What is Word of Mouth Advertising? 3 Tactics to Boost Sales
Trustmary teamLast edited: October 29th, 2024
Everyone wants to get a better ROI for their marketing campaigns. With the help of word of mouth advertising, this is possible to achieve.
Let’s have a look at three actionable examples.
What is Word of Mouth Advertising?
There are many ways to define word of mouth marketing and advertising. Let’s have a look at one of the most common definitions.
Thorsten defines word of mouth (WOM) as:
“Any positive or negative statement made by potential, actual, or former customers about a product or company, which is made available to a multitude of people and institutions…”
People talk about products and services and their personal experience (good or bad) associated with them. It’s something that comes very naturally. We all do it constantly.
The core idea is to become a company worth talking about!
Word of Mouth Advertising
Word of mouth advertising has always been one of the best forms of marketing. It has always worked, and it still works best.
People trust people more than ads. When your potential customer will get recommendations about your product form multiple friends, it will improve your brand image.
WOM advertising means that you have control over your online reputation. You get reviews, feedback and comments online which you can then use in traditional advertising. Keep in mind that you must have the permission to publish a piece of feedback.
You can’t control what is said about you in private conversations, but you can and should control your online reputation. No matter what business model you have, it’s time to improve your WOMM strategy.
Happy customers who have had a great experience with your brand will become ambassadors and will promote your products. This is what brands need to do – create as many happy customers as possible. And leave the rest on them.
When one customer shares their personal customer experience with another and preferably online, it can transform into a chain reaction. The beauty of organic word of mouth is that it grows naturally at an amazing speed.
The best thing about word of mouth marketing is that it increases brand trust and loyalty.
Importantly, word of mouth spreads like fire. It creates a buzz immediately. Imagine a customer posting his positive review of your product on Facebook with more than 1500 friends.
Even if one percent of their friends share the review on their timelines, it will translate into 15 reviews – all honest and authentic.
Why Word of Mouth Marketing Works?
Word of mouth marketing works simply because traditional ads aren’t considered trustworthy.
Furthermore, people are constantly online with their smartphones, so traditional tv ads aren’t reaching them anymore.
The younger generation makes purchase decision based on trust and they’re interested in the brand’s values. If a company is deemed sketchy, it can become “cancelled” very quickly.
That sort of reputation damage will be unfixable.
Stats Explaining the Power of WOM
- According to Nielsen, 92% of consumers trust recommendations from family and friends more than advertising.
- As much as 84% of millennials reported that they don’t trust traditional advertising.
- New Gen Z enters the consumer arena with all their $140 billion spending power. They account for 40% of the global consumers. Gen Z loves word of mouth marketing and interacting with brands.
- Over 236 million desktop users worldwide were using adblock plugins in 2016 which cost users a whopping $41.4 billion.
- The number one reason why people use ad blockers is that they find ads to be annoying or irrelevant.
Recommendations from friends and family, on the other hand, are considered trustworthy because the person suggesting a product or a brand has no stake in the business.
A consumer who received exceptional experience from your brand will share it with friends and family without you having to ask for it. And it works.
Tactics to Improve Word of Mouth Advertising
Word of mouth works pretty much on autopilot. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do anything to it.
Quite the opposite! You need to interact with your target audience and to encourage them to share their opinions on your products or services.
Get those engagement numbers to skyrocket!
Try using different tactics to supercharge your word of mouth campaigns to reach a wider audience across multiple channels.
Here are the best practices and tactics to take your word of mouth marketing to a new level:
1. Share Customer Testimonials
Encourage customers to share their testimonials. Reach out to existing customers and ask them to share their experiences.
A single email can bring lots of customer testimonials that you can share on your website, blog, social media, press releases, and other channels.
Here is an example of how Life BEAM shares customer testimonials on Facebook:
The thing is not all the customers bother sharing their reviews. You must reach out to them to get their review. Compensate them for their time and effort. These reviews are very helpful in generating positive word of mouth.
You also need to find and share testimonials from third-party websites such as Yelp, Google Maps, and niche review sites. You need to share these customer testimonials with your target audience. This is how word of mouth will work for your brand.
2. Focus on User-Generated Content
User-Generated Content (UGC) plays an essential role in word of mouth advertising. Potential buyers find user-generated content 9.8x more impactful than influencer generated content when making a purchase decision.
UGC includes all types of content including:
- Videos and photos
- Hashtag campaigns
- Reviews and customer testimonials
- Forums
- Facebook group
Here is an example of how Sephora creates and showcases UGC in a style:
It has developed a massive community of customers where they share photos, videos, ask questions, and more.
You can create a similar community for your brand and generate content that people will read, share, and engage with. Nothing works better than UGC for word of mouth advertising.
Where to begin?
Start targeting millennials if they are part of your target audience because millennials contribute as much as 70% of all user-generated content on the internet. Target them, invite them to your community, and compensate them to actively participate in the community.
3. Create a Customer Loyalty Program
Nothing beats customer loyalty program when it comes to positive word of mouth marketing. As much as 52% of consumers will join a loyalty program of a brand they are loyal with.
A customer loyalty program will reward customers for recommending your product to their friends and family. Dropbox used this strategy which helped it grow by a whopping 3900% and it acquired 4 million users in as low as 4 months.
It’s a simple referral program that rewards current customers to invite their friends. Creating a reward program like this can turn the tables for your business. It will work on full autopilot.
Here is how to create a customer loyalty/reward program for your business:
- Create a simple point or reward system for customers.
- Make it easy to invite/share your product with friends. It should be a single click feature.
- Try different rewards and figure out what works best for your customers.
- Use a tier system to keep customers engaged.
- Share your reward program with customers regularly.
- Create a community around your loyalty program.
Conclusion
Word of mouth advertising isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. It will stay for years to come because it is one of the natural marketing techniques. You can’t ignore it because no matter what, your customers will talk about their experience. You can’t stop them.
It’s better to take control of what they say and how they say it. Start implementing the word of mouth techniques covered above to manage it smartly.
