal customers share referral links to their friends and family, and in return, the business gives them freebies or incentives for their efforts.
It is the most popular way to add a new consumer to your consumer base while making your existing customers happy. It creates a win-win situation to all, a business, a loyal customer, and a new prospective customer.
Referral programs justify word of mouth marketing the best. You make your existing customer share referral link to the other people they know.
In this way, your clients will get you new trusted customers and earn a profit too. It is the best acquisition you will ever earn. Learn more about Referral Programs.
Get amazing ideas on referral programs and think of getting yourself a one, to up your sales.
4. Run a referral contest
When we read or hear the word contest, we got excited and want to win the reward. Nowadays, people are digitized, and they do not have much time to participate.
Therefore, referral contest comes handy when you want to get the results in a short span of time. You can track every participant’s performance, and the one who brings the maximum no of referrals will win the contest.
You can keep them excited by sharing the leaderboard with your participants. It will make them enthusiastic, and they give a push to their efforts.
5. Use social media platforms.
Social media platforms are common nowadays since customers are getting smarter, your business also needs to work smarter. Use your social media platform open for customers’ s interactions.
Try to engage them in your posts; tag a friend is now a trending post. Share your customer testimonials on your social media accounts and even tag them; this will not only improve your reachability but also leads to brand visibility.
Your customers’ peers will get influence by the performance of your brand and are more likely to connect with you in the future.
Therefore, make use of every single asset of your business.
How to do word of mouth marketing on social media platforms
a) Online reviews
Customers are getting smarter day by day; therefore, the business needs to have smart ideas to interact with the customers.
In the era of the internet, it offers multiple features to customers and makes it easy for the buyer to analyze a lot more products while sitting at home.
Consider it like a potential buyer only then you can understand the importance of online reviews.
Online reviews are those word of mouth that speaks on your behalf for your brand. Today, the customer, before purchasing anything, read testimonials of our consumers, because it helps them to make a purchasing decision.
Every company should encourage their customers to write realistic feedback of your brand. Honest feedback will also assist the business to make them understand the critical areas in which they are doing good and in which they need to improve.
b) Social recommendations and sharing.
Today, people use different social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and many more.
Social recommendations are an easy way that can help you to get recognition among your customer’s peers.
Request your consumers to recommend you on their social media accounts, and make sure that you ask them at an appropriate time.
Recommendations and sharing of your product or service on social media improve your visibility. Therefore more people are likely to buy your product because of the trust in recommendations from their peers.
c) Word of mouth through email.
Have you ever received an email from your preferred brand? Nowadays, it is pervasive to get an email from those companies that you have been using for quite long.
It helps to connect the brand directly with the customer and improve their relationship.
Businesses can form a list to target these loyal customers through emails. It is suitable for targeting a specific type of customer. Customers feel valued when their chosen brands send them personalized emails, as it makes them feel privileged, and they are more likely to open it.
Since you have learned the basic as well as advanced ways to implement it, now, you might understand that Word of Mouth marketing is way more comfortable to use. Thanks to the internet. Every business should consider implementing it. Some many companies and companies have benefited from it.
Conclusion
In this article, we have come across so many new ways. If you want to learn more about it, you can learn from Nielsen’s report, and you will know how important it is to implement word of mouth to your business.
I hope you liked the article and it helped you in clearing all the doubts you had.
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