Word of Mouth Marketing: Building a Strategy That Really Works

Word of mouth marketing (WOM) is an organic marketing strategy that is purely based on personal recommendations. It has been making its place for a long time.

The difference between old WOM advertising and word-of-mouth advertising today is how personal recommendations can be shared online, primarily through social media.

Today, most of these recommendations come from an influencer on social media, an online review, or a satisfied customer who simply shares their positive experience.

And when done precisely, it can generate leads.

Now, you must be wondering what makes WOMM different from referral marketing.

What Makes Word Of Mouth Marketing Different From Referral Marketing?

WOM marketing massively relies on the customer to spread the message about your brand or products. On the other hand, referral marketing incentivizes customers to share brands or products with their friends and family.

Referral marketing lets you target loyal customers, whereas WOM marketing targets the whole addressable audience.

It is usually done through viral marketing and influencer marketing, where you’ll notice brands launching trendy campaigns with brand advocates in hopes of increasing brand awareness across the masses at an enormous speed.

Why Reviews Matters In Word Of Mouth Advertising

Reviews are ruling today’s marketing. 90% of customers search reviews before buying a product, and 86% of consumers believe word-of-mouth recommendations. Thus, in this digital era, online reviews and ratings act as modern personal recommendations.

Suppose a person buys your product based on the online reviews and provided they’ve had a great experience. In that case, up to 59% of those satisfied customers will share their experience with friends and family well.

Other Types of Word-of-Mouth Marketing

There are many different ways to do word-of-mouth advertising, from utilizing social media to boosting customer referrals. The main concept behind all of it is to get the positive word out about your brand or product. These are some of the most strong word-of-mouth strategies:

• Buzz Marketing or Viral Marketing – Buzz marketing or viral marketing utilizes creative content to create excitement about a brand or product about launching something new.
• Content Marketing – Content marketing, particularly blog marketing, enables bloggers and digital platforms to share your product. Users can learn about your product and be determined to make a purchase depending on the blog or platform. And if not, content marketing is an essential part of building brand awareness and SEO for your site.
• Social Media Marketing – Social media marketing and influencer marketing rely on popular social media accounts to share your product or service.

Simple Steps to Build A Strong Word-of-Mouth Marketing Strategy

We know that it’s more affordable to keep a happy customer than to discover a new customer, and we also understand that a satisfied customer is at the core of your WOM marketing campaign.

Here are six steps that will help you in setting up a firm WOM marketing strategy for your business.

#1. Provide Excellent Customer Support

Another essential aspect to consider while starting your WOM advertising campaign is that you need to have a great customer support system. If your brand support is not good, customers will not shop anything from you even if you own the most fantastic product ever

And they will not suggest your brand or products to others.

After all, there are more than 7 million online retailers in the world. Indeed at least one of them offers the same products that you do. And think they give better customer support to their customers, and those satisfied customers share their experience in a positive online review. Likewise, by offering impeccable customer support, you can expect your potential customers to go out and spread the word.

If your customer service is dependable enough, your customers will be more than pleased to talk about it.

#2. Connect with Industry Influencers & Thought Leaders

Influencer marketing is compelling, and you’ve seen all the ads on social media now. People tend to love influencers for whatever reason, so they believe their recommendations on any given brand or product.

Honestly, though, it isn’t easy to do. It’s hard to get in touch with an influencer that’s worth your money, and it’s challenging to afford an influencer that actually has any influence.

In fact, it’s not surprising for social media stars to charge anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 per sponsored post, depending on how many followers they own.

But it’s still a good contender in this list of ways to build a powerful word-of-mouth marketing strategy because, well, it works.

If you need help connecting with influencers, you can easily find thousands of them on any given influencer marketing platform, such as:

1. Scrunch
2. TRIBE
3. Pixlee
4. Upfluence
5. Traackr
6. Socialbakers
7. iFluenz
8. FameBit
9. and a thousand more

If you prefer to go this route, then next time, identify your target audience and imagine the kinds of influencers that have that audience as their following.

#3. Make a Smooth and Seamless Buying Experience On Your Online Shop

One of the most effortless ways to turn a potential customer into a satisfied customer is to make the buying process as smooth as possible.

Seriously consider it. Therefore, to enhance the customer experience while shopping on your site, take a look at these factors:

• Website layout and how aesthetically gratifying it is
• Site speed and page load time
• Shopping cart layout and how many steps there are to checkout
• Site architecture and how simple it is to get the products that customers need
• General conversion rate optimization know-how that can be used throughout your website

Why is this important?

Because a great website design can improve your conversions by up to 400%, and a whopping 93% of consumers say that excellent design influences their purchasing decision.

#4. Encourage User-Generated Content (UGC)

With digital marketing, all you need is a good internet connection and a little bit of capital to get started. But everyone’s doing that, so how to stand apart.

Millions of other people are doing it, and conventional advertising can leave you broke before you even make a sale.

So how to reach your potential customer and persuade them to purchase without paying for traditional marketing? The answer is: by letting your satisfied and loyal customers do the marketing for you. that is too free.

It is the concept behind user-generated content (UGC) and is the new word-of-mouth marketing strategy of most brands today. That’s why social media marketing and influencer marketing, especially, have become such vital tools for businesses.

UGC is a compelling tool in both raising brand awareness and affecting purchasing behavior. In fact, 85% of social media users state that they believe UGC more than they believe in brand content or traditional marketing. Offer a Quality Product That Solves a Problem

The first, and perhaps most neglected, step in a word-of-mouth marketing strategy is actually to own a product or service worth boasting about. No marketing campaign can survive a bad product or experience, so make sure that you’re selling something that your potential customer will like.

This is where customer reviews can demonstrate to be doubly robust. Not only will they work as social proof if the customer gives a positive review, but they will also notify you of any potential barriers to progress if they give a poor review.

And if you don’t require to wait to gather enough reviews to know whether or not the products you give are good quality, then test them out for yourself.

Then, ask yourself these questions:

• Is this simple to use?
• Does it significantly enhance my day-to-day life? How?
• Will I continue to utilize it? Why or why not?
• Would I suggest it to my friends? Why or why not?
• How could this experience be enhanced?

Personally knowing your product will assist you better understand your target audience and grow your word-of-mouth marketing campaign.

#5. Launch an Official Referral Program

If you’re hesitant in asking for personal recommendations to reach out to your target audience, then you can take charge into your own hands and launch a referral program.

There are many referral marketing software out there that can assist you in doing this, including your very own, InviteReferrals. This referral software allows you to give your satisfied and loyal customers further push to spread the word about your brand.

It goes by sharing an automatic email after purchase, giving your chosen incentive to customers if they refer a friend. When the friend buys the original customer’s code, the incentive is paid out.

#6. Provide a Unique and Shareworthy Experience

As astonishing and helpful it would be to own happy customers, upload a wonderful image to their social media accounts and thoughtfully tag your brand, that’s probably not going to happen.

At least, not without small creativity on your part.

You’ve got to make them want to share your products with others. You can do this by giving an incentive or by making it “cool” to do so. You can do this by building a movement or by building a trustworthy community online.

Final Thoughts

There is no shortcut for word-of-mouth marketing, and it’s not something you can do within seconds. Instead, it’s something to develop into your existing business model so that it serves you even when you’re not paying any cash. If you observe these steps above, you will set a solid foundation from which your brand can grow uniformly.

About the Author!

Shivani is a content writer at InviteReferrals & NotifyVisitors. She writes SEO articles, blogs, and guest posts for businesses to improve website ranking on SERP. She follows a balanced approach for the quality of content and its marketing. She loves to do creativity, although she had an English major in her graduation.