Marketing fatigue among consumers has been brought about by the never-ending flow of ads and promotions. Optimove found that 27% of consumers feel overwhelmed by the constant messages, while 66% want fewer ads.
Buying recommendations are increasingly being sought by stressed shoppers from friends, family, or online communities who would like to know what others think about a product.
This implies that word-of-mouth marketing helps marketers to build brand advocates who communicate product details through social media networks.
Moreover, incorporating this approach into broader marketing strategy not only enhances brand identity, but it also adds genuineness leading to continuous growth and loyalty.
In this blog we will examine:
What is word-of-mouth advertising?
What are the advantages of a word-of-mouth campaign?
How do you do word-of-mouth marketing?
What is word-of-mouth advertising?
Word-of-Mouth Advertising refers to any unpaid form of promotion where customers share their experiences with brands or products. It occurs when people “tell someone else” about a company or its goods.
Any option can be utilized on different platforms such as:
Online reviews
Online reviews are the most significant aspect of Word-Of-Mouth Marketing―where individuals provide feedback (or criticisms) concerning items they have used. Brands must keep track.
UGC
By encouraging brands to share user-generated content, such as reviews, unboxing videos, or fun uses of the product (UGC), closer connections can be fostered with their audiences and valuable creative relationships could be built. It is also an excellent way to spread positive word-of-mouth.
Social Listening
Many people now share their thoughts about brands on social media, usually tagging the brand in their comments. Using social listening techniques, brands can get a good idea of what the ‘word on the street’ is about the brand.
Influencer Marketing
Despite being somewhat guarded towards influencers today, carefully selected influencers can still help businesses develop meaningful relationships. For instance, by using influencers they know will resonate with their target audience, companies can enhance their sphere of influence through positive endorsements.
Blogs
Don’t underestimate the power of blogging to generate good buzz around a brand. Don’t just share promotional content with your audience. Establish thought leadership around your brand and encourage people to take part in an ongoing conversation.
What are the benefits of word-of-mouth marketing?
Involving word of mouth in your marketing strategy can have a number of advantages for the business.
It is cheaper than conventional marketing and paid advertising.
It persuades because it is premised on personal endorsements.
It creates brand trustworthiness owing to its being considered more genuine or ‘real’ than meticulously scripted advertising.
It maintains the customer relationship through direct interaction with the target audience.
This strategy secures brands by making sure that social listening and sentiment analysis are at the core of their marketing approach.
With user-generated content, brands can build up their content library.
How do you do word-of-mouth marketing?
To start with, are you familiar with your audience? You must know whom you are addressing in order to attract the right kind of word-of-mouth that will increase brand exposure.
You can achieve this by looking at website interaction data or product or service usage. Consider which social media platforms they use most frequently. Are they active on Reddit?
LinkedIn can also serve as a rich source of audience data. Some people share more personal information here than on any other social platform. For example, you can tell a person’s:
Gender
Date of birth
Job position
Job description
Skills and interest keywords
Combining such details with other information sources enables one to have a wholesome view of their target customers. One may for instance, realize that 70% of male search for spaghetti bolognese recipes! Thus, this may help one to write content that specifically suits them.
Afterwards, one can set up a word-of-mouth promotion strategy for its users. This involves concentrating on two major aspects.
1. How do you build the product or service?
The best way to generate positive word of mouth around a product or service is to keep the user experience front of mind.
So consider the design and features. Your product doesn’t have to look beautiful. It has to function beautifully. It has to be easy for people to use.
Sometimes you have to compromise between product design and user experience. For example, an email inbox is not very pretty or’screenshotable’ but it’s probably in its most useful form.
2. How do you describe the product or service?
Think about who your product or service is aimed at, and how you describe the product to that audience.
What does the product do? Who is it positioned for? What need does it address for them? What problem does it solve? Once you know the answers to the most important questions, then you can create compelling marketing content around that.
Conclusion
As we wrap up Part 1 of our guide to word-of-mouth marketing, it’s clear that this powerful strategy can significantly enhance brand loyalty, credibility, and overall success. By leveraging customer experiences and personal endorsements, businesses can cultivate authentic relationships that resonate deeply with their audience. However, there’s more to uncover about this dynamic marketing approach. In Part 2, we will delve deeper into advanced strategies, tools, and case studies to further amplify your word-of-mouth campaigns. Stay tuned for the next installment, where we’ll continue exploring how to harness the true potential of word-of-mouth marketing!
