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What is Word of Mouth Marketing?
Do you think that word of mouth marketing is dead? Well, it’s not! In fact, it’s growing at a rapid pace. This may be partly because people have become impervious to the standard advertising pitch. The audience recognises the typical online marketing messages and boring products when they see them. As a result, they’re less likely to listen when they see your promotional content online.
The use of “Word of Mouth” (WOMM) is a form of marketing where customers share their experiences with other people through recommendations, customer reviews, social media posts, etc. This is not a new method of advertising. Word of Mouth advertising has been around since the beginning of time, and recommendations from friends have always been important in finding excellent suppliers but recently, businesses have recognised this as a valuable marketing tool and have become an important aspect of their marketing strategy
Let’s look at an overview of WOM and show you how you can start using it today.
WOMM is the modern version of traditional word of mouth advertising. Definitive word of mouth marketing involves spreading personal recommendations and positive experiences about a product or service from one person to another. In today’s world, word of mouth marketing involves targeting consumers directly by using social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.
A powerful tool in the marketing toolbag is Word of Mouth Marketing People share information about products and services because they trust others. WOMM can be used as part of a broader strategy to increase brand awareness and improve sales and maintain customer lifetime loyalty.
Trust is a key element to customer loyalty that increases perceived usefulness and decreases perceived risk by the potential customer. Moreover, trust leads to increased positive purchasing decisions and therefore, improved profitability
Why Care About Word of Mouth Marketing?
You get direct feedback from your customers. They tell you either directly or through a social network what they think about your product. Therefore, you need to listen carefully and act quickly to win them back if there are issues they are unhappy about, by correcting these issues they can become a key influencer for your brand.
Build a Word of Mouth Marketing Strategy
About creating something buzz-worthy, there are three main areas in which you want to focus your efforts. First, you need to create truly unique content. Second, you need to make sure you gain consumer attention by ensuring that your content resonates with your target audience. Third, you need to ensure that your content gets shared by others on the social media channels
Word of Mouth Advertising Statistics: Why Does WOM Work So Effectively?
The Direct Marketing Association survey of consumers’ willingness to recommend products and services increased by 10 per cent last year. That’s the highest percentage increase since the DMA began collecting data on the topic in 2004. And while online reviews may be getting more attention than ever before, face-to-face recommendations continue to drive sales. According to the DMA report, 88% of respondents said they were influenced by someone else’s opinion when making purchases, up from 81% in 2011.
We like to feel special. We want to hear about things that aren’t available to everyone else. And if you tell us about them, we will pay attention.
Marketers often offer insider knowledge or complete information to encourage word of mouth discussions. But, again, these triggers remind us about a brand even when we don’t see any advertisements.
How do we differentiate between Word of Mouth Marketing and Referral Marketing?
It’s all about interacting with other people. It would help create a buzz around your content if you were active. Your posts should be engaging and entertaining. People will follow if you’re interesting enough.
To be successful, referrals need to be tracked and measured. Tracking refers to how often your clients referred someone else, while measuring refers to how much money was generated by each referral. These metrics should be used to determine whether or not you’re doing well enough to continue offering your service.
To create a bond with customers, you need to provide them with something valuable. It would help if you offered services or products that your target market wants.
The Advantages of Word of Mouth Marketing:
Word of mouth marketing builds an engaged fan base rather than buying and bolting customers. High active fans buy more often and recommend them, friends, and extended return on time spent on strategy and generate high customer lifetime loyalty.
Companies raising venture capital in the first eight months of this year had $1.4 billion in funding, up 19 per cent from last year. Brands with a stronger customer lifetime value get more investment than other brands, Fort the small business is equally important, although not borrowing millions, the local Bank will look on your brand image favourably when making lending decisions.
- Brand loyalty.
To retain existing customers, you need to invest money into your business. You’ll want to focus on keeping them happy. This may mean offering discounts for the products they buy or free services such as free coffee and cakes once a month when your current customers visit your business.
- Brand trust.
You need to know how your customers think about advertising in your marketing role. You should also know what kind of content works well in different contexts. For example, word of mouth marketing means your product or service is being recommended by someone you trust. First time visitors are more likely to hand over their credit card information if they see a recommendation from a friend or relative.
- Emotional provocation.
Your product or service may be great, but if customers don’t know what it stands for, there isn’t much point in selling it. By tapping into emotion and using it as a basis for marketing, you’ll get more sales than by simply trying to sell a product.
Ben & Jerry’s uses a cleverly crafted campaign to promote their brand. For example, their ‘Friends Forever’ video was viewed more than 500 million times because it encapsulated the idea of being together but not the same.
- Learn How to Build Buzz.
Since WOMM works best when talking, take proactive steps to get them talking. Make everything shareable and start an online buzz via social networks and create events that will get talked about. Take advantage of current and upcoming trends to these consumer communications in your viral marketing tactic.
- Do One Thing Well.
Don’t try to be all kinds of things to everyone. It is vital to focus on one thing and do that thing really well. If you’re great at one thing, you’ll become known for that speciality, and you’ll gain an advantage over your competitors. In addition, word will spread about what you do best.
- Exceed Expectations and Wow People
Exceed expectations by delivering amazing customer service more than what was expected. Create wow moments by surprising people and creating happy customers. Buzz is created when people remember your promise. You can easily wow people by making promises and then overdelivering
- Create an official referral program.
Referral programs aren’t going to trump a poor customer experience. However, giving customers systematic referral rewards is a fantastic way
But what if you didn’t need to push your customers? What if you could reward them for doing something already? That’s precisely how rewards work. By rewarding your customers for being active or having positive interactions with your brand, you’re giving them more incentive to do things that make sense for you. And by doing so, you’ll see higher engagement rates and improved customer retention.
In addition to making sharing simple, they also provide clear instructions. There’s even a section explaining what you get if you enter your email address: “And we’ll send you $10 instantly!” And there’s even a pre-populated email ready to go in case you want to use it right away:
Rewards programs should be offered to customers who engage with your brand. Free shipping or other rewards should be given out to customers who purchase items during specific times of the year. Customers should also receive coupons when they post pictures of themselves wearing your clothing. The possibilities are dependent on your marketing creativity
Word of Mouth Marketing Examples
A coffee company that makes great-tasting coffee and supports ethical practices will get more people talking about the product. People will tell others about the coffee they drink and how much they enjoy it. In turn, word of mouth will help spread the message about the company’s ethics and support for local communities and causes.
Another way to promote product awareness is by creating a “how-to” video series. This series would be a series of videos explaining how to use your products. This gives your audience a chance to see precisely what they will receive when they order from you.
If you own a garden centre or florist and have space available for a seminar room. In that case, you can arrange a training course to advise on horticultural issues surrounding growing and caring for particular plant species such as Orchids. By duplicating this seminar onto video, you can communicate to a wider audience and enhance your customer interactions and develop a group of loyal customers
Word-of-mouth marketing is a powerful tool for driving small business sales and is a low-cost way to promote a business. It has been said that “there is no better marketing than word of mouth,” and this is especially true for small businesses that can’t afford other marketing strategies. For example, some of the most popular restaurants are ones that were recommended by a friend. Even if word-of-mouth promotion is not one of the top strategies for every business, it is the most trusted and effective way to get your message across. It is also the least expensive way to spread the word about your good or services and develop a customer base of loyal customers.
