WORD-OF-MOUTH MARKETING: THE ULTIMATE STARTING POINT FOR BRAND PROMOTION

WORD-OF-MOUTH MARKETING: THE ULTIMATE STARTING POINT FOR BRAND PROMOTION

Can you think of the last time you saw something and you just had to tell your friends about it?

Do you remember having a great experience at a restaurant and later on posting on Instagram about it?

If you could master what has been identified as the most valuable form of marketing—the one that consumers trust above all others and the one that is most likely to drive sales for your company — would you instead choose to ignore it or leave it to chance? Word-of-mouth marketing is the ultimate starting point for brand promotion because it is easy, fool-proof and can incur minimal costs if you know how to use it well.

Word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) is deemed as the “original social media platform”. Indeed, let’s think of the times in your life that some friends told you about a product they really like, or about a customer service that they were disappointed with. WOMM has always been an extremely powerful way to influence business results. According to Nielsen, 92% of consumers believe recommendations from friends and family over all forms of advertising. WOMMA and the American Marketing Association (AMA) decided to find out exactly what brands were doing about that fact. In a recent study, 64% of marketing executives indicated that they believe word of mouth is the most effective form of marketing. However, only 6% say they have mastered it.

The problem is that for the last few years, marketers have been focused on “collecting” instead of “connecting.” In other words, brands are too caught up in collecting social media fans and they are forgetting to actually connect with them. WOMM dwells on the power of the snowball effect but also reliability in the opinion leaders’ opinions. It’s about creating mega brand recognition, but it starts simply with you trusting your friends. This is why word of mouth marketing is the most valuable source of marketing. And the best part is, WOM also doesn’t stop after just one interaction. One person will tell another, and that person will someone else, then that person will continue the chain and spread the word further, making it a great vehicle for exposure and distribution – if used well. 

Of course, the same is true in reverse – negative news can spread just as fast, but the essential benefit of WOM in the connected era is a personal endorsement, which is not only more readily available, but is seen as significantly more valuable to modern consumers. This form of WOMM is mostly seen in KOL/influencers marketing, where brands carefully pick personal endorsers to market their products and services.

So, how can businesses start utilising WOMM?

1. Make yourself interesting: Word-of-mouth marketing starts from interesting pieces of information. If your products or brands are not exciting enough, no conversations will be started and maintained.
2. Create a trigger: If people remember you, they’ll continue to talk about you. You can design products that are triggered by the environment, and create new triggers by linking your products and ideas to prevalent cues within that environment.
3. Provide value: Sharing valuable information makes you valuable. Great, unique customer experiences, along with having a great product, can help increase your value, and thus, your WOM potential.
4. Provoke emotion: No one shares an ‘OK’ experience. People share the things that make them happy or upset. Creating emotion goes hand in hand with creating value. People are more likely to share something that promotes high arousal, and people are more likely to share experiences in which they had some sort of emotion.

To conclude, companies can encourage WOM marketing through exceeding expectations on a product, providing good customer service, and giving exclusive information to consumers. WOMM goes far and beyond mediocre buzz or viral marketing in ways that it provides long-term and meaningful benefits to the customers. If your company knows how to utilise this marketing method effectively, you will have a strong and long-lasting brand!

Credits: Content curated from Forbes and Social Media Today. Statistics from Invespcro.